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Nel Shelby Productions: A Video Review Of Dance In 2014

January 13, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

By Nel Shelby

Happy New Year!!

2014 was an incredible year filled with so much dance. I pinch myself constantly, because I get to do what I love.

Thank you to all of our amazing clients that make our work so worthwhile. It is a blessing to be in the dance world and to film in theaters all over the country and specifically in New York City.

For the first time in 12 years, I created a video review of the past year. I couldn’t possibly include everything NSP worked on, but I wanted to give you a taste of the wonderful work that has graced our cameras in 2014.

Contributor Nel Shelby, Founder and Principal of Nel Shelby Productions, is deeply dedicated to the preservation and promotion of dance through documentation of live performances, fully edited marketing reels, live-stream capture, and documentaries and films that encapsulate the essence of nonprofit organizations.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Her New York City-based video production company has grown to encompass a diverse list of dance clients including American Ballet Theater II, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Gallim Dance, Gotham Arts, Kate Weare and Company, Keigwin + Company, Monica Bill Barnes Company, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Wendy Whelan and many more. She has filmed performances at venues throughout the greater New York area including The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, St. Mark’s Church and Judson Church, to name a few.

For nearly a decade, Nel has served as Festival Videographer for the internationally celebrated Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Each season at the Pillow, Nel’s responsibilities include documenting aspects of festival culture in addition to its 20 mainstage dance performances, filming and overseeing documentation of more than 100 free performances and events, managing two dance videography interns and an apprentice, and educating students about the technical and philosophical aspects of filming dance.

She also serves as Resident Videographer at the Vail International Dance Festival where she spent her first summer creating five short dance documentary films about the festival in addition to documenting its events and performances. Her longer-form, half-hour documentary on Vail’s festival, The Altitude of Dance, debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in May 2013.

She has created four short films for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature, and she collaborated with Adam Barruch Dance to create a short film titled “Folie a Deux,” which was selected and screened at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. She is making a dance documentary featuring Nejla Y. Yatkin, called Where Women Don’t Dance.

Nel has a long personal history with movement – she has a B.A. in dance and is a certified Pilates instructor. She continues to train with world-renowned Master Teachers Romana Krysnowska and Sari Pace, original students of Joseph Pilates. In addition to her dance degree, Nel holds a B.S. in broadcast video. She often collaborates with her wonderful husband, dance photographer (and fellow 4dancers contributor) Christopher Duggan on creative projects with dancers in New York City and beyond. They live with their beautiful daughter Gracie and son Jack in Manhattan.

Review : Shashi Socks

January 12, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

by Rachel Hellwig

Shashi socks are designed for pilates, yoga, and barre-style workouts. They sit low on the ankle and feature slip-resistant grippers on the bottom and mesh panels on top. Mine also had a sprinkling of sparkle sequins on the mesh – the STAR style.

I loved the streamlined feel of Shashi socks and enjoyed just wearing them around the house. But, more importantly, Shashi socks achieve their objective of keeping your feet cool while you do pilates, yoga, or barre-style exercises (not traditional ballet barre exercises of course, as the grippers would interfere.)

Shashi socks require a little care when washing. The Shashi website says, “Machine wash warm inside out. Gentle cycle. Line dry.” My pair are purple (sugar plum) so I decided to wash them on a cold, delicate cycle. I noticed that a couple of sparkles came off in the process, but, other than that, they held up well. I dried them overnight (about 6 hours) and they were ready to go for a morning workout.

Overall, I really like this product. It fills the need for exercise footwear that falls in between sock and dance slipper.

Recipe: Avocado Breakfast Smoothie

January 7, 2015 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

I’m not a big breakfast eater.

Actually, that’s kind of an understatement. I really don’t like to eat in the morning, and although they say it’s “the most important meal of the day” – most solid breakfast food makes me feel sluggish and sleepy.

Because of this, I blend up a smoothie instead. Now, the drink has to have some “staying power” so I’m not hungry an hour later, and I like to use fresh, healthy ingredients.

Today I’m going to share my go-to smoothie recipe with you–in case you are like me. It also makes a good between meal snack if you need something with a little substance. Plus, it’s super easy!

All you need is a blender and the following ingredients:

1/2 avocado (medium size)
2 cups Almond Breeze Hint of Honey (almond milk)
1/4 cup FAGE Total 2% Greek yogurt
A handful of fresh spinach
1 teaspoon honey
Freshly grated ginger (to taste)

Simply combine all the ingredients and blend! The avocado makes this a very creamy drink, which is nice. If you don’t have much of a sweet tooth, you can skip the honey.

