Hope everyone is having a great Monday so far! Today in my modern class my teacher, Gerald, had us take out our notebooks and free write on this question: “Why am I here today?” – we could interpret and write however we wanted. He wasn’t going to collect this – it was just for us. I have a feeling that he has us do this when we start to get tired. I really this assignment because it was a great reminder of why I was there in class today. I had a really long weekend and it was very tiring so I was particularly tired today. I’m sure this happens to everyone, but I happen to wake up this morning and consider not going to class. I really considered it this time, but I said to myself, “No you came here for a reason and I’m not sick so I have no reason to skip class.” And then it happen to be a day where Gerald asks us to ask ourselves “Why am I here?”. This is what I wrote:

“Today I am here to prove to myself that no matter how tired I get I can push through. Even as I’m writing my arm and wrist are tired and my fingers as well. I made a commitment to this program and made it a point to absorb as much information as possible. I also came here to dance. If I don’t show up to class then I don’t dance. Even though initially I may not want to come because of being “tired” or laziness, I always receive some kind of information that is helpful to my dancing or just life in general. I’m also here because I don’t want to repeat the same behavior of skipping class because I was too tired during my undergrad program. I expect myself to be as professional as possible as I expect from everyone around me.”

I’m really Gerald had us write this before class started. It was a nice boost of inspiration that we all needed because as we are now entering our 4th week of school we are all getting more and more tired from rehearsals and etc. I hope that everyone can question themselves with this particular question so that they can use it as a tool to help them get through the day – or perhaps even just to help them get out of bed. It worked for me!

Happy Monday!

So I am up and awake even though it is late, because I can’t sleep from this pain in my Achilles. I went to the podiatrist yesterday and they told me to stay off of it for at least 10 days and to come back and get more x-rays. I hate feeling so helpless…my poor kids today when I was teaching were playing dance charades with me because I was too gimpy to teach certain things…it really makes you stand back and appreciate the art of what we do as dancers and instructors daily. It’s SO important to take care of your body, because this is all we have in our lives to keep us going…if I didn’t have dance I don’t know what I would do. A very close friend of mine was such a beautiful dancer, and she got to her potential and ended up stopping because of those many instances that come into our path in life, and she chose the road without it, and she regrets it now! Just reminds me that no matter how hard things ever get, I am reminded that I do what I love every single day of my life and should be so thankful.  If I could touch someone and teach them what dance really is, and how it feels when you really give into the beauty of it, I will have fullfilled my duty as an educator.

Now I just have to be patient and try to let myself heal before I really injure something. So, this picture I posted above was from my last competition with my student. Today I had to tell him that I can’t do our next scheduled competition in 2 weeks, and I’m so bummed. I posted this picture so it could keep me focused on trying to get better and give me something to look forward to.

If you are someone who has ever lost track in your life of what you really love, just remind yourself of what it would feel like to lose anything and everything and be left doing something you hated everyday and hopefully you will feel better. Sorry for the deep blog, just kind of helpless with one good leg.

Have a good nite everyone…

Hello everyone!

I’m finishing up my third week of school and am starting to feel the wrath of this program. I was warned it was going to be very exhausting and intense and now I know exactly what they mean. My rehearsal schedule is starting to pile up so I now have about 10-12 hour days. It’s great, though. I’m really enjoying all the dancing I’m doing and getting my butt kicked! The weather has started to warm up again – low 80s and humidity – so there is a lot of sweating going on! There is no air conditioning in any of the dance rooms (as it should be) so it’s been such a great workout!

Today we got to observe the Second Avenue Dance Company’s (3rd year BFA and 2nd year MFA’s) rehearsal – and later discussion – of their Alwin Nikolais piece that was reset on them called “Pond” by Alberto Del Saz. You can check out excerpt from the piece on www.youtube.com that was performed by the Ririe/Woodbury Dance Company  (copy and paste the link):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmPQNPzjtto

Interesting and very innovative, right? If anything it’s probably nothing you’ve ever seen before.

