Archive for training
August 20, 2008 at 1:21 pm · Filed under dance, saratoga springs, training, modern dance, DEBORAH, new york state summer school of the arts, jessica lang, robert battle, battleworks dance company, danny grossman, laura bennett, national museum of dance, carolyn adams, julie strandberg, kanji segawa, marisa ballaro, american dance legacy institute, eddie kastrau, erika pujic
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?
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
July 30, 2008 at 3:45 am · Filed under dance, training, ohad naharin, batsheva, gaga, DEBORAH
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!
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
June 18, 2008 at 7:08 am · Filed under ballet, dance, training, studios, modern dance, contemporary dance, ohad naharin, dance classes, batsheva, gaga, DEBORAH, israel
Riding in style with the Batsheva Ensemble on the Batsheva bus!
The theater in Kfar Saba which hosted studio Zeadim’s end-of-year performances
As a dancer who performs in a variety of aesthetic frameworks, occasionally teaches technique, stages repertory, and conducts dance history research through physical as well as traditional means, I’m always intrigued by the intricacies of training. Sometimes my inquiries are bounded by time periods. In graduate school, for instance, I cast a critical eye on the nascent techniques of American modern dance in the 1920s and 1930s. Right now, though, my inquiries are bounded by geographical space: the borders of Israel.
I started my examination of dance training in Israel by taking both Gaga classes and a variety of contemporary dance classes at studios throughout Tel Aviv-Yafo. As my body absorbs the information in these settings, I better understand the particular techniques themselves as well as the ways in which they are disseminated. Yet individual classes - and particularly the classes I take, which draw a population of working dancers and/or adults who dance for pleasure - do not provide a sense of how Israel’s training system functions, how a network of studios and schools prepare aspiring dancers for professional careers. To learn more, I’ve stepped outside of the professional Tel Aviv circuit, talked with teachers of younger dance students, and attended an array of student performances: a smorgasbord of pieces performed at the Suzanne Dellal Center by dancers from a variety of studios; a selection of works performed by students from several performing arts high schools; student compositions at the highly regarded Telma Yellin high school in Givatayim; workshop performances by young dancers who are studying Gaga with teachers from the Batsheva Ensemble; end-of-year concerts by students at the Zeadim (Steps) studio in Kfar Saba; and concerts by undergraduate students at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Here are the basics, from my vantage point:
Ballet, the foundation of many dancers’ training in the U.S. and Europe, does not have strong roots here in Israel. Without a wealth of professional ballet companies and their attached academies, the country’s dance training system for children and adolescents follows a different model. There are plenty of independent studios throughout Israel, but it seems that for teenagers who are serious about becoming dancers, the key site of training is a solid high school dance department (and I mean solid - this is not at all like my public high school in the U.S., which had two classes labeled dance that primarily readied us for swimsuit season with lots of ab work set to music). The best high school programs in Israel bear some resemblance to U.S. university programs, with courses in ballet, modern dance, composition, improvisation, repertory, history, anatomy, music, and other related subjects. It’s from here that many dancers enter the professional world, further polishing their skills in workshop groups and second companies (such as those affiliated with Batsheva, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, or Vertigo Dance Company) or performing with independent choreographers. The university, which has such a prominent role in educating America’s modern dancers, is barely present in the Israeli training system. Two notable exceptions are Seminar HaKibbutzim in Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, but their programs emphasize pedagogy rather than performance or choreography. It’s important to note that the students at these colleges are older, having spent a few years - often the most formative ones in a dancer’s life - completing army service. Some dancers get out of the military in order to train and perform during this crucial phase of artistic development.
