Catherine Cabeen and Company are about to begin their 3 day run at the Joyce Soho Theater located at 155 Mercer Street. It is something not to be missed!
Personally I have been a fan of Catherine Cabeen’s dancing since I first saw her with the Bill T.Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Statuesque, and strong, with a liquid torso and hatefully gorgeous feet, she ate up the space and yet left enough room for others. There was a poetry in her movement and yet she was never apologetic about her size, or her beauty. For the past three years Cabeen has been based in Seattle (I’ll let her tell you how she got there) where she started her company that it is on every level a collaborative, not merely between her and her dancers but with visual musicians, visual artists writers, and technical artists. The results, in my opinion, are captivating, her physical instrument is already so incredible to watch, but her architectural use of it, and the space surrounding is what draws your eye in. Her collaborations with other artists have created a complete visual and audio aesthetic that is well worth seeing. I interviewed Ms. Cabeen and was even further taken when I found her to be both an intellectual and physical task master, whose creations are layered with ideas ranging from language, gender, space, philosophy and evolve out of a genuine craving for exploration. Check out some of here work below
Meet Cathrine Cabeen!!
What’s on the Program for the Joyce, get the inside scoop on the works Cathrine has brought to the Joyce Soho Theater
Contributing Writer Jessica Danser-Schwarz shares lessons learned from her time as a dancer, teacher and choreographer
Intensive dance training is one of the most rigorous and demanding tasks imaginable, both physically and emotionally. There really is no way to take it lightly and still get results, so it is incredibly important that young people who are serious about pursuing professional dance careers educate themselves not only on the art of dance, but also about the special physical and emotional precautions they need to take in order to enjoy a long, healthy career and not burn out. When I was a young dance student, I was incredibly dedicated to improving my technique, but like many young dancers, I neglected many of my physical and mental needs.
Because of this, I spent the majority of my 4 years of conservatory training (and, come to think of it, a lot of my high school pre-professional training) injured, depressed, and demoralized. When I graduated, I went into teaching rather than intensively performing, and also started a small company. I was no longer dancing the number of hours I was while in school, but I was taking class 3-4 times a week, teaching class daily, and rehearsing multiple hours a week, so my load was still pretty heavy. After my first year out of school, I noticed a remarkable change had happened– despite a sharp decrease in class time, my technique had actually improved. My balance was better, my extensions more solid, and my injuries had subsided. I realized that more than changing my schedule, this new life post-college had changed a lot of my HABITS, thus enabling me to dance smarter and stay healthy.
I don’t deny the value of the intensity of conservatory training, and I only wish I had figured out some of these healthier attitudes sooner so I could have gotten even more out of my programs. Now that I am on the other side of the mirror, so to speak, I try to pass along some of these ideas to my students, so that even at a young age they can form routines and, attitudes which will help keep them sane and healthy if they choose to pursue an intensive study of dance. The following are some suggestions which in my opinion, would greatly reduce injury and frustration in young dancers.
1. Warm yourself up.
I don’t just mean before rehearsal, although clearly dancers who jump into choreography ice cold are doing themselves a disservice. I feel that it is also necessary to warm up before CLASS. No matter how thorough a warm-up class provides, no teacher is able to give a warm-up which focuses on the specific needs of every unique body in the room. Maybe you are tight and need to mobilize your joints before class. Maybe you are hyper-mobile and need to do some stabilization exercises. Perhaps you have a chronic ankle problem and need to do some theraband stretches to get the kinks out before doing relévès. Whatever your specific issues are, don’t simply rely on class to take care of all of them. Additionally, if you arrive 15 minutes early to your first class of the day and take the time to check in with your body, you will be more focused and better able to pick up in class.
As I mentioned above, the needs of each dancer are unique in terms of warm-up, but some general rules of thumb are that you want your warm-up to get your blood flowing and wake your muscles up (move around, don’t just stay in a static position for a long time– I find leg and arm swings while lying on the floor to be very useful), include gentle, mobilizing stretches (yoga cat and cow back good, splits and straddles not good– save deep stretching for after class or after barre), and focus on aligning your body for your class work (spine and abdominal strengtheners like Pilates can be good to include.)
If you’re clueless as to what to do for a warm-up, ask a teacher you trust, a physical therapist or trainer, or even a friend you see consistently warming up, then start to develop a routine based on what makes you feel best. Trying some bodywork classes in Pilates, yoga, Klein, or Gyrotonics (if you have time) can also be very informative.
