Grand jeté... across borders

 It seems that April 29th is "international dance day", and it was chosen to commemorate the birthday of Jean-George Noverre, a French dancer and ballet master who died in 1820. Needless to say, you can research his legacy widely on the internet. I will spend this post on the "international" part of this celebratory day.

2018 on a short excursion on the Yamuna River, India

In 2018 - 2019, I taught in Mumbai, Delhi and Goa over the course of six months in India with a Fulbright grant.  You can check out my adventures in India in my companion blog dancingkayak.blogspot.com which you can also find under my profile here.

During that sojurn I taught ballet and modern dance classes to an extensive range of dancers and enthusiasts, a few of whom continue to keep in touch with me. Two such dancers are Arjun Menon and Neeraj Lohani, whom I met while they were training at different institutions. Both of these very special artists have been kind enough record a short message of encouragement for dancers to take advantage of my open classes here in NYC.

2025 from Arjun Menon

Arjun amongst the Danceworx group with whom I worked in 2018.

2025 from Neeraj Lohani

Neeraj with Sumeet Nagdev Dance Academy dancers, also in 2018. 

In many ways, I don't think I chose dance to anchor me professionally throughout my life. I certainly knew that I was incredibly fortunate to have been able to meet most of the challenges that a life in dance put before me: artistry, musicality, technique, physical stature, racial heritage, nationality, opportunity, and a few others. In fact, I never imagined that there was such a thing as a professional life in dance for someone such as myself. Yet wherever I did not see someone like me, I saw "opportunity"! Opportunity to fill a void that directors, choreographers, managers, business owners likely didn't know existed, much less needed filling!

I loved the opportunity to spend an extended period in India meeting and helping to further the knowledge of western classical ballet and American modern dance forms. However, it was the dancers and the friendships sparked by sharing space with them in person that was likely the biggest reward!

If you happen to spend a lot of time surfing for "dance" on the internet, you might recognize a few other faces in the above photos. 

Having a "studio" home in NYC with Paul Taylor Dance Company, and the Taylor School, is yet another blessing in my life, as they open more studios and classes than they ever have previously. Certainly there are many older more established studios here, but none have our exclusive access to the breadth of dances created by Paul Taylor. Dances that have lives in some of the most storied ballet and contemporary companies around the world. Taylor's dances have given audiences and dancers experiences that endear them to the power of communication through movement with technical skill and artistry, yet doing so as "individuals"!

Pas... marché, de bourrée, de chat, de basque... have a common principle.

 I have often been curious as to why certain ballet movements are named "pas", and others not. After all, aren't all movements a "step" when we think of ballet? In the title of this post I mention Pas Marché (in the manner of a march), Pas de Bourrée (adopted from a 3-step 17th C French dance called Bourrée), Pas de Basque (adopted from a 3-step sequence found in Basque dances), and a Pas de Chat (literally the step of the cat, though there is considerable debate about the actual movement this name was intended to define). 

Rather than trying to describe these individual steps, I wanted to point out that each of them involves a transfer of weight from one foot to the other. And in the world of ballet, there evolved a very strict aesthetic that defined how a ballet dancer would move their weight from one foot and place it on another. Unless specifically directed, a ballet dancer wants to transfer onto a fully pointed foot where contact with the floor progresses through the toes, metatarsals, finally anchoring the heels on the ground. Similarly, when a foot leaves the floor it is most often accomplished by releasing the heel from it's earthly bond before extending it to a fully pointed foot. This specific articulation tends to color how we recognize well trained ballet dancers. 

backstage shot of me in the processional last movement of "Eventide" circa 2008.

"Pedestrianism" in dance was coined and gained its popularity in the 1950's and 1960's. I recall my early auditions for modern and contemporary dance companies here in the USA in the mid-1980's resulted in a number of comments that my ballet training was hindering my ability to look "pedestrian" in my movement. This came as a real challenge to me, as I relied heavily on how the articulate transfer of weight through all parts of my foot that came from my ballet, had served me well, and helped me recover (and avoid) serious injury to the rest of my body, from the ankles up! Learning to move in a "pedestrian" manner, and allowing this to be a qualitative action "choice" continues for me to this day. 

