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Dance for Life 2021: Celebrating 30 Years

August 3, 2021 by 4dancers

Stephanie Martinez’s kiss., with dancers Chris Bloom and Gabrielle Sprauve,
photo by PC Michelle Reid Photography

August is a special time in the Chicago dance community–because that is when Dance for Life takes place. This annual event is celebrating its 30th year in 2021, and now more than ever we’ll gather in true appreciation for the sense of community we have grown here over the three decades this performance has been running.

For those who don’t know what Dance for Life is, it’s a performance/benefit that takes place each year. Funds raised will benefit Chicago Dancers United, an organization that administers The Dancers’ Fund; premium bowl seating is available with a $300 minimum donation. The fund provides short-term financial assistance to Chicago dance professionals that have health and wellness needs. This year free seating will also be available in both the bowl and the lawn area.

Each year various dance artists/companies/groups are selected to perform at this event. Performers this year include: DanceWorks Chicago, Giordano Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Joffrey Ballet, Movement Revolution Dance Crew, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Trinity Irish Dance Company, Visceral Dance Chicago, and a finale choreographed by Randy Duncan. The program also includes a film by Winifred Haun & Dancers.

Stephanie Martinez’s PARA.MAR has also been chosen to perform this year. We caught up with Stephanie to learn more about her choreography for the evening’s show, as well as her long-standing involvement with Chicago’s dance community.


Can you briefly share the basic history of PARA.MAR Dance Theatre?

While my vision for creating a platform that empowers and elevates diverse artistic voices in contemporary ballet had been growing in me since the moment I first stepped into a studio, the timing of PARA.MAR‘s inception was activated by the pandemic. I saw incredible artists without work, displaced, and some even leaving the field. I felt compelled to create art and employment at a time of such scarcity and deep insecurity. 

Would you also talk about how you became involved with this year’s Dance for Life program, and your ties to the Chicago dance community?

From training with Giordano and Lou Conte to becoming a founding member of River North, I’ve spent my life in this community. I’m pretty sure I was in the first Dance for Life! I’m humbled and honored that PARA.MAR was accepted into this year’s line-up alongside some of Chicago’s best. It’s really motivating to have such encouragement and to feel like we belong here. There truly couldn’t be a better way for P/M to round out our first year in existence than performing in such an iconic evening of Chicago dance. 

Stephanie Martinez, photo by Cheryl Mann

Your piece, kiss., explores intimacy. How would you describe it to someone who hasn’t seen it?

The piece was created while we were still coming to grips with quarantine, and was heavily influenced by it. There was more time in isolation and time for reflection that anyone could have been prepared for. 

The piece is an exploration of the human need for connection as we were grappling with what it meant and felt like to be without it.

You’ll see the characters go through the universal feelings of loneliness, loss, and love. Hopefully, watching the piece makes you realize that in any experience, you aren’t really alone. 

You chose the music of Johann Sebastian Bach to choreograph this to – what drew you to it?

Bach, Mozart, and Schubert were perfect companions to the new, more abstract compositions that are featured in the work – three of which were created by the excellent Chicago-based/NY-born composer Darryl J. Hoffman and one by our multifaceted rehearsal director and creative force, Noelle Kayser. Throughout the creation process, we explored the difference between our private and public self. Bach, Mozart, and Schubert are so delicious…luxurious and grand. They were the perfect soundtrack for who we outwardly project ourselves to be and provide an interesting contrast to the more isolated and intimate realities we may feel inside.

Can you shed a little light on your choreographic process for this?

It remains astounding to me that the entire first half of the process took place over Zoom. The way it went is that the dancers were taught various phrases that I created. Then the dancers used the phrases and a series of physical and emotional prompts to manipulate the material. When we were finally able to be in the studio together, I placed and expanded upon the puzzle pieces that were created over Zoom to support the narrative of the piece.

Dance for Life has always been a time of coming together for the Chicago dance community. What does it mean to you personally?

Dance for Life is always an evening of celebration and community. The support you feel in the wings extends well beyond the once a year performance. Over the years, I’ve seen Chicago Dancers United assist my friends and colleagues in times of crisis and feel lucky and grateful to have resources like these available to the dance community in our city.


Dance for Life takes place Thursday, August 26th at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago. The gates will open at 5:00 p.m. and the performance runs from 6:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Premium seating benefiting Chicago Dancers United is available here for a donation of $300 or more. Please note that this year there will also be free seating available in both the bowl and the lawn area.

Filed Under: 4dancers Tagged With: Chicago Dancers United, dance for life, dance for life 2021, dance for life chicago, Dance Works Chicago, giordono dance chicago, hubbard street dance chicago, Movement Revloultion Dance Crew, PARA.MAR, randy duncan, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Stephanie Martinez, the joffrey ballet, Trinity Irish Dance Company, Visceral Dance Chicago, Winifred Haun & Dancers

Nature, Grace, Flow & Play

March 8, 2021 by 4dancers

Early 20th Century Dancer Florence Fleming Noyes Takes a Somatic Approach

Noyes Dancer, scarf on rock
Noyes Dancer, Scarf on Rock, Courtesy of the Noyes Archive

by Nancy Wozny

I took the idea of staying home to include the home of my body, and the home of my dance life, which is based in Somatics.

