[Member Blog] Erica Frankel: Photos From Your Show

As a graduate student at NYU I’m currently taking a seminar with dance critic Deborah Jowitt. Last week in class someone mentioned a photo from a critique they’d seen recently, and Deborah groaned “don’t get me started on dance photography.”

She went on to tell us about a show she’d recently gone to review by a relatively notable contemporary choreographer. When she emailed the dance group later to get photos to accompany her review she was sent one unimpressive image taken by a dancer during rehearsal one day and one cell phone photo. The choreographer admitted that she was trying to save money. 

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Today is (or would be) the 182nd birthday of Eadweard Muybridge. Most well known for his photographic experiments depicting animal locomotion, Muybridge was a pioneer in the study of movement – how it happens, how we think it happens, and how we depict it happening. His frame-by-frame photographs of trotting horses were used to settle scientific debate in the 1870’s, earning him the title of “the man who proved horses could fly.” Almost 150 years later, movement is still a most fascinating subject matter, not only as a medium for artistic expression, but also as a ground for scientific inquiry.

Within the last few months, studies related to human motion have made national and international news, bringing some less frequently discussed aspects of dance to the fore.

Here, for your enjoyment, is a quick sampling (with links!):

Two weeks ago, the New York Times featured a story citing recent findings showing that people watching ballet experienced a kind of kinaesthetic empathy – in other words, their brains kind of simulated the movement they were watching so that they “felt” it even if they didn’t (or couldn’t) physically do the movement. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the basic idea, and it’s an idea that most dancers will find completely obvious. Of course, we feel it when we watch it! That’s a big part of how we learn choreography, and it’s why when we watch someone dance, we often have the urge to start moving ourselves. Variations on this type of finding have been shown for at least 20 years, the most interesting of which illustrate the effect of training. For example, ballet dancers will show more brain activation in the motor cortex when watching ballet than when watching another movement technique in which they are not highly trained, such as capoeira.

On Training and Cross-Training

When you stop to consider the hundreds of options for dance training, cross-training, and body conditioning in New York City, how do you begin to craft a personal regimen that strengthens your body as much as your artistic outlook?

With most freelance dancers in the city working for multiple choreographers and in multiple supporting jobs, it can be a real struggle to create continuity and deliberate practice in one’s ongoing training. Most of my friends who fit this description take class every so often, probably 3-5 times per month with different teachers and at different studios every time, and only when their rehearsal schedule allows. I would venture to guess that the rise of yoga as a “technique class” for postmodern/contemporary dancers is partly due to the fact that yoga studios are nearly ubiquitous in Manhattan and gentrified Brooklyn, and when you head to a yoga class (provided you are somewhat familiar with the different styles), you know what you are going to get. The same goes for Pilates and other kinds of standardized body work classes.

Now that the weather is smiling, I have also taken to running 3-4 times per week. As I am getting back into it, I am reading Haruki Murakami’s memoir-through-running What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Murakami elaborates on his lifetime practice as a runner and how it contributes to his creative writing process. An award-winning novelist, and author of the recent international best-seller IQ84, Murakami writes of how he acquires discipline of the mind through discipline of the body. This body-first approach is intriguing to me as a dancer-thinker. My most productive periods of thought have also almost always been the periods of most active physical engagement. 

Those Who Dance are Resourceful and Radical

Why is dancing such a rare pleasure for adults in our culture? Kimerer LaMothe‘s posts on Dance as a radical act tell us why we should act against this scarcity.

LaMothe lists 4 dominant cultural codes that the act of dancing directly challenges:

1. Mind Over Body
2. Individuality conquers all
3. The written word
4. Sit still while you work

Dancing gives us a much needed break from the ubiquity of these codes. To dance in a culture that can scarcely relate to its bodily, collaborative, unrecorded, and active nature is most certainly a radical act. A resource and practice of generation, dance develops our sensory awareness and willingness to play–and thus innovate. The answers are never clear in dance because every body is different, fostering the development of resilience.

In Part Two: To Dance is (More Than Just) a Radical Act, LaMothe talks about our “boxed” 21st century lives and how over-privileging this rationalized mode of relating to the world, ultimately disembodies us. Like Ken Robinson, who wryly noted that for many academics their bodies are primarily a form of transport for their heads, LaMothe suggests that our reliance on separate spheres of knowledge makes us less able to relate to our natural bodies and its relationship to our environment.  READ MORE

[Member Blog] Maria Hanley Blakemore: Sharing Stories

What is your most favorite childhood dance memory? If you know me at all, I spend most of my days teaching little ones and most of my time talking about them!  I always get a kick out of hearing about my peers dance stories. Did you have a favorite teacher that inspired you? A favorite studio? Did you travel for hours just to be able to take dance? A funny story about performing as a little person? Please share with us your stories… we would really love to hear!