10 Tips For Navigating The Dance Conference

January 5, 2015 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

Whether you are attending your first dance conference ever–or your twentieth, there are certain things you can do to help maximize the time you spend there. We have assembled a list of ten that we think are pretty important, but we’re also pretty sure that readers will have more to add…

Feel free to leave a comment for us on anything you have found to be useful. We’d love to hear from you! In the meantime, take a look at these as you begin to map out your schedule for the coming year…

Create your own plan

No matter what the dance conference is you are attending, there is a reason why you are going to that particular one. Keep your goals in mind when you are planning what sessions you are going to attend. And don’t feel like you have to do it all!

Take a good look at the sessions that are offered on the web and map out a plan for what you’d like to see/experience. Customize your schedule so that you can get the most out of the time you spend there. Having a plan is half the battle.

Try to stay flexible. Keep in mind that once you get to the conference you may need to alter your schedule depending on what comes up.

Utilize the business card

Business cards aren’t used that often anymore, but conferences are the perfect place for them. Bring a big stack of cards with you and pass them out whenever you can. Make sure your social media information is on them (if applicable) as well as your contact info.

As you get cards from other people, jot down any information you can that will help you remember who that person is and why you might want to follow up with them. It will be really hard to remember these things later—especially after meeting lots of people and getting lots of cards.

Plan some meetings ahead of time

[Read more…]

Dancers And Stretching: How Hard Should You Push?

January 2, 2015 by 4dancers

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! — That’s Happy New Year in Hawaiian! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday — and
“Nutcracker” season — and are ready to start the New Year. This month’s post is a brief one to help you with your stretching. New research (on dancers) shows that the intensity of your stretching doesn’t have to be extreme in order to increase your flexibility.

The post is written by Matthew Wyon, PhD, who has written for our Dance Wellness column before — Matt is currently serving as the Vice President of IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine and Science), and is also a professor / researcher at the University of Wolverhampton (UK), as well as being affiliated with England’s National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science.

So — enjoy the post, and have a good start to your New Year of dancing longer, stronger, and safer!

– Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor

Rubber band ball — Photo by Riley Kaminer, CC 4.0 license

by Matt Wyon, PhD

Dancers are renowned for their flexibility or range of movement, and devote a lot of time maintaining and enhancing this attribute. There has been much written on the different stretch techniques such as static, dynamic and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) and when they should be implemented — for example, dynamic stretching during warm-up and static during recovery. However, the intensity at which the stretch should be held has had little research until recently. We often feel that unless the stretch is just below the pain barrier, the point where the muscle starts to wobble, nothing will change; this often equates to “8 out of 10” intensity.

A series of recent studies has started to challenge this concept. The first showed that at 8/10 intensity there was a huge increase in inflammation blood markers, suggesting that the muscle being stretched was actually being traumatized — but at lower intensities (3-6/10) this effect wasn’t noticed.

But will this lower intensity help increase flexibility?

A six week experiment on dancers who were split into one group that stretched at their usual intensity (8/10), and another at the lower intensity (3-5/10), noted that the dancers in the lower intensity group increased their grande battement and developpé height. The second group (8/10 intensity) saw a very slight but not significant increase (5-degree) compared to 20-degree for the low-intensity group.

So it seems less is more when it comes to stretching intensity!

It must be emphasized that this intensity should be used at the end of the day as a recovery and improving range of movement technique, rather than during warm-up.

Dance Wellness Contributor Matt Wyon — Matt Wyon, PhD

Contributor Matthew Wyon, PhD, is a Professor in Dance Science at the University of Wolverhampton, UK and a Visiting Professor at the ArtEZ, Institute of the Arts, The Netherlands.

At Wolverhampton he is the course leader for the MSc in Dance Science and Director of Studies for a number of dance science and medicine doctoral candidates. He is a founding partner of the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science, UK.

Prof. Wyon is Vice President of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science and a past chair of the Research Committee. He has worked with numerous dancers and companies within the UK and Europe as an applied physiologist and strength and conditioning coach.

He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles in dance medicine and science.

Create your own plan

Utilize the business card

Plan some meetings ahead of time

But will this lower intensity help increase flexibility?

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