Embodiment of Stress

Walking across campus today, I found myself with my backpack slung over one shoulder and my back so hunched I could feel the stress in my shoulder and spinal muscles. I could not believe I had not addressed what was happening in my body.

As dancers, we must continue questioning the advantages that we take for granted in our own bodies. In the dance discipline, my studies afford me the opportunity to have deep and intimate connection with my body. In an unexpected contrast, I can more easily turn off this connection and "power through it." However, I must not allow the "power through" mindset to become an accepted way of carrying myself. 

As dance students, we must learn to take our backpacks off and engage in the somatic practice of finding our neutral. I returned to my room after class and put down my backpack. I aligned my body from my feet to my spine. Stress is a detriment to every student's body at this time. We must adopt the mindset of "finding our neutral" instead of "powering through." Our bodies will move us through the world for the rest of our lives. We must not destroy them. 

Dance as a Timeless Art

After attending Lori Belilove's speech and performance on the Parthenon, I began thinking deeply about dance as a timeless art. In the question and answer section, an audience member asked, "How do you keep the historical work accessible to contemporary audiences?" Belilove commented, "Isadora's work is timeless." 

Her response took my breath away. Of course, the Duncan work is timeless with its deep roots in nature and femininity, which both remain topics of current media today. I believe that Belilove holds a deep understanding of historical work that we are slowly losing today in the dance community. A strong presence in the dance community, The Martha Graham Dance Company, continues to commission new works to attract audiences to the theater. However, have they not questioned the power and essence of Graham's work? 

When I witnessed Lamentation for the first time, my body wept with the soloist. The dance community must not sacrifice history for spectacle. The community must take on the task to educate the masses. Our audiences must understand and appreciate history first and foremost. After a deep understanding, the audience can appreciate more contemporary work. For example, the commission for Lamentation Variations showcases the original solo before any of the contemporary work. The Graham Company knows the importance of chronology in this particular work. However, I believe a betrayal of Martha Graham lie within Graham Company works that do not come from her essence. 

Dance History is a rich and rebellious world that the dance community and consequently the world is losing its grip on. We must preserve the memory of the people and places that birthed us. We must go back to our Parthenon.

Beauty in Dance

On Tuesday, we all noted in our free writes that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". If this is to be true, it must also hold true that beauty cannot be objectively defined. There can be no set definition for beauty if every eye observes and recognizes beauty in a unique fashion. To some, beauty may be a gentle breeze or Petipa's "Sleeping Beauty". To others, it may be a thunderstorm or Mary Wigman's "Hexentanz". Though "Hexentanz" is vastly different than "Sleeping Beauty" just as a thunderstorm is vastly different than a gentle breeze, each holds to itself unqiue properties which certain individuals deem as beautiful. Then, if each creation holds unique properties which can be deemed as beautiful, it then must be true that every creation which holds potential to be recognized as beautiful is therefore already beautiful. Beauty is not created by recognition, but is rather innate in creation. Beauty is not dependent on recognition but is rather a product that results from being created. If any creation holds the potential to be recognized as beautiful, it then already is beautiful.

Narrative, Expression, or Form?

       If you had to create a dance and could only focus on one of three elements (form, expression, narrative) which would you choose to focus on? This is something that really stumps me personally because there are so many exciting factors about each. This is really a question of opinion, but interests me deeply because I am not sure I have a straight-forward answer myself.
       I remember being a little girl at my hometown dance studio performing the nutcracker every year around Christmas time. Each year I was excited to have a new role to play in the ballet. I never got bored with it because I thoroughly enjoyed being a new character and learning how to dance a new part each year. The narrative aspect of it made it very playful, involved new acting skills, and was something everyone in the audience could follow.
       As I got older I found myself connecting most with expressive pieces. I still enjoy them to this day. To have to dig deep within yourself to find specific emotions is a difficult challenge that ends up being extremely rewarding. Working with Anna Sokolow's piece right now has gotten me to an emotional point that I did not know existed within me. So while it may be mentally and emotionally exhausting, I feel so blessed to be working in such emotionally rooted choreography.
       In terms of form, I have just recently began exploring it. I began last semester when working with Elizabeth Yutzey purely on form. This process was very new and exciting for me because it was something I had never done before. I found it extremely interesting because every time I performed it, it felt unreal and untamed. I was never truly comfortable with the work, making it nerve-wracking each and every time, but I loved it. So to pick a favorite is very difficult for me, because they are all intriguing in their own separate ways.
 

