Springfield High School: Making dance moves...

I am slightly behind on blog posts after the recent purchase of a video camera has kept me from writing. I have instead been focusing more on filming and learning, once again, everything I still don't know about my computer. Or perhaps I am responding to the recent ice and snowstorms that are causing school delays and cancellations by writing on paper with a pen, a comforting act often neglected because of the ease e-mail and internet search engines provide.

The media you will see here is documenting my fall residency at Springfield High School in my lovely hometown. I worked with P.E. classes, a chorus class, and Russian and German students teaching and learning modern dance, choreography, social dance a la Lawrence Welk, and native folk dances. Between helping kids take weight in their arms and wooing students with images of lederhosen, we managed to both learn choreography and create new choreography, helping students see themselves as movers and dance-makers. I was blessed with overwhelming support from staff who welcomed me into their classrooms and often participated with their students, which created environments rich with play, laughter, and sometimes confusion.

Earlier in this blog, I posted a link to an edition of the Green Horn, the high school's newspaper with an article on this particular residency. In this post, I include an interview from the school's production of Green Horn Live, a news broadcast produced by students every Friday. I am indebted to students Hanna Reeves and Tom Benton for this interview, all video clips, and their stellar behind-the-scenes tech work. Also for their cheerfulness and and enthusiasm. Note Ashley in ballet class, something I do more than any of my urban modern dance friends may have ever imagined possible for this barefoot goddess.

Also included are clips from the school's recent Empty Bowl Dinner, an evening to raise funds for Springfield's Family Center. The event included a student-cooked meal (made by culinary arts tech students), beautiful student-made pottery, and student performances of music, drama and dance. Here you will see the some of the Russian students performing a Korobushka and some of the German students performing a D'hammerschmledsgselin. Later in the evening P.E. students performed an original piece of choreography based on athletic duets they created together, Eliza Pennell performed a solo she choreographed for our independent study work together, and a few modern dancers from my class at the Dance Factory performed a co-choreographed dance we began in class and completed during a weekend rehearsal together. The night was a sweet treat for me because it allowed me to see the diverse and rich accomplishments of these students and a school that committed to supporting an artist at work for six weeks. I am incredibly grateful to all who made this experience possible, especially the students who opened themselves to trying something that may have felt scary and outside their comfort zone.

I thoroughly enjoy sharing Springfield with these folks.

Vermont State Dance Festival

I took some of the ladies from the Dance Factory up to the Vermont State Dance Festival on Novemer 22nd, a day of dance organized by Rebecca McGregor to bring high school students from around the state together to take classes, perform dance for a broader audience than they are most likely used to, and have opportunities to talk about choreography. My co-adult Meegan and I met up with five lovely teenagers, Lauren F., Eliza, Lauren S., Holly, and Jalessah, at the Springfield Dunkin' Donuts at 6 am to stock up on nourishment before the long trip north to Lyndon Institute. Despite the early morning Saturday adventure, these girls seemed excited and perhaps a tad nervous, not quite sure what they were getting themselves into.


We were greeted by a bright, smiling Rebecca immediately upon entering the Institute, our crew impressed by the beauty of this school's campus. We were given folders with class schedules and Rebecca quickly noted that she had split up the girls, hoping they would use this experience to get to know students from other high schools and studios. After a killer Pilates warm-up (I don't think I've worked my abs that slowly since I was a high school student), I followed a couple students into Paul Besaw's modern class. How wonderful it was for me to take modern class! After teaching for the past couple months, I had forgotten how luscious it can feel to experience someone else's take on modern dance, even a more classically-minded class than the one I teach. The students who take my modern class were surprised by the similarities and differences in Paul's class. I was thrilled they were able to experience modern with another teacher, to have their concept of what modern dance is expanded some in a very brief period of time.