Somatics, defined by Thomas Hanna in the 1970s, translates to an experience of the body from within, and is now an umbrella for an ever growing cluster of disciplines including: the Feldenkrais Method, Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering, Continuum Movement, The Franklin Method, and many more. Although we think of somatics as concerned with our inner sensations, it also emcompasses body mechanics, alignment, learning to be a more easeful mover, slowing down, and feeling more. 

During my pandemic adventures into the soma-sphere I moved in both directions in time, from studying with the new crop of dancing Feldenkrais teachers to exploring vintage somatic methods, such as Noyes Rhythm, a method, that chances are, you’ve never heard of. 

Relax, a few months back, I was right there with you. 

It was at a performance of Celebrating Isadora Duncan with Lori Belilove and Sara Mearns at  Virtual Jacob’s Pillow Festival on May 27 that reconnected me to my friend Meg Brooker, who had left Texas to become an Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State University. 

I had some questions for Brooker about the Duncan technique after the show. She answered them in a generous email, and also invited me to her Duncan and Noyes Rhythm classes. 

I joined both classes. We are well acquainted with Isadora Duncan, as she was generously historicized by scholars and Hollywood. As for Noyes Rhythm founder, Florence Fleming Noyes, not so much; perhaps, not at all. I joined the Noyes Rhythm “recreation” class via Zoom knowing next to nothing.

Within days, I was soaring about in my cramped apartment, inspired by Brooker’s narrative of cloud formation, wistful breezes, unfurling leaves, and other elements of growth and shift in the natural world. 

I needed to know more.

Noyes Dancer with flowers
Noyes Dancer with Poppies, Courtesy of the Noyes Archive

Brooker also sent me her writings on Noyes (1871–1928), a leading figure in the free dance movement, often mistaken as a Duncan imitator. She describes Noyes Rhythm as “an early twentieth century somatic practice through which dancers increase the depth of their capacities for experiencing free, joyful, and expressive movement.”

As someone deeply invested in the entire continuum of body-mind based practices, the word “somatic” caught my eye. 

Quite the entrepreneur, Noyes founded the Noyes School of Rhythm in 1912 at Carnegie Hall, with branches in major cities throughout the U.S. In 1919, she settled at Shepherd’s Nine in Portland, Connecticut, where one can still today learn, study and explore on the glorious outdoor dance studio.

Brooker, now one of 12 Noyes Rhythm teachers, is bringing this body of work out of its seclusion at Shepherd’s Nine and into her studio at Middle Tennessee University, along with workshops for dance educators and classes for the public. 

Noyes, a frequent performer during the Suffrage movement, was brought back into our vision when Brooker recently re-constructed and reconceived Noyes’ Dance of Freedom on her students in honor of the anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

Noyes Rhythm involves two movement experiences: the technique class, and the recreational class, and each of those have their unique structure. Both reveal strong somatic values.

Brooker has served on the Noyes School of Rhythm Foundation Board of Directors, and is currently the Archive Director. She has presented workshops on Noyes for the Dance Studies Association, Society of Dance History Scholars, Congress on Research in Dance, and the Isadora Duncan International Symposium. In addition, she is also a legacy Isadora Duncan dance artist with an international performance background and holds an MFA in Performance as Public Practice from UT Austin and a BA in Theatre Studies from Yale.

I visited with Brooker to get a clearer idea of how Noyes fits into the ever-growing somatics canon.

Meg Brooker dancing
Meg Brooker, Pavalon Floor Reach, Photo by Christopher Graefe

Nancy Wozny: I see somatics as a porous and expansive field, open to new information, even if that information is, well, old! Noyes used the term, “sentiency,” which is much more poetic. What exactly did she mean?

Meg Brooker: When we talk about sentiency in Noyes Rhythm, we are talking about a feeling of aliveness, of interconnectedness, it is innate embodied knowledge. 

NW: Aliveness is a close cousin to awareness. Interconnectedness lies at the root of many body/mind based practices, especially in considering how every movement is a movement of our whole body. Are you also talking about the human body in relation to the natural world?

MB: Yes. In Noyes, we study movement and growth in nature. There is a deep intuition and a sense of following, allowing, creating space for unfoldment to happen. We go into the body and follow the body’s movement impulses, and we do it in a playful and joyful way. 

NW: Joy doesn’t get talked about enough in somatics! But how does sensing manifest in the work?

MB: We use the term “feel” a lot in our teaching. Feel the moss underneath your feet. Feel the warm sun on your back. (And we teach this work in the summertime outdoors where you really can walk barefooted on moss and stand in the warm sun). There is a huge emphasis on releasing tension, on relaxation and playfulness. The “letting go” of thinking, of mental activity, so that the body is leading and the mind is following. Sentiency is a kinesthetic awareness.

