Imagery

“Imagine that you have a diamond necklace on and you’re trying to show it off to the world!”  “Imagine your legs have candy cane stripes on them, and that you’re trying to make them rotate  from your hips alllll the way down to your ankles!”  “Imagine that there is a string at the tippy top of your head and that someone is pulling it up!” 

Each of these phrases, and many more of my Miss J-isms, can be heard in my classes on a regular basis.  From an outside perspective it could make me sound a little crazy.  If you happen to be a dance teacher yourself, you understand these.  It’s imagery at its finest, and  it’s an important tool for teaching.

I’ve had many teachers tell me that dance is 60% mental, and only 40% physical.  I fully believe in this.  A dancer is not just a drone that copies movement.  There is nuance and style, but not everyone is born with that.  I try to explain to my dancers all the time that we have to be intelligent dancers.  It’s easy to fall into a rut and be a mechanical dancer.  You want to be both a mechanical and artistic dancer.  Much of this comes from the thought process of dance.  Not only should you put your hand there this way, or place your foot down on this exact count, but it’s the way in which put your hand this way or your foot goes down.  Imagining certain things, and using a diverse and colorful vocabulary can aide your dancers in figuring out how. 

What I find most important in imagery is understanding the mechanics of what you are trying to get across.  For example, with the image of the diamond necklace on your chest, the idea is to have my students project their chests up and out to the audience, so that their collar bones are exposed, their necks are long, their shoulders are back, and they are lifted.  In order to show off a big diamond on a necklace, those are the details of what they must do.  Breaking down the technical aspect of what one is teaching can help to create the more creative image.  Knowing the minute details can assist in the process, and even inspire the image in an instant. 

I’ve had multiple instances in the classroom where I have been explaining each part of a step, and suddenly realized that what I was saying described something else.  I have then gone on to explain how what I was describing related to the image I had in my mind.  Most of the time this works.  In a rare occasion, my students stare at me as though I have six heads and what just came out of my mouth was a foreign language.  It’s best to have pre-determined images that are guaranteed to stick in a students’ mind. 

Depictions in a dancer’s mind is so important.  Imagining what you are doing truly helps in the application of movement.  If you can see it in your mind’s eye, then it is easier to embody that action.  Seeing yourself being able to battement your leg to your ear is a lot easier than just thinking about technically executing it.  Both aspects must be in practice during the execution, but if both are, achievement will be easier.  Your leg will technically get closer to you ear if you think about it getting there. 

I love imagery in classes.  I have even taken whole dances and created full stories for every section just so that my dancers would understand what they were trying to convey.  It has always worked for them, and I have always appreciated their effort in understanding my explanations.  From emotional understanding, to technical understanding, imagery has always been an asset to my teaching.

The Importance of Sound

The other evening I was sitting at a restaurant watching the Tvs that were on.  They were displaying some sort of music awards (sadly, I do not know which one it was).  Since there was music playing, they did not put the sound on the televisions.  At one point, a friend of mine and I happened to look up to see a gentleman break dancing with only one leg dressed in an old school military uniform with C-Lo Green in the back.  We both looked at each other with the inquisitive expression of  “what is going on?”  Had the music been playing, or the sound in general had been on, we may have had a better idea as to what the point was of this particular act in the show.  It hit me then- music is SO important!

Dance is typically a visual art.  However, there are so many aural aspects to it that one may not typically think about.  The best example is lyrical dance.  Lyrical dance in itself is about the lyrics in the music.  Without the music, you may not be able to fully understand exactly what the dance is trying to convey.  A dancer could be clasping her hands together to show that she is holding flowers while the song portrays a wedding, and without the words, you would just think she was clasping her hands.  It would not be understood that she was a “bride” so to speak. 

As a choreographer, I find that it’s best to choreograph with music.  I took many classes where, and know many choreographers who can create a dance just based off of movement.  I personally love to listen to a piece of music over and over again and find the nuances of it.  When I can get my hands on the composed music itself, I like that even better.  I am fortunate to have taken music classes for a long time (flute player in band for years!) so I can read music on paper and understand it and follow along while the song plays.  This of course is more so with classical type pieces.  It helps me to find parts of a song that I wouldn’t necessarily have picked up on had I not had the physical written composition in front of me.