We continued taking classes, the kids particularly enjoying hip hop, Lauren F. getting a kick out of salsa. We were entertained by a break dancing performance at lunch, with a fantastic crew of b-boys, sparking a conversation about the recent addition of boys to the girls' own dance team back at their high school. They began recognizing other students. Eliza went to a summer program with someone at the festival. There were students from schools their dance team competed with during the school year. I felt some of them start to feel like they were part of dance community broader than just their high school or the Dance Factory. I had a similar experience recognizing teachers I had gone to school with or met at a different dance event. Rebecca organized a post-lunch meeting for all of us to talk about our experiences in our educational institutions, our hopes for the festival experience, and ideas for the future of collaborative work. It is so easy to think of yourself as isolated working as a teacher in rural areas. This time and event was a reminder of the plethora of dance that exists in these small spaces and the creative minds and bodies making those experiences possible.

Although I performed briefly at the festival (a newly choreographed solo you gotta make it up highlighting my experiences working with high school students in Springfield decked out in cowgirl boots and skinny jeans) it was the student performances that were the most compelling part of the festival for me and for at least some of the students who made the journey north. The afternoon consisted of a facilitated discussion of student-performed and sometimes student-choreographed dance with students offering their opinions about choreographic structure and performance quality of the work. How exciting it was to hear kids talk critically about what they were seeing on stage! And how fantastic it was to see such diverse dances performed by students from all over Vermont. The Dance Factory ladies and I had a very spirited conversation about the work during dinner.

Lauren F. and Eliza were already planning what the Dance Factory would bring to next year's festival on the car ride home. Thank you Rebecca for providing this opportunities for dance students and their teachers in Vermont. A powerful example of a rural dance revolution.

House dances: Inspiration

In my wallet is a little card I stole from Zoe, my artistic/life-friend partner currently rockin' organic farms in Italy via WOOF, with a little angel reading, "Inspiration." I hold this close to me wherever I go as a reminder that the spaces we exist within are never empty.

My kitchen serves as a makeshift dance studio. I have a key to the Dance Factory, less than a mile from my house, but when I feel like waking up and moving or tumbling from ballet class to a place of improvisation, I open iTunes and find myself falling, rising, risking, leaning, caking the dirty yellow floor with the weight of motion. The door frames become makeshift lovers, the counter tops turn into floor surfaces, and I can't help but wonder what neighbors walking their dogs at night see when they peer into my windows.

I have found a way to keep warm during cold Vermont nights.

Zoe and I had little money to rent a theater in Cambridge so we held shows in our house - open house dance productions. Now home spaces feel so intimately connected to possible dance performances that I find myself sitting in different corners of the living room, watching imaginary dances.

I am ready. And students are ready. I'm looking forward to my home become a performance space again. Keep posted for the next open house dance production in late January 2009. Zoe, when you come home, we'll have another one just for you.

Impov: Fall break

Although this class occurred a while ago, I wanted to share it with a larger audience, because it was a turning point for my modern class at the Dance Factory. After checking in with the group of students in Friday afternoon modern, I decided to hold an improvisation/choreography class during fall break, an optional dance experience for those who would be around and wanted to get moving. This would be an opportunity to focus less on technique and more on creativity... to encourage participants to see themselves as active dance-makers.

Class:

Cathy Nicoli warm-up - personal favorite that includes shifting weight from one foot to the other and pushing one's arms in all directions

Follow the leader warm-up - alternating leaders, moving through space, self-decided how long one could lead

Moving shape - in groups of 3 or 4 one person makes a shape, another uses the positive space around that person's body to make another shape - continues until everyone has made a shape. First person leaves shape, observes, and comes in to make a new shape.

Space-filling duets - moving with partner, focus is on filling each other's space... two people exploring positive and negative space, focus less on shape and more on movement

Create rise and fall duets - continue thinking about filling/working with positive/negative space

Perhaps the most beautiful moment in this class was participants realizing there were multiple ways of interpreting and creating choreography. Some focused on using movement as a source of inspiration or found specific movements compelling in and of themselves, while others took a more narrative approach to both dance-making and dance-viewing, finding the stories or emotions inherent in their experience with dance. The class encouraged a plethora of choreography ideas for both myself and the participants.