If you don’t know who Alwin Nikolais was you should definitely google his name or research him in the library. He was one of the great modern American choreographers who incorporated multimedia in his choreography. He composed his own music, designed his own costumes, and incorporated a lot of prop usage in his choreography. His movement was based on 3 basic principles on learning movement:

1) Remove yourself and your ego so that you can become the dance. Alberto Del Saz, who has been in the Nikolais company since 1985, told us about these principles today and he said it’s like “removing” your skin and putting a new layer on to learn a different dance. It was because Nikolais was so diverse with his creativity that the dancers had to become a “new” dancer each time.

2) Totality – everything and your whole being is involved in the movement. i.e. If you are moving your arm – it’s not just your arm, but your entire body is functioning and working to do engage the arm.

3) Immediacy – being in the moment. Being present in the moment is always good as a general life rule. It’s being the now and the present moment that only you can succeed fully at your tasks.

I was really inspired by these 3 principles because I completely believe in all of them. I believe that these rules can help with life in general as well. I’ve been hearing a lot of the same ideas from several of my professors about being in the present moment and “shedding” your skin so that you can build another one with even more knowledge and creativity. I know I’m segueing a bit, but I just want to leave a short quote from a biography on Nikolais before I move on:

“Nikolais re-defined dance as the art of motion, which left on its own merits, becomes the message as well as the medium. It was at the Playhouse that he developed his theory of abstract dance and his theater of light, sound and motion. His unique choreography placed him in a realm of previously unexplored by other choreographers.”

He was definitely a pioneer of the use of multimedia and he’s very inspirational in the sense that he incorporated all the aspects of light, sound, motion and movement into his choreography. We got to have a Q&A session with Alberto and he also mentioned that figuring out your body as an instrument can lead to more discovery and exploration. One must go beyond the simple mechanics of the body so that you can really dig deep into what your body can do. I really find that inspiring because I think as a dancer and choreographer I’m always finding new ways to be creative, and I’ve never really thought of exploring my body as an instrument before. He also mentioned that when you’re working with a prop there is a relationship that needs to be established. Like the piece he set on the Second Avenue Dance Company (SADC) – they glided along the stage on these “scooters” that they sat on. So really the dancers were almost dancing a duet with their prop because it wasn’t just them providing the movement, but rather themselves AND the prop. I don’t usually work with props when I choreograph, but if and when I do I’m going to really investigate that relationship that develops when creating movement with it.

I hope this blog was insightful a little educating – especially to my younger generations. I will be blogging more about things I’m learning in my MFA program and sharing all my thoughts and inspirations. Thanks so much for reading!

If you’re a soon to be college student and/or thinking of colleges to apply for then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND applying for Tisch for dance as an undergraduate. I’ve talked to quite a few BFA students and have gotten a sense of their schedules and am really liking what I’m hearing. It almost makes me wish I went to Tisch for my undergrad. Don’t get me wrong I LOVED my Chapman experience and got a lot out of that program, but from a “taking risks” standpoint I really wish I would have looked more into the New York programs. Here’s a little rundown of the BFA program at Tisch:

