Teaching Dance

The CelloPointe concert went well; I am truly pleased with Dona and Morgan’s performance. As for the choreography, there are moments that intrigue me and others that I don’t like. Of course, this is typical. The creative process is, if anything, a process of revision. A piece is only finished when one stops working on it. And, sharing that aspect of dance-making here in this blog is part of my commitment to be open about the process. From my perspective, the successful aspects of the dance were (1) a handful of images I found intriguingly beautiful and (2) the flow of the phrasing. I am not going to point out the specific images I found intriguing here because I would like to get feedback (which I am going to ask for below) and I don’t want to influence authentic responses. What I will share right now, are some issues that I am struggling with in the dance. Below is an excerpt of the dance that includes the pas de deux (Bach Sarabande). Prior to the duet, there is a short solo (Gavot...

Last night was the premiere of a collaborative work between the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra , the Ridgefield Guild of Artists , and the Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance . The event went beautifully and it was interesting to see these organizations working together, especially from the point of view of the Dance Paradigms . A strongly conventional, classical-minded audience supports the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. The current artists-in-residence at the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, sculptor Justin Perlman and performance artist Adelka Polak , are contemporary artists. My students from the Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance have a strong classical foundation in ballet balanced with experience in modern and contemporary dance, including exposure to contemporary composition and improvisation. I guess the biggest question for me going into this project was whether the gap between the symphony’s classical paradigm and the artists’ contemporary paradigm would be difficult to bridge. ...