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Summer Movement Institute Blog 2011

July 28, 2011

The Final Week

By Brieana Haygood, Garth Fagan Dance School Intern

The final week has arrived. There’s no more time to break things down, but now it’s to be perfect. Technique teachers Nicolette Depass and Khama Philips have started to put together pieces composed of different “across-the-floor” combinations done in the previous two weeks. The pieces are really coming together and on the final day an audience member would never have guessed that the beautiful pieces before them started out as class combinations.

The Repertory teachers, Lindsay Benton and Vitolio Jeune, are buckling down and cleaning up minor mistakes with their classes. Vitolio and the 13-17 year old group have also been working on their costumes for the performance. All the girls are wearing beautiful, colorful, and bright skirts with black leotards. The guys are wearing nice button down shirts with slacks. The costumes bring together the movement and make the class look professional and complete. Lindsay and the 18 and over group have conquered the challenge of having to learn and perfect two of Garth Fagan’s pieces, Landscape and Time After Before Place.

The Composition teachers, Bill Ferguson and Natalie Rogers-Cropper, are also in the process of cleaning up and perfecting their pieces. With all the hard work being put in by teachers and dancers alike, the final performance on Saturday will be quite impressive and entertaining to watch.

July 27, 2011

Dancers Are

By Brieana Haygood, Garth Fagan Dance School Intern

Let your body do the talking, it says more than words ever can.

 Every sense is heightened. Focus, precision, and eloquence take over. Muscles stretch to the depths of a dancer’s soul creating a bridge for strength, power, and beauty to cross over and be shown in motion.

Fibers of black leotards and tights bleed with sweat, which is hard work in liquid form. Dancers recite poetry in their movement. Each dance motion is like a profound word or line that tells an inspiring story. The beginning, middle and end of a piece come together in a poetic way flowing flawlessly with impressive body language and diction. A dancer’s movement gracefully yet tenaciously paints a portrait with the floor as the canvas. Dancers are true artists that come in more than one form. These artists leave their hearts on the floor, a stage exploding with passion. A passion that is so exquisite and raw an audience is left feeling overwhelmed and exhilarated. True dancers don’t leave the audience satisfied, they leave the audience hungry and yearning for more. Dancers are also amazing seamstresses. They thread together every turn, leap, pointed toe, and balance till every stitch is tightly sewn. This is combined with passion, poise and technique, finally creating an admirable patchwork pleasing to one’s eye. Dancers are many things, but one thing they are not is insubstantial. Dancers rise above discomfort and fight through split feet, bruising knees, back aches, and sore thighs. Dancers are fighters. Dancers are seamstress. Dancers are artists. Dancers are poets. Dancers are radiant human beings that fill this world with talent, delight, and fortitude. Dancers just are…

July 21, 2011

What's it all about?

by Livie Cohn, Garth Fagan Dance Intern

The humidity may be out in full force but the dancers of the Summer Movement Institute (SMI) are bringing the heat.  It is a long day for them with technique classes starting promptly at 9:30 am, but their enthusiasm, passion, and energy seems to last them through the day until their repertory class concludes at 4:00 pm. 

Marking the halfway point in the program, there is an evident change in the SMI students.  Not only are their extensions longer and their muscles stronger, but the confidence level in each dancer has improved immensely.  No longer shy or timid around each other or with the teachers, the students are capitalizing on their assets here at Garth Fagan Dance by embracing and encouraging one another, as well as asking questions of their teachers and taking in what each one has to say to make themselves stronger dancers.

Each student will get something different out of the program, but the most common response so far has been how different this program is from any other one.  Whether it’s through the immersion of the Fagan-technique style or through the level of expertise among the teachers, the students have given an overwhelming testimonial to how helpful each one is to the development of his or her craft.  One student commented on how much she had appreciated the teachers by saying, “They can see potential in you and help you go far…” 

The level of detail the instructors pay to each student is something to be noted and as each one fixes the placement of an arm, leg, or other extremity  on a student, the response from each SMI participant is a feeling of growth and gratitude.  After each correction is addressed, the students strive to recreate what their instructor has pointed out and is miraculously matched to the teacher’s vision the next time the combination is performed.  As intense as the Summer Movement Institute is, the level of growth, passion and nurturing that is displayed among the participants and instructors is something to be noticed.