Paul Taylor once mentioned that it was a challenge for his dancers to apparently let go of their hard won training when he was looking for an elusive naturalness and unremarkable quality in his choreography. While Taylor was alive his auditions always started with having each dancer walk across the studio to a steady musical beat. From Paul I learned to see how much there is to tell about people by watching them walk! This has been most useful in my teaching, as well as when I have to stage a dance, and have little time to try and determine which dancer might be best suited to which role. Dancing isn't always just about technique, confidence and love of the form can be so evident in watching a person walk across the room.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company is preparing to have an audition for men on June 14th, 2025. They only audition when they need dancers, so it isn't an annual occurrence. When I saw the notice go up, it made me think about how the most basic of "steps" in ballet and in life is WALKING! To be a "Taylor dancer" is to be able to embody dance as a person and as a superhuman.

Paul Taylor's iconic 1975 pedestrian opus "Esplanade".

alongside Annmaria, Orion, and Parisa. circa 2008

A famous spectacle of the "ballet walk" is Le Grand Défilé at the Paris Opera Ballet.

clip of the 2023 event at Paris Opera Ballet

In 1997 Paul Taylor created "Eventide", returning to his fascination with how simple pedestriam movement, like walking, might create atmosphere, elicit emotion, and reflect relationships.

clip from final movement of "Eventide" in 1997

In 1975 Paul Taylor created "Esplanade", which is celebrating its 50th anniversary of perennial performances by Paul Taylor Dance Company and more than sixty other ensembles around the world.

clip from 1978 studio recording

With the expansion of the Taylor School in NYC, you can find me teaching open Adult Beginner Ballet on Tuesday evenings, and open Advanced Taylor Modern on Saturday afternoons! Please feel free to drop in, or shoot me a question here in the comments.

Soubresaut. Temps levé & Jeté. Sissonne. Assemblé... Hop, Skip & Jump.

 "Jumping" steps in ballet, and indeed most dancing refers to how we launch ourselves into the air and land with our two feet! 

Soubresaut: taking off from two feet to landing on two feet.

Temps levé & Jeté: taking off from one foot to landing on one foot (hopping & leaping).

Sissone: taking off from two feet to landing on one foot.

Assemblé: Taking off from one foot to landing on two feet.

Abra Rudisill and me with Oakland Ballet around 1982. Photo: Marty Sohl

For myself and many of my friends, dance is an integral part of our lives. Offering you (as a reader) the opportunity to imagine dance in your life as a regular practice, is partly the impetus of writing this blog for me. As I continue to look at what is available online to learn how to dance, there are many wonderful resources that are created by amazing dancers and teachers with sophisticated videos of classes, graphic analyses, and detailed explanations. Yet learning to "dance" is always going to be more effective, and more fun, when you find yourself in a studio with a knowledgable teacher who is invested in helping you!

Teaching ballet in the 21st century is rooted as much in tradition as it is in a rapidly growing understanding of human anatomy, skeletal alignment, muscular engagement, and the physics of how the body moves in space. The relatively small lexicon of ballet steps defines a time honored tradition of helping us train our bodies to achieve the skills that define ballet and many other dance forms we enjoy doing and watching. Yet as my "definitions" of the above basic "ballet jumps" illustrates, learning to execute those steps teaches us simple principles about jumping with two feet.

As the Taylor School expands its class offerings at their additional new studios, Taylor Dance West, in midtown Manhattan, NYC, I am proud to be working alongside Fabrice Herrault. I first met Fabrice when I hired him to teach ballet to the competitors in the New York International Ballet Competition (NYIBC) in 2009. I was the director of NYIBC at that time, and I think it came as a surprise to New York audiences that knew me as a Paul Taylor modern dancer for 15 years. 

Philip Gardner, who authors Oberon's Grove online, has an interview with me from 2009, that you can still read here: https://oberon481.typepad.com/oberons_grove/2009/06/interview-richard-chensee.html 

Fabrice Herrault - coaching a young student.

