4dancers – Page 15

What Makes A Dance? The Brain As Choreographer, Dancer And Spectator

July 5, 2016 by 4dancers

head-1058432_640

Aloha to All –

We are very pleased to have as our next Dance Wellness guest contributor Judith Lynne Hanna, PhD. Dr. Hanna is a longtime dancer and anthropologist whose work spans many years. Reading reviews of her recently published book, “Learning to Dance: The Brain’s Cognition, Emotion, and Movement”, spurred me to contact her to see if she would write an article for us concerning the new research on dancers’ brains, and how growing up in dance really does change us. The new science of Neuroplasticity (also called brain plasticity, is the process in which your brain’s neural synapses and pathways are altered as an effect of environmental, behavioral, and neural changes) is fascinating – and there are now more than 400 studies related to interdisciplinary neuroscience that reveal the hidden value of dance.

Many of us in the dance world have grown up feeling / knowing that we were somehow “different” from non-dancers, but only recently has science been learning how and why. I found Dr. Hanna’s article to be a clear explanation of all this new research, and am so pleased to share it with you.
Enjoy! (and don’t stop dancing–ever!)

Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor

by Judith Lynne Hanna, PhD

At times during their careers, dancers may want to explain what dance is about to family, friends, students, schools, spectators, and the media. After all, knowledge about dance is new and limited compared to the other arts.

My journey toward understanding dance began as a child in 1946, and the odyssey hasn’t stopped. A pediatrician told my parents that ballet would make my feet strong. So I studied ballet. Dancing didn’t do much for my feet, but dancing has made me stronger physically and mentally. Alicia Markova’s experience with flat feet was different than mine. Critic Clement Crisp reports, “The sublime artist Alicia Markova was taken to ballet as a child because her flat little feet left sad imprints in the sand during a seaside holiday. Ballet, said a doctor, would cure that. And it did. She grew into an astounding artist whose ‘intelligent’ feet and legs were the envy of the ballet world.”

Fascination with dance led me beyond ballet to explore other dance genres (e.g., modern, Afro-Caribbean, Latin American, African, flamenco, Middle East, jazz, hip-hop, swing, ballroom, and folk). Curiosity led me to conduct dance research in villages and cities in Africa and then in theaters, school playgrounds and classrooms, and cabarets in the United States.

As an applied anthropologist I study human behavior, including many forms of dance and culture, past and present, and draw upon the work of different disciplines. I was surprised that at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, more than 6,800 attendees paid rapt attention to renowned choreographer Mark Morris as he answered questions about the relationship between creativity and dance. Neuroscientists interested in dance? I wanted to know why.

ballet-1376250_640

The Attraction of Dance

Scientists are turning to dance because it is a multifaceted activity that can help them demystify how the brain coordinates the body to perform complex, precise movements that express emotion and convey meaning. Dancers possess an extraordinary skill set—coordination of limbs, posture, balance, gesture, facial expression, perception, and action in sequences that create meaning in time and space and with effort. Dancers deal with the relationship between experience and observation.

The brain hides from our sight the wondrously complex operations that underlie the feat of dance. Although there are many secrets to unravel about the power of the brain and dance, advances in technology—29 at my last count, such as brain scanning techniques and the experiments using dancers, dance makers, and dance viewers–reveal to us the unexpected.

Misconceptions that dancers shouldn’t think, just dance, or that dance is merely physical or emotional expression, are challenged by reality. Research shows that dance activity also strongly registers in regions of the brain responsible for cognition. Hidden processes reveal that the brain is choreographer, dancer, and spectator. Dance is what the brain does.

The Choreographing Brain

[Read more…]

Review: Foot & Shoe Deodorizer

June 18, 2016 by 4dancers

FootSpray-1500-01-300x300 If it’s one thing dancers are always thinking about it’s their feet, and with the many hours spent in class and rehearsal, it can help to have a little something that freshens them up a bit.

This 4 oz all-natural foot spray by Aurorae makes for a great addition to your dance bag. Whether you are trying to revitalize some old technique shoes, or you want to deodorize your feet a bit before slipping on some sandals, this little product is a good choice. Made with essential oils such as peppermint, tea tree, eucalyptus and thyme, it has a delightful scent, and because of its size, it is super portable.

