Before starting this task I read many blogs
to get an idea… how should I write it? Like many others, I found the question
and answer method the best way… and what intriguing questions they were!
Question 1: What in your daily
practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire
who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?
Performance quality. One of the most things that I enjoy and work on,
and this is not just about the facial expression. Arms, hands, posture can also
express a lot as well. The whole body tells the story and every single step can
be special. I realized that that’s it what makes a dancer looks professional -
to have conscious and perform with the whole body. Some dancers who really
inspire me for this regarding performance quality are Marianela Nunez, Marcelo
Gomez and the dancers from Pina Bausch, the Tanztheater Wuppertal. To watch
Marianela is a pleasure: more than the fabulous technique, she is never false
when she dances. Everything that she express tells the total true, she
literally delivers her whole body to the dance. Check out this YouTube link
from one of my favorite performances from her:
Marcelo Gomez also performs with the same
quality. His versatility is amazing as well. Everything he does is so special,
when he is on stage you just can’t look to anyone else:
The Pina
Bausch is a really unique company. Pina Bausch was for me, an extraordinary
professional, as a dancer, as a choreographer.
When I watched for the first time “CAFÉ MÜLLER” and “FULL MOON”, I
literally just wanted to cry. They are so expressive and so human as well. I
could see their deep connection to the choreography, with each other, with the
music and with Pina Bausch. This “human” feeling is an aspect that I really
enjoy from contemporary dance. Sometimes you don’t have a specific character,
you are just yourself and how you are going to develop is according to what you
are and feel. This is also performance quality for me.
Music. I think is something that most dancers get
excited about. Many times the music tells the movements and the quality of a
step. Considering the major classical composers, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Ravel
are in my huge list of favorites… I am currently performing a ballet with
Strauss music which is also really beautiful. However is not just classical
music that gets me excited when dance is involved. I really enjoy more
contemporary works such as Thom Willems who usually composes music for William
Forsythe, or popular music. “Cantata” is a piece from Mario Bigonzetti, which I
am mad about, it uses traditional Italian music. Grupo Corpo, a Brazilian contemporary dance
company, usually performs pieces from Brazilian composers and popular music. They
are beautiful pieces with always really involving music.
“Movement research and discovery”.
Is hard to explain what I mean with that. Basically is about finding how
a certain movement or choreography works for you. This research and the
challenge of a new step, I believe are one of the things that I most enjoy in
my routine. For example, when you work on a big jump and try new ways of doing
it and end up flying beautifully across the room, the feeling of achievement is
fantastic and really motivating. Also classes such as Yoga, Improvisation
Technologies and Gaga classes are amazing. It is a different way of discovering
your body and developing a muscle research.
One of my teachers from Elmhurst School for Dance told me once that I
needed to be more patient with myself. I used to get so frustrated when I
couldn’t do a step that I used to block me and give up. The practice and
continue work out is part of our career and we need to be smart about it. That
was one of the best advices that I ever had.
Question 2: What gets you angry or
makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to
work around the sadness or anger?
“Bad energy” at the work environment. I really don’t appreciate conflicts,
constant complains and lack of motivation while I am working. Is something that
really affects me and damage my concentration. Of course everyone has bad days,
period pain, and tough moments. I don’t think everyone should be always super
excited and happy, is not about that. Is about constant dis-motivation,
constant complains about everything (the fault is always from something else)
or discussions during rehearsals and classes. Always bring the energy down to
the whole group.
Unethical Behavior and extreme competition. Dance world is
competitive and that’s it for sure. However the biggest competition should be
with ourselves: we should compete with ourselves to achieve higher levels, to
do our best. I get really upset about unethical behavior. I believe
professional attitudes should be taken apart of personal issues. Every
achievement should be from your work. Or even in the dance studio or especially
in auditions, when once dancers want to get the director attention and don’t
respect others people places and chances. Those things really upset me.
I believe
the best way to get over those sad feelings is keeping in touch with my friends
from out of the dance world and my family. Without their support would be
extremely hard for me. They distract and help me and make me realize, many
times, that those are not issues just from my job: they are from many other
jobs as well. To hear their different opinions, their external vision about it
always helped me.
Question 3: What do you love about
what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of
what you love?
Performing is one of the practices that I most love. It always motivates me. It is
the main goal from our training and the result from the daily hard work. There
are things that you just learn with stage experience. When I am on stage I have
a feeling that there, I am the total in control, nobody can stop me. This
loneliness is a unique and magical feeling. I try to just deliver my whole body
to the piece and enjoy myself. After, the adrenaline before going on stage, and
even the tiredness after become quite addictive. Performing every week, which
can be really hard sometimes, is being one of the facts that I am most enjoying
this year.
The creativity involved on the
dance field is also one the elements that I most love on this career.