While the nuts-and-bolts differences between Israeli dance training and American dance training are intriguing, it is what is taught in the studio itself that is most fascinating. I’m not sure how some of you trained, but until I went to college, I merely had a smattering of modern dance at Princeton Ballet and Walnut Hill’s summer ballet workshops with an extra dose thrown in through a pull-out modern dance program for high school students in my county in Jersey. Here, however - at least from the look of the performances I have seen - modern (or contemporary) dance is the name of the game. I most recently went to nearby Kfar Saba for the end-of-year performances by a local studio called Zeadim (Steps). Yes, there was some ballet and some tap on stage, but there was clearly a modern dance thrust to the training and the resulting show. The school’s director, Adi Hen-Degani, talked about the influence and inspiration of the Batsheva Dance Company, and her studio’s older students actually studied Gaga, the training method developed by Batsheva’s director Ohad Naharin. Doron Raz taught Gaga to Zeadim’s teenagers once a week and set excerpts from Naharin’s work. The 12 to 15-year-olds enthusiastically danced the accumulative “Echad Mi Yodea” section that has cropped up in various productions and that you might recognize from Deca Dance, while the 16 to 18-year olds passionately broke out into full-bodied solos in the “Arab Line” section from Virus (it has also been featured in Deca Dance). As part of the connection between Zeadim and Batsheva, the Batsheva Ensemble also performed Naharin’s Seder after each of two concerts so that families might see the progression and the possibility of where their budding dancers might be in a few years. Batsheva may not have a full school in the mold of those attached to American ballet companies (and some modern companies), but the company is building links with Israel’s existing training structures and consequently, some lucky students are making big steps forward in their abilities and artistry.
Many thanks to Eldad Mannheim, Adi, Doron and everyone involved in the Zeadim/Batsheva experience, as well as to David Dvir, Netta Blumenthal, Paul Bloom, and others who gave me a glimpse at other schools and student concerts!
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
May 4, 2008 at 7:25 pm · Filed under dance, training, ohad naharin, batsheva, gaga, DEBORAH, Suzanne Dellal Center
The sign outside the Batsheva studios at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv.
One of the studios in Suzanne Dellal which is used for Gaga classes open to the public.
The Suzanne Dellal Center dressed up for a children’s festival during Passover. Gaga classes for the entire family were a major attraction!
I wanted to post this before leaving for Tunisia, but life was (surprise) a bit hectic. So here it is now:
When I took my first Gaga class in the fall, I was like an infant, tentatively trying out a new way of moving while also beginning to learn Hebrew. Everything was foreign to me, and processing a different framework for dancing in an unfamiliar language was a challenge. Thankfully, my Gaga teachers were willing to pepper their instructions with English, and my Hebrew tutor helped me learn the frequently used terms which I wrote down after lessons. Like a child, I steadily gained more mastery of my body and built up my communication skills; I acquired a physical language and, at least partially, the accompanying verbal language. It’s not always easy to see progress in language acquisition - but when I successfully took two Gaga classes taught almost entirely in Hebrew on April 22, I was floating both figuratively and literally (to float, or “latzoof,” is one of the most common directions in Gaga)!
April 22 was a special day. Besides taking my usual morning Gaga class at the Suzanne Dellal Center, I got to catch up with a friend visiting from abroad who enjoyed her first Gaga class ever. We spent hours dissecting it and continued our conversation with another friend of hers who has danced both here and in Europe, taking on an array of topics. Here’s a tasting of the questions we tackled: What techniques are primarily concerned with the body’s relationship to space, what techniques are more focused on the sensations and movements within the body, and where does Gaga fall in this spectrum? What is unique about the physicality used in Gaga and Ohad Naharin’s work? How has Gaga and/or the Batsheva aesthetic influenced the larger Israeli contemporary dance scene? What are the other training methods used in major contemporary companies today, both here and abroad?
I’ll leave these big questions aside for the time being - they’ll take a lot of time, space, and energy to explore (clearly, even while I write, I’m a Laban-influenced dancer), plus I need to keep you coming back for more! - and for now I’ll continue on with the events of April 22. To cap off my day of Gaga, I joined over 70 people for a special monthly class taught by Ohad Naharin himself in the Batsheva Dance Company’s spacious main studio. By 8 p.m., Studio Varda was packed with a diverse crowd: men and women; 20-somethings and 30-somethings, middle-aged folks, and senior citizens; dancers (including some I recognized as Gaga teachers, Batsheva company and ensemble dancers, and people I’ve met at contact jams) and non-dancers; even a few young Ethiopian students who have been studying Gaga as part of one of Batsheva’s outreach programs. With such a range, I couldn’t help wondering, what are these people’s stories? How did they come to Gaga, and what kept them coming back to classes? Gaga’s ability to attract followers outside of the typical dance class population is truly extraordinary. Not only do participants commit to at least one class weekly, but many Gaga enthusiasts take advantage of the unlimited monthly plan and eagerly take multiple classes per week. When it comes time for Ohad’s monthly class, a huge crowd shows up, and the energy in the studio is absolutely electric. The evening of the 22nd was no different - the excitement was palpable when Batsheva’s artistic director entered the room.
