Editorial – Page 47

Together, With A Gift

July 29, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

by Kimberly Peterson

The Dance World is made up of several large countries, some smaller provinces and many big cities…however the sense of community between them, the community they continue to build and the community they foster all enable dance to be the cultural and societal force that it is.

Dance has long been deeply rooted in culture and tradition, pride in one’s location and the skills of their people, embodying the history of a nation to be relived over and again for future generations so they may know and experience where their people have been. It is political and apolitical, it is emotional and devoid of emotion, it is both all things and nothing and in this ambiguity there is a glorious freedom.

Through the ages, it has tied people together, bridged the gaps between spoken and written languages, expressed the common experience of a body in motion uniting us within that shared medium.

Community can denote many different things, but in this instance, I believe it is most apt to return to the Latin cognates from the French term communité: the Latin cum, “with/together” and munus, “gift”. Together, With A Gift.

As National Dance Day once again kicks off at the end of this week, it reminds me that one of the most beautiful things we can do as human beings, is to give of oneself in the hopes of reaching another person, connecting with another person. Dance is, for many reasons, a universal vocabulary and offers us the opportunity to come together, with that gift. [Read more…]

Introducing Lizzie Leopold on “The Business of Making Dance”

July 27, 2011 by 4dancers

leopold group — Leopold Group by Matthew Gregory Hollis

by Lizzie Leopold

If this were real life I would shake your hand, say “nice to meet you” and maybe we would exchange phone numbers. But here we are in the vast spaces of the internet. So, think of this blog as a virtual hand shake.

I’m Lizzie Leopold, choreographer, writer, scholar and social media enthusiast and these are my thoughts on the “Business of Making Dance.” The intersection of dance and business is busy, fast-paced and highly dangerous, so fasten your seat-belts.

This past week I attended the annual Dance/USA Conference in Chicago, the largest gathering of dance professionals in the country. I attended as student (as a PhD candidate at Northwestern University), as an Artistic Director and choreographer (Leopold Group), as a part of a dance service organization (Audience Architects), a social media manger (SeeChicagoDance) and as an all-around dance nerd. I left inspired, confused, clarified and exhausted. [Read more…]

52 Weeks Of Adult Ballet – A Guest Post

July 22, 2011 by 4dancers

More than 20 years ago, I allowed the first love of my life to slowly slip away. We were then reacquainted 10 years ago for a brief, happy, but not overly fulfilling affair, after which I was convinced that my passion for ballet – my first love – had fizzled out and that I would find joy through other forms of dance.

Unexpectedly, and in a totally unplanned manner, a series of circumstances found me back in an adult ballet class about 4 months ago. I was persuaded to join a class “just for fun”; I thought I’d do one, two classes at most, then probably give up.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. [Read more…]

Pairing Up

July 10, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

Art forms are always political in what they choose to explore and what they don’t. Even the lack of making an active choice – is still a choice. Bodies especially, carry this weight of political choice because it is difficult, I would argue impossible, to separate the actions and emotions of a performance from the physical body in performance. In this way, the bodies you use are indeed political statements, the movement itself is a political statement, and the genders of the bodies you use are also political.

One of my biggest disappointments with the format of SYTYCD is the idea of Male/Female partnerships. While I understand that many styles are often best served with Male/Female partnerships in smaller groups and that the format of duet story-lines tends to revolve around relationships, there are several disconcerting connotations with this kind of coupling.

First, it’s very heterosexually oriented – excluding other kinds of relationships and sexualities. Secondly, it’s very gender normative – in that the roles of traditional “men” and “women” are reinforced through story, movement and the comments of judges. Finally, it’s limiting – not only in scope, but it limits the voters’ choices, it limits the choreographers, and it limits the audiences’ comprehension of dance as an art form. [Read more…]

I’ve Never Seen It Quite That Way – Leopold Group Meets Photographer Arn Klein

July 9, 2011 by 4dancers

By Lizzie Leopold

For a long time I was a rabid supporter of liveness, a performance purist. Dance happens on the stage, audience and dancer sharing space and time, communicating body to body.

Then I met Arn Klein. I was in a situation that lots of young choreographers find themselves in. I needed to save some money. I was premiering a new work and needed some press photos but couldn’t afford to hire anyone. In a last ditch effort, I blindly emailed the Chicago Photography Center – a former neighbor of ours when we were in residence at the Lakeview YMCA.

I introduced myself and explained simply that I was looking for someone, anyone, who might be interested in taking photographs of dance. My email was forwarded onto their instructors and in a week I had a response.

Arn Klein first visited our rehearsal in January. We talked briefly about trying to capture movement within the frame, as overly posed dance photographs are a personal pet peeve. I’ve seen one too many perfectly placed arabesques, beautiful and boring. He took the idea and ran with it.

The result was an incredible blur of colors, an abstraction and melding of the body and the dance. For someone who was completely new to dance, he was fearless and unbound.

Session number two was in June, adding photographer Matthew Gregory Hollis to the mix. He too is an instructor at the Chicago Photography Center and was anxious to explore dance. The results were night and day. The photographs are sharp, clean and precise, lit exquisitely. He seems to have captured the inhale, leaving the photograph full of potential and threatening to dance itself.

It has only been a few short months and we have already taught each other so much. I continue to learn about the power of the photograph, not simply as a tool for capture but as a dance-maker itself.

Natalia — Photo credit: Matthew Gregory Hollis and Arn Klein

My preference for live performance comes from the need for suspense and surprise. Live performance always has an element of “What will happen next?’ It is never the same dance twice. Arn’s photographs have brought that sense of immediacy and uncertainty to the still picture. Looking at his pictures show me parts of my choreography that I never knew existed.

In the coming months we will continue to explore choreography through photography and photography through choreography. The photographs will be shown at the Chicago Photography Center in late fall 2011. Visit www.leopoldgroup.org for more information and see the photographs.

(Arn Klein: www.picsimage.com)

(Matthew Gregory Hollis: http://theobsessiveeye.blogspot.com)

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