HOW TO TEACH DANCING DYNAMICS?

looking back to the classics.

Ballet Teacher Larry Long commented, "Sometimes today, it's a bit of a battle to get dancers to keep their legs down. It's as big of a battle as it was in the old days to get 'em up."*

Dancing dynamics is important to me. It is the shading that takes my choreography into a magical realm - It is the choices that make a movement mine. It is the tool that allows me to express my self, allowing me to 'talk" movement in such a way that people will want to listen. As I look at dancers in class and performance, I rarely see the exploration of the potential of a movement - and hence have no sense of the personality or soul of the dancer. How can one communicate clearly if the dancer is not even aware that more potential exists in the limbs that move so big?

I think of the time spent with my teacher who danced with the Ballet Russe. Madame stressed arms, por du bras, upper body expression - Her style was so different from the athletic quality I was studying elsewhere in Boston at that time. We were swans, sylphs, princesses in those late afternoon classes - boureeing across her cherry wood dance floor was magic. It wasn't until years later I realised the gifts she gave me - The wonder of exploring the range of a movement; the small, as well as the big, the slow verses the fast, the sharp and the smooth - and the ability to make a decision on which movement shading is an appropriate choice for that moment - Keys to self expression.

So how does a contemporary choreographer/dancer teach 21st century ballet dancers dynamic? I turn back to the Classics for inspiration - the swans, sylphs and princesses. In homage to Madame, I start tonight with a Les Sylphides infused class. A class that will work to transport the dancers into a land of magic and self expression...

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Galina Ulanova in the waltz from Les Sylphides

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARduwUVax1o&feature=related

*p.164 The Art of Teaching Ballet Ten Twentieth Century Masters By Gretchen Ward Warren

THREE TECHNIQUE CLASSES A WEEK AND ROLLING THROUGH MY FEET...

Since January I have been training, documenting the training, obsessing over the training;) - ballet and contemporary class, cardio, pilates, walking... All of this in preparation for the 2009 season of PhOOM!, a season where I envisioned pushing the dance more and asking more from the bodies that performed it. I needed a body that was strong, capable and resilient - I needed a dancing body.

One of the major hurdles has been my big toes. Two years ago I sprained both. This has made it difficult to roll through demi pointe - I clunked down instead;). So after class out the theraband comes and I do foot exercises... A couple of weeks before the PhOOM! Summer Solstice performance I was doing a photo shoot and found myself up on demi pointe and then using the foot properly to come down - Then it happened again in ballet class that week - I lowered down in first arabesque like an autumn leaf floating to the earth. WOW. I was dancing again.

It was odd to look back at the May training schedule and see the class schedule I used in my mid to late twenties. My class taking has shifted in that it is now heavy on the Contemporary work, while in my twenties I was doing mostly ballet class. I now do two Limon based Contemporary Classes and one Ballet Class per week, depending on the week and am experimenting with how much time needed for recovery. I am reveling in the Contemporary work - the use of parallel, less emphasis on rotation, the thrill of fall and recovery; My hips feel good, my spine feels good, my body feels good. The cardio is a challenge - I hate it, but have noticed it's benefits in small and big jumps and when moving in big space.

As I dance into summer I treasure the class time that nurtures my body and soul for performance and creation - and the ability to roll through my feet!

We split time into three parts. The brain, it seems, splits it twice only: now, and not now.
- Jeanette Winterson

THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL IN THE DANCE/MOVEMENT CLASS.

1. A sense of same in a world of constant change.

2. Continuity that helps to soothe and realize potential.

3. The knowledge of the familiar, allowing for exploration and risk.

4. Mental and physical preparation for advanced physical feats - Allows us to transcend the boundaries of our mind's creation.

5. A dissolution of the sense of self into the greater consciousness of mankind; being at one with the world.

If your heart is filled with dance, then you dance.
- Jonathan Goldstein

Quiet in the dance studio.

A January quiet as I sit, listening to the ambient stillness and contemplating the routine of taking class, creating class/movement/choreography and communicating this work through class and rehearsal - the challenges of observing and molding movement in all it's different stages of efficiency and expression.

A quiet moment, on a grey afternoon. The studio space waits to be filled with life; The challenges, accomplishments, uncertainties, triumphs, frustrations, joys, and risks that comprise the art of living through space, moving through space.

A quiet moment in the dance studio.

photo credit: nr

12.2008