October 9, 2007

8 Dance Classes in 7 Days

For some reason I've been obsessed with taking dance classes lately - I'm not sure what's gotten into me. Maybe I'm frustrated that I'm not at the point where I want to be in terms of my dancing. So that might be motivating me.

This past Saturday I took a Skinner Release Technique (SRT) workshop in SoHo that was facilitated by SRT instructors Karl Anderson, Pamela Knowles, Mary-Clare McKenna and Laurel Tentindo. (They don't have a website - you can email Karl to learn more).

I find it somewhat difficult to describe various movement techniques such as SRT and the Feldenkrais Method, which I recently took a class in at Movement Research.

You can go here to learn more about Skinner Releasing Technique. For myself, I would say it is an approach to better understanding your body and making your movements freer and more efficient. A central focus was on isolating and relaxing different joints/body parts so you were both more aware and more comfortable using that part of your body while dancing. For example, we might start by doing exercises that concentrate our energy on our shoulders and then release tension in this joint. This would be followed with improvised movement where the idea was to concentrate on loosening the shoulders and arms while dancing.

The last hour of the workshop was devoted strictly to improvisation with some warm-up exercises to help us get our free-form movement bearings.

What I'd really like to find in New York City are open improvisation sessions with some limited exercises and warm-ups that help participants develop and explore different types of movements. For example, shadowing and delayed shadowing might be used to get dancers to experiment with new movement patterns and approaches. (Shadowing is when one person replicates the movements of another dancer. Delayed shadowing is when you replicate the movements of your partner with a few second delay.) There are many different exercises that could be used to get the ball rolling.

In any case, I haven't found anything like this yet. And if anybody knows about something similar, please let me know. There are contact jams, but that's not really what I want. For my purposes at this point, I find contact improv too limited a sub-set of the general types of movement that I want to explore.

Simonson at DNA

I've also taken a couple Simonson Technique classes at Dance New Amsterdam - these are essentially jazz classes. I took a real beginner class with Chris Heller and a regular beginner drop-in with Te Perez. I'm conflicted about whether to continue with a regular beginner drop-in class. It just moves so slowly that I'm about ready to go out of my mind. I like fast pace classes even if I feel overwhelmed at times and I like to get a good cardio workout and leave with abs that have been pushed to the brink, especially now that I'm almost recovered from a very long back injury. But at the same time, I really need to continue taking beginner classes so I can get constant help with my technique and form - it seems to be taking forever for me to learn how to hold my body, drop my shoulders, position my pelvis and do the many important details of dance in the correct manner. And I need instructors to push my body repeatedly in the correct position so that I'll finally remember how to do everything right. Plus, the routines in beginner classes are perfect for me so I really shouldn't complain.

So the only solution I can think of is to take a good number of beginner classes and a bit more advanced ones as well so that I can get everything I want.

I've also taken Horton modern classes (click and scroll down to "Intro Horton") and West African classes at Alvin Ailey. I've been taking a beginner modern class with Anne-Rene Petrarca every week at DNA - I especially like this class and I try to take it every week. And I continue to take an Erick Hawkins modern class at 92nd Street Y.

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