The thing I was most impressed with was the pump for this product. Instead of a harsh stream of liquid or a heavy spray, it delivered a light mist which keeps your feet from getting soaked with it. Also, a little bit goes a long way, so you can use a light hand when applying.

All in all, this foot spray makes a nice addition to any dancer’s bag.

Purchase this spray from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2vlNAdS

Save

Saying Goodbye To Atlanta Ballet’s John McFall

May 20, 2016 by 4dancers

John McFall with dancers — **John McFall and dancers from Atlanta Ballet. Photo by Brian Wallenberg.**

Dear John,

You are stepping down as Artistic Director of Atlanta Ballet this month after 21 years. How to describe what your tenure accomplished? How to distill such a career?

I could talk about the numbers. How the budget has nearly tripled since 1994 or the 1200 students enrolled in the school. I could talk about how Atlanta Ballet has transformed in your two decades from a regional dance troupe to a world-class institution. About the exciting collaborations- Big Boi from Outkast, the Indigo Girls. Or about the world premieres- Twyla Tharp’s first full length ballet, Helen Pickett’s Camino Real. I could talk about the tour to China, the opening of a beautiful new building, your own choreography including the record-breaking Nutcracker. I could talk about the cutting-edge choreographers like Ohad Naharin, Alexander Ekman and Jorma Elo that you convinced out of a sheer doggedness and passion for your dancers to come to a city in the Southeast and bring their work to us.

These things are astounding, valid and commendable. But you know all these things already.

And this letter isn’t about what you’ve done for Atlanta Ballet. It’s what you’ve done for me and your dancers. So I’d rather talk about the joy. [Read more…]

Inside My Dance Bag: Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Emma Love Suddarth

May 4, 2016 by 4dancers

PNB dancer Emma Love Suddarth — **Emma in David Dawson’s A Million Kisses to My Skin, photo by Lindsay Thomas**

by Emma Love Suddarth

Laptop… billfold… Ziploc bag of toiletries… socks… binder… normal Tuesday. Pointe shoes? Foot thongs? Tennis ball? I always wonder what the TSA security officers think when they watch our dance bags go through the x-ray scanners at the airport. Whenever PNB travels on tour, I’m careful to triple check that all those “necessities” we dancers just can’t be without make it into my carry-on—you know, just in case. Sometimes it seems that my carry-on somehow ends up heavier than my actual suitcase. On a normal day in the Seattle studios though, what’s in there?

Naturally, I have the number one ballet-company-related necessity: pointe shoes. Seeing as we are currently performing—meaning traveling back and forth from studio to theater—I have far more pairs in my bag than I should. Another example of the just-in-case. Of course, those pointe shoes come with the necessary accessories, such as toe pads, spacers, toe tape, and a sewing kit, ready for the next pair to enter circulation. A single pair of flat shoes is in there as well, to use for class and the occasional rehearsal. A pair of foot thongs has kept up residence in my bag as well, perhaps for far longer than they should. I used them for Petite Mort a couple seasons back. Nostalgically I find them hard to part with—I treasured dancing that ballet, a favorite, with my husband, another favorite. They might stick around a little longer.

Emma's dance bag — ***Emma’s dance bag***

Next, a dancer always seems to have a number of therapy-related items. We require so much of our bodies on a daily basis that the least we can do in response is care for them as best we can. In my arsenal I keep anti-inflammatory gel, Advil, a theraband, a couple of different-sized balls for rolling, and, a trusty pet store tennis ball. I find it comforting to be reminded of our two rambunctious dogs at home every time I pull that one out.

Lastly, there’s always a handful of warmups every dancer relies on. From my bag I pull a pair of well-loved legwarmers, a cozy turtleneck (the theater is always colder so it’s long-sleeves for now), my favorite—not to mention super thick—socks that just happen to be covered in sock monkeys, and a pair of bright orange sweatpants. Ask anyone at PNB and you’ll receive the same answer, “Emma does not wear bright colors.” It’s true; I’m a gray and blue kind of girl. However, I absolutely love my bright orange sweatpants. Maybe it’s related to the fact that Price—my husband—has always loved orange, or maybe they’re just great pants. Maybe it’s just me, but when it comes to doing pliés in those guys on a Monday morning—somehow they go just a little bit better.