Noyes Dancers outside
Noyes Dancers – Crescent Stretch, Courtesy of the Noyes Archive

NW: I am so glad that we are talking about moving outside, because I’ve done quite a bit of that this past year. It is awakening to be moving while feeling and hearing a breeze, and other textures in our environment. Being in the natural world gives us something to attend to along with our bodies.

MB: We also talk about the “elemental,” meaning feeling the elements. Being outside in nature is important for understanding this– this is an exploration that challenges what is comfortable–mud, cold rain, strong winds are examples of elemental feeling. 

NW: Noyes’s former student Valeria Ladd writes in her 1949 book, Rhythm and the Noyes Technique, “It is desirable that the dancer be unconscious of the body as a body; either a heavy body or a light body, it will always be in the way if it is in the thought of the dancer.” 

Two things jump out here in terms of somatic thinking: First, it rarely helps to think of a body as an object, which so often happens when we use mirrors. Second, the notion of getting out of your own way is embedded in so many disciplines. There is an underlying premise in somatic methods that we are not so much doing as undoing. Tells us more about how these ideas manifest in Noyes’s work.

MB: In Noyes Rhythm, we are “dropping off the head”– literally! Similar to Duncan technique, we focus on the solar plexus as a center of movement initiation and of coordination, and in Noyes Rhythm we call this high center “the spot.” One thing I often tell students is that while much of their dance training is taught from the musculoskeletal system, these early modern practices prioritized coordination of the nervous system. 

NW: Wait, what? Noyes was aware of the operation of the nervous system and its role in sensing movement? Well then, she was way ahead of her time. Say more.

MB: We “follow” the movement in a sequential way, “feeling” the patterning from the nervous system, so there is awareness of movement and sensation through the whole movement pathway, not only at the joints.

NW: So she was aware of the kinetic chain of motion. Impressive!

MB: Yes, she used terms like: letting go, dropping off, allowing, following, not doing.

NW: Juicy words for a somatic denizen. It seems like Noyes had her own hierarchy when it comes to the mechanics of the body though.

MB: Noyes identified the vertical axis, the line over gravity, as the “axis of being” and the horizontal axis, the line underneath the arms when stretched out to the sides, as the “axis of doing.” There is emphasis in the technique of “dropping off” the arms, as well as the head, so that the high center of the body is leading. The arms can get swept up in movement, but they are secondary. Noyes trains dancers to let go of “willful” movement. 

We work on breaking and disrupting habitual patterning. 

NW: Boom! Noyes Rhythm earns its somatic stripes with that statement. That’s great, but exploration is integral to many somatic disciplines. Is there leeway to find one’s own way? 

MB: Yes! The Noyes techniques have both a “physics simile” and a “symbol.” The physics simile is the rote mechanics of the movement, what she might also call mathematics. For students new to the work, it is important to learn these basic patterns or movement pathways. 

The symbol is what animates or enlivens the movement pattern. Noyes Rhythm is taught through the symbols or images. This pedagogy encourages newness, freshness. I’m thinking of something an old acting teacher used to say, which is “always for the first time.” There is an aspect of spontaneity and newness that is very important, and the movement is in response to the image. 

NW: I want to get to Noyes’s use of images, but first we have to address novelty, a major component of many modalities, including my somatic home, The Feldenkrais Method. Precisely guided exploration is how we find fresh pathways. Can you give us an example of how this manifests in the Noyes work?

MB: Yes, one of my favorite techniques is the spot and radii floor stretch. In this technique, the dancer begins lying on the floor in a long line, with the legs together and the arms outstretched overhead as if the body was the diameter of a circle. The mechanics of the movement are for one arm and leg (the limbs in this exercise are the radii (limbs are also called trailers) to trace an arc towards each other on the floor, and then back to the center line. The “rhythm passes” and is picked up on the other side. 

This technique is often taught with the image of a single raindrop plopping into a still pond, and sending arcs of waves widening out toward the shore. The raindrop is felt right at the spot, and, as radii, the arm and leg are imaged as connecting to this spot. The force or weight of the raindrop is the cause and the long arm and leg are released into the arcing pathway as a result of this felt impulse. 

Each time this movement happens, it is a new raindrop with a different mass, different force, different momentum. Because the limbs are moving in response to this image impulse, the degree of movement will vary. How far the limbs move is not what is important, feeling the coordination from the image impulse through the movement is key. 

NW: I am glad to hear that it doesn’t matter how far the limbs move. Quality over quantity is important here. Since you brought up the raindrop image, let’s move in that direction now. I have recently returned to the work of Mabel Todd, Lulu Swiegard, André Bernard, Eric Franklin, and others who have used imagery in their work. Nature images are central to Noyes. Help us understand her use of imagery.

MB: The vegetation stretch can be helpful to dancers, and it is basically the pattern of a grande ronde de jambe with the image of seaweed stretched out and floating in the waves. 

