The event is in its
second year and is organized by Edward Simon and Sam Sodano as a part of NYDF. I didn’t get to go last year but I had heard
mixed reviews. Some said it was great
and that there was a lot of information shared and love expressed for the
American styles. Others said
(particularly after the Rhythm section) that there was no consensus and dancers
were more confused going out than coming in.
So what about this
year? All in all I’d say the Congress
was great and I certainly did learn a lot and there was plenty of inspiration
to go around! I would definitely
recommend anyone dancing Rhythm or Smooth to attend next year and buy the video
from this year. That said, there were
still a few awkward moments (to put it nicely) and at the close of the Rhythm
section the love wasn’t flowing quite as strong as it was at the end of Smooth.
Since I took a bunch
of notes, I’m going to try and just give the highlights for each of the
panelists (although in some cases it will be hard because they had an awful lot
of interesting things to say)!
So to kick it off, on
to American Smooth! Henceforth subtitled, the love fest. I must warn you this is a long post! :)
Mayo Alanen &
Michelle Officer
The day began with
Mayo and Michelle and they did a great job kicking things off, even being first
up at 9am the audience was enthralled.
Their lecture focused on the development of style and choreography in
Viennese Waltz and how to create choreography with your partner.
They offered some great
advice on communicating and testing out new ideas with your partner. They explained in their practice they use a
number of different techniques for conveying choreography ideas including: explaining your thoughts in words,
demonstrating the steps yourself, working through your ideas with your partner
but keeping your partner in “receiver mode” (meaning they don’t contribute to
how the idea pans out, they are really just a body to work with), collaborating
with your partner to try and bring your ideas to life, and even trying to sing
or draw the shapes or feelings you want to express. The real words of wisdom here were to let your
partner run with their idea to the finish.
Even though you might think the idea is crazy at first you don’t want to
stifle your partner’s creativity and in the end you might come up with
something great. It’s probably something
we all know deep down but in practice it can be so hard and hearing them
describe their process was just a great reminder of something so important.
They did a great demo
of developing choreography noting it’s important to always emphasize the
character of each of the dances. Starting
with a simple reverse turn they first explored alternate holds, then adding
turns for the lady, next alternate positions (like shadow), then borrowing
styling from different types of dance (like the Latin samba roll), and finally taking
the move side by side. Just by watching
Smooth you can see there are so many choreographic possibilities but seeing the
many options for just one basic step performed back to back really hammered the
idea home. You can really get creative
with your choreography and your inspiration can really be endless and come from
anywhere!
The last thing they
talked about was musicality and how darker v. lighter music can change how the
dance is performed. Demonstrating their
choreography in the two extremes, they gave the audience a real treat and
really there is no amount of explaining that could make up for the visual. Guess you’ll have to buy the video :)
I didn't video the Congress but Michelle did break out her fan from this dance. Might as well enjoy the whole thing here!
Mazen Hamza & Izabella Jundzill
Next
up was Mazen and Izabella with their discussion of choreography in Tango. Their lecture was actually quite similar to
Mayo and Michelle’s (although I will admit I thought it lagged a bit more in
places). Their overall theme was “Make it,
Master it, and Make it Matter.” They similarly
took a simple step, the left turn (or reverse turn) into the fan, and worked
through sprucing it up. In effect, “making”
the choreography.
For
“mastering it”, they focused on two things:
self awareness and unit awareness.
Basically first dealing with your own balance and steps and getting
those under control before moving into couple work. This part of their lecture was truly
fascinating to watch as they each took turns demonstrating how the steps
allowed them to create different shapes and feelings, which in turn changed
their partner’s shapes and feelings. Their
most simplified demonstration of mastering dealt with ladies turning and the
control that is necessary so that the leader’s dancing doesn’t suffer
(something they called “no spin and pray”).
Once again, there are no words that could make up for their performance so
if you are truly interested buy the DVD (no I swear I’m not getting a portion
of the sales)!
Next, they reiterated a point that became prevalent throughout the smooth lectures: don’t forget what dance you are doing! The dance gives you a spectrum of ideas for choreography already, so use them! Finally, to end they noted the importance of making the dancing matter first to yourself and then to the audience.
By this point in the day (if you’re keeping track we were only
about an hour in), I think it’s safe to say everyone had drank some of the
Smooth Kool-Aid. Even the non-Smooth competitors/judges in the room seemed
enchanted!
Slawek Sochacki & Marzena Stachura
The current champs Slawek and Marzena were next and I am ashamed
to admit I don’t have many notes. After
the first two lectures I was having a serious wrist cramp and was looking
forward to just watching instead of furiously writing! I did take down a few things though, so here are some
seriously condensed highlights bullet form:
- Tailor your choreography to your level, strengths, and of course the character of the dance
- There was a discussion of their study of the Laban Movement (really wish I had more notes) that was very interesting. There might be some more dance reading in my future :)
- They finished by noting you should never be performing the same dance twice. First, because the music always changes round to round and the music should dictate so much about a dance. Second, because with so many competitions a year you’ll just get bored, changing even little things keeps the inspiration flowing!