Together, Fabrice and I are offering our decades of combined experience in ballet and contemporary dance to dancers through our open classes in NYC. I am continuing to offer Adult Beginner Ballet on Tuesday evenings, and Advanced Modern on Saturday afternoons. Fabrice is teaching an open Advanced Ballet class on Saturday mornings, and together we are offering semi-private solo/duet coaching for young dancers interested in honing their dancing with more individualized attention.

This is a new and exciting chapter for me to be offeering open classes on a regular basis to dancers and anyone interested in incorporating ballet or modern dance in their weekly routines in NYC!

Welcome to the lobby of Taylor Dance West!

Finding YOUR ballet (dance) teacher!

 I cannot deny that I started formal dance training in ballet. And I had the good fortune to have grown up on the island of Jamaica in a culture infused with dance and an appreciation for how movement tells stories and conveys information that defies words, or explains more than words could ever do. The National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) was formed the same year as the island declared its indepedence from colonial England, and continues to thrive. Movement is the heartbeat of Jamaica's music, rituals, current events, theatre, and even our patois. Have you ever seen a Jamaica speak without having their whole body engaged by their accent? Okay, I may be overstating things a bit here, but rhythm does permeate all things Jamaican!

My first ballet teacher, Ms. Normadelle Facey, actually found me at age seven in a "musical movement" class taught at my school by one of her students. I regret that I don't have any pictures of her available for this blog. However, this post is about the many different ways we find our dance teachers. As I moved around the world, I almost never knew anything about the first dance (usually ballet) class I would take in a new city. Once in that first class, I would ask other dancers in the class, or the teacher, where else I might be able to take class. I suspect that this word-of-mouth is still the best kind of advertising for such a personal choice. 

Me teaching, at the beginning of a modern class. Photo: John Lyons

But as I have mentioned in earlier posts, it is not always just the designated teacher at the front of the room from whom we learn to "dance". Taking class alongside of other dancers has always been an incredible opportunity to learn and share one's own accomplishments and challenges. And many times, the teacher may not be as facile as they once were as performers, but the astute teacher's knowledge and understanding helps each dancer find their own strengths on which to build.

So this is a genuine question from me to you, "how do you find your ballet (or any dance) teacher?"

Sadly, Jean Pierre Bonnefoux, recently passed away, and I was familiar with him and his wife Patricia McBride from their days as storied stars of New York City Ballet. Then after I joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company, their names kept coming up as directors who loved Paul Taylor's dances and had licensed a few of them over the years.

Dancing gave me wonderful opportunities to encounter brilliant dance personalities whom I felt taught me so much about performing, learning and watching dance, even when they weren't teaching me directly. Many people are emotionally very vulnerable when starting to learn a new discipline of any kind. Staring out in dance as an adult can feel like an insurmountable challenge, yet many people learn to enjoy the effort when they find the right teacher for them. 

Certainly, in NYC, I have mostly been known for my time with Paul Taylor, and my dancing definitely evolved  under his eyes and in learning to embody repertory works from long before I joined his company. Yet my dance journey was about connecting the skills I already had and employing them in ways I had never imagined before. As a teacher you might often see me pause while I imagine myself dealing with the challenges I see a dancer facing. I may use imagery, physics, simple games, and many other teaching devices to help individuals find their solutions. And I often try to distinguish how conventions of movement in ballet and modern dance forms actually serve to build good technical habits.

Here's a clip of me dancing with Oakland Ballet in Ruthanna Boris's "Cakewalk". I was known for my cleanliness and speedy footwork, and I am quite proud to have done this when I was in my early twenties. There is a short drop out in the video...

I would love to have you join me for class in New York City at Taylor Dance West, on W 38th Street, where I get to explore two dance forms that I have lived with for most of my life.

Tuesdays 6:00pm - Adult Beginner Ballet

Saturdasy 2:00pm - Advanced Modern

Ballet Teachers... aren't always in the studio!