Even with pieces that do not have  music, I feel like hearing the breath of the dancer, or even the soft swooshing movements of a foot along the dance floor, or hands clapping, or the sound of a turn, are essential to any dance.  Without those, I would feel like any particular piece would be flat and emotionless, even if the performer put all the emotion they could into it.  Sound creates the full experience.  It’s similar to being able to have lighting for specific pieces.  It just makes all the difference! 

Had I heard the music on that night in the restaurant, I may not be wondering right now what it actually was that I was seeing.  Not to mention that I missed a performance by C-Lo Green whom I love!  Next time, maybe I should just ask the server to turn up the sound!

Finding Peace and Love

I feel as though recently there has been so much sadness in my circle of friends.  From break ups and heartache, to deaths in the family, there have been so many unfortunate situations.  When you are constantly surrounded by it, it can be difficult to remember that there is so much to love.

I find my love in dance.  Obviously.  I am lucky that dance is not just what I do, but it’s what I love, and it’s my therapy.  When things get bad, I throw myself into teaching and dancing.  I have that outlet.  Many do not.

I don’t know what I would do without dance sometimes- that adrenaline rush from the physical output, and the emotional rush from letting your heart take over your body. 

I wish more people would dance.  I know that many guys find it “feminine” and don’t feel comfortable with it.  Imagine if more guys danced, though.  Not necessarily ballet, but other forms like hip hop.  Would there be less of that testosterone driven force in times of turmoil that lead to destructive behavior?  I’ve known many guys that when things get bad, they’ve turned to fighting or drinking or both.   If they had dance, would they be able to take their physicality into that? 

I’ve been known to have a temper in my “past life.”  I get angry and scream and cry, and when I didn’t have outlets to dance it out, it would get worse.  It was only a few months ago that I remember being so upset and angry that I was walking down the street choking on tears and unknowingly digging my nails into the palm of my hands because I was so emotional that I was uncontrollably making fists in order to steady the shaking.  Now, this doesn’t happen all the time to me, but it was a morning that I had to go into my other job that doesn’t involve dance, and the situation that had caused the outburst had happened first thing in the morning.  I had no opportunity to dance it out.  I had to wait until the next day to get into dance classes to teach.  Even so, I wish I had had the time to put what I was feeling into dance.  I got to later that week. 

I did a lot of improv when I got my chance to dance it out.  While some of it was slow and emotional, there were others that were angry, and on top of that there were some that I did that just brought me peace.  I feel like that’s the most important type- finding your peace.  When a dancer “dances it out” they often get totally caught up in the emotions.  One needs to find the balance.  They need to find their peace. 

My peace:

So what do you think- if more of the destructively emotional people out there danced, do you think it would help?  Or do you think it would not make a difference?  Do you think guys would do it more if it were socially acceptable? 

My belief is that it would help.  Everyone needs an outlet, and everyone needs the creative side to their outlet.  Dance is perfect for men because it involves both the creative and physical sides.  I'm sorry, but there's not much emotion in soccer or football or running.  Sports don't quite get that creativity side like dance does! 

This is my way of saying "I've had a sad day, and I want to spread my love to the universe."  So hopefully this has put a little more love and a little less sadness out into the world today. 

Forget regrets- dance like it's your last!

Emotional Vs. Technical

Okay, confession time- I’m terrible about taking class. I know that it could help my career as a teacher, and can only benefit me as a dancer as well, but I’m really awful. Between my never-ending schedule of two main jobs, and always picking up little things when the opportunities arise, and my budget of trying to save, and my overall laziness without the luxury of a car, I tend to slack in that area. When the opportunity arose for me to take a few classes in the past two weeks through the studio I teach at, I jumped at it.