Although at other Gaga classes I’ve met an assortment of new immigrants or foreigners on extended stays in Israel, the population of this class was overwhelmingly Israeli; indeed, when Ohad asked if there was anyone who didn’t speak Hebrew, I was one of (I think) only 2 people who raised their hands. Floating (literally) while he asked if my Hebrew was good enough for him to teach in his native language, I reflected on my morning class and answered “Ken” (”Yes”). Thus I plunged into his most Hebrew-based class yet. We walked, stretched, and shifted our weight from leg to leg. We found circular motions in different body parts, generated movement from the image of balls traveling through our bodies, and gave and received energy from partners far away from us. We grooved, laughed out loud while grooving, and then let the memory of that laughter guide our own personal dances. We shook, moved in slow motion, and then did the two actions together (it’s possible!). And yes, we floated some more.
As has happened to me before in Ohad’s class as well as in several other lessons, there were many magical moments of transcendence during this evening - moments when, as the introductory Gaga handout states, there are “links” formed between “conscious and subconscious movement.” If the verbal cues in Gaga are indeed suggestions rather than the hard-and-fast rules which govern many dance techniques, they are at times picked up by my body and mind with neither resistance nor with a concerted effort to follow them. It’s as if they seep into me through the air, and I respond physically without forcing myself to act in accordance with what I heard. The processing of this verbal information (and, for that matter, of the visual information around me - and perhaps the energetic information flowing through the room) is not purely a conscious one. It’s almost as if I am responding to subliminal messages, despite the fact that the messages are conveyed directly and I know I am receiving them!
I should note that this is not always the case. Remember the first time someone asked you to pat your head while rubbing your belly, and your brain hurt from concentrating as you tried to master that coordination? That still happens sometimes, like when I attempted to shake and move in slow motion simultaneously during this last class. Particular challenges - especially new ones - demand a heightened level of attentive, active exploration. But when I’m just shaking, quaking, floating, or responding to certain other suggestions, it can be a different matter. The wonderful upshot is that through both the conscious and subconscious exploration that Gaga affords, I am discovering a wealth of movement possibilities, physical connections, and dynamic options beyond those fostered by my previous training.
I could go on and on about Gaga, but I’m scheduled to join the Batsheva Ensemble tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. so that I can see them perform Ohad Naharin’s Seder. Since I’m still recovering from the last leg of my Tunisia trip - a 30-hour journey on a collection of planes, trains, and automobiles as well as one ferry from the island of Jerba to the mainland - I should get to sleep early. But I suspect that my journey tomorrow will offer more goodies to share!
Intrigued by Gaga? Here’s some more blog entries on it:
“Going Gaga,” from my own blog after my first Gaga experiences this fall:
http://web.mac.com/deborahfriedes/iWeb/Deborah%20Friedes,%20MFA/blog%20/BC14A38A-F578-4D80-B9FD-0D8A28242991.html
“Ohad-ing It,” from The Winger’s own Matthew Murphy, who discusses Gaga briefly in the context of Ohad Naharin’s choreography:
http://thewinger.com/words/2007/ohading-it/
“Going Gaga for Gaga,” from Evan at Dancing Perfectly Free, who took some Gaga in New York this spring:
http://dancingperfectlyfree.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/going-gaga-for-gaga/
In Israel and want to try Gaga? Besides multiple daily classes in Tel Aviv and weekly classes in Jerusalem, there will be a 2-week intensive this summer from July 13-25 at Suzanne Dellal! More details to follow.
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
April 4, 2008 at 12:04 pm · Filed under dance, training, Repertory, research, improvisation, DEBORAH, Yasmeen Godder
Yasmeen Godder’s studio
It’s been more than seven months since I have learned new repertory, and while I’m loving my dance classes and improvisational projects, I do miss the process of absorbing and living in a piece of choreography. So even though my body feels a bit tired now, my spirit is extremely happy after tasting a bit of Yasmeen Godder’s work! I just finished a five-day workshop at her studio in Jaffa (at the south of Tel Aviv - technically, the city is Tel Aviv-Yafo). Yasmeen is currently on tour in Europe with her production Sudden Birds, so two of her dancers led the intensive. Each day began with Eran Shanny’s technique class, which was very similar to Yasmeen’s with its influences of release technique, yoga, Feldenkrais, and more. After he helped us absorb the principles of Yasmeen’s movement style, Iris Erez took over for the repertory segment of the workshop. We did improvisational exercises like those Yasmeen uses in her creative process, and we learned solo and duet material from Two Playful Pink. Yasmeen’s choreography is meaty, both in its movement vocabulary and its emotional content, and Two Playful Pink – a piece originally performed in 2003 by Yasmeen and Iris – is no exception. The dance concerns attitudes towards femininity and the body, and the movement often shifts a conventional expression of sexuality into more unfamiliar (or unaccepted?) territory: a hand seductively placed on the upper thigh soon insistently clutches the crotch; the slow fixing of messy hair is paired with a sudden spank-like slap to the hip; a smile is distorted by tucking in the upper lip or tugging the cheek into a sneer.
