Grace Kernohan ’13, Isabel Wise ’13 and Hayley Fish ’13
How do the girls work with their dancers, trained and untrained, to make sure that movement tells the story, independent of costumes, music and lighting? Last year Hayley’s dance relied on technically advanced dancers. You could show them what an eight count looked like, and they’d do it. This year her troupe is completely new to dance. It was “very eye-opening for me,” Hayley says, “to see that some movements I thought were easy are not, especially for the guys. I have to break down every movement. I teach legs first, then arms, then legs faster, then arms faster, until it comes together.” Isabel talks about having to find a balance. Instructors at the studio where she has studied are often very direct and severe. That doesn’t work with your peers. “I have to lean more on the respect side of the fear-and-respect tension,” Isabel says, “and I’m getting better at that.” Grace uses metaphors to help her dancers “go beyond the movement itself,” she says. “I’ll say, ‘Cut it like a knife,’ or ‘Weed your way all the way up.’ 28 Milton Magazine
“Anyone can lift his arm up, but I want him to bring it up with power and emotion. The metaphors help me get my message across to the dancers, as well as to the audience. If the dancers don’t perform with emotion behind their movements, the story will be lost in the dance.” Grace talks with individual dancers after the practice, not in front of the others. That’s a better time, she thinks, to tell a dancer to “flex her hand, rather than keeping it so pretty.” Creative blocks do occur, before and during the eight-week rehearsal span. They can be painful, everyone agrees. Isabel finds inspiration from just watching other highly trained dancers; Grace likes to walk away from the music and then come back to it. Hayley often relies on videos of her older performances for new ideas. Kelli says that she will start with one of a number of physical exercises, hoping that it will generate ideas. The time comes when the choreographers must rely on a combination of trust and just letting go, whether or not a work is “finished.” “After a certain number of
run-throughs, the dancers need to see what they can do. You leave it to them,” says Hayley. The dance is “always a mess” the first time dancers perform it onstage, during what’s known as “tech week,” just before the show. “You don’t have the mirror you’re used to, the stage is shaped differently from the studio floor, and you now have an audience,” Grace points out. “That moment of surprise eventually comes, when the dance has been performed, and you say, ‘Wow, I really did all that.’” As Kelli says about her dancers and choreographers, these are young people trying to figure out the creative process. “They draw on what they know, and their expectations are based on what they’ve seen. What I’m trying to do is change their expectations of what they are doing, forcing them, and us, to create something fundamentally new.” Cathleen D. Everett