Part of what I love about the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) is the program’s commitment to fostering dance literacy through mounting older modern dance repertory even as it invites younger choreographers to stage their work. The faculty concert is often a model of this philosophy, with historical reconstructions side-by-side with brand-new dances developed by choreographers-in-residence. This year’s concert was studded with some earlier gems of modern dance by Isadora Duncan, Anna Sokolow, and Paul Taylor along with existing repertory by faculty members Danny Grossman and Laura Bennett. Jessica Lang offered two works-in-progress, while Robert Battle premiered a moving duet and presented Juba (2003), originally made for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dancer and NYSSSA counselor Laura Frank brought her camera to the dress rehearsal and agreed to share some of her fantastic photographs here on The Winger. Enjoy!
Dancers Rika Okamoto and Kanji Segawa in Jessica Lang’s “Conversation,” an excerpt from the work-in-progress Sadako and the 1,000 cranes.
Another stunning image from “Conversation.”
Laura Bennett’s Reverie, with dancers Melody Gamba, Marisa Ballaro, Jude Sandy, Amy Marie Burns, Erika Pujic and Laura Bennett herself. I served as rehearsal assistant for this dance and was thrilled to see the cast perform so beautifully!
Amy and Jude in the duet from Reverie.
The very versatile Kanji Segawa and Erika Pujic each performed in several works; here they are in the premiere of Robert Battle’s Still.
Kanji and Erika in Still.
The extraordinary Eddie Kastrau and marvelous Mairead Filgate in Danny Grossman’s Higher, which premiered in 1975.
Just one of the jaw-dropping moments in Higher.
Eddie and Mairead finally get a little closer.
Many thanks to these 4 choreographers and photographer Laura Frank for sharing these images!
The National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York, has exhibits as well as three spacious studios used by NYSSSA.
Is there heaven on earth? Living and working intensively with a group of passionate dancers, choreographers, and educators comes pretty close. Throw in access to gorgeous studios at the National Museum of Dance and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs; 35 young dancers hungry to learn modern dance; projects with the American Dance Legacy Institute; and visits by other dance scholars and artists. This heaven is the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) in Dance. While NYSSSA’s ballet program is conducted in conjunction with New York City Ballet’s season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, this 4-week modern dance intensive is directed by former Paul Taylor dancer and Juilliard faculty member Carolyn Adams along with her sister Julie Adams Strandberg, who heads Brown University’s dance program. Every year, the pair assembles a dynamic faculty including musicians, professional dancers, and established and emerging choreographers who set and create work on talented teenagers from New York State. With the age spread of the faculty and guest artists plus the presence of family members ranging in age from just a few months old to nonagenarians, NYSSSA Dance feels like an intergenerational artist village. I have had the privilege of serving on the staff and faculty side of NYSSSA Dance for several summers - and it was there that I really started researching and teaching - so it holds special significance for me. It is one of my artistic homes, populated by an inspiring and supportive artistic family.
This year is the 20th season of NYSSSA Dance, and I spent last week in Saratoga to help with preparations for an alumni reunion and to reconnect with colleagues and former students. Each morning, I joined students and other faculty in rigorous classes taught by Carolyn Adams, Robert Battle (director of Battleworks Dance Company), and Battleworks dancer Erika Pujic. The teenagers spent the rest of their days in rehearsals with Robert & Erika; Toronto-based choreographer Danny Grossman (another former Taylor dancer) & dancers Eddie Kastrau and Laura Bennett; Jessica Lang; Kanji Segawa; and Marisa Ballaro (a NYSSSA alum herself). Meanwhile, I kept myself busy by assisting with some logistics, taking a little time in the studio to improvise, and treating my sore muscles to a mineral bath (Saratoga is known for its spas). Even better, I had the opportunity to coach dancers in a few works for Saturday night’s faculty concert. I started serving as a rehearsal assistant while I was injured in college and grew to love this role, keeping it even after my body healed and I returned to the stage; in fact, with my graduate degree in directing dances from Labanotation scores, I spent plenty of time leading rehearsals and polishing pieces for performance. I relished jumping back into this position after a year away, and armed with a more thorough understanding of dynamics and energy from my experience dancing in Israel, I had fun applying this knowledge in my coaching.
The reunion weekend itself was terrific. I caught up with old friends and met other alumni at receptions, took Robert Battle’s invigorating master class, enjoyed a lecture-demonstration showcasing NYSSSA students in the repertory they were learning, taught part of Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Etude for an alumni workshop, and proudly watched the dancers I coached in the faculty concert. I also celebrated late into the evening for a few nights (what else can you do when you have such a great group of people assembled with good food and music?), so while I already miss everyone, I’m happy to get some more sleep again!