2. Practice restorative stretching.
It is distressing to observe how much young dancers tend to focus only on stretches they feel will improve their extension (splits, straddles, shouldering the leg, etc) and how little time overall is spent on stretches to release chronically overworked areas. I encourage all of my students to stretch their glutes, quads, hip flexors, and calves daily. These muscles are constantly working if you are doing classical dance, and allowing them to get ultra tight through neglect can result in a host of injuries. While they don’t obviously contribute to extension in the ways that, say, the hamstrings do, everything is working together in the body and an excessive tightness in one area is going to lead to problems in other areas.
3. Stop forcing turnout
Ok, I may have to give up my tutu and the stick I bang on the floor after this one, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it: most dancers force their turnout. We all know we’re not supposed to, but we also all know that 5th position is heel to toe and tendú a la seconde is supposed to be in line with your shoulder. I am definitely not advocating the total abandonment of turnout, and feel that turnout is useful as well as beautiful, but forcing yourself to stand in a position you can’t maintain muscularly in order to meet a certain aesthetic standard doesn’t make sense. We’re dancers, not Barbies, right? The point is to be able to MOVE, not to be a perfect, yet non-functional, ballet statue.
When finding one’s real turnout, I would suggest going through the same checklist I give my Level 1 8 year olds: are all 10 toes on the floor? Is your pelvis underneath you? Can you straighten your knees without any twisting? Can you balance without the barre? Can you transfer to standing on one leg or to relévè without having to alter your turnout? Once you have found the turnout level which meets that criteria, stop looking in the mirror for a few weeks. Learn to locate your rotation kinesthetically instead of visually. You may be amazed at the improvement in your technique.
4. Focus on the pelvis.
I subbed a high school modern class once in which the students complained, “All we’ve been working on all year is PELVIS!!” My response was, “What else is there?” Whether doing ballet or modern, understanding and being able to properly control your pelvis is one of the most important things dancers can do. I could easily write an entire essay just on the many impacts of the pelvis on dancer health and technique, but for the moment, the following are chronic problems many young dancers need to address:
Stop tucking your pelvis in order to “look skinny.” First off, pelvic position and weight have very little to do with each other. If you do have excess weight around your stomach or butt, walking around in a perma-contraction is not going to help it, only diet and exercise can make one lose weight (and I’ve found that most dancers employing this trick are NOT overweight at all.) Secondly, constant tucking can actually make your glutes and quads bulk up due to the overuse they suffer when trying to work around a misaligned pelvis.
Stop distorting your pelvic alignment in order to turn out more or get your leg higher. If you keep using an improper means towards your desired end, your results will be unpredictable and possibly hurt you. Don’t be so eager to developè over your head if the only way you can do it is jacking your hip up. Accept the limitations of what your body can do CORRECTLY and then advance from there.
Remember to strengthen all areas of the pelvis. Crunches only get the upper abs. A proper abdominal workout for dancers must also include strengthening the lower abs, the obliques, the back muscles, and in my opinion absolutely must include exercises to engage the pelvic floor and trunk stabilizers in a neutral position so that dancers learn to engage the abdominals without altering the position of the spine.
checkout our pelvic placement series with Leslie Journet
5. Have a healthy attitude about corrections.
I can’t tell you how many classes I’ve left in tears because I didn’t get a correction. As a young dancer, I completely relied on the validation of my teachers for self-worth, so that every time I got a correction I couldn’t immediately master I felt incompetent and every class I wasn’t singled out in I felt worthless. Now that I’m a teacher, I have learned how challenging it is in a large class to give individual attention to every student every single week, (as well as the fact that whether or not I correct someone has nothing to do with whether I like them or think they’re talented—I’m simply noticing a problem and addressing it) and I realize how silly it was for me to spend so much of my training being so upset over attention I was or wasn’t getting. Now that I am taking class for personal enrichment and on my own terms, I focus on enjoying the movement, learning new things about my own body, and learning from listening to the teacher, whether he or she is addressing me or not.
When you are taking class, try to remember the old adage that every correction is your correction. Listen to the teacher, no matter who they’re talking to. Also use class as a time to check in with YOUR body and do as much self-correcting as you can. It’s wonderful when you bring your performance energy into class, but recognize that class is not a show, and you aren’t going to always get that same rush in the studio that comes from having an enthusiastic audience. Also remember that class is where it’s ok to make mistakes—the risks you take in class are the way you learn how to perfect new skills and then eventually bring them to the stage, so don’t be afraid to try and sometimes fail. If we all knew how to do everything perfectly we wouldn’t need class, and dance technique is one of those things that constantly has to be revisited and fine-tuned.
