EGG the Arts Show; 213; Working Dancers

When I dance I feel I'm in a different dimension is all about physicality. Movement and emotion is not there. I need to dance I go crazy find a major funding for eg has been provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts investing in ideas.

Returning results is also made possible by Dorothy in Lewis column in the Lou Esther tea Mertz Charitable Trust. Marilyn and Simpson charitable trust Sylvia and Ralph Avlon and by contributions to your PBS stations from viewers like you. Thank you. I am a dancer because I need to speak and my body is the only way that I can speak clearly. When I danced well I feel I'm completely not myself. I'm in a different dimension. My dream is to become as great a dancer as I possibly can. Not a famous dancer necessarily just a great one

to make that decision. It's not only requires a lot of commitment and it's also a bit of a gamble because there's a lot of things you can go wrong and there's a lot of competition. And so it's a big decision I think for a young person to make. Huh. I came to me up like two months ago. It's just like a you know live for is talking to my mom like you got to go you know you got to go. I've gotten to about 15 additions in the year that I've been here. My success rate is

pretty low right now but I'm enjoying it. I was three years so it's like there I need to dance I go crazy for you know the is the rehearsal for the show. My specialty as a side artist has been to tackle big spaces level 2 and 3 could be a little closer to the middle first. But that's just you know two and three could be close. This piece is called fenestration squared. I have 72 dancers in this work. For many of these dancers this is their first professional engagement. I don't have a standing company so any project I do I'm always going to collect people most of whom I've

never worked with before. We don't know each other and the process that we go through is in some level we become a company and people get to know each other and people get to make connections. Wait times are folks lesson a couple things we're going to probably going to. We're going to keep the Qs where they are in the music so it's not like I want to be this leisurely you know like the intro so some of you are going to run and give it that kind of urgency really in a sense a race to the end. I've been out of college for about a year now and living in New York. This is my second professional job. I like going to auditions I think they're fun. But I mean hundreds of dancers show up for each of these

auditions so you go there and it is almost like you're pressing your luck. That's why Steven couplets is pieces such a great opportunity for so many dancers. And I'm really blessed with this project I mean not just because the project leads me to another opportunity in dance but to know seventy two dances at a time right away. That's huge. I've been here just for one year no I have right here. I didn't know anyone. I was completely lost. I felt like a country girl coming to the big city. So I get used to the back station as paper I do come to Internet from B-schools So I start to get to the dancing more. You get more involved with people that are dancing near you. Johan I think

is going to be a friend of my and me. I like her a lot to work with the 70 to dance is my first experiment to like working with a lot of people that you don't know and to perform in Grand Central Terminal as my first performance. I'm in Wow that's something the the. There is a certain point in your career where dancers or any artist try to do as many different things as they can. You have to lay those bricks and whether five people see them or 50000 people doesn't matter. Those

bricks never leave that experience is there. Being a dancer requires a lot of ingenuity. Right now being a modern dancer there's really not a lot of funding out there so it's really tricky you have to save money. Cook at home bring food with you. Work a lot of odd jobs I mean I've done I've walked dogs I've worked in restaurants on everything you name it. I came home one day after a really long ourselves and sat down on my couch and my legs were just pounding and aching and I just called my mom crying and told her I was feeling and I was crying more because I was having the realisation that this is going to be a hijab.

Before I had to go from job to job picking up new work just to maintain a certain standard of living. Now that it's a 9 to 5 job and it's allowed me to just be a dancer. Right now we're working on a new piece and it's unknown territory because it comes out of improvisation as opposed to what I was doing before with another

company where you have the choreographer and you have the dancers and the choreographer shows you the steps. It's the dancers we are called upon to create the movement. We try to look for this strange combination strange meanings and movement and that's what this is. Paul this started about 30 years ago and forced the original company members are artistic directors. Right now we're working with Michael Tracey. So it's the five of us creating new work at this little British rock brought over the top that was very nice when one of the things that makes a lot of us unique in the world of modern dance is we had to kind of invent our own style and techniques because we didn't study other techniques. It's more of a partnering technique than it is individual solo technique and that has become one of the hallmarks of our work. Also we work collaboratively in the

sense that we encourage the dancers to contribute ideas and you know make their suggestions. And it's this dynamic system that actually for me it's difficult to manage but it's more interesting than just my own my own mind my own ideas. This particular period is a very interesting one because we have some developed some ideas but there's no over overarching concept or overarching structure yet. I mean that's exactly what has to be what we have to develop. That's the most difficult and interesting part of the process I think the like a soft landing is really falling into a feather bed. I think there's a whole story in there because the dead becomes alive. To me it's like a big deal. Feel comfortable. The thing about improvisation is when you start it doesn't always end up where you think it's going

to be. So you have to have your mind open to any ending about 80 percent of it's going to be thrown away anyway so you just bust out and see what you come up with. But you're much higher than I remember that you are. Don't forget this is liberating in many ways to work in this manner and also since we're all such individuals. I learn from each and every one. This foot is sticking on this one. We're also individually exploring what we ourselves can do. There are many things that I've done in Paul bliss that surprised me I never thought I could do that I never explored that way of movement before. Looks easy. Ok that's cool.