Choreographers are constantly working on their minds new pieces, dancers
working their characters and not to mention on the hundreds types and styles of
dance. All this involves lots of creativity and is one of the facts that I
believe make me feel so excited about art: This search for the new and
expression. To list here my favorite choreographers would take me many posts;
however I mention here some that always impressed me for their creativity:
William Forsythe brought a revolution to the ballet language and was crucial
for the dance world. Most choreographers are influenced by him. I had the
opportunity to learn the some parts from his ballets (“The Second Detail” ; “Vertiginous”;
“In the Middle Somewhat Elevated”) and join Improvisation Technologies classes
which I have to admit is a constant brain workout! For sure, Forsythe
interrogated the balletic body and extended the vocabulary of dance beyond that
of ballet and led to a distinctive movement vocabulary.
Recently,
Alexander Erkman and Ohad Nahrarin have impressed me with their works. “Cacti”,
an Alexander Erkman ballet, which Ballet Dortmund is performing in this current
season, brought a big impact to me. I had never seen something like that before.
It is funny, genius, provocative, musical, beautiful and innovative. The
Batsheva Ensemble performance was also a big impact. I kept thinking about
their pieces for a long time after watching their performance. Once again I was
surprised to see their different way to move, their different energy, different
connection with the choreography. I left two links here, one from “Cacti” and
other from the program that I watched with Batsheva Ensemble. I recommend everyone
to check it out!
Question 4: What do you feel you don’t
understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a
way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the
same questions as you?
I don’t understand how working with dance isn’t seen as a real job for
some many people. In some countries, artists and theaters are well respected,
and are workers with rights and duties as any other. However, in other places
to be a dancer isn’t well accepted and respected. When I got my job and was
telling about it, some people asked me: “Oh nice… but what are you going to do after?
I mean a real work?” Or even when I was at my last year of high school and
everyone was studying for the university tests (In Brazil the system is
different from Europe, isn’t based in many tests and the school grades history)
and instead, I was preparing DVDs to send to dance schools in Europe and
performing with the Corps of Ballet from the Municipal Theater of Rio de
Janeiro. Many talked to my parents worry about me: “But how she won’t apply for
any university?!” But that was never a big issue for me. Dance is a wonderful
work. There is so much to study and do at the dance field. Dance is culture and
culture is fundamental to the society. Here in Germany, the dancers’ contracts
are serious and very organized. Almost every city has a theater which is very
nice. Organizations such as labor unions, or Equity (in UK) are extremely important
as well to maintain the seriousness of this job not just from outside but, from
inside as well. Dance is a proper job and all dancers should claim for their
rights.
Question 5: How do you decide the appropriate
ethical response in a given situation? To what extend are disciplinary
responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For
example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not)
from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?
Hierarchy is something that I believe dancers should take special consideration
for an ethical and correct attitude. It happens during the entire career I believe,
from school till company. In a company there are dancers that work there for a
long time and the ones that are soloists. As a new dancer, you should respect
them as professionals (they have a huge repertoire behind them, lots of
experience and years in the company) and things like their spot, their way to work,
their place in the center. Every position in the company should be taken in
consideration for this ethical response: as a teacher, a repertitor, a guest dancer,
an apprentice, an artistic director, a pianist. However I don’t believe it
should be a scary thing (you don’t need to be afraid of a soloist, instead try
to listen, watch, and learn), should be taken naturally and to respect others and
make others to respect you as well.
Social events from the company also should be taken in
consideration. Here at Theater Dortmund there are many events: Premieres parties,
press conferences and for the sponsors of the Theater. They can be dinners,
talks or parties. Of course we should have fun and enjoy but we are also
representing the company. So I believe we can be relaxed and just ourselves but
also knowing that there you are with your work colleagues and representing the
company. I believe it would be similar with other jobs as well.
Reflecting about Physical Contact towards dance is an interesting issue for me. As a Brazilian you can imagine that in my culture we use a lot of physical contact to communicate and relate to people which can be different for other cultures. It was something that I had to realize after moving to other country. In Brazil, at my dance training I never really thought about that. After I had gone to some Summer Courses abroad and began training in England that I saw that there were many polices about physical contact. I was very surprised and realized how serious they were. Our body is our main work instrument and we have much more physical contact than other jobs. I believe that the same respect that students should have for their teachers, teachers should have for their students as well. I think teachers should “touch” their students in order to correct them and students also should take this in a mature way. Related to dancers, is the same situation, the physical contact should be taken with maturity and respect and I think is really serious to go beyond that. Even if a dancer is in a relationship with someone else, I don’t find necessary to show the affection during work time and can even distract the dancer. Some partnering works require lots of physical contact, like Romeo and Juliet, Mayerling, Manon etc. Also some choreographers require the dancers to be nude in some pieces. It is a similar situation to actors and like I mentioned before, those roles should be taken with maturity and after all it is part of the acting.
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