I wish I had had this attitude and developed more of these healthy attitudes as a younger dancer, as class is now a joy instead of a stress, and whether or not I nail my double pirouette or not, I truly marvel at the fact that this body of mine, designed by nature to do things like walking and running, can do something as remarkable as a pirouette at all.
I know how to end it. We should just do a dance off. I know Natalie is pregnant and her center of gravity has changed but any ballet dancer can turn with her stomach empty, it’s a true diva who can turn with her belly full!! I think both chicks should throw the boots on and twirl it out on the Marley. Ok ok if you want to be fair then we can wait for Nat to pop and give her a good 6 months to train and then we can have the dance off. Frankly I think that she got pregnant to avoid a Gwyneth Paltrow sort of situation, if she had been able the Academy might have asked her to recreate her Black Swan performance at the Oscars and then what would have happened (no time for head replacement there). right now it’s all talk on both sides- I want to see it get down and dirty in the studio Nat can bring Kunis and Millepied, and Sarah Lane can bring Center Stage body double Aesha Ash (she doubled for Zoe Saldana) she can spread the chocolate, and for their male we can give them either Ethan Stifle or Mikhail Baryshnikov , he’s an ol’ G movie dancer. I love it. Leave a comment as a poll to see if we can set it up!
Huffpost:The ‘Black Swan’ ballet battle rages on.
Sarah Lane, American Ballet Theatre star and dance double to Natalie Portman in “Black Swan,” has again gone public with her accusations that she did most of the dancing for the part that won Portman an Oscar.
Lane alleges that, after she spoke to Glamour Magazine about her part in the movie, she got a phone call from one of the film’s producers ordering that she stay quiet.
“He asked if I would please not do any more interviews until after the Oscars because it was bad for Natalie’s image,” Lane told ABC News’ “20/20.” “They were trying to create this image, this facade, really, that Natalie had done something extraordinary. Something that is pretty much impossible… to become a professional ballerina in a year and half. Even with as hard as she worked, it takes so much more. It takes twenty-two years, it takes thirty years to become a ballerina.”
It’s a gag order that, Lane says, degrades the hard work of lifelong dancers.
“There’s so much emotionally that goes into motivating yourself and being able to physically push yourself to reach a certain level, that you have to reach to be a professional ballerina with one of the biggest ballet companies in the world and to sustain that standard over a whole career,” Lane told the news show. “I’ve been doing this for 22 years, and to say that someone trained for a year and a half and did what I did is degrading not only to me but to the entire ballet world.”
Later there was the truly galling part:
Millepied, whose comments to the Los Angeles Times helped touch off the entire issue, estimated that, overall, 85% of the dancing that made the final cut was Portman’s.
“It was so believable, it was fantastic, that beautiful movement quality,” he told the paper. “There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [Sarah Lane, her body double] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio. Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie.”
Just ’cause!
I take that back. Though it is out of context in a way, the idea that a little brown girls somewhere can see this and begin to dream about being a ballerina is so vital. With the shut down of the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company (the school IS still Active!) the visual presence of African American Ballet dancers has all but disappeared. Yes there are some sprinkled here and there but the concept of all those people of color in a classical (and neo-classical) context does not exist today. I can remember when I first saw DTH I was 8, I had already decided that I wanted to be a ballet dancer but when I saw those women in THEIR FLESH TONE tights and shoes, I thought, “Oh there really is a place for me. It’s not just a “Barbie Doll” dream” So that’s why I post this. I suspect that most little Chocolate Drops are in bed by the time Lopez tonight comes on so make sure if you have one or know one that you make sure they see this!!
I appreciate the fact that he introduces her!! that ‘s really important. Work it Miss. Misty Spreading Chocolate!!!!
As if it weren’t juicy enough, hear what Mrs. Forsythe says when I ask her about teachers and ego! I with give a slight spoiler only because I find what she says so beautiful and a tribute to how she truly feels about dance, teaching and the Horton technique. She says that being able to teach a gift- that is is about sharing and love, she also gives some advice to students who encounter difficulty with certain teachers.
As a side note I would like to say to both teachers and students out there, that it’s important to remember that teachers are human, and make mistakes, and are not perfect- it’s a relationship that you work to build on that should start with a certain level of trust on both parts; students should trust that a teacher has the information and are trained to communicate it and teachers have to trust that students are there because they want that information. Both parties have to work to make that exchange at least possible if not pleasant!