In Noyes technique, the pattern starts with a basic leg fold, in which the dancer softens at the base of the sternum (the “spot” drops) and gently folds at the hip, knee, and ankle of the standing leg, allowing the other leg to release to the front, and then drawing the released leg into a tight fold with flexion at the hip, knee, and ankle and a C-curve in the spine. The sternum lifts (“spot” rises), as both legs lengthen, the standing leg rooted into the earth as the released leg extends away from the center and floats–like a length of outstretched seaweed–around from front to back. The outstretched limb lowers down as the spot drops and that leg takes the weight as the rhythm passes to the other side. 

NW: Ah! Seaweed is a marvelous image for motion, but let’s keep this somatic inquiry going. Rest is present in most somatic disciplines and serves multiple functions. We can sense differences, and we can let the work do its work in our neuromuscular organization. How might we experience rest in a Noyes class?

MB: Rests exist in many aspects of Noyes. One difference between Noyes and how other somatic disciplines incorporate rest is that we are not directing the mind to notice the effect of the rest. We are not directing the mind at all. We are cultivating deep embodied awareness and staying in that space, building an endurance for sustained awareness. 

NW: So there is an ebb and flow of doing and not doing.

MB: Yes. The Noyes work historically was a “rhythmic” movement practice. Most of the technique exercises have active and passive moments–one side of the body is engaged, lengthening and the other side is resting, passive, and then the “rhythm” transfers and activities the passive parts, allowing the active parts to rest. 

NW: Explain how rest is built into the improvisation class structure. 

MB: Noyes Rhythm classes have three parts, and each section of the class is separated by a deep rest. Imagine going to a yoga class with two savasanas during the class! 

NW: Sign me up! 

MB: The first part of the “recreation” (or improvisation) class is a warm up with playful, whole-body movement. In this section of class we shake off, drop off the “personal,” let go of self-consciousness (this was huge for Noyes) and this part of class usually involves connecting to breath, opening the body, and may also include some locomotive and aerobic movement. Imagery may have a deep elemental feeling–rainstorm, volcanic eruption, change of seasons. In the deep rest, there may be imagery of disintegration, dissolving, further letting go, or of being held, safely rocked in the earth. There is music, and the quality of music will also guide the rest. It is a time for un-doing and for doing nothing. 

Mara Morris dancing Noyes
Noyes Dancer Mara Morris, Rolling, Photo by Nina Wurtzel

NW: Efficient movement is a common thread in somatic practices. We are often looking for the “just enough” effort when doing any movement, activated muscles as needed to avoid overdoing. Where does Noyes stand on that concept? 

MB: Noyes Rhythm absolutely trains efficient movement patterns. Noyes was vigilant about correcting over-efforting in her students. She identified over-efforting with “willfulness.” For Noyes, “willful” movement is straining, recruiting too much muscular force to accomplish an action, and misunderstanding the difference between strength and tension. Her pedagogy emphasizes balanced action. There is nothing rote, mechanical, or externally motivated in the Noyes work. 

Noyes also talks about overflow or the 110%. This idea is that there is a letting go, and emptying out that happens (in other practices this is talked about as yielding), and then a filling back up–the movement doesn’t happen until there is overflow–until you have been filled up to 100%, fully enlivened, fully aware, saturated with sentiency, and then the extra 10% is the movement. 

NW: It’s in this language that it reminds me that we are looking at a different time in history, and ways of being in our bodies.

MB: Yes, these early moderns, both Duncan and Noyes, were also interested in the relationship between the body and light. Duncan talked about “luminosity of the flesh” and Noyes also talks about an effortless feeling in movement, a feeling of the body disappearing and being moved by the music, what she also calls “leaking over gravity.” If we think about the relationship between light and energy, light and force, and also energy and matter, then this sensation of the body as light seems to result from finding the perfect balance between effort and action to create movement.  

NW: I have no idea what leaking over gravity is, but it sounds splendid. I love the idea of emptying and refilling. Sometimes I feel that the dance field is just heading in a “more and more” direction, as in harder, higher, and more extreme.

MB: I know what you mean! I see this tendency to push the body to extremes in my undergraduate dance students. They are so focused on end-gaming the movement, on finding the most extreme form of a shape, and often doing this through over-efforting (they are wonderfully dedicated hard-workers). I incorporate Noyes Rhythm into my teaching of undergraduate dancers. It is a revelation to them to find, to feel, just the right amount of effort for the movement to happen, and to feel the joy and satisfaction of moving with connection through a small range of motion, as well as through a larger range. 

NW: Thanks for the segue! I do want to know more about how you bring this work into teaching right now. How do you frame it to have value for today’s students?