They only offer a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) as opposed to a BA (Bachelor of Arts), which most schools offer both. The program is only 3 years and 2 summer sessions long, which is really RARE to find. The summer sessions are only 6 weeks long so it doesn’t really cut into your summer vacation if that worries some of you. It is a bit of a struggle because the Tisch dance building is a few blocks away from the other NYU buildings for the general education courses you will have to take, but trust me the third year schedule is what makes it all worth it. In your third year you are in what is called the “Second Avenue Dance Company”, which is a company at Tisch that rehearses and performs throughout the city. They do this because they are preparing you for what it’s like to dance in a professional company. Except in this case instead of getting paid you get your BFA degree. The daily schedule changes into a later start time (1:30pm unless you decided to fill your mornings with GE classes) then you take technique classes, and then rehearse with guest choreographers that they get for you to work with. You will of course still have academic requirements, but if you get your GE courses done throughout the first two years and two summer sessions, then you can really enjoy your third year. I really would recommend looking into this school if you want to dance and are wondering what type of program to do. Yes, it is a huge step to immerse yourself into New York (if you’re not from there), but that’s what college is all about. You should take risks and make yourself go outside of your comfort zone. I really loved being at Chapman, but it was very much in my comfort zone. If you are worried about finances there is A LOT of financial aid and scholarship money that can be offered. Plus, if you get the right training and listen to my advice (wink wink) then you will no doubt be offered money to go to the school of your choice. That also includes outstanding academic work. Now don’t be intimidated by my choice of using the word outstanding. I realize that some of you may not be the A plus student, but if you have decent grades and your dancing is phenomenal then you can get that scholarship money. I really believe in this motto – If you REALLY want something to happen you can make it happen, but you’ve got to work for it.

Here’s a link to the Tisch website:

http://dance.tisch.nyu.edu/page/undergraduate.html

Hey guys my name is Rey Barcena and i am going to be a blogger here on danceworld.  yay and can’t wait to share with you guys! so a little bit about myself im 19 years old and i am a professional dancer/convention owner/and editor.  Let’s see i grew up in the comp/convention scene as a kid. i trained under melody lacayanga nick lazzarini and leo morimune growing up.  i am now a professional dancer.  one of my most recent jobs i just finished up was the new Fame movie coming out in 3 days! i am a principal dancer in the film so you all gotta go check it out! i am also the owner of the iHollywood Dance convention it is a convention that takes place yearly in summer now and soon we will be branching off and coming to a city near all of you! we have an awesome faculty and i couldn’t be more greatful check out our website ihollywooddance.com iHD 2010 is August 4-8 in los angeles so mark your calendars and be there!  i am also a part of Sonya Tayeh’s company Tayeh Dance Co that i absolutely love and we are now sponsored by DDS yay!! thank you guys soo much you are awesome!  we have a show coming up in november on the 13 & 14 in north hollywood ca at the el portal theatre so i hope you can all come watch!  i am pretty busy but i am going to blog as much as possible and give me feedback so it inspires me more to write!! yay thank you all for supporting danceworld it is going to be great and thanks to danceworld for having me here!

-Rey

my headshot - photography by erik hyler

Ballroom Competition

As I said in my last post, I am 25 years old and have just recently become a studio owner of a ballroom studio in Orange County, CA. Having been dancing ballet, jazz, tap, etc. since the age of two, most of the people who knoe me thought this was somewhat strange. I had started ballroom dancing at the age of 15 actually after seeing a Dr. Pepper commercial with a tango couple. At that time in my life I tried out the “LA scene”, got the dance agent, drove to LA daily from the OC (which is never a fun drive) and was very diligent about getting myself involved with as many different styles of dance as possible. My mom happened to be taking ballroom at the time and slowing reeled me into it. I was a little hesitant at first, thinking that with my dance background thus far I would have no problem picking it up (there in lies my 16yr old mentality). After many frustrating months, I was now at the studio at least 4 times a week including my daily classes at my traditional studio full-time. The owner of the studio at the time must had seen some potential in me as he for the next 9 years put me under an intense teacher training program (basically grilling me daily until my feet wanted to fall off), and I am where I am now today because of him. He is getting ready to retire and has asked me to take his spot. I feel it is such an honor to be given an opportunity like this, although I must say if you had asked me a year ago if I’d ever own a ballroom studio at age 25, I probably would have said “no”. It is all such a blessing and a shock really. I will many things to keep you posted on as this is just one avenue that consumes my everyday life.

