Emotion

How much about dance is about emotion?

I'd argue that emotion is just as fundamentally important to good dancing as proper technique.  In just the same way that turned-in (i.e. pigeon-toed) feet detract from the overall experience of watching a ballet, a dancer's lack of emotion is equally destructive.  Emotion (which can also be thought of as passion) engages in the audience in a way that technique alone cannot: emotion is a universal phenomenon while technique is more clinical, more specific, more precise to only certain people.  Of course, emotion alone cannot replace technique but, when paired together, the dancer takes the experience to a whole other level.

Just think about it.  When someone tries to get you to donate money to a cause, are you more convinced by rote statistics or by this person's pleading persona?  While I'm sure the realists among us would focus on the numbers, I think many of us would be more taken in by the person's need.  That is, the emotion from the campaign is what sways us.  Of course, if the person doesn't mesh a few neatly disguised facts into his plea, we would find it very difficult to believe him.

The same is true of technique and emotion in dance.  One without the other simply isn't strong enough to be convincing.

The most illustrative example I can think of appears on two different seasons of the Lifetime version of "So You Think You Can Dance:" "Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition."  Asia Monet Ray (season one) is six and possesses all the emotion you could ever want from a professional dancer.  However, the judges critique her over and over again on her lack of technique.  That being said, she's an incredible dancer, especially considering her age.  But her expressive features aren't enough to win her the competition.  Why?  Her technique just isn't there yet (watch her feet).  But also: she's six, so give her a hand for being downright amazing.

The second dancer is from season two of the competition.  Her name is McKaylee, and this dance is about Fantine, a character from "Les Misérables."  She's meant to be starving, alone, desolate, and desperate.  I nearly cried when I watched her dance.  Her characterization and emotional execution are spot on, and I could truly believe that she was Fantine (and this from someone who doesn't even like "Les Mis").  Why does this dance work?  McKaylee's technique is textbook-perfect, and her facial expressions are beyond beautiful.  Okay, so you probably think I'm gushing praise, but seriously.  Watch this video, and I promise you'll understand everything.

Parsons Dance

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend Parsons Dance at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (one of the benefits of being a student in the Pioneer Valley!), and I can't think of a better thing to blog about tonight.

As stated by the company's website:

"Parsons Dance is an internationally renowned contemporary dance company based in New York City. Under the artistic direction of David Parsons, the company presents uplifting, family-friendly contemporary dance to audiences around the world.

"Parsons Dance is a company of 8 full-time dancers and maintains a repertory of more than 70 works by David Parsons, as well as commissions by emerging choreographers and collaborations with some of the greatest artists of our time, including Steely Dan, Dave Matthews, Michael Gordon, Milton Nascimento, William Ivey Long, Annie Leibovitz, Donna Karan and Alex Katz, among many others."

At this particular concert, the dancers performed six very different but startlingly cohesive pieces.  Each was distinct in terms of music and costumes, but David Parsons, the choreographer, linked each piece to the next through use of one particular position: an elongated, almost distended, first-position of the arms.

https://danceguadagno.wikispaces.com/Ballet+Positions+Arms
It's worthwhile to read through this page if you're interested in learning some basic ballet!

My favorite dance was "The Envelope," which seemed to be the most light-hearted piece of the evening.  It began with one dancer in a single spotlight holding an envelope.  He occasionally would toss it offstage, but it would always reappear somewhere else almost immediately.  Other dancers from the company joined in to this, and my initial thought was that, almost humorous, the piece was a satire of classical dance; this was most noticeable in a parody of the "Four Little Swans" formation from the ballet "Swan Lake:"



http://leehippie.wordpress.com/category/dance/

Imagine this formation of four dancers, only in hip-hop sweatpants, dark sunglasses, and hoods, crouched down low.  I laughed so hard, and I wasn't alone: the entire audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy the piece.  However, when I was researching the company, I found this description of the dance on the website:

"The Envelope is a social commentary about loss of identity and individuality in quasi-efficient and highly ordered social structures such as a contemporary office environment. Whatever valuable content the envelope conceals, its delivery is a complex and convoluted journey fraught with questions of authority, accountability, risk and reward."

I was intrigued by this.  A piece that seemed so lighthearted and unassuming actually contains a much less superficial meaning.  I definitely grasped part of this during the performance, but I was more caught up in delight with absurdity of the piece.  It was a welcome break from the seriousness of the other pieces, so I find it ironic that it perhaps was the most serious of all.  Just another way that dance constantly surprises and delights me.

Future Beyoncé dancer?