MB: This work has so much value for today’s students–from both a general wellness and mental health perspective as well as from a dance technique training perspective. It teaches the importance of deep rest. It teaches the value and simplicity of just being (not always doing). It offers space to experience a huge range of qualities of movement and expression. It enables students to find and feel dynamic alignment and balance and to cultivate integrated, whole-body strength. It also cultivates a space for fun and play! Noyes Rhythm reminds us that the joy of moving is an experience that is always there, always available to us as dancers. It is an empowering and important reminder. 


Nancy Wozny, photo by Christopher Duggan

Nancy Wozny is editor in chief of Arts + Culture Texas, reviews editor at Dance Source Houston and a contributor to Pointe Magazine, Dance Teacher and Dance Magazine, where she is also an contributing editor. She has taught and written about Feldenkrais and somatics in dance for two decades.

Filed Under: 4dancers, Dance Wellness Tagged With: 19th Amendment, Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering, congress on research in dance, Continuum Movement, Dance of Freedom, Dance Studies Association, Duncan technique, Feldenkrais Method, Florence Fleming Noyes, isadora duncan, Isadora Duncan International Symposium, Lori Belilove, Meg Brooker, nancy wozny, neuromuscular organization, Noyes Rhythm Classes, Noyes School of Rhythm, pandemic, Sara Mearns, Society of Dance History Scholars, somatics, the franklin method, Thomas Hanna

No Nutcracker…

December 12, 2020 by 4dancers

Emma Love Suddarth dances Spanish in The Nutcracker
Emma Love Suddarth dancing Spanish in The Nutcracker. Photo by Angela Sterling

by Emma Love Suddarth

“Monday—it’s finally Monday,” I think to myself.

From the day after Thanksgiving until the end of December, Monday means it’s a day off from The Nutcracker at Pacific Northwest Ballet (and likely most all American ballet companies as well). For once I don’t have to hear the rolling melody of the Waltz of the Flowers or the sultry notes of the mysterious Arabian Divertissement echoing through every crevice of the theater… and my head. I don’t have to look at the row of multiple costumes lined up behind the “Love Suddarth” tag on the costume rack. I don’t have to smell the fumes of hairspray and arnica gel wafting through the dressing room. 

I don’t have to think anything Nutcracker. 

Finally, I have a spare afternoon to grab some groceries for the week and to tackle the lengthy list of Christmas gifts I want to give! Then the inevitable happens. I’m in a department store, or the grocery store, and The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy comes twinkling over the loud speaker. “Aren’t they sick of this tune yet?” I think to myself irritably. Nope—just me, and a large number of fellow professional dancers out there. Through the month leading up to Christmas, ballet dancers live and breathe The Nutcracker—leaving the theater pretty much only to eat and sleep. Whether you love it or hate it, it’ll keep coming back every year. 

Snow Scene, Nutcracker
Emma Love Suddarth waiting backstage. Photo by Lindsay Thomas

That is until now. The Nutcracker is commonly the first ballet most dancers ever performed starting as youngsters, and it’s the “old faithful” that as professionals we can expect to roll around and linger for a month every year; so now, here in 2020, what will the holiday season look like without it for the first time since childhood? I ask myself—will I miss it?

Nutcracker is the double-edged sword of ballets—its innate holiday spirit, its dependable routine-ness, and its opportunities for both new and revisited roles are juxtaposed against its trudging monotony, its physical toll, and its seemingly-endless run. The beginnings of Nutcracker rehearsals signal the beginning of the holiday season—that first snow scene rehearsal on the schedule means it’s finally permissible to play Christmas music on your radio. And, after only a couple weeks of preparation—as opposed to the month or so for a normal rep—it seems easy to fall right into the routine of matinee-evening-all-weekend that we dancers dwell in for December. 

There is something comforting about knowing exactly what to expect for an upcoming performance week—or in this case the next six or so. When January comes, and we return to the schedule of a normal rep process it feels foreign. Somehow everyone is a little slower at picking up choreography because we’ve been executing the same steps on autopilot for the last month and a half straight. Then maybe, just maybe, we miss the dependability of knowing the matinee is a Snow/Marzipan show and the evening is Frau/Arabian—and it has been that way for years.

However, Nutcracker has a lot to offer to the growth of a dancer. It provides ample new stage opportunities for many dancers, and as the years go by, a chance to revisit certain roles over and over, digging deeper into them every time. The first ballet role I was ever cast in was “ginger cookie understudy” at the age of six. And, sure enough, I got my shot. One “cookie” got sick and gangly, pintsized Emma literally stepped into her shoes and got on stage. I took the ballet bait—I was hooked and have been dancing ever since. 

Years later, as a new corps member with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, one of the first principal roles I had the opportunity to perform was the iconic peacock in Kent Stowell’s and Maurice Sendak’s Nutcracker. Clad in a colorful unitard complete with a weighty peacock tail, I was overwhelmed with the same excitement as that little cookie, even with the nerves about the dreaded arabesque turns at the end of the variation. And, revisiting it year after year until PNB moved to Balanchine’s version, I continued to discover new moments I could let the mysterious persona of my particular peacock shine through.

