First Post: Feeling through Dance

Taylor Gordon | Feb 19, 2008 | 0

me in a modern piece by Christopher D'Amboise in 2007, photo by Rosalie O'Conner

Hi DancerUniverse readers!

This is my first blog post on here, but I've been blogging and writing about dance for a long time now. I won't bore you with details (just see my mini bio above) but basically right now I'm at a point in my life where I'm just on the brink of two careers: dancing and writing. On here, It'll basically be focusing on the ballet aspect, of course - though you should know I have about 10,000 other things going on at any given time! Haha.

A few weeks ago I was invited to participate in a choreography workshop with this small(ish) contemporary company here in New York. I auditioned for them back in November and after some communication over a few weeks, the director asked me to understudy a performance they were giving and then to come as a guest to her workshop the following weekend.

The first weekend when I was understudying I basically just stood in the back trying to learn choreography by staying out of the way, but in the workshop I actually got to dance. A LOT...

(pictures from both ballet & modern works...where does one influence the other form?)

me prepping for a Balanchine ballet, photo by Rosalie O'Conner

Each day we had a short contemporary barre/center before learning repertoire, and I really like the alternative way of taking class. It's very different from a traditional ballet barre (specifically in the music, which is WAY more fun than the overly-familiar melodies of the classics). She has a lot of emphasis on moving really big and feeling the movement through your body.

Class itself is definitely a challenge because after years of doing tendus, your brain goes a bit on auto pilot...even though I constantly feel a struggle in turning out and pointing my feet in an easy tendu combination, there's still a level of monotony. With this kind of class the combinations of familiar exercises are different, and different parts of the body are used (the head, deep in the lower back).

Moving on to the rehearsal aspect of the workshop, we learned a long excerpt from a piece her company has done, and it was all taught really really fast. Then we put all the pieces together and did it in different small groups a few times before learning more. Again since some of the movements and styles were foreign to my ballet brainwashed body it was tough to pick up all the nuances of the choreography. It was great though! And since there were only 9 of us in the workshop (3 are in the company, the rest were other dances from various places in the city...all of whom are at least 4 or 5 years older than me...) the teacher could really see us...it was sort of like a prolonged audition, where she could see how the dancers work in a rehearsal environment and how personalities mesh - moreso than an hour long ballet class audition.

After we put together 3 or 4 sections of the long work, the teacher (who is wonderful, by the way) stopped after me and another girl did it as a group and said she wanted us to go deeper inside to "feel it". She proceeded to give me an excellent, lengthy "lecture" (it wasn't really a lecture but...) on how it's important to FEEL the movement and show it, especially through your face. She complimented me a bit but said that I AM young, and I haven't really 'suffered' (which got a laugh from the others) but that that comes with age. (It should be noted: I'm 19, most others in the room were well over 24-25)

It was a very inspiring speech because to this point being drilled into ballet land nobody has asked me to actually FEEL anything while dancing. Besides 1 teacher in particular, they demand turnout, feet, etc etc, but not that you really reach inside and express it through your face. Isn't expressing emotion through movement was dance is really all about? I was really thankful she took the time to say this all during the middle of rehearsal because it made me think.

Isn't it ironic that one of the major values of ballet, youth, is the same thing that causes a disadvantage in modern/contemporary dance?

In recent years I have been reminded time and time again that "a ballet career is short" and if "you're not in a company by the time you're 18 then it's not worth it" and, particularly in my last year of real pre-pro training, being made to feel as if I'm too old for a career since my body won't allow for the level of technique necessary or whatever. And now, a few times recently, my 'young' age has cropped up as a (minor) issue.

Is age really a state of mind? or a number? or a level of experience?

All of this came just a week before I graduated from college at age 19 and it really made me think about age, dance, and the ways that we express ourselves through movement. Is perfect technique all we strive for in ballet, or can we learn something from modern dance and find ways to really feel emotion and project it through the choreography?

More blogging to come. I'm happy to be a part of DancerUniverse!

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Ballet, Modern, Taylor, movement (all tags)