I stumbled across this video the other day and really thought it was worth a look.  There's this adorable little girl named Heaven, she's two-years-old, and she rocks some choreography to a Beyoncé song. 



I watched this interview of hers with Ellen DeGeneres (currently at 6,396,870 views, and several of those are mine) before I saw the initial video of Heaven dancing that started it all, and, to be honest, I didn't really get what was so amazing about it.  Yes, she's cute and adorable, but I didn't see what the huge fuss was about.  I mean, I just didn't get why Ellen had invited her.  But one of the questions that Ellen asks her is very interesting regardless.  Ellen asks, "Do you think you want to be a dancer when you grow up?"  Okay, that's a reasonable question: Heaven's a little girl and was just dancing around for fun.  That doesn't mean she's a dancer, right?  She still has to grow into the title of "dancer," right?

Wrong.  And wrong again.

Heaven replies, "I am a dancer!"

Well, yes.  She is a dancer.  Anyone who moves and breathes and connects with the music is a dancer.  So often "dancers" are unattainable people: just think Beyoncé, Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Baryshnikov.  Even my idea of a "dancer" is pretty limited because I've been classically trained in ballet; I couldn't name a jazz or modern "dancer" to save my life.  These are dancers, absolutely, but not because they're famous or technically perfect or innovative.  First and foremost, they are dancers because they feel the music, care about what they do, and take pleasure from the act of dancing.  I'm a dancer because, despite the fact that I'm not "perfect" in everything I do, I love dance and forget about everything else when I'm dancing.  Heaven's a dancer because she clearly feels the music and can move to it, and she does so pretty well for only being two.

Irish dance

What do you think of when you hear the word "dance?"  I immediately think ballet, jazz, modern, tap.  What I don't think of right away is Irish dance.  Irish dance is an art form steeped in music, history, and cultural significance, and this webpage is the perfect introduction to its history.

As in all forms of dance, appearance matters.  Dresses for Irish dance happen to be extremely expensive- so expensive that many sellers don't give prices on their websites!  The dresses are often custom, but here a link to a page that resells them.  I spotted one that was $1,300, and that's not even the entire costume.  Dancers also need a wig to complete the look, and this sample one costs $110.  That alone is more than a pair of pointe shoes for a ballerina!

I found an interesting documentary on American Irish dancers by TLC that follows the dancers' journey to the Worlds competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiyGb_EY4PU.  This highly competitive and renowned event recruits the best of the best, and these girls are amazing.  I loved watching them practicing their steps: I never really appreciated how much stamina, energy, and determination they had to put in to every movement.

Ballet v. Modern

I found this video on YouTube the other day, and I nearly doubled over laughing.  It's a (gag) documentary following two dancers (one ballerina, one modern dancer) at the University of Utah, and pokes fun at the stereotypes of both forms of dance.

 

Ballet is typically thought of as stiffly beautiful: it can seem aloof, arrogant, impersonal, and standoffish.  Many ballerinas, because they are often so thin, are stereotyped as bulimic or anorexic, a harmful label that, while I'm sure is unfortunately for some, is not the standard.  Ballet requires an incredible amount of strength and discipline, and ballerinas must eat sensibly in order to complete the demanding art.

Modern takes the extreme opposite end of the spectrum: many think of it as goofy, not a real form of dance, strange, and imperfect.  For much of the time, modern seems to be a collection of incoherent movement, ideas and steps that don't have an obvious link in the way ballet does.  Modern appears to be less rigid and formal than ballet, but it does have its own set of rules.  The one that was hardest for me?  Don't be so rigid and formal!  It's hard for a classically trained dancer (such as myself) to adapt to the looseness of modern movement.  After years spent in fixed and very specific positions, placing my arms and legs in new positions was difficult.

Ballet and modern do have a lot in common: they require high levels of physical fitness and wellness, artistry, dedication, joy, and stamina.  Behind all the obvious differences, there are many obvious similarities.

Learn to dance in 365 days

This new article published by TechCrunch really shows how accessible dance can be.  It follows Karen X. Cheng, a woman with a strong determination to achieve her goals.  Her latest goal was to learn dance in just a year, a feat that seems impossible from the traditional view of dance pedagogy.  When I think of ballet, for example, I think of years of training that need to begin almost at infancy for the ballerina to have a successful career.  I started ballet at thirteen, which I myself thought was too late to actually be any good.  I hadn't heard of Misty Copeland then, who currently dances with American Ballet Theatre and started ballet herself at age thirteen.  In so much of dance culture, starting early is to start successfully.

