I began dancing, like many others, at the ripe old age of three

I began dancing, like many others, at the ripe old age of three. I began at a studio in Dixon, Illinois. I spent almost the next decade studying the basics and dipped into the world of competitive dance. Although I had a short run in competitions, I learned and saw things that would forever shape my dancing; awareness. Soon after I moved with my mom and sisters to Chicago where I began in a more classical curriculum in the city. It was a program that emphasized strict discipline and poise. So there I picked up a new essential in dance studies. I later studied dance in my Chicago High School program. There I witnessed and learned the depth of modern dance. I learned to watch and analyze dance in a literate manner. I attended Columbia College and majored in dance. There, I was enlightened. I found a purpose in dance. I discovered the art of dance. I did more than take class, I participated in dance discourse and  embodied a new texture through improvisation and release based techniques. I took one of my last required classes in my very last semester at Columbia. Margi taught the Repertory Performance Workshop. In the very first class, Margi reviewed with us three basic movement principles; walking, running and standing still. Those being things we learn in life many times before we even talk, this lesson was still profound to me. Because in dance, we forget how to just stand, just walk, and just run. When standing still, there is purpose and presence. Walking and running is human and powerful as just that. As a performer, this deeply resonated with me. She continued to the shape and refine our performances with both major and subtle notes. Not feeling completely quenched in just one semester, I registered for The Dance COLEctive's Summer Workshop so I could squeeze more out of Margi. Although I would miss most of my family's annual reunion, I went to the audition the Saturday after the workshop. Thankfully I did, because I graciously accepted the company's offer to apprentice in the 2009-2010 season. The following season I accepted a company member position. I have been ecstatically dancing with The Dance COLEctive ever since then.

Submitted by TDC Dancer Shannon McGuire-Edwards on Thursday, December 6, 2012.

Dance is like poetry of the hips not the lips...

Dance is like poetry of the hips not the lips
when i tell others i'm a dancer i clarify with,
"but i don't make any tips"
making dance is fun but its definitely no party.
Here's a taste of the creative process with Margi.

It starts with an idea, maybe a book or some quotes
we talk it over, think it out, and each jot down some notes
we use our official notebooks to write stories and words
when it comes to the creative process
we leave no resource unturned.

Its a full body experience, from your fingers to your toes
using every fiber and every ounce to make solos
we rub them into duets and smash them into trios
Margi adds her flare here and there
and the dance, its starts to form.

We watch and give notes, we try one thing then another
we space it out and pace it out and when it doesn't work
we take a breath or even ten and regroup to start again.

Sometimes its hard to see the vision but we know we're always close
we put our faith in our fearless leader and she pulls all the ropes.
She asks us questions or gives us directions
she knows the big picture but never forgets the small
her magic is in the details and how she composes it all.

It has to be a challenge at 9 O'clock at night
but she's always ready, always thinking
always challenging us with what we're making
the point of the toe or touch of a hand
it never slips past her when it comes to small details
she is a master.

It can be frustrating and it can get long
there's no formula and sometimes there is no song
you just have to get out there and start with an idea
you let it grow and sometimes change
you give it life and then a name
we make it ours and hold it close
and then share it with those who love dance most.

Tuesday and Thursday nights at our beloved Drucker Center
we meet with Margi, its no party
but we're proud of what we do and who we do it with
and in a month and a few weeks you will get to experience it.

It's a very open forum, this creative process
its ever changing always engaging
and i can only hope i will get better at it with time.

Submitted by TDC Dancer Olivia May on Tuesday, December 4, 2012.

Performing to Perform

Since declaring that I would be studying dance in college when I was just barely into my Senior year of high school, I have met the question " So what will you do with a degree in dance?" more times than I care to count. I understand where the question comes from, sort of. Everyone's first thought goes toward teaching," So will you be a teacher…?" or to owning a dance studio, then they think of performing. However, I have ALWAYS wanted to be a performer, and frankly I try to find ways I can perform everyday of my life. I was born a Ham (aka a limelight lover) and will probably be living the old adage " the world is your stage" until the day that I die. I live for a good crowd, mostly a good laugh from a willing audience and don't usually find myself in social situations where I don't make my presence known. So for me, there was never a second thought as to what I would do with a BFA in Dance.

I was going to perform. I was set on it.

All the doors and windows of opportunity were open to me, and I was going to walk across that stage at graduation, promptly get my diploma, and walk my happy behind right onto the stage of dance and perform. I didn't have a timetable for how long I would be a performer but sure as the day was long, I was NOT going back to school anytime soon, and I was not waiting around saving my money while working a non-dance job until I found the performance job I wanted.