Meet Eliza

Eliza is bright and so open to the world, I often find myself wanting to reach into the back of her head and climb into her mind, swimming through her adolescent glory to better understand passion, dance, and our ability to share what we see with others. I have known her only for a brief period of time. When she was young, perhaps mid-elementary school years, I assisted her jazz teacher and ran around doing jazz squares and kick-ball-chain's with what I remember as a very serious child. I didn't re-meet her until this school year. She is junior at Springfield High School and frequents the Dance Factory (where I teach modern) every day where she just picked up ballet only a couple of years ago. She is fearless in my modern class and a quirky, innovative improviser.

However, I have learned the most about Eliza through an independent study she designed this year at the high school. I serve as her adviser, but mostly work alongside her, as we explore modern dance history though the choreographers who made it. Together we read, watch clips, and talk. Eliza makes her own choreographic studies in response to, inspired by, or as visions of possibility based on our meandering strolls through the lives and work of these rebel rousers. I, in turn, am given the opportunity to see the past as something fresh, to rediscover what has led to my own evolution as a dance-maker, and to grow as a teacher and student beside one who has an innate gift for both.

Here I share her first writing assignment from earlier this school year: "What do you see when you watch dance?" Keep posted for clips of her choreography. Thoughts?

Watching Dance

by Eliza Pennell

I see the basis for life when I watch dance: I see motion. Dance shows me anything under the sun, anything in life. I see myself, and I recognize people I know. I see betrayal, sexual tension, and exhilaration. I see the monotonous comfort of a physics lesson. I see no rules and I see broken rules. I see fairies and soccer games. I see memories: my favorite place to lie in the grass, my favorite childhood movie, my friend's funeral for her hamster. I see hope and sadness. I see fun. I see familiar motions, magnified and transformed into something beautiful---walking, kicking, turning away, nodding, stretching, falling. Dance can tell me a story; it can show me an image. It can persuade me.

When I watch dance, I see the power of the performer. I see adrenaline, thrill and strength; I see the superhuman quality performers possess while they're onstage. I see sinuous limbs and taut muscles. I see careless precision and careful recklessness. I see the mask that is sometimes necessary for performers to hide behind. I also see performers shedding those masks, becoming more themselves onstage than they are backstage. I see what art means to artists; I see the things they can't say but need to release somehow. I see myself. I see the responsibility that comes with creating and showing art, but I also see the freedom of it. I see my own responsibility and freedom as an aspiring artist.

When I watch dance, I see my future. Sometimes I see success, but sometimes I see failure. Sometimes I see myself soaring like an eagle across a brightly lit stage; other times, I see myself crying over broken toenails and broken dreams. Dance shows me my own passion, but it also shows me the risk that comes with that passion, the fear that passion won't be enough.

When I watch dance, I see everything in opposition. I see honesty and truth. I see lies. I see conformity along with rebellion. I see freedom; I see entrapment. I see uniformity and individuality. I see fluidity and rigidity. I see an illustration of failure only with the success of a choreographer and dancer. I see chaos only with the precision and order of a well-planned piece of choreography. I see that sometimes a pause, a moment of stillness, is the most powerful, resonating movement in a dance. I see that dance requires decision---but is only meaningful with intuition. I see how complex dance can be, yet how simple and natural it's always been.

There's something else I see when I watch dance---but I don't really know how to see it. I don't know what it looks like. Does it even look like anything? Everything? It's a sense of fullness, as though my body is simply to small to contain everything swirling around inside of me. I can see the wonder of life, the beauty of the human body. Most importantly, I see the inherent creativity and passion the human race is graced with. I see the emotional trigger one small motion of one small person on one small stage can produce. This trigger could make me cry; it could make me smile. I see the magic with which art brings about change in a person---or even change in the world. I see a gap in the dancer, a space that's usually occupied by a filter between the mind and body. I see the glory of not having to think, of simply moving. I see movement when I watch dance; I therefore see life. I see a celebration of life. I see the pride in being an artist, in being someone who strives to better themselves.