I love that Cheng turns this traditional school of thought completely on its head.  She proves that it's not necessary to start dance young to be good (or even great) at it.  Cheng hints at something that Copeland mentions, the idea of having a "special something" that sets the dancer apart from the rest.  Cheng indicates that this "something" doesn't have to be an innate gift for performance, just the will to work hard, consistently.  "Practice makes perfect" can be applied to dance just as to other sports.  I admire her dedication.  She is so determined and a fabulous dancer as well!

Sophia Lucia

 

Tonight, I'd like to introduce you to Sophia Lucia, in case you haven't heard of her already.  Sophia is a 10-year-old professional dancer who currently holds a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest number of consecutive pirouettes.  A pirouette is a turn balancing on just one leg; the other leg and foot can be in a variety of other positions.  In classical ballet, a traditional pirouette places the free foot in passé (in the general knee area, preferably just above the kneecap) with the knee facing perpendicular to the standing leg.  Sophia executes her pirouettes in the jazz style, which means that her foot and knee are parallel to her standing leg.  One of the most difficult parts of executing a proper pirouette, in any style, is a technique called spotting.  Spotting is the technique that prevents a dancer from becoming dizzy and disoriented because it requires her to focus on a target point in the room while turning.  Sophia does this excellently by whipping her head around quickly and returning her eyes to the same spot; this also helps her stay in one place while turning.  You can see her doing this in the following video.



Sophia also uses tap shoes to do her turns.  Tap shoes are notable for their metal soles that produce a tapping sound when danced in properly.  This metal means that the shoes have less friction with the ground than ballet or jazz slippers do because these other shoes have leather, plastic, or canvas soles.  Sophia is an incredible tapper: just check out this video!



She's still very young, so it will be exciting to follow her progress through the world of professional dance.  She truly seems to have a gift for dance.

Flash mob in the OR!

A new video has popped up on YouTube that takes the idea of a flash dance mob to a whole new level.  Deborah Cohen, a patient about to undergo a double mastectomy, turns the moment of anxiety of waiting for the procedure to begin into one of energy and happiness through a six minute dance with her operating staff.  The upbeat music is Beyoncé's "Get Me Bodied," and this is what Cohen, who posted her plans on a site called CaringBridge, tells her audience:

"My fantasy is for you to play the song...and dance wherever you happen to be (in the kitchen, the carwash, subway platform [Dan!], classroom, Labor and Delivery unit, wherever!)...Nothing brings me greater joy than catalyzing others to dance, move, be in their bodies. Are you with me people?" 

I find this to be remarkable in two ways.  The first is that Cohen, instead of allowing the double mastectomy to control her, takes command of her situation through the power of dance.  She may not be able to control the surgery or the reasons for the surgery, but she can (and does) control her attitude going in to the operating room through something that gives her happiness and relief: dance.  The second impressive aspect of Cohen's video is that she uses dance to unite everyone around her, including those who may support her from afar.  Her dance animates and relaxes her operating team and also gives others (i.e. the YouTube community) a way to connect with her story.

Beyoncé herself replied to the video, exclaiming, "Deborah, you are awesome!"  I couldn't agree more.

Introduction to Dance Pulse and "La Bayadere"

Hello, everyone!  I'm very excited to be running this blog as part of my college World Politics course.  Since my blog could be about anything, I decided to focus on dance, which has always been a big part of my life.  From ballroom when I was little, to ballet, pointe, modern, and jazz as I got older, dance held a continuous presence in who I am.

What I love about dance is that it's universal: you don't need to speak a certain language or be from any specific part of the world to understand and appreciate it.  Take the ballet La Bayadere as an example.  La Bayadere, set in India, focuses on the love story of Nikiya, a beautiful young temple dancer, and Solor, a great warrior (check out this plot summary from American Ballet Theatre’s website if you’d like greater detail).  As in any great love story, Nikiya and Solor face powerful opposition to their happiness.  Eventually, this opposition leads Nikiya’s murder, and Solor, forced to marry another woman, Gamzatti, by his slain lover’s murderer, is anguished.  He dreams of Nikiya one night before his marriage to Gamzatti, and the two lovers dance.  The emotion between them in this pas de deux easily transcends time, language, and culture: the poignant dance reveals their innermost emotions without the need for words.

The universality of La Bayadere is obvious just by researching where it has been performed.  This story, which reflects Indian culture, is performed across the globe by such companies as ABT in the United Sates as well as by Ballet Manila in the Philippines.  The concept and story are powerful in any location because they are communicated through the fundamentally human form of dance, a relatable and timeless art form.