After graduation, I was on a  sort of dance tour of my own, taking my blind optimism and endless energy for rejection up and down the east coast and some of the midwest trying to find a place to perform. I soon realized that while I REALLY wanted to perform, there were a lot of dance companies that REALLY didn't want to hurt my feelings but at the same time REALLY didn't want me to perform with them. By an act of fate, I landed in Chicago before my optimism and energy for rejection ran out with two suitcases and a smile, and set up shop with The Dance COLEctive. What I then realized was that I had only just begun my quest to perform on stage.

I was in a new city with zero friends, no place to live and no job. Suddenly the idea of performing took a back seat to my survival and the goal of living somewhere other than a street corner in a cardboard box. My personal worst fear in life is to be homeless.

What I came to understand is the doors and windows of opportunity are only open as long as you force your body weight through them, stick fingers and toes into the cracks and wedge the space apart to make room for yourself and thus make opportunities for yourself. I looked into every job I thought I might be able to do:  coach swimming, teach English,  serve food, paint fences. If it was a job and I could imagine myself doing it then I applied, I called, I stopped by the office to drop off my resume. If I was hired, I took it. It didn't matter how far away it was or how few hours a week it offered, I was going to do it. Then, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, I was going to go to rehearsal with TDC and work on my performance opportunity.

Well, as it turns out, wanting to perform became more of a need to perform, because with a BFA in Dance, I have finally found my way through enough jobs to land my ideal job: teaching dance. In a small dance studio with a captive audience of seven year olds, I use my flare for performance to make them laugh and teach them to pivot and kick-ball-change and to love dance and performing just as much as I do. I think I may have tricked myself into teaching because the front of a classroom (no matter what type of class) is a sort of stage. So naturally, I feel at home. But I need to be good at my job so I can afford to keep myself afloat, and thus be able to perform with The Dance COLEctive. So here I am, 5 years out of college with my old rosy view of being a Dance Performer, and I. am. performing. on stage with the Dance COLEctive in as many chances as I can force myself into…. But I also get to perform everyday in my job as Miss Olivia, the quirky dance teacher who loves any stage and a willing audience.

Submitted by TDC Dancer Olivia May on Tuesday, November 13, 2012.

Sidelined

So here we are.  After 7 years of dancing with TDC, the 4 years prior spent dancing in college, and the 14 years prior spent dancing in Greenwood, Indiana, it’s pretty self-evident that life has taken some serious turns, some of them unexpected but all of them fulfilling.

And now life has given me another unexpected turn and I find myself in yet another unfamiliar phase in my long-term relationship with dance: on the sidelines. Still at rehearsal, but not necessarily in rehearsal, witnessing the creative process instead of participating in it. It’s a fascinating and disconcerting position to be in. While watching my fellow dancers work, even now, only a month removed from creating material myself, I get lost in what they are doing and creating, watching them work as I would watch a dance concert, with enjoyment and a complete lack of understanding of how hard each dancer is working. Watching the process I was just recently a part of, it is remarkably startling how immediately lost that sense of work, frustration, and struggle is.

This year’s new work offers particular challenges in the way Margi has gone about structuring the creative process – structuring it as such that there is no structure as to what a dancer can do, but only addressing what they CANNOT.  Rather than having a list of qualities, actions, moments, to include, dancers only have a list of what they cannot do – navigating the movement invention period with each other through individual “blind spots” if you will. Again, fascinating to watch, particularly the movement, duets, and group phrases that have been created, but upon flopping down on the floor at 10pm, I see complete exhaustion on the dancers’ faces. Not just physical exhaustion, but mental – mentally drained and spent.

Regardless of how awkward and tense the dancers say they feel in these awkward and tense relationships they are creating, they are delving into areas of self and creativity that I have not yet been witness to in my time in TDC. In my observation, it’s not without some twinges of jealousy that I am not a part of this process with them, but then again, I would also be missing the bigger picture of creativity, instead, stuck in my own frustration and exhaustion at the process.

Which is better? Jury’s still out. I never anticipated myself just sitting on the sidelines in my dance career, but I must say throughout my life, it is those situations I least anticipated that I learned the most. 

Submitted by TDC Dancer Kaitlin Bishop on Monday, November 5, 2012. 

TDC starts work on restaging 13

It’s official. I have now been in TDC long enough to be reconstructing a piece in which I was an originating dancer. YOWZERS!

This week, TDC starts work on restaging “13,” a 30-minute piece created and premiered four years ago during TDC’s 13^th season. It’s an interesting experience, to go back in time, watch work I created in a previous life, and try to understand the decisions made and inspirations used. It makes me reflect on the passage of time, and how, while four years may not seem like too long ago, it was actually a lifetime ago. I lived in a different home, I was not married, I had a different job, I moved differently, I lived differently. I was different. To watch myself dance from so long ago, I might as well be watching a total stranger. Fascinating!

