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Top Dance Blogs 2010 – A Request

December 10, 2010 by 4dancers

Hello all! Nichelle from Dance Advantage has come up with yet another creative idea–a dance blog contest! She has started the voting for the Top Dance Blogs 2010 and I’m here today to ask for your vote–if you think I’m worthy…

If you have enjoyed this blog during the past year, I’d love your vote. All you have to do is comment in the section below to vote for 4dancers.

I’ve really had a good time creating this blog and developing sections such as “10 Questions With…” and taking on wonderful contributors, such as Matthew Powell (Post Curtain Chat) and Lucy Riner (read about all our contributors here). I hope to do even more in 2011!

Thanks much for your consideration–I appreciate your readership! (I won’t be giving my thanks out in the comments section, as I think that would be cheating…the amount of comments selects the blog for the next round of votes…)                  -Catherine

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2010, best dance blogs

10 Questions With…JR Glover

December 1, 2010 by 4dancers

Fans of Jacob’s Pillow will be pleased to see that we have JR Glover with us today on “10 Questions With…” read and enjoy!

1. How did you become involved with dance?

I insisted I wanted to dance as early as 3 years old; much to my parents bewilderment.  We lived in rural southside Virginia where towns rarely offered dance, and some years there were no dance classes available within a 30-mile radius. When I begin elementary school the whole sit-in-your-seat/walk-in-a-straight-line situation seemed odd to me.  I wasn’t particularly interested in the subjects being presented.  My dad’s response to my mother’s concern about this was, “support her in what she wants to do and it’ll work out.”

Despite not knowing where hauling me all over the county would lead, my mother made sure I was involved in dance as much as possible; some years this included driving to 3 different towns weekly.  When I decided to major in dance at college, my parents were nervous yet also very supportive of me as a person.  I can still vividly hear my dad’s incredulous and happy exclamation when I phoned him from Texas to say that I had a full-time job, with benefits, teaching dance.

2. How did you wind up at Jacob’s Pillow?

“J.R.” Glover, Director of Education at Jacob’s Pillow Dance; courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow Dance

After 10 years of teaching dance and dancing with a fabulous company in Texas, I wanted a broader prospective on the field and entered the dance graduate program at American University in Washington, DC.  I also enrolled in the Arts Management Program which had an internship requirement.  I was a Jacob’s Pillow intern in 1988, rather older than my fellow interns who tended to be mostly juniors and seniors in college.  That internship remains one of my top 5 life-changing experiences and totally put me on the path of arts management.  When the Pillow phoned in 1993 about a full-time position, I was ready to move to Massachusetts and work in a place devoted to my own passion.

3. What is your current role there?

I am Director of Education, which includes overseeing a series of professional advancement programs in The School, a year-round Intern Program, and a number of Community Programs for the public to experience dance and dance-making during the Festival on site and during the academic year in our area public schools.

4. What is it about your job that you love the most?

I frequently say that I’m a matchmaker and casting director. I love putting people or organizations together that either didn’t know about one another before or likely would not have found one another without my involvement.  I love working with artists and dancers!  Designing and overseeing programs that are meaningful and truly helpful to their desires and goals, at all points along their career paths, is rewarding.

5. What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

One challenge is the quantity of work required for the number of different programs the Pillow offers given our small staff and budget.  Procedures and resources are constantly changing, shifting, disappearing, or re-configuring themselves while funding, staffing, and time remain extremely limited.  Another challenge, though far more fun, is maintaining tabs on the many different worlds of dance – ballet, contemporary, jazz/musical theatre, African, flamenco, hip-hop, Indian, tap, and other cultural forms – in order to create programs that serve different populations within these worlds each and every year.

6. Can you talk a bit about what makes Jacob’s Pillow so unique?

How long is this article?!  I could talk a long, long time about this.  Many factors converge to create a place and atmosphere where dance can be created, learned, researched, performed, observed, appreciated, and experienced.  The energy and creativity here is immediately felt on the exquisitely beautiful and peaceful grounds. Artists from around the world are working one building away from each other or collaborating on new projects.