For those of you who are not familiar with ballroom dancing, please start! It is such a growing trend nowadays especially with “Dancing With The Stars” Season 9, and all of the ballroom required for the dancers on “So You Think You Can Dance”. I specialize in an International style of Ballroom which consists of two main groups…the first being International Standard which includes these 5 dance styles: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, and Quickstep. The second main group is International Latin which includes these 5 styles: Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, and Jive. In my next post I will gather some of my info. for you so you can see a little background on all of the different styles to help familiarize yourself with it a bit more.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little pre-cap of the beginning of my adventure into Ballroom…

Briana Haft

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you in on a “re-cap” of my first couple of weeks of school so you have an idea of where I’m at with my experience at Tisch. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

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Friday, September 4th:

I just finished my orientation week and am now looking forward to a 3-day weekend. Monday was our first day to meet everyone and the Chair of the department. Her name is Cherylyn and she’s very welcoming and genuine. I’m really looking forward to getting to know her better. After our meet and greet we got a tour of the dance building. It’s 5 floors full of studios and theaters. We travel from floor to floor depending on which room we’ll be in, but we always have to exit the building through the elevator, which is kind of odd to me, but that’s just how it works. We’ve all gotten the sense that we’ll be getting to know the elevator guys and security guards very well since it’s our new 2nd home. Oh, there are 15 other MFA’s besides myself and we’re a pretty diverse group. We have 5 international students from Taiwan, Russia, Denmark, Mexico, and Cuba so lots of diversity. Everyone seems pretty nice and we all seem to get along pretty well.

Just on a side note, I made sure to thank Cherylyn personally for my full tuition scholarship to the school. Good advice to students: Always thank whoever gives you scholarships ESPECIALLY for high school, college or whatever. Always send a thank you card, phone call, or even thank them personally. That little tiny act of graciousness goes a really long way!

During this week my orientation consisted of getting to know faculty and vice versa and also getting to speak to alumni, which was great and very intimidating at the same time. We had alumni who just graduated this past spring and alumni who have been out of the program for a few years. Even the fresh alumni seem like they’re pretty far away from where we are starting, but when you think about it 2 years is not a long time and pretty soon I will be in their same shoes. It’s been made apparent to all of us that our 1st year is going to be very intense and rich in information. We kept hearing the word “intense” a lot…kind of scary! However, I’m really looking forward to the challenge. Scared, but looking forward to it.

Today, we had a placement class to determine what level of ballet and modern technique class we will be in. All of the MFA’s and BFA’s (Tisch’s dance program consists of MFA 2 year program and BFA 3 year program) all dance mixed together in technique classes. We have one ballet and one modern class a day Monday through Friday and they are separated into 4 different levels. They do this because some people may not necessarily be good in ballet, but may be awesome in modern and vice versa. We started with ballet barre, then did adagio in the center, followed by across the floor for pirouettes. Then we moved onto modern, which consisted of 3 different combos taught by 3 different teachers. (Students: this is why we teach you how to learn fast!) It was a great audition and class. I had a great time and got some positive feedback on my dancing, which made me feel so much better because I had been freaking out this entire week about this placement class. Yes, I still freak out about auditions…who doesn’t?

So now I have a 3-day weekend and I will be enjoying my soreness the entire time. I’m not sure I will be able to move tomorrow! I remember auditioning for Tisch (which was similar to the placement class) and definitely remember being incredibly sore the next day. Not looking forward to it, but so glad we have a break before all the chaos starts bright and early Tuesday morning. Oh, did I mention I have to be at Pilates at 8:10am every Monday and Thursday and 9:15am every other day. I know this is probably not a big deal for all you kids still in school, but since I’m used to being on a 10am start schedule this is a HUGE change for me. It’ll definitely be challenging!