Thirty shows into the run of Nutcracker though, the story has shifted. It’s hard to focus on that extra little bit of sass for your Spanish principal and instead you can’t shake the thought of the dinner sitting at home waiting for you once Act II is finished. “Just push through it—it’s only a couple minutes,” you tiredly think to yourself. Achilles throbbing from the precise intricacies of the matinee’s Marzipan footwork and a continuous headache from one too many hairpins securing your headpiece, you can’t imagine making it through fifteen more shows. The “Nutcracker tired” has hit you like a train. When will it end?

Over the intermission between Act I and Act II, you discover a pile of letters at your dressing room spot. These notes are written by the children you’ve been sharing the stage with throughout the run. Some have questions about life as a professional dancer, and some just want to say hello, but most are hoping for one of your dead pointe shoes that they can hold onto as a keepsake. 

The Nutcracker, Snow Scene
PNB’s Emma Love Suddarth, warming up for Snow in The Nutcracker. Photo by Lindsay Thomas

Later, you’re warming up for snow and a little mouse runs up from behind and hesitantly taps the edge of your tutu, “Thanks for the pointe shoe!” she blurts out excitedly before scurrying away. You barely get a chance to respond but you know the anxiousness because you’ve been there. There’s still a pair of Lauren Anderson pointe shoes in the closet of my old room at my folks’ house in Kansas—I know how special the gift of what I look at as just “smelly old shoes” is. I remember being that little mouse, and the uncontainable joy in every second that I got to skitter around the stage, and the overwhelming awe I felt at the holiday magic of THE NUTCRACKER. Somehow, after this momentary flashback, the spirited intro of the Spanish music brings a little holiday warmth to my heart, and my Achilles seems to hurt just a little bit less.

As someone who LOVES Christmas and all things surrounding the season, I think I resent Nutcracker each year on some level because I feel it robs me of my holiday entitlements. Christmas present shopping is rushed, decorating the house is squeezed in after a Sunday night show, and about five minutes into every holiday movie we turn on I am asleep. Why is my Christmas only the 25th—really just a glorified Monday—and everyone else gets a whole season? 

However, every single time as I walk out the backstage door after a show, I find myself running into little children dressed in their holiday best, holding tightly to their Nutcracker programs, leaping and twirling in the effort to recreate for their parents the magic they just watched up on the stage. This is my holiday spirit—more than the hot cocoa and twinkle lights. 

So yes, maybe this year I will appreciate getting to take my time hanging ornaments, or actually see the end of almost every Christmas film, but it won’t be the same without those young faces both onstage and off, glittering with excitement and overcome with holiday magic. For the first time in my life, I find myself admitting I’m glad to know that Nutcracker will come back. And, just this year, when I hear the steady rhythm of Waltz of the Flowers in the middle of Target, a little holiday warmth will flood my heart and a tiny smirk will creep onto my face.


Join Pacific Northwest Ballet to stream George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® with the unique-to-Seattle scenery and costumes by Ian Falconer and immerse yourself in a candy-filled dreamland. Dates, times, and ticket information are available here.


Emma Love Suddarth
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 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.

Filed Under: 4dancers Tagged With: Chrismas ballet, Christmas season dance, Emma Love Suddarth, nutcracker, pacific northwest ballet, Price Suddarth, the nutcracker

Introducing: The Bridge Dance Project

October 20, 2020 by 4dancers

by Jan Dunn

I’m pleased to be able to tell you about The Bridge Dance Project (BDP), a newly launched cooperative endeavor between leaders in the dance medicine and science field, and the competition / commercial dance field.

The Project began as an outgrowth of conversations between myself, and Kaycee Cope Jones, MS (COO of Apolla Performance Footwear,) in the fall of 2019, following the release of the Apolla Mia Michaels video series on injury prevention in dance. Michaels is an Emmy-award winning choreographer based in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

There has been a growing concern about the increasing number of injuries to young dancers — about the body potentially being “pushed too hard / too far”.  In Mia Michael’s video #3, she mentions as an example — a 16-year old dancer with a double hip replacement. The field of Dance Medicine and Science has been in existence for 40 years, and up to this point, has positively influenced primarily the professional ballet and the academic dance communities. Unfortunately, this has had very little crossover into the commercial and competition dance areas.

There have been some efforts to help integrate this work into this dance communities (such as the Artists and Athletes Initiative – AAI – which debuted at the June 2019 National Dance Honors convention in Las Vegas), and overall, there is a strong need for this type of effort to increase.

The goal of the Bridge Dance Project is to build a bridge between the current realm of dance medicine and science and the commercial / competition areas of dance — to bring more information, working collaboratively together, into the daily lives of dancers working in this area. 

Although this project was started as an outgrowth of the Mia Michaels / Apolla videos, it is not about endorsing any particular product / project / or endeavor. The BDP is about leaders in both fields coming together to address a specific need in a specific segment of the dance community, independent of any organizations or companies we may otherwise be involved with. Here is what BDP is all about:

Vision Statement – The Bridge Dance Project is a grassroots network supporting the whole-person health and wellness of competition and commercial dancers and teachers by providing current dance medicine and science information.