 To be a ballet dancer is neither a solo, nor a singular accomplishment. Connecting with others is one of the greatest joys of dancing, and participating in the world of ballet most often starts with knowing the same basic movement vocabulary. There may be slight differences in the names given to actions and positions, but seeing a step in action will be instantly recognizable. 

Even after I shifted from dancing strictly "ballet" I continued to connect with and learn from so many iconic dancers, teachers, and directors. AND I consider them ALL my ballet teachers. 

Me with Eleanor D'Antuono demonstrating for a pas de deux coaching session.

Learning ballet often starts with the simplest of gestures with our "port de bras" (carriage of the arms) as the introductory music plays before we start each exercise. As our dancing progresses, we learn that these gestures lead to more complex and beautiful patterns that involve our heads and torsos. I often think of how we carry and use our upper bodies is like listening to the melody line of a tune, while our legs carry the rhythm and meter of the phrase.

At the end of class, we are also taught  to graciously perform a "reverence" (gracious thanks), mostly culminating in a deep curtsey or bow. I know it may be impolitic to refer to gendered methods of showing respect, but I don't entirely ascribe that you need to bow or curtsey based on your gender.

But my point is that the purpose of this "reverence" leads to the "bows" performers take to thank and honor the audiences that have offered their focus and attention. When directors take leave of their positions in leadership, in the dance world it is a wonderful event when those directors can take a bow with the dancers whom they have led, and sometimes for whom the directors have choreographed. One such director who is stepping down from the Vienna State Ballet / Volksoper Wien is Martin Schläpfer. Martin has become a dear friend over the years, and I have watched so many wonderful choreographic works he has created for the dancers in his companies. He brought me back many times to stage Paul Taylor dances for his companies, and the commonalities and the differences between the range of works he would curate alongside his own works was the REAL lesson from which we all learned.

Martin Schläpfer taking a bow for his final world premiere work as the director in Vienna.

Starting tomorrow, Saturday April 12, I will be teaching alongside another dear friend, Fabrice Herrault, at the new Taylor Dance West studios in midtown Manhattan, NYC. 

Fabrice will be teaching an open advanced ballet class at 11:00 AM.

I will be teaching an open advanced modern class at 2:00 PM.

AND we are offering semi-private "coaching" for dancers interested in receiving individual attention at an affordable rate.

My apologies if there are typos in this post... I am rushing to get this out, so that some of you might share and let others know that I have this blog, and that I am also teaching both ballet and modern technique classes in NYC!

Are ballet dancers "regular" people?

 Taking up ballet as an adult, or returning to its practice after many years, may seem like a daydream. However, even the most revered ballet dancers were just people. And those people taught us and coached us by example on stage or in studios. So why not get into a studio and aspire to dance like someone who inspires others with their art! Ballet as we know it today has been traced to the French royal courts, and rendered aspirational depictions of gods and mythic stories based in myths and legends. Even as subversive artists like Loie Fuller, Mary Wigman and Martha Graham began to challenge this Euro-centric form in the early twentieth century, they continued to create works that aspired to transcend their humanity.

The approach to teaching ballet today has mostly shifted to an understanding of the mechanics of how human anatomy and physiology work together as we employ centuries old methods of training. And it is pretty amazing how well these disciplines hold their own under the scrutiny of contemporary medicine. So now Adult Beginner Ballet can begin with identifying the most natural ways our bodies move, and putting those actions into sequences that are the heart of ballet technique.

As teachers, we hopefully take the best from those who taught us. I was incredibly fortunate to have had my training and performance craft shaped by some of the international stars of their generation. And it was the generation that brought "ballet" into Art that reflected human emotions and every day situations. Two exceptional influences on my understanding of ballet and dance were Christopher Gable who was my favorite teacher and coach during the late 70's, and Paul Taylor who was the choreographer/director who took me to the end of my performing career. 

Rehearsing with Paul Taylor for "Prime Numbers" (1997)

Christopher Gable was famously known for his dance partnership with Lynn Seymour at the Royal Ballet in London during the early 1960's. Together they created ballets with Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan which are still actively revived and forever associated with Gable and Seymour. Together they seduced audiences with their musicality and dramatic authenticity, with undeniable ballet technique as their language of expression. 

