Work Hard

:

Class.

Merce Cunningham and John Cage are best known for their contribution the the modernization of dance as an interpretive and abstract form.  They were exacting artists, interested in investigation, process, and the creation of work.  They were doers and craftsmen, interested in new works, new themes, new ideas, and new ways of doing things.  Surprising then that they reveal themselves to be so staid and conservative in their practice.  Among their rules for dancers and teachers are these:

"The only rule is work."

"Find something that you trust."

"Always take class."

"There are no mistakes."

"Try to be happy."

I love this.  These are simple things that I find myself nudging upon my students, my colleagues, and myself.  There is something in this about the way we participate in things, the approach we take to our practice, and how that informs our behavior in the rest of our lives.

To Watch the Merce Cunningham Dance Company

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FwiMlDQ7rI

Cage and Cunninghams Rules for Students and Teachers:

Photo Courtesy of:

http://www.homo-centric.com/2012/08/there-is-no-win-or-fail-there-is-only.html

Step In Time

Repeat.

Studying dance is a repetitive and unruly thing.  Most of what is taught in class is technique and form, the rules of the movement.  Good dancers, dancers with drive, dancers that want to dance, spend hours in repetition, sometimes excruciatingly slowly, sometimes at near impossible tempos.  Dance is learned in repetition; is it the primary tool for teaching the body.  Repeat, critique, repeat again.  Repeat, measure progress, repeat again.  Ability is not stored, a dancer has to always practice, always fight to maintain or push forward.  For every piece we master there is a new movement to begin to study.  Repetition makes it easy to be a technician.  True artistry though, comes from finding release from those things and dancing from the inside out.  Using technique and form to support the movement rather than dictate it.  Some artists work from the ground up, building the dance from assembled bits and pieces. Others work in retrograde, deconstructing phrases, and movements into their most basic elements.  Some are motivated by imagery, or the need to communicate something.  Others are driven by the music.  Ultimately, like most things in life, it is all an improvisation, the following of one impulse, and then another, and another until with repetition, we come to know it as a dance.  

What dances are in your life today?  What kind of improvisation will you do?  What are you using to support it?

Photo Courtesy of:

http://balletclassroom.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ballet-stretching-feet-with-pointe-shoes.jpg