Mission Statement – The Bridge Dance Project builds bridges between the competition and commercial dance community and the dance medicine and science community by providing easily accessible, readily applicable, and personally empowering information. 

The Significance of Our Work – The knowledge we communicate and transfer can contribute to increasing the longevity of dancers’ careers and help them navigate the demands of dance with a 360-degree view of the dancer. We are passionate about our efforts because properly applied education is powerful and will lead to positive and healthy changes for the current and future generations of dancers.

A Board of dance and dance medicine professionals was created to begin the work which we are all envisioning:

  • Katie Schaar — Founder of Sugarfoot Therapy / co-founder of MOTI Physical Therapy in Los Angeles / commercial choreographer and convention teacher / AAI team
  • Gayanne Grossman, PT —Director of Dance Wellness, Muhlenberg College (PA) / PT for Lehigh Valley Network Performing Arts Wellness Program / BOD of IADMS / author of “Dance Science: Anatomy, Movement Analysis, and Conditioning”
  • Selina Shah, MD — Sports and Dance Medicine, BASS Medical Group, / Team Physician – Axis Dance Company, Diablo Ballet Company, Oakland Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School / Healthy Dancers’ Clinic, Mills College / Treasurer and Board of Directors, IADMS / Dance USA Taskforce on Dancer Heath / 4dancers.org Dance Wellness Panel
  • Jeff Russell, PhD, ATC, FIADMS –Associate Professor, Athletic Training and Director, Science and Health in Artistic Performance – Ohio University / dance medicine and science researcher / Research Advisory Group – Cirque de Soleil
  • Bonnie Robson, MD — Psychiatry / dance medicine in Toronto, CA — formerly with National Ballet School / currently on Dance Wellness Team – Ballet Jorgen / Dance USA Taskforce on Dancer Health
  • Robin Kish, MS, MFA — Chapman University Dance Faculty, in Orange, CA / strong background and connections in competition dance / dance science researcher / co -author of recently published second edition of “Dancing Longer Dancing Stronger”
  • Teri Rowe, MS – Executive Director, National Dance Coaches Association, based in LeClerc, ID
  • Jasmine Challis, BSc – Freelance Registered Dietitian and Eating Disorder Specialist, One Dance UK (London, UK)
  • Caroline Lewis-Jones:  Health Made Simple PRO, Certified Holistic Health Coach / Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Professional Dancer/Choreographer, Mom on a Mission, Adrenaline Dance Convention Senior Faculty, AAI Team – Columbia, SC
  • Heather Southwick, PT, MSPT – Director of Physical Therapy, Boston Ballet / Dance USA Taskforce on Dancer Health 
  • Jennifer DePaola – Founder, Doctors for Dancers
  • Steve Karageanes, DO, FAOSM – Medical Director, St. Mary Mercy Hospital Elite Sports Medicine and Sports Performance / Advisory Board – YPAD
  • Jan Dunn, MS / Kaycee Cope Jones, MS – Co-Chairs

Since the BDP was formed, we have created partnerships with dance organizations with whom we share similar goals:

  • Acrobatic Arts – AcrobaticArts.com
  • Project BreakAlign –  www.projectbreakalign.com
  • Dancers Network – www.dancersnetworkuk.com
  • Doctors for Dancers – www.DoctorsForDancers.com
  • I-Path: International Performing Arts and Theatre – www.i-path.biz
  • National Dance Coaches Association – www.nationaldancecoaches.org
  • Relative Motion – www.therelativemotionexperience.com
  • ScapeDanceScience – https://www.scape.sg/scapedance/scapedance-science/
  • Sugarfoot Therapy – sugarfoottherapy.com
  • YPAD: Youth Protection Advocates in Dance – ypadnow.com
  • International Asso.of Child Development Program – https://iacdp.org

BDP Research Projects, under the direction of Board member Dr. Jeff Russell, PHD, AT, FIDAMS are underway, on several topics related to competition / commercial dance.

There are now BDP chapters, both in the USA and EU, including:

  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Orange County, CA
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Portland, OR
  • Denver, CO
  • Detroit / Ann Arbor, MI
  • Chicago, IL
  • Central New Jersey
  • Cincinnati, OH
  • Tallahassee, FL
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Washington, DC
  • UK
  • Barcelona, Spain

If you are interested in contacting one of these local chapters, contact the Team Leader (information available on the BDP website).

If you are interested in potentially forming a new group in the USA, contact Jan Dunn at jddanmed@aol.com.

If you are out of the USA, and interested in forming a new chapter, contact Nefeli Tsiouti, MSc, at projectbreakalign@gmail.com.

