It can be hard to imagine that a professional dancer who has been training since they were a child can truly understand what it is to be an adult wanting to learn ballet, or any dance, for the first time. Well, this has been my experience, about every five years through my career, I found myself trying to "train" my body to keep doing the things I thought I knew, and still build on all I had learned before!
A child's body and coordination are different from a teenager's, much less a young adult. Then as a professional I discovered that injury, new technical and choreographic challenges, and an ageing body simply meant that what I expected of myself needed to addressed as though I was a complete newbie!
"Yes", I could rely on a lifelong discipline to learn movement, and a mental image of what I hoped to achieve, yet my solutions to consistently balance, turn, jump, and twist into unnatural positions always needed to be re-assessed every few years. I was blessed with a strong body with resilient healing abilities, even when faced with debilitating injuries. At one point I needed to learn "walking" again before "dancing" again. This is not a syllabus I would recommend for most people, but I gained great empathy and understanding about how to be a "person" who dances! As opposed to being a "dancer" who happens to be a person.
When I began my professional career as a teenager, I defined myself by being a dancer and earning my living by my ability to dance. I think it would have been nearly impossible to see myself differently at that age, and I imagine that many young dancers have faced a similar perspective of their life. By the time I was in my twenties, I think I started to self-destruct by overwork and an ever-present fear of what I would do when I couldn't dance any more.
Learning to be a person who dances took me a couple more decades, but in retrospect, everything I have lived through, that led me back to dancing, has made me a better teacher, coach and mentor. I "listen" carefully to how you move, and I will encourage you to find your unique approach to executing the discipline I am teaching, whether that be ballet, modern, or kayaking!
Fabrice Herrault has been a long time friend and colleague, and I am so happy to find us working side by side at the Taylor School, every Saturday in New York City. Fabrice teaches advanced ballet technique, and I teach advanced Taylor modern! We have also opened a program where we are available for semi-private coaching on variations or technique for dancers wanting to polish or become more secure in their dancing/performing.
Two years after I retired from performing, I commissioned Fabrice to choreograph a short solo for me to perform as a part of my Masters of Fine Arts thesis project. As I was getting back into performing fettle, and almost 50 years old, I would take Fabrice's open ballet class. Our approaches to dance teaching and coaching always seemed to align and our different backgrounds prove to be complimentary!
I was the director for the last New York International Ballet Competition in 2009, and I had worked as the resident ballet/contemporary coach and rehearsal coordinator for the 1993 competition. When I became the director, I hired Fabrice to teach morning class for the competitors, and received unversally positive feedback from all fifty-two professional and pre-professional dancers.
Don't miss this opportunity to train with Fabrice and myself every Saturday at
Taylor Dance West, 307 W 38th Street, 9th Floor. Paul Taylor Dance Company's stunning new studios with state of the art sprung floors, column free studios and live accompanists!
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