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Sunday, September 13th

So the first week of school is over and now I’m getting ready for the 2nd. Here’s a little bit of what my schedule is like for the week…

8:10-8:55am Pilates (Monday and Thursdays only)

9:05-10:35am Ballet

10:45-12:15pm Modern

1:30-3:15pm Academic classes (Grad Seminar, Directing and Choreography, Grad Acting)

3:30-4:55pm Academic classes (Dance composition and theory, Music resources)

So as you can see most of my days end around 5pm, but on some I will go until 6:30pm. On Fridays I will only have ballet class in the morning and after 7 weeks it will change into Yoga. And on Wednesdays I have a “late start” in which I start the day with a Somatics class instead of ballet at 10am.

I’m loving it so far! It’s very true that all the faculty are very rich in information. They really do have a lot to offer. I got placed into the most advanced levels for both ballet and modern classes (I was the only 1st year MFA that got into those two classes…yay!). I was pretty intimidated by all the young ballerinas (and I say “young” because they’re fresh out of high school and are more in shape than I am), but even though I may not have as much turn out or aren’t as flexible the faculty could see that I had more maturity and understanding and could therefore be placed in the advanced ballet class. I always doubt myself when it comes to my technique, but after all the training that I’ve done I shouldn’t ever do that. (And I like to stay humbled) I think that if you really want to excel in all forms of dance it IS possible. I like to take pride in my versatility and the fact that I can pull off being a ballerina as well as a modern dancer as well as a jazz dancer and hip hop dancer. Note to students: don’t ever doubt yourself when it comes to the range of your technique and style. If you want to do it all you can do it all! Don’t ever limit yourself to anything. And if you don’t feel strong in certain styles or techniques then it doesn’t matter…just keep going at it! I always believe that if you really want to make something happen…it will happen, but you’ve got to work for it.

Okay, sorry for all the adults reading – I have to throw in my one or two advice points for my students because I’m always thinking of them. It’s interesting to me because I’m really allowed to modify the program into exactly what I want my emphasis to be. For now, my emphasis is definitely on dancing and performing. I am interested in choreography, but I’m still having trouble finding my voice in that aspect. I know I want to continue to teach after I’m done performing, but I’m not sure if that’s the emphasis I want to do choose at the moment. I’m hoping that it will all work itself out as the semester rolls along. I’m allowed to do an “independent study” in which I choose whatever I want with the approval of the faculty. So hopefully before next semester begins I will know what I will want to do for my independent study course.

For those of you interested…here are some descriptions of the academic courses that I am taking.

Directing and Choreography:

This course is about learning how to communicate choreography and finding your process of choreography before actually beginning. One of the exercises we will be doing will be to verbally communicate choreography without physically moving. We will also explore text and choreography – like spoken word with movement and also exploring the information behind the movement. Movement with intent is a big concept I’ve had to study at Chapman as well, but always had difficulty with. So maybe it will click for me this time around.

Somatics:

This is a just a 45 minute class with the modern class teacher to explore ways to aid your body in dealing with injuries with the awareness of the body. A lot of breathing exercises are done to help tune yourself into your body and being aware of everything that is going on. Students: this is why I always tell you to really stay in tune with your body – the more in tune you are the better you can PREVENT injury from happening.

Graduate Seminar:

We will be exploring how we “look” at dance – what we see and what we don’t see. This classes involves a lot of discussion and reflection of different types of choreography and movement.

This class is more experiential than anything. Much like somatics it deals with exploring the awareness of the body, but from an anatomical stand point. So we will be studying the body – bones, muscles, etc. and we will be visualizing and sensing how the body moves and how everything takes place in the body.

Acting:

It’s pretty much like a normal acting class, but we will deal with how to use our acting to aid or inspire movement.

Dance composition and theory:

This class will explore how we create and where our creativity can take us. Our teacher is on the brutally honest side (which I absolutely love) so there will be a lot of emotional ups and downs, egos being shattered, but it’s all for the sake of our creativity and how interesting we can make our movement.

So those are just some short descriptions from what I could write down this week. I’m sure all these classes will develop into a deeper understanding of all the different subjects.