Current Projects:

  • The above-mentioned research, under the direction of Jeff Russell.
  • Helping NDCA (National Dance Coaches Asso.) develop national standards for dance team coaches.
  • A video on stress in competition dancers, being developed by the Cincinnati chapter.
  • Developing a Teachers Handbook in collaboration with I-Path (International Performing Arts and Theatre), for use in their training curriculum.
  • Partnering with YPAD (Youth Protection Advocates in Dance), to help increase awareness of sexual abuse issues in dance.
  • Developing a workshop in Los Angeles, in collaboration with IADMS (International Asso. for Dance Medicine and Science) and Ballet Beyond Borders, to be held in January (details TBA).

BDP Social Media Information:

Website: https://thebridgedanceproject.com/

Instagram: @thebridgedanceproject

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com / informationBDP/

Dance Spirit magazine article:  https://www.dancespirit.com/bridge-dance-project-dance-injury-2641177786.html

Sign up to be on our mailing list at:

https://forms.gle/wrBYdjZBjxLLQzES6

OR you can contact one of the chairs.:  Jan Dunn, jddanmed@aol.com / Kaycee Cope Jones, kaycee@apollaperformance.com

Filed Under: Dance Wellness Tagged With: commercial dance, competition dance, dance injuries, dance medicine, dance science, dance wellness, jan dunn, mia michaels

Creating Dance in 2020: Hanna Brictson and Dance for Life

August 13, 2020 by 4dancers

Hanna Brictson, Photo by Nicolette Nunez

Dance for Life is a yearly fundraising event held in Chicago at the Auditorium Theatre, but this year the gathering of dance professionals and supporters will take place in a virtual format. Choreographer Hanna Brictson was asked to choreograph a world premiere – a challenge under usual circumstances – made more difficult by COVID-19. We sent Hanna some questions about how she crafted this new work, and her answers were educational–but perhaps even more importantly–hopeful.

What was the path that led to you being asked to make a dance for Dance for Life 2020: United as One?
My path to creating the new piece for DFL 2020 happened in the heat of the pandemic. DFL contacted me and noted that they loved the piece I had submitted in early February, “Natural Women.” This was back when it would have been in the show. Having seen my works over the last few years, they asked if I could create a brand new piece to represent the current situation. It wasn’t clear at this point when or how we could do such a thing during a quarantine. Then the wheels started turning and the plan to create virtually and do a film was born.

Can you talk just for a moment about your background in Chicago dance and how this affected your approach regarding the World Premiere you have choreographed for the event? 
My background in Chicago starts from the beginning. I grew up in the suburbs and by the age of 15 was training very closely with River North Dance Chicago. At 18, after graduating high school, I joined River North as a company member, and that’s where I danced for 12 years, eventually choreographing on the company and being an assistant rehearsal director. During those years, I was brought into the DFL family, performing several years with RNDC at the performance each year—a definite highlight in my early career.  Following RNDC, I joined Visceral Dance Chicago. I was able to perform again in DFL with a different company. Two seasons later I submitted my own choreographic work to be in the show. Prompted by mentors and pushed to show what I could do choreographically, I did it. It was picked for 2018. It’s been a journey! To be on both sides of the Auditorium stage as both a dancer and choreographer is beyond emotional for me. That young passionate 12-year-old never would have guessed that, at 34 years old, I would have accomplished these things. It still is quite surreal, and I am extremely grateful and honored to create and have people actually enjoy it! DFL has given me such wonderful opportunities. 

“My Darling” – Choreographed by Hanna Brictson for Dance for Life 2018.
Photo by Todd Rosenburg.

Dance for Life has always been about community. Can you speak to the challenge of trying to bring that feeling into this year’s virtual event?
 The community aspect was a challenge for this creation!  We never were able to rehearse in person. We had only communication through emails, YouTube videos, and a few Zoom calls. I actually did note sessions talking to my camera and uploading it online to send! Completely different than the normal. Many dancers in Chicago had traveled home, taken breaks, and so much more during their own journey through a quarantine and worldwide pandemic. When I first started reaching out to people, it seemed like this was exactly what people needed in their life. Dancers are hungry to feel and share. These dancers are the most generous and humble humans. They really came together in a rough time for us all. Community is a tie that we will always have together. Sometimes it may seem thinner, but Chicago’s dance ties are a bond that will continue to stay strong and collected. We felt distanced at first but quickly realized we actually were capable of anything. That day, that ONE and ONLY day we came all together to film, we felt so strongly about our Chicago Dance Community, and so happy to finally be together!

What did you learn from this unusual approach to creating a work under these circumstances?
I learned through this process that a lot is possible going forward in this new world approaching us. I can still create under intense circumstances. It’s actually a very optimistic view for me to look forward to. We have a great community of dancers that are eager to create and share with the world. We need to keep dancing and creating as much as we can right now.  


Those who are interested in participating in Dance for Life 2020: United as One can find information at Chicago Dancers United. It begins Saturday evening at 6:30 pm, CST.

Filed Under: 4dancers Tagged With: Chicago Dancers United, covid-19, dance for life, Dance for Life 2020, Hanna Brictson, Todd Rosenburg

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