Part 3
In Part 4 we discuss how throughout the years generations of students have changed, and thus the way each generation is trained must shift a bit to accommodate them. How has this paradigm shift effected both students and teachers, and what have we gained from it and what have we lost? I love that she talks about finding your fit when it comes to both your skills and your body type (it’s one of the elements in my Body image workshop! happy to know that a Master agrees!) She also answers the question: Is there a Horton body type? her response might surprise you!
Part 5
We discuss how Horton (or any “pure” technique) supports contemporary dance. This is a very interesting topic for our time as we as dance educators are charged with training and preparing the body to do this sort of work. We also get into a great analogy about dance and speech, and grammar….fascinating stuff, I could talk with her all day!!! Her passion left me invigorated and excited and proud to be a dance educator entrusted to prepare future generations to trip the lights fantastic!!
I love the fact that our first lady has taken this platform on, we are losing our next generation the obesity and something has to me done. First we learned that former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes was on board (check that out here) and now Beyonce has joined the campaign creating a new version of her hit “Single Ladies” to get kids dancing as a form of exercise. Collaborating with Swiss Beats the result was a “Move your body” remix. check it out here it’s great, love that they are in a lunchroom!
A group of Ailey students clad in the black-on-black modern dress code moves like a well-oiled machine through Lester Horton’s Fortification # 1. Ana Marie Forsythe meanders among the tilting bodies, issuing gentle but firm reminders, touching a rib cage here, redirecting an arm there. Her youthful form and infectious enthusiasm belie her 50 years as a teacher of Horton technique, the rigorous, athletic style that infuses Ailey’s classic works.
A former baby ballerina with the Garden State Ballet, Forsythe was introduced to Horton technique at age 12 by Joyce Trisler—a direct disciple of Horton—with whom she later danced. She is chairperson of The Ailey School’s Horton Department (where she has taught for 37 years), co-director of the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, and co-author of The Dance Technique of Lester Horton, the only published book documenting the form. Theresa Ruth Howard sat down with Forsythe to learn how she makes even the toughest fortifications a joy to struggle through.
I cannot tell you how immensely excited I was about starting this series. I got the idea after I interviews Mrs. Forsythe for Dance Magazine’s Teachers Wisdom section. Since we both work at the Ailey School we see each other almost daily but this was the first time that we had opportunity (and cause) to sit and talk about the work. We had such a great and dynamic conversation that neither of us wanted it to end. When writing for a periodical there is always that word count to contend with, all the great tidbits of your interview can’t make it to print. When I created this forum and it started to really take shape I thought back to my conversation with Mrs. Forsythe and immediately thought “This is the place for the extended remix of our interview!” It took a bit of scheduling but I am so proud and happy to bring it to you.
If you have encountered Mrs. Forsythe be it as a student, as a participant in her teachers workshops or elsewhere, you know how knowledgable and passionate she about the work, she means business. But what you might not know is that she is absolutely delightful. To see her light up when she talks about her favorite fortification, or how brilliant design of the Horton technique is incredible, she still loves, and is fascinated by it, amazing considering that she has been teaching for over 50 years!!!
Here is part one of our chat! enjoy and take notes!
Some of the great things in this next segment relate to teachers, Forsythe says to teachers, “You have to know where you are going in order to start”
She also elaborates on how Horton -“Was designed for any body type” and how it makes it a technique that anyone on any level can access.
The best part is what she reveals about the Horton School in California and what it DIDN’T have that might have been a key element in the structure and performance quality that is built into the technique. Well what are you waiting for watch it already!
Here is what Portman said about the controversy when E entertainment interviewed her on the press junket for her new movie Your Highness:
“You know, I, it’s it’s….um…I know what went on. We, we had an amazing experience making the movie and I don’t want to tarnish it by entering into nastiness, because it’s such a positive thing what we get to do. We get to create things. I feel so lucky to be part of that, and um, I’m so proud of everyone’s work on that movie and my experience. And I’ll have that forever. And and and and and it’s important for me to remember that no matter what nastiness is going around.”
humm is nastiness code for the T’ruth? Could she have squirmed or stammered more? She was shifty and not just in her seat. you would think that an Academy Award winning actress would have given a better performance. Clearly I’m team Sarah!!! what do you think?
Creating a healthier body image through Acceptance, Appreciation and Respect