The School convenes a small group of dancers, each recommended by an artist or hand-selected from auditions, to learn what is expected of them as working artists from the field’s leading teachers and choreographers.  How deep you plunge into the intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual world of dance is up to you at the Pillow, but you will be moved in a delightful way.  The Pillow is empowering, transformative, restorative, edgy, compassionate, and passionate.  Students and interns always say, “It’s life changing.”  Audiences and the public say, “Wow, I never thought about that; this is amazing!”

7. As Director of Education you must see some pretty interesting things happening with dance education. Can you share one or two that stand out?

“J.R.” Glover, Director of Education at Jacob’s Pillow Dance with a 2009 Hip-Hop student; photo Karli Cadel

The number of dance programs available to dancers now, whether during the academic year or for summer study, is impressive.  High quality training and experiences to work directly with full-time choreographers and artistic directors is more widespread, starting with very young dancers and continuing into higher education.  It is much more acceptable, and even encouraged, for dancers to study multiple dance forms and art disciplines, as well as to use dance and choreographic skills to assist communities with non-dance goals.  Young dancers are taking on more program responsibility and leadership, and producing their own work. The cumulative impact of all this on the field is rather exhilarating.

I hope this next generation will be strong advocates for the specific and unique attributes that only dance can bring to the table and that they can deepen acceptance of dance, outside of the dance industry, as a powerful and transformative way to think, imagine, create, and implement ideas.

8. Can you talk a little about the Intern Program there?

Pillow interns are integral and vital members of our staff.  We hand over jobs and responsibilities to them that are absolutely essential to run our programs effectively and productively.  They assist artists, faculty, scholars, press visitors, funders, students, and audiences.  We offer training, supervision, and motivation so that their experiences and projects are successful.  We have 33 interns from all over the world living and working with us during the Festival.

From September to May we have a much smaller group assisting us in preparing for the upcoming Festival.  Some are career-changers, commuters, off-site interns, work/study or graduate/doctoral thesis candidates.  Most are juniors and seniors in colleges and universities who live on our campus during their internship. All are able to get very close to the people and infrastructures that make the presentation, education, preservation, and creative development of dance possible.

9. What is The School itself like?

Physically it is located at the Pillow, with a beautiful garden and green lawn outside its studio door.  Inside, it’s all wood, with a grand piano in one corner and space for the public to observe in another.  Classes run six-days a week, with Master Classes led by Festival artists on the seventh day.  Morning sessions focus on various dance techniques and afternoons are spent in rehearsal with exceptional choreographers who create work on the dancers.  Every Saturday, the dancers perform for Pillow audiences on the outdoor stage and Mondays feature audition, music, or other career-building seminars.  We prepare them as deeply as possible to work successfully in a professional company.

The faculty are artists from around the world who work as artistic directors, choreographers, directors, and master teachers.  The international student body comprises an equal number of men and women; many are apprentices with companies or auditioning for company work.  It’s a remarkable environment and opportunity!

10. What is next for you?

Planning for The School’s 2011 programs and auditions is well underway.  Artists are agreeing to be on faculty, recommending dancers to study here, and proposing new programs for the future.  There are residencies in our area schools where students are choreographing work about academic topics and teachers are being coached in kinesthetic teaching strategies for the classroom.  Intern recruitment for the Festival is about to begin in full force since the priority deadline is in February.  I’m fully immersed in planning and preparing for our exciting and meaningful 2011 programs!

BIO:

BIO: “J.R.” Glover is Director of Education at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.  Initially an intern in arts administration at the Pillow, she returned as staff in 1993 and since 1997 has served as Director of Education, overseeing The School, The Intern Program, and year-round Community Dance Programs.  Prior to stepping onto the Pillow grounds, she performed with the cross-cultural contemporary dance company directed by Myrna Renaud in Texas and developed dance programs in magnet schools, alternative schools, dance studios, and community centers in North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.   In D.C., she was adjunct professor of dance at American University and the volunteer program director for the Smithsonian Institution’s Festival of American Folklife and its programming for the ’93 Inaugural Celebration on the Mall.  She holds a M.A. in Dance from American University, a B.S. in Dance Education from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and a certificate in Arts Management from American University.  She is a member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education, and the National Dance Education Organization.  She has been an evaluator for the National Evaluation Systems Educator Licensure Tests in dance education, a panelist for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, an adjudicator for Prince George’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Division Choreographer Showcase, an advisor/board member to Pepatián, Sonia Dawkins/Segue, Circle of World Arts, and is on the steering committee for the African American Cultural and Heritage Celebration in Pittsfield, MA.  As an arts educator, director, or colleague in the field, she strives to assist dance artists in realizing their goals and desires, wherever they are in the spectrum of their careers.