Here are some photos from my week in Saratoga, and soon I’ll also post some from the faculty concert.
Clapping and drumming on the floor to applaud master class teacher Robert Battle and musician Tom Farrell.
Teaching part of Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Etude for an alumni workshop. Photo by NYSSSA co-director Julie Strandberg.
Demonstrating more of Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Etude for an alumni workshop. Photo by Julie Strandberg.
Laura Bennett’s Reverieduring dress rehearsal for the faculty concert. Laura is the program coordinator for NYSSSA dance, and because she was also dancing in this piece, I helped out as rehearsal assistant. The dancers are Amy Marie Burns, Erika Pujic, Jude Sandy, Melody Gamba, Laura Bennett, and Marisa Ballaro. Photo by Laura Frank, who is also a NYSSSA counselor.
Some of the NYSSSA alumni, faculty, and family members after an alumni brunch. There are talented NYSSSA alumni studying dance in college, performing with major choreographers like Mark Morris and Bill T. Jones, dancing on Broadway, choreographing, directing their own companies, and teaching dance in a variety of settings.
And just for fun:
My mineral bath, with some essential oils that are supposed to soothe sore muscles. Wouldn’t it be great to have this after every rehearsal?
I’m sure many of you have heard an old ballet saying that goes something like this:
If you miss 1 class, you know it.
If you miss 2 classes, your teacher knows it.
If you miss 3 classes, everyone knows it.
My situation: I missed 11 months of ballet class, and regardless of what other people saw, I really felt it!
I haven’t danced since leaving Israel in July, and after traveling around the wilds of Cape Cod and Maine for a few weeks, I swung through Cambridge today to take Marcus Schulkind’s ballet class at Green Street Studios. Marcus has been one of my favorite ballet teachers since I “converted” to modern dance, for he designs marvelously intricate combinations which challenge me to use my weight, feed my hunger for traveling through space, and play with my sense of musicality. The last ballet class I took was with Marcus in September, just a few days before I flew to Tel Aviv, and when I realized this might be my only chance to be back at the barre with him, I seized the opportunity.
I knew I would experience reverse culture shock upon returning to the U.S. - and I figured my body would go through some shock today after being away from ballet for so long - but I hadn’t thought about the culture shock I would face in the studio. For the better part of a year, I had struggled to understand verbal instructions given in Hebrew but was largely able to physically execute the movement in my dance classes. Now the situation was reversed: I could comprehend every word my teacher said (including a few Yiddishisms and even some Hebrew words that Marcus threw in today - he danced with Batsheva back in the 70s), but my body just couldn’t quite keep up. Pirouettes, arabesques, and entrechat quatres now felt foreign to me - and as a lapsed ballet dancer, I don’t think I’ve done a gargouillade in almost a decade! I also realized partway through class that I was no longer used to working with a mirror, since Gaga and many of the contemporary classes I took in Israel were mirror-free. I myself have plenty of reflection to do . . .
And now for a little nostalgia:
I needed a bit of comfort prior to my first class back, so I pulled out the equivalent of a blankie: my favorite warm-up shirt, which dates back to my first performance in 1989. I was 8 at the time and made my debut as a jester in Princeton Ballet School’s production of Cinderella. Since it was the 80s, big t-shirts were in style, so amazingly this pink shirt has moved with me into adulthood. It’s a bit tight in some places and quite worn, but I still love it!
The Batsheva Dance Company in Naharin’s Virus. Photo by Gadi Dagon
In between packing and tying up various loose ends in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago, I swung by the Suzanne Dellal Center to check out Batsheva’s Gaga intensive workshop. Eldad Mannheim, who manages the Batsheva Ensemble, had told me it was full, but I don’t think I was prepared for what I saw when I walked into Studio Varda on a Wednesday afternoon. Dancers had come literally from all over the world – the U.S., Mexico, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and no doubt many other countries – to study Gaga. The participants had already taken a morning Gaga class by the time I arrived, and now they were busily reviewing material from the daily repertory class in small groups. On the day I attended the workshop, Danielle and Bosmat first led us through a tight gestural section from Ohad Naharin’s MAX. After seeing this excerpt not only in MAX but in several performances of Seder, I was quite eager to try my hand(s) at this movement (so to speak). The workshop participants had already learned the speedy sequence, and while it was challenging for me to pick up the exact gestures during Danielle’s review, I enjoyed working with some of the more qualitative instructions as she picked apart certain motions. With precise instructions about our dynamics, focus, and intent, the movement became richer; nothing less than full commitment to each moment was acceptable. We also worked on moving together as a group in a tight formation, watching and sensing each other to maintain the unison that has often impressed me when I have seen the company.
