This is the first in a coming series on dancing, Alexander Technique, Freedom and Flow. How do you meld constant work on technique with actually dancing the dance? Are you practicing so hard you can't let go and flow?...
Hello my friends!
Thanks so much for stopping by.
I’ve had a break from posting, but not from dancing or writing. It’s time to share.
Jumping into the deep end, here’s the heart of the heart of me as a dancer, sharing freely.
I wrote to a friend, “Dance makes sense in a different way now. I’m excited about some connections in the body but have to keep in mind that that’s practice, and sometimes you just have to dance.”
She questioned, “just have to dance.” Am I just letting go and having fun? If so, there’s nothing wrong with that.
I gave a worthy subject more attention:
I was practicing last weekend and worked on very specific body aspects, one at a time. Then there was something else… not working on any one aspect, but dancing for dance itself. How do you describe it?
The closest analogy I can find is from a particular moment in time when I was studying acting. I was working on a monologue from St. Joan (Shaw) as an exercise. I worked on single aspects for periods of time, then another aspect, then a different thought…voice…embodiment….emotion…focus in the room; many different acting actions.
There comes a point where you have to trust that all those different aspects are trained in and you let go and just BE the character in that moment and breathe and DO it. There’s an energy coming back and forth from the audience, too, that’s in the moment and unrehearsed, however the part of me that opens to access and allow that communication can be practiced.
That’s what I meant about dance. Practicing in different ways for hours, weeks, months….and then at some point whether I am dancing by myself or certainly with my Pro partner, I have to trust that I know how to dance, and DANCE. Not rehearse, not slow down to think of a single aspect. There’s a huge difference between working on Technique, and Dancing. Even if I dance badly, or imperfectly, there’s still a difference between dancing, and trying, and I feel it when I see someone dance fully, even with flaws in technique.
There’s something that organizes the WHOLE and it isn’t the analytical mind. It integrates music, flow of the entire body, connection and response and energy to and from partner, the WHOLE, plus awareness of other couples on the floor. In Standard that is no small thing especially dancing alone, moving backwards around the line of dance.
It doesn’t mean that they’re perfect! Not by a long shot. But if I or you are thinking about “turn your head “now” because that’s the way it’s supposed to be as a concept or result, that doesn’t allow for real dance, which is ephemeral, Isadora Duncan, a moment in time.
Maybe the word is more about being in the fullest expression of the whole in Dance that you can be in a particular moment in time, in your body as good or poor as it is, but with the fullness of who you are, in that moment in your journey.
Is there ever any moment that’s perfection and then you stop trying to improve? Isn’t there always something to “work on” a little more?
There also needs to be a letting go and being in Flow that’s both consciously aware but you don’t have time to think and then move. If you do, you’ll be behind the music and your partner so you trust that at this moment you have as much Technique as you’re going to have today, and you Dance.
I’m posting today to break the ice of a long hibernation. Spring is here! I have more discoveries, secrets, joys and some failures to share. I hope my posts bring you some joy and amusement. Goodness knows we can use some hope and inspiration these days.
Namaste,
Dana
with Andrea Faraci, S.F. Open Ballroom Dance Competition, 1st place, April 2019
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