On Friday we had a short audition for the faculty performance. Everyone is only casted into 1 piece because they want to leave room for us to be able to choreograph or be in another student’s choreography. We are only allowed to be in 3 projects per semester so that we don’t over do it and kill ourselves. The faculty performance workshop is Nov. 19-21 so that’s one concert I know I’m in for sure. There are 3 different “showings” or informal concerts that cater to student choreography. Students who submit choreography can choose which showing they’d like to have their piece performed. Those concerts start at the end of October and run three weeks in a row on a Thursday and Friday of each week. I know this probably sounds confusing – and it is a confusing schedule – but I just thought some of you might be interested in hearing the performance aspect offered at my school.

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Okay sorry for the long blog, but I get so passionate about helping students and offering them as much information I can to open their minds and bodies to new schools and ideas. I will keep posting updates so please feel free to comment! Thanks and hope you’re all doing well!!!

This weekend I to flew to Buffalo to dance with a small group that Daniel Ulbricht (principal dancer with NYCB) put together. I really enjoy doing small gigs like this for a number of reasons.  I get to work on ballets that I don’t have the opportunity to dance in NYCB because it is such a large company.  This weekend I performed the pas de deux from Balanchine’s Diamonds and also “Man I Love” and “Fascinating Rhythm” from Who Cares?  It was nice to have something to work on and think about (in hopes that maybe someday I will get to perform these roles with NYCB at our home theater, keeping my fingers crossed!) during the long summer break between our summer season in Saratoga and our tour to Japan that we begin rehearsal for tomorrow.  I also enjoy doing gigs because it exposes communities to first class dance performances that they might otherwise never get to see.  Ballet as an art form is struggling in these times and it is important for us as dancers to do all we can to recruit new audiences and continue to introduce new generations to the beauty of dance.  I know that Daniel took the time to really reach out to the community the entire week before out performance giving lectures in local elementary and high schools, appearing on news casts and also visiting hospitals to offer free tickets to sick children.  We even got to meet one of the children, her name was Miracle, that got tickets to the show and it is always refreshing to see the joy that it is possible to bring to people’s lives, even if it is just for a couple of hours when you get to perform on stage.  Just meeting Miracle made the entire trip worth it!

Hi everyone!

My name is Tiffanie Siyavong – I’m 24 years old and I’m originally from Orange County, CA, but at the moment I’m in New York City going to graduate school at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for my Master of Fine Arts degree in dance performance and choreography. I just started on September 8th and am now about to start my 3rd week of school.

Just a little bit about myself so you know where I’m coming from…I went to Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA)  and graduated in ‘02 then I went to Chapman University and earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ‘06. Since then I taught at various Orange County dance studios including South County Dance (formerly known as South County Classical Ballet), OCHSA, Elevation Studios, and Lovett Dance Center. I also danced in a couple of contemporary dance companies – Gallimaufry and Greene under the direction of Sean Greene and BARE Dance Company under Mike Esperanza. I left CA this past July and moved to New York. I’ve never lived here before so this entire experience is very new and exciting to me.

I will be sharing all the information and insight I’m learning at Tisch and will be letting you know about performances I’ve seen and etc. I hope you’ll find my blog exciting and full of information that you may be able to relate to. I am a dancer and performer and that is my life. I hope it is yours as well!

Please feel free to comment and ask anything you’d like and stay tuned for more blog updates! Thanks so much for reading!

Photos below:

1st: Photography by Mike Esperanza

2nd: Me and my fiancé, Chester, and our 2 dogs Emma and Ernie

My name is Teresa Reichlen (but everyone calls me Tess) and I will be a blogger for Danceworld. I am a 25 year old soloist with the New York City Ballet and a part time student at Barnard College. I just started back at school last week and will begin rehearsals for NYCB’s upcoming tour to Tokyo on Tuesday so hopefully I will have some exciting things to report in the very near future.