PNB ballerina — **Emma Love Suddarth, photo by Lindsay Thomas**

Contributor Emma Love Suddarth is from Wichita, Kansas. She studied with Sharon Rogers and on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and attended summer courses at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Ballet Academy East, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She was first recipient of the Flemming Halby Exchange with the Royal Danish Ballet School and was also a 2004 and 2005 recipient of a Kansas Cultural Trust Grant. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2008 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2009.

While at PNB, she has performed featured roles in works by George Balanchine, Peter Boal, David Dawson, Ulysses Dove, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Margaret Mullin, Crystal Pite, Alexei Ratmansky, Kent Stowell, Susan Stroman, and Price Suddarth. Some of her favorites include the Siren in Balanchine’s The Prodigal Son, Jiri Kylian’s Petit Mort, David Dawson’s A Million Kisses to My Skin, William Forsythe’s New Suite, and Price Suddarth’s Signature.

She is a contributor to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s blog. She is married to fellow PNB dancer Price Suddarth.

Book Review: “The Ballet Lover’s Companion” by Zoë Anderson

April 11, 2016 by 4dancers

51ib3YyFFEL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_

by Lauren Warnecke

Ballet has been the topic of much debate among dance scholars and writers over the last decade. Authors, critics, and academics have questioned the relevance of an art form with more than 600 years of history, particularly given the fact that much of that history has centered around Euro-centric, imperialist, male dominated subject matter (or Euro-centric, imperialist, male-dominated stereotypes of non-Western themes). Ballet dancers, choreographers, and artistic directors have varying views on how to remain current and inclusive in modern society, with some companies focusing on preserving the classics, others re-imagining or somehow evolving older ballets, and still others trying to push the form into entirely new territory.

Published in 2015, The Ballet Lover’s Companion by Zoë Anderson is a brief dance primer on ballet, with each of its eight chapters dedicated to distinct periods throughout ballet’s long history. In fewer than 350 pages, Anderson sifts through 140 ballets, analyzing their context by examining the social and political eras in which they were created. It’s an exciting (context: exciting for dance nerds like me) update to the slew of western dance history books available in that Anderson actually digs into the late 20th and early 21st century, perhaps replacing Susan Au’s 1988 stalwart on many dance majors’ bookshelves.

The Ballet Lover’s Companion is essentially a less verbose, easier to read, more optimistic version of Jennifer Homans’ Apollo’s Angels; Anderson, a dance critic, is unafraid to infuse the facts with opinion and commentary. For this reader, those are the bits that allowed me to get all the way through the book as a recreational read, but a second, typo-free edition could easily complement a western dance history course given its interesting tidbits of history and thorough treatment of an impressive number of ballets.

That all of those ballets originated from Europe, Russia or the United States is a symptom of ballet’s history, and not necessarily the fault of Zoë Anderson. That only five of the 140 ballets surveyed were created by women (namely Bronislava Nijinska, Agnes de Mille and Twyla Tharp) might be more problematic given the scope of the book into the 2010s, but perhaps again indicative of a systemic problem, and not at all unique to Anderson’s book.

Unlike Au’s Ballet and Modern Dance, or Homans’ Apollo’s Angels, however, The Ballet Lover’s Companion doesn’t appear to identify a clear audience or position itself as a textbook, though it reads like one. One page offers an enlightened discussion on the radicalism of the Ballets Russes and the desire of early 20th century choreographers to abandon classicism for more meaning and authenticity, while the next page gives a definition of the word tendu. Unsure of its audience, The Ballet Lover’s Companion could be for everyone interested in ballet, or no one at all, but my guess is that pre-professional dance students and college dance majors have the most to gain from reading it.

Contributor Lauren Warnecke is a freelance dance writer based in Chicago, and regular contributor to SeeChicagoDance.com, Windy City Times, and Chicago Magazine. Lauren is the creator of artintercepts.org, a blog committed to critical discourse about dance and performance, and has written for nationally reputed sites such as Dance Advantage and 4Dancers. An experienced educator, administrator, and producer, Lauren holds degrees in dance (BA) and kinesiology (MS). She is a Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM), and holds specialty certificates in Functional Training (ACE) and Sports Performance and Weightlifting (USAW). Tweet her @artintercepts

The Attraction of Dance

The Choreographing Brain

Disclosure – Affiliate & Ad Info

Copyright Notice