I love this job and I'm still learning and I'm still growing. So right now I'm fresh and new into it and that's exactly what's keeping me excited. What is the definition of ballet but doesn't mean that you have ballet shoes on doesn't mean you have in tights on doesn't mean there's classical music playing. Ballet can be whatever the person creating it wants it

to be if it's based on the ballet it's hard for me. For the most part I love Portland. I came out here at the time I was 17 but I know where Portland was I had to go home look literally on the map file for you Melly theater break for a new time to have fun to say Time to get a wrong wrong. OK so I came here to do Jameson's where he's the director of the company he quit graphs he's kind of built it from nothing. Tracy is a known star of this company people know her they come to see her.

She has graced that stage in many diverse roles and side and front and front and front beat beat beat beat beat bit like top 10 sessions and in theory I would love to do it for you know four to five more years. But I've noticed a definite difference from the time you say from when I was 18 and now you know I would just have all this and she would do everything all the time and you know love it. Will I still love the idea of doing that. But my body won't let me do that or I want all the way. Valley has it's a very young art form and you've got to give it your all because your career will be over with so quickly because your body starts deteriorating very cold and feels right.

That's horrible for your feet. It's terribly destructive. I had a surgery of the summer on this thing going where I had four bone chips I have really bad Bunyan pain in these joints basically deteriorated and sort of fused into one joint and so it doesn't bend properly and that's really painful. There certainly those days where you know you wonder what am I doing you know. What was I thinking. It's hard in this company because these dancers are asked so much every minute of the day. I don't have a big budget. I don't have 50 dancers in my company I don't get to choose three and four casts of work you know a lot of big companies.

If you do a part this one night a lot of times you'll have the next night or maybe two nights or three nights off. Whereas in this company you don't ever have a night off unless you're injured. I decided to conceptualize something that is unprecedented and that was three of Mr. Balanchine's works in one evening. They're all hard pieces and I'm in all three. So ask yourself WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME. The AA man. If you were really lucky to be able to do it you know I'm grateful that I'm

able to feel the pain I feel because I get to do for a career what Alex did. How far it's back to dance you never get it right. And true artists really never feel like they get it right. Dance to me is like the only self fulfilling thing that there is but only you can

know exactly how far you can go and actually push yourself to that point. Oh man somebody that I was beat was and I'm saying what is a perfect performance that means doing all the steps remembering all the

choreography making sure that you stand up make sure you don't scatter. To me that's a perfect performance that everything is perfect. Boring. What am I searching. I think it's because when you can't think of doing anything else to make it better I think your career is over. Listening in this song Alvin Ailey created his company in 1058 and for the past 35 years Dudley Williams has played an integral role in the company and an elven Ellie's vision. Having Dolly there must have been kind of comforting because I knew that he could count on Dolly to deliver.

There was always I think a kind of containment of emotion and the control of his dancing. I am I am. I think what has changed through those 35 years is the weight and the depth that he now brings to everything that he dances and the weight and depth are something that I believe can only come with the kind of experience that only an older dancer has. Something happens to one that is performing that I can't I can't

explain it. It has to do about age. It has to do about age. Up in here and not within the body. For years and years and years in the 70s in the 60s when used to say to us we need more weight you need more weight we need more weight. And now I think I know what hit me again more maturity. But I don't think in terms of you know hanging out my toe shoes I don't even think I can walk I can still dance. You know the way I look at it

tomorrow night. You know don't don't last long. Just beat my head out and then the man with the money going to let me get my

head on line picks up where the show beats song meet the artists on a kite get cool tips on how to make art see and do in your own neighborhood speak out on big issues facing the arts today. Get out. Log on and online. And now a one minute egg. Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing

with nothing. Next time on a bad beat. Them carrying major

funding for eg has been provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts investing in ideas returning results and has also made possible by Dorothy and Lewis Coleman the Lou Esther t merge charitable trust Maryland am Simpson charitable trust Sylvia and Ralph Avalon and by contributions to your PBS stations. From viewers like you. Thank you. This is PBS.