There’s so much I could say about what I gained through this experience – in fact, my stream of consciousness free-write in my notes file was enough to make Word send me a few error messages last night – but I’ll try to keep my post here manageable . . . If you haven’t noticed yet, I tend to be a bit wordy!
I’ve found myself explaining recently that yes, I am both a dancer and a researcher, so I’ll write a bit about how these two activities are complementary. Quite wonderfully, this workshop reinforced my belief in the value of physical research. My experience in technique classes this year has provided me with important information about the physicality used in Israeli contemporary dance. Yet with repertory, there’s another level of experience and analysis to be found; instead of simply dealing with the raw material of technique – some of the building blocks of a finished dance – learning choreography allows me to explore issues of composition and content along with the movement itself. This week I got a physical sense of Yasmeen’s partnering work, which epitomizes an intricate, aggressive style employed by many young Israeli choreographers. Actually attempting to dance excerpts of this duet gave me a deeper appreciation of what I had admired from afar because I myself got to experience (or, well, try to experience) the speed, precision, and trust involved in this kind of partnering. I was also reminded that in the hands of the right choreographer (and ultimately in the bodies of the right dancers), movement can be wonderfully loaded with meaning. In the duet excerpts from Two Playful Pink, each tug, shove, jerk, drop, fall, and look is a challenge from one woman to the other, a chance to manipulate, dominate, taunt, display . . .
Learning repertory also provides an extraordinary opportunity for me to recognize and question the assumptions I make as a spectator of choreography. As I realized this week, what you perceive when you are an audience member does not always get at the truth of the matter from the performer’s perspective. What I often see in Israeli contemporary dance is power – but it’s not always a controlled power or a power composed of force. In my experience with Yasmeen’s choreography (and specifically thanks to the feedback Iris gave me), I understood that this power is at times a matter of energy unleashed by giving into momentum and gravity. Having trained primarily in ballet and older modern dance forms such as Cunningham technique and Graham, Taylor, and Limón-influenced styles, I find working in this released-influenced mode quite challenging – but also quite necessary for my growth as a dancer. You can bet I’ll be back in Yasmeen’s classes after she returns from her tour!
Here’s a link to information about Two Playful Pink on Yasmeen Godder’s website.
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
November 7, 2007 at 1:59 am · Filed under SLOAN, dance, injuries, dancers, training, health, dancing with the stars
I’m laying low this week. Turns out I have bronchitis. Bummer. But at least I’m at a point right now where I have the ability to really let myself rest (even if it’s against my will).
One of the challenges of being a dancer and depending on your body so much is that when you get sick, it becomes extra challenging, particularly during performance season. You go through it in your head….
How sick am I? If I take today off, or at least take it easy in rehearsals so that I can do the performance, will that be enough rest to feel better?
If I fight through now will I be able to sweat it out?
Do I have time between rehearsals to go to the doctor to get medicine?
I’m really sick but my bosses have told me it is going to be very difficult to replace me for this evening’s performance. Do I get through it and risk blowing the rest of the week? Or make the decision that I absolutely cannot perform?
As I’ve sat and watched some tv the last few days, I came across a feature on how all the competitors on Dancing With the Stars are falling like flies… and most importantly, is the show cursed?
Hmm… most likely it isn’t. I’d attribute it to the fact that dancing is HARD!! Hard on your body, hard on your mind… and if your body isn’t used to an intense environment like that, it has a tendency to shut itself down as a way of telling you to take it a little easier. You wouldn’t jump into a five set tennis match, or a marathon, without having sufficient training. We have to ease ourselves back into rehearsal season after even just a week off.
Maybe they could consider giving the contestants a little more time to build up to the competition…? I don’t know. But what I do know is that dancers are athletes, and there’s probably more training involved than people might think.
:)
photo by doug
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
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