There are three classes that stood out in my mind- two of which are the topic of today’s blog. I happened to take two classes from two different guest teachers that were supposed to be similar in structure, but turned out completely different for me.

Both classes were improvisation based. They both started out similar- feeling the space in the room, and moving around in it in order to get a sense of where you were and how to use the space around you. Both teachers asked us to move in the space. There were two big differences between their approaches. In the first class, our eyes were open, and we were asked to move as different creatures about the room. The teacher would say “Now move as if you were a turtle!” So I moved as a turtle would- I balled myself up on the floor and took slow-motion steps. In the second class, we were asked to close our eyes, and feel where we were heading. We were asked to trust ourselves, and if we bumped into someone, we were to improv with them, moving and flowing with their bodies (at this point, I managed to hook someone’s neck in my arm. To that person- I apologize for partially choking you!).

The second half of both classes differed greatly. In the first one, we continued with a structured improv. We were broken into groups and asked to perform certain things- such as pausing for 5 seconds- while improving to and from the mirror. I loved this exercise. It worked for me because as a control freak, and a ballet teacher, I was able to freely move within the restrictions of rules. As I danced, I remember thinking about what I had to do. I remember thinking about how I had to move and thinking about what I had done after. I remember thinking about the technical aspects of the improvisation.

The second class worked much differently. We were taught a series of movements. It was not to counts or music. It was just steps that we learned in sequence. The teacher put on music (Adele! LOVE!) and told us that we could start whenever we wanted, moved however we wanted, and could improv with others if we were to come in contact. The teacher even came around and initiated contact and movement within specific dancers. What I remember the most from this class was the emotion that we were asked to feel. As dancers, we were asked to listen to the music’s message- being hurt by someone, but finding someone better. A year’s worth of my emotions, frustrations, and aggravations came out onto the dance floor. Heck, I almost cried (but I will talk about that specific experience in another blog). It was so powerful that it took me until the second barre exercise in ballet class afterwards to come out of that place.

Both of these classes were incredible, but it made me think about the aspects of emotional dancing versus technical dancing. Obviously technique is the basis for all dance. Otherwise, we’re just flopping around out on a stage. When we think as technical dancers, we think of the lines, the posture, the pointed toes, etc that we’re supposed to be doing. We think in a linear manner. “I must get from Point A to point B.” Our bodies and brains work in sync to create perfect positions and do what is asked of us. In the first teacher’s class, this is how I thought. I thought about how my body was moving and what it was doing for the specific exercise. I could probably tell you half of the moves I did, because even though I was letting my body drive me, my brain was still thinking about the movements.

Emotional dancing is very different. In emotional dancing, typically dancers do not think about the technical aspect of the dancing. Instead of “my body is contracting in a deep Graham position”, we as emotional dancers think “my body is contracting because I can feel it’s supposed to in my gut.” While I can remember some of the steps that were in the sequence of movement that we learned, I can tell you that I do not remember a lot of what I did when I improved. What I do remember is the feeling of release of pain that I had been harboring for over a year. Points A and B- don’t remember them. All I know is that the mood of the music took over my body , and I felt free to move.

I find it so intriguing that both classes had such similar ideas, but left the dancers with such different experiences. While both were improvisation based and designed to pull the students out of their comfort zones, one left me thinking and the other left me feeling. In the first class, I remember feeling pretty good and comfortable about the exercises. In the second class, it took me a while to warm up to the exercises. I enjoyed the first class, but the second left me with a lasting impression. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed the second one so much- I achieved a place of conquering that which did not feel comfortable. I overcame that sense of awkwardness and fell into my own skin.

This is the advantage of students being able to take from different teachers- they get more than one side of a particular genre. They are allowed to experience more than one way of teaching, which aides them later in life as to what they particularly enjoy most. This in turn helps them to decide which path they will prefer to take in the world of dance, if they so choose to pursue dance.

It also helps the teacher, like me, that gets caught up in life and doesn’t take class. To these teachers that I took from in the past couple of weeks- I thank you. You were inspirational, thought-provoking, and simply wonderful!