"The Invitation" (1960) by Kenneth MacMillan - Lynn Seymour & Christopher Gable

"The Two Pigeons" (1961) by Frederick Ashton - Lynn Seymour & Christopher Gable

Ultimately, Christopher Gable would leave ballet for acting and then return decades later to the dance world founding Central Ballet School in London and directing Northern Ballet Theatre in Leeds. I met him during his early return to dance, and he generously trained me to make ballet technique be as precise as diction when speaking. Gable also emphasized that no matter what role we might be asked to perform in a ballet we are still human beings.

Throughout my fifteen years as a dancer with Paul Taylor, I had the privilege of creating twenty-two original dances under his eyes, as well as taking on roles in revivals of some thirty or so dances created before I ever joined the company. Again, Taylor's approach is that even when we were doing "abstract" works, he expected an audience to see us as individuals on the stage. 

The dancers in Taylor's company had varied backgrounds that didn't always mirror Taylor's own. He trained in ballet taught in the Cecchetti style by Margaret Craske and Anthony Tudor, and in the modern dance style of Martha Graham where he gained much of his early performing experience. Taylor loved that ballet taught "line" and a sense of how the body "composes" three-dimensional space, as well as provided skills in turning, physical articulation and speed.

I hope to bring a fraction of the knowledge these two masters offered me to you as a dancer in one of my classes!

Tuesdays at 6:00pm at Taylor Dance West, 9th floor, NYC. Please come dance with me.

Ballet? Step-in-Time...

 It is so much fun to see the people who come to my Adult Beginner Ballet class on Tuesday evenings at 6:00pm at Taylor Dance West, here in NYC. And one of the best things about dancers who come every week, is that I can see and ask what will bring them the most reward! 

We worked a lot on how we use our feet to transition from standing on two feet and taking that first "step"! And it all starts with knowing what that first "step" is about to be. Is it a tendu that keeps the sole of the foot sliding along the floor as long as possible? Is it petit développé (small unfolding of the leg)? Is it a simple "walking" step where the whole foot reaches with the heel (rather than the toes) and you tombé (fall) onto the the extended foot? 

One of my favorite pictures of me in 1988!

I was remembering the lyrics to the song "step in time" sung by Dick Van Dyke in the movie, "Mary Poppins".

Never need a reason, never need a rhyme
Kick your knees up, step in time

Childhood is a step in time
Parenthood's the same

Never miss a chance to get it right

Don't it seem a perfect crime
Don't it seem a shame

When the steps aren't going
As smoothly as they might

That's when we step in, step in time...

I have always marveled at how many ways there are to take a step, and how it is surprisingly easy to spot dancers who have had to think about every step they take for most of their lives. Most people have an image of a "ballet" walk where dancers seem to "waddle" down the street with their feet "turned-out" (toes pointing away from each other when standing on two feet). And this is a function of asking ballet dancers to learn how to bear their weight in an extreme fashion. Ironically, when they are asked to walk "normally", most highly trained dancers need to imitate a "normal" walk, as their seemingly awkward gait has become "natural" for them. As a ballet trained kid, I was mystified at watching "runway" walks of high fashion models, which looked uncomfortably "turned-in" to me. LOL.

Schiaparelli couture winter 2024

Once we get past the physical ways to take a "step", we notice that rhythm creates a movement dynamic that might mimic something in the music, or provide a cross rhythm. My clips today range from the most rigourous looking ballet walks to seeing how walking and rhythm might indicate social status. And all of it is dancing as I think of it. Let's start with The Knights' march from "Romeo and Juliet" by Kenneth MacMillan.

The Royal Ballet & Opera

The opening steps from Paul Taylor's "Esplanade". 

Paul Taylor Dance Company 1978

I love that as the corps de ballet move from their processional line into their grid across the stage, that the audience bursts into applause! The Kingdom of the Shades scene from "La Bayadere". 

The Bolshoi Ballet.