Charlie & Jeannie Penatello
Jeannie Penatello’s lecture was next up with comedic relief
provided by husband Charlie. Her lecture
focused a lot on the history and development of Smooth taking to heart the theme
set for the Congress: “American Style
Dancing…where we’ve been and where we’re going!”
Her lecture would make a great article; it got a little hard to
follow with all the dates and historical information jumping back and forth but I would love to have it in print! She detailed changes in music (live to
taped), costumes (large petticoats to the more Latinized Smooth gowns of
today), and dance position (how contact was originally improper but gradually grew
closer starting with the introduction of foxtrot and “diaphragm contact” in the beginning of
the 1900s). She also talked a lot about
how competitions used to be organized in terms of style, with the foxtrot,
bolero, swing, and mambo danced together as the American Style until 1984.
Her lecture ended with the Peabody and a lot of cheers,
particularly when she said, “Why add an American Quickstep? If anything it should be called the
International Peabody!” Their quick demo
of the Peabody of course got a standing O and was one of the mornings
highlights!
Should we add Peabody? At least there would be more YouTube videos to choose from!!
Nick & Lena Kosovich
Nick and Lena were the first lecturers to really focus on the
mechanics of practice. For them the
golden ratio is 90% of practice focused on drills and only the 10% remaining on
choreography. From there they went on to
give the audience a drill on drills (even getting everyone to their feet to try
a few). The recommended drills included:
- Bending: all the joints (limiting knee bend to keeping a neutral hip, if you go too far you’ll either fall forward or displace your hip)
- Stretching
- Contracting: this is the least used, you can’t just shape constantly (always stretch) you need contrast!
- Twisting: preparation for turns
- Traveling
- Balancing
- Timing
After focusing on all those, then you get to work on
choreography because without good technique you can only get so far! As a side note, I could be making this up but I think they said they had a book coming out soon?!? Anyone have any information on this?
Michael Mead
OK so once again I’m slightly ashamed to admit I don’t have a
ton of notes from this one. His lecture
was informative but it was a little harder to pay attention without dancing
interludes (or husband/wife playful bickering).
So I’ll go for some bulleted highlights on this one:
- Choreography is to help present the story, not the end goal in itself
- The needs of a basic dancer require choreography so they can practice but can’t over-choreograph or they won’t learn
- Develop character after working on the basics to be more dynamic (needs to be in character with music once again)
- Champ dancers should strive to differentiate themselves from each other but individuality still needs to be focused in a way that moves the storylines forward
- When judging basic level dancing, you look for clarity not the best interpretation so focus on technique first (I wish he had talked more about when a focus of interpretation should enter a dancers concentration because it seemed like there were a wide variety of levels in the audience)
Tomas Mielnicki & JT Thomas
Tomas and JT ended the Smooth session with a highly entertaining
lecture on finding your own style and personality. They noted that your choreographic choices
can be based on many things including:
emotions, athleticism (don’t make it all this!), overall choreographic
interest (making sure the whole picture makes sense), and of course (by now you
know) the character of the dance.
They ended on a highly inspirational note encouraging the
audience not to get bored with the basics, to not be afraid to try something
new. Some people might not like what you’re
doing but you should still stay true to yourself because you might become a
trendsetter and even a champion.
The Wrap Up
After the lectures there was a Q&A session. There was some great interaction here, but I
only noted two of the questions that I thought most interesting. The first was about adapting Smooth for a
world-wide audience by potentially changing the name to drop “American” from
the title. Apparently this was something
that was discussed last year but since I wasn’t there this was all new to
me. There were some great arguments for
renaming to make the style more all-inclusive, no one would forget its American
roots but you don’t need hit everyone over the head with it. As a corollary, there was a question of
whether the Peabody would make a good addition or if it would make it more
difficult to move towards global appeal.
Michelle Officer gave a great answer: she loves the dance but worries
that it might appear strange next to the other dances since they’ve developed
so much over the years while Peabody music and form hasn’t changed.
The second question that grabbed my attention was whether there
should be a compulsory basic dance added as the fifth dance to Smooth. A lot of the panel thought it was a great
idea, a way to showcase the basics and really be able to see each couples
technique. Mazen was the one detractor,
saying he was worried a compulsory dance would take away from all the
creativity and personal style that the competitors strive so hard to achieve.
PHEW!!! That’s a lot and
all before lunch! As I said this session
was jam packed with information and amazing demos (once again you’re gonna need
to buy the video for that)! For me
getting a chance to see each couple up close was a real treat that much like a
compulsory dance allowed me to compare them technique to technique, style to
style, interpretation to interpretation.
I also loved all the focus on the character of the dance, it really did
get to shine with each of the couples taking on different dances.
Well that’s my take on the Smooth! Love was all around between lecturers and
each other (many current competitors) and the audience. It really seemed like everyone left for lunch
on a high.
And on that note it’s time for me to watch some Oscars and head
to bed, leaving the Rhythm session for tomorrow. But I’ll give you a hint there was a little
less cohesion, a little more confusion, and a tad too much condescension.
Since I did mention the video numerous times, for the website where it will probably be available for purchase, click here!
Since I did mention the video numerous times, for the website where it will probably be available for purchase, click here!
No comments:
Post a Comment