Filed Under: 10 Questions With..., 4dancers, 4teachers, Editorial, Studios, Uncategorized Tagged With: jacob's pillow, jr glover

On Teaching Dance…

November 29, 2010 by 4dancers

I don’t think my students know how much I love teaching.

There is something almost magical about imparting your knowledge in a way that it comes out in someone else’s technique. It is an amazing feeling that is hard to describe. When you are a dancer, you are self-focused. When you are a teacher, you are other focused. Different mindset.

Catherine L. Tully, 1987

It is both challenging and freeing to have this shift in focus. The challenge is in figuring out how to take what is in your head, heart and muscles and translate that into something that makes sense to your students. Not having to focus on your own technique is the “freeing” aspect. You are free to spend that energy helping someone else perfect theirs. It’s a wonderful thing!

I always thought I would love dancing more than teaching. Truth is, I love them both, but teaching is the perfect fit for me at this point in my life. I’m older, and quite frankly, it hurts to do much of what I enjoyed doing in dance. Now I get more joy out of helping others reach their potential–whatever that means for them as an individual.

I love teaching for so many reasons, but probably the biggest one is its similarity to performance in terms of concentration. When I was on stage, I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than what I was doing. I never was aware of the audience–I never saw the conductor. Much like that, when I am teaching, the outside world drops off for me. The only thing that exists for that hour and a half is my students and the music.

And there’s nothing quite like that feeling.

And I’d love to know if anyone out there can relate to that.

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Filed Under: 4teachers, Studios, Uncategorized Tagged With: students, teaching dance

In The Spirit Of Thanksgiving…

November 24, 2010 by 4dancers

Each Thanksgiving I try to take a few minutes and reflect on all of the things that I have to be thankful for in this life. Today, I’d love to share some of the dance-related ones with you…

I’m thankful I had the chance to dance in so many amazing places. I’ve been on stage at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, in Japan at an outdoor event at the bottom of a huge mountain and many spots in-between. There is nothing like dancing for a large, live audience, and I’m so grateful I got to experience that.

I’m thankful that I have the knack for teaching dance. I love sharing what I know with others, and am well aware that not every dancer is able to do that. There is a joy in helping someone else perfect a movement or learn a step.

I’m thankful that I have been able to write about dance in so many different ways. I’ve authored articles for Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit and other magazines, and I’ve also written first-person pieces for online and print publications. This blog has been one of the highlights of the past year for me, and I’ve loved being able to connect with readers and try and come up with interesting content.

I’m thankful that the time I spent studying dance has translated into so many other parts of my life. The discipline of the art form, the ability to accept and welcome criticism and the dedication that is needed have all helped form my personality in a way that I truly appreciate.

I’m thankful for each and every person out there that reads 4dancers. The sense of community I’ve experienced here has been truly amazing.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I’ll be back on the 29th.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Teaching Tip: Don’t Do It Wrong

September 28, 2010 by 4dancers

Teaching TipThis may be a hard tip to employ, but it is a smart one. Don’t demonstrate how to do anything the wrong way in dance class. Even though this can be a great way to get the message across to students, the fact is, you can injure yourself. Proper technique is designed in part to help you stay safe. It’s based on biomechanical principles, and when you alter them, bad things can happen.

As teachers, we are often guilty of not warming up properly, or not taking enough classes ourselves. This is another reason to avoid demonstrating things the wrong way. If you aren’t in tip top shape–injury can be a lot more likely.

You can verbalize the incorrect form, but stick to showing your students the right way to do things. It’s a lot safer.

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Filed Under: Teaching Tips, Uncategorized Tagged With: biomechanical principles, dance studio, teaching tip

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