After MAX, we switched gears and turned to phrasework from “Humus,” a woman’s section from Naharin’s Shalosh. Now tinier gestures were juxtaposed with gloriously full-bodied dancing, motion was countered with stillness, and quasi-balletic poses were contrasted with quirkier movements. As in Gaga classes, we were often instructed to connect to pleasure: enjoy the feeling of our bodies as we spring into the air, find a feeling of ultimate indulgence as we sit back and cross one leg over the other. And once again, even as we surrendered individually to the fullest sensation possible, the unity of the group was key.
I thoroughly enjoyed learning this repertory, but the highlight of the day for me was the Gaga method class. I had seen this on the schedule and wondered just what was Gaga method. It turned out to be an opportunity to more thoroughly explore a few concepts outside of the typical 1-hour Gaga class with additional explanation from the teacher and discussion with other students – almost a meta-Gaga, if you will. On this occasion, Ohad Naharin himself taught the class, guiding us through an examination of the physical differences between joy and pleasure before leading us through an investigation of how to connect to a sense of plenty of time even while moving at an ever-increasing speed. We also worked as a full group and in pairs, testing our ability to quickly pick up and interpret movement. Finally we sat down and wrapped up our session, asking questions and sharing our thoughts. I walked away with much more to think about. Besides mulling over some of the recurring ideas and images in Gaga, I realized a major reason why I have been so drawn to it throughout my time in Israel: I’m a researcher, and each Gaga class is an opportunity to research movement. It’s also no wonder that I loved the Gaga method class. At some point, every researcher steps back from data collection and moves on to analysis, and while I have certainly spent a lot of time processing the classes I have taken, I have rarely been able to analyze the concepts from and experience of Gaga with other students - and with Ohad. What a way to cap off 10 months in Tel Aviv!
Choreographer Nimrod Freed. Photo by Eyal Landesman.
Nimrod Freed’s Peep Dance. Photo by Anatoly Michaelo.
Spectators at Nimrod Freed’s Peep Dance. Photo by Itamar Freed.
My initial encounter with Nimrod Freed was last autumn via e-mail. I first contacted him because he was on the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, my host institution here in Israel. We met, though, at a different college with a focus on teacher training: Seminar HaKibbutzim in northern Tel Aviv. Not only does Nimrod teach at both of these institutions, but he also is the artistic director at Tel Aviv’s Beit Tami, a spectacularly located community center that is equipped with a few studios and a small performance space popular with independent choreographers. There he runs the Tami Dance Company, which currently brings together one actor with several dancers in dance theater works. As I learned about all of Nimrod’s roles during that first meeting at Seminar HaKibbutzim, I realized - in the very best way - that I had got more than I bargained for! Speaking with him gave me a much clearer sense of the institutional map of Israeli contemporary dance.
I also learned about Nimrod’s own career, from his beginnings in folk dance to his intensive study of concert dance, which was sparked by his involvement in an opera production of Samson and Delilah at age 16. His interest in dance theater developed after seeing Pina Bausch’s Café Müller , and subsequently, he studied acting and directing at Tel Aviv University. A class there with guest teacher Kei Takei proved to be a major turning point; indeed, soon afterwards, he joined her company Moving Earth in New York. Nimrod stayed in the U.S. for just over a decade, and during this time, he also formed his own dance theater company. It was an invitation to perform in the Israel Festival which paved the way back to his native country. Through his teaching of improvisation and pedagogy, his choreography, and his leadership at Beit Tami, he has contributed enormously to the vibrant Israeli contemporary dance scene - but even as he maintains a home base in Tel Aviv, he continues to work internationally. Nimrod’s company has toured to Europe and Japan, where he met Min Tanaka and picked up a butoh influence. Now he will return to New York with the Tami Dance Company for a performance of Peep Dance at Central Park SummerStage. Here’s a taste of Peep Dance to whet your appetite:
Peep Dance will share the July 26th bill with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, which will perform Rami Be’er’s Kef Kefim.
Books, journals, DVDs, CDs from my time here in Tel Aviv.
More tools of the trade for a blogging/podcasting dance researcher: the technology bin, complete with camcorder, mini-DV tapes, digital voice recorder, computer software, battery charger, manuals, and way too many cords that look similar.
Publicity, programs, photocopies, oh my!
It’s that time - I’m packing up! At 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I leave Israel and head back to the U.S. after 10 months of research. I’ve accumulated quite a lot of materials in that time, and somehow I need to get them sorted into boxes and bags. Yikes. Here’s the good news, though: I’m not done here. I fell in love with Tel Aviv, the Israeli contemporary dance scene, and a great Israeli guy, so after a few months in the U.S., I’m moving back to Israel! And so the journey continues . . .