To Critique the Young, To Critique the Seasoned

To every dance critic,

When the choreographer receives a critic, hearts race and skin crawls. Your words break hearts and bring in paychecks. Your words matter as much as our bodies and movement does.

Artistically yours,

Choreographers 

This past week, I read page after page of dance criticism.  I have watched careers fail and rise. I have experienced the heartbreak or excitement of upcoming artists. I have seen dance criticism laugh at historical, genius choreographers.¹ The dance critic that demands extreme judgement is not creating literary work, but is publishing opinionated hullabaloo. How does anyone hold the right to tear down a piece that required an immense amount of time, effort, and money?  Critics often fully destroy pieces that well established artists create because "they can take it."

Well established artists still hold their art a piece of themselves. When Martha Graham began to age, critics began to compare her current work to her past work. Instead of comparison, critics could have acknowledged a new era in her work. Past work does not bind to the expectations of the critic. Her creative process does not need outside negativity.

I believe that the critic should highlight the strong points of the given work and suggest questions for the choreographer to ponder. The critic should tell the potential audience the intriguing sections of the piece. Art is definitely subjective. However, the individual can see the piece in their own light. The choreographer can continue to question and progress their work. The critic should serve as the medium for the audience and choreographer to see through.

1- Review by Gregory King on Bill T. Jones' Tramontane 
(http://thinkingdance.net/articles/2016/10/16/3/Bill-T.-JonesArnie-Zane-Company-Dancing-Oral-Histories/)

To Critique the Young, To Critique the Seasoned

To every dance critic,

When the choreographer receives a critic, hearts race and skin crawls. Your words break hearts and bring in paychecks. Your words matter as much as our bodies and movement does.

Artistically yours,

Choreographers 

This past week, I read page after page of dance criticism.  I have watched careers fail and rise. I have experienced the heartbreak or excitement of upcoming artists. I have seen dance criticism laugh at historical, genius choreographers.¹ The dance critic that demands extreme judgement is not creating literary work, but is publishing opinionated hullabaloo. How does anyone hold the right to tear down a piece that required an immense amount of time, effort, and money?  Critics often fully destroy pieces that well established artists create because "they can take it."

Well established artists still hold their art a piece of themselves. When Martha Graham began to age, critics began to compare her current work to her past work. Instead of comparison, critics could have acknowledged a new era in her work. Past work does not bind to the expectations of the critic. Her creative process does not need outside negativity.

I believe that the critic should highlight the strong points of the given work and suggest questions for the choreographer to ponder. The critic should tell the potential audience the intriguing sections of the piece. Art is definitely subjective. However, the individual can see the piece in their own light. The choreographer can continue to question and progress their work. The critic should serve as the medium for the audience and choreographer to see through.

1- Review by Gregory King on Bill T. Jones' Tramontane 
(http://thinkingdance.net/articles/2016/10/16/3/Bill-T.-JonesArnie-Zane-Company-Dancing-Oral-Histories/)

How do you know your audience?

             

How does a choreographer create a narrative dance with universal concepts that the audience will know? In today's world, dance is becoming more and more global. Dancers perform all over the world and attempt to relate to their audience. However, most stories are not universal. In the above pictures, a Chinese audience may not know the myth of Clytemnestra, but a Greek audience will know the name if not the entire story. 

As dance continues to grow in the international field, I think that the universal connection for the audience is movement. Movement and mobility is possible for most bodies. Dance fascinates because it shows the limits of the body in virtuosic technique or the mundane through American post-modern movement. So, the narrative dance may no longer be universal to every audience, but the choreographer can strive to make the movement evoke response out of any audience. If dance incites reaction and response out of the audience, is that not the goal of every choreographer?