Sometimes when I watch dance, I don't know what I'm seeing. But in any case, I'm seeing.

Student Paper Cover Story

Times are good when the dancer-at-school gets to share the front page with an Obama win. Check in out:

http://shs.ssdvt.org/Pages/SpringVT_SHSGreen/back/Layout.pdf

This is the school newspaper of one of the high schools I am working at, Springfield High School, of which I am a proud alum. It's an impressive example of quality student work. The paper is overseen by Mike Janiszyn, perhaps the greatest English teacher to grace the planet. Spend some time with it if you can and notice Eliza Pennell's column. More about her to come in the near future...

Seeking Movers and Groovers

Choreographer and community artist Ashley Hensel-Browning is currently looking for people of all ages and backgrounds to participate in an intergenerational dance group based in Springfield. Participants will take class, learn, and make dances with each other, exploring how movement can be used as a source of expression and connection across generations. Together we will create original works that will be shared in future dance concerts. Dancers of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds are desired.


Ashley has danced with members of the Dance Generators, an intergenerational dance company based in Amherst, MA and currently works as a teaching artist in schools throughout Vermont and Massachusetts. She is co-founder and artistic director of ZoAsh Dance, a modern dance company that explores contemporary dance-making in a variety of venues that encourage audience engagement. Her work is often community-based, attempting to bridge connections between different populations of people. She has performed at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA, Mass MOCA in the Berkshires, and at the International Festival of Art and Ideas in New Haven, CT. She also teaches modern at the Dance Factory in Springfield.

No previous dance experience necessary. But honestly, who really has no dance experience? If you or your loved ones love to move and may be interested in participating, please contact Ashley at dancewithashley@gmail.com for more information.

Westminster Center School: Choreographers in the making

Meet some of the students of Westminster Center School's choreography class of Fall 2008.These 1st through 4th grade students and I four times over the course of four weeks and explored different elements of dance such as shape, space, time, and effort, encouraging students think like artists and develop their imaginative capacity and ability to see in new ways.


The first and second graders learned about moving at low, middle, and high levels and created cycle dances about leaves, caterpillars and butterflies, and garden plants. The third and fourth graders worked together to create dances which explored different ways of moving over and under each other, as well as choreography based on ecosystems and different kinds of work they learned about during a recent fieldtrip to Fort #4.


They shared these dances with the entire school on November 4th during an all-school meeting. This project was funded in part by the Westminster Center School as well as Extending the Dance Map, a tri-state project in VT, NH, and ME that works to encourage and increase dance opportunities for students in rural schools.

6 Hillcrest Rd: A choreographer's homecoming

I read blogs of my friends exploring the world in places I have never been: Africa, the Dominican Republic, and soon there will be a farmer in Italy. I live vicariously through their blog posts and imagine myself teaching in Lesotho with Sara, taking pictures of children or dancing in the rain in the DR with Aislinn, or writing music in Alaska with Amy. I am intrigued by these foreign places, but at the same time, am often touched by the similar experiences I share with these folks exploring art with a diversity of people in attempt to understand that which keeps us disconnected and that which connects us. My own entry into the world of blogging is to share my experiences as an arts believer and builder in an unlikely place: Springfield, Vermont, an old mill town supporting around 9,000 residents as well as boasting the title "Home of the Simpsons."

I find myself nestled in a small, one-story home that cradled me for the first three years of my life, working in a studio with a woman who opened me to dance, and a high school that challenged me so much that my only choice was to return. This is not my hometown, Cavendish, a much smaller town 25 minutes up the road, but a community that taught me about art without acknowledging its impact on me. So I return with a sense of commitment and purpose - to learn from the place that so supported me even in its challenges and to be part of that for a new generation.