Another difficult aspect of reconstructing work I had a hand in creating vs. reconstructing work I did NOT create is readjusting expectations of the experience. It can be very easy, when resetting previous work, to expect things to feel the same – lifts should feel the same, contact with other dancers should be the same, the timing should be the same, EVERYTHING SHOULD BE THE SAME!!!!

100% of the time however, it’s not. It’s impossible. For “13,” there are two returning original dancers. There is literally no way this piece will even remotely resemble its original version, as the dancers inhabiting the space are completely different people. Different bodies, different minds, different perceptions. Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT. Which is really hard. It can be so difficult to let go of those experiences, those sensations, those journeys. When a dancer feels a sense of ownership over the material of a work, it can be such a frustrating experience to let that go – but that is what we have to do. Otherwise, reconstructing work is the equivalent of pulling teeth. It sucks. 

So here we are. Starting a new journey I’ve travelled before. What keeps this fresh though is the fact that I am a new person, and this time around, this journey will resonate within me in completely new ways, leading to new movement invention, new partnerships, and new experiences.  This, in and of itself, is just one more of the many things that makes modern dance so engrossing and engaging, performance after performance, piece after piece, year after year. Even old work feels new, and old experiences become new journeys. 

Submitted by TDC Dancer Kaitlin Bishop on Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

“It was great! But what did it mean? “

When it comes to a modern dance performance, whether it’s my own, a friend’s, a national or international company, 75% of the time, the above statement and question can be overheard in the lobby, usually said by one of my family members, but not always. Admittedly, sometimes those words escape my mouth. 

With my dance background and history in mind, a modern dance company in downtown Chicago is a bit of a far cry from where I started. Having grown up dancing in one of central Indiana’s primary studios, ballet, jazz, tap, and other such things were my specialties to the extent that I rarely actually thought about what I was doing, I could just do it. “Modern” dance was something in which people danced barefoot and flexed their feet a lot, which is another way of saying I knew absolutely NOTHING about modern dance. In high school, I knew my future lay in the dance field, not really knowing what or where that meant, but with dreams of LA or New York in my head, my parents were steadfast in their resolve: Kaitlin can do whatever she wants…..as long as she goes to college. Which led me to the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and four years of classes, rehearsals, performances, lectures, master classes and then some, attempting to grasp that ever elusive answer to the all pervasive question, “What does it mean?” After four years and a degree in Dance, more often than not, I was still that person in the lobby after the performance thinking to myself, “It was great. But what did it mean?”

Immediately after graduating, I was blessed to have the opportunity to audition for The Dance COLEctive, which I’d seen perform only once, but had participated in a number of student works wherein Margi Cole was the Faculty Advisor. I found her feedback and guidance in those times as challenging but engaging, requiring me to think critically, which was definitely something new for me. I was interested because I was scared and I knew I would be directly responsible for the work I would create, rather than learning someone else’s ideas. If there’s something to be said for only learning the choreography that comes from someone else’s body, even the most intricate and satisfying of movements, it grows to be boring. It becomes boring because it’s not my idea that inspires it, it’s not my choice that dictates it, and it’s not my mind that analyzes and molds it.

That’s the beautiful thing about modern dance and The Dance COLEctive. I get to make choices that are reflective of me. I’m IN the work. Not just performing it. Rather than counting off 5,6,7,8 and doing a series of steps in perfect unison with 10 other dancers, audiences are able to watch 10 people on stage, existing, in space. Making choices, interacting with each other, LIVING. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me. And it’s what keeps me coming back, year after year, watching and being a part of modern dance. My experiences in The Dance COLEctive continue to influence my values in dance, both as a dancer and an audience member, to the point that as time continues, I find myself, after performances, asking “What did it mean to me?”

Which is kind of the whole point of modern dance to begin with, I’m starting to realize. 

Submitted by TDC Dancer Kaitlin Bishop on Sunday, October 21, 2012.

The Creative Process – A Glimpse of How it Starts

There’s something so magical about starting a new work. It’s refreshing to begin a process not knowing where it will end up. The movement developed is interesting but also flat in the sense that it has yet to be shaped and pulled to suit a larger intention. Interactions are clear but not yet defined. The meaning of each touch will become embodied through time, with repetition, and after it has been examined through the lens of intention for the overall piece.

In TDC, most of Margi’s new works begin with some sort of reading, research, writing assignment, or discussion. It’s always very self-reflective and thought provoking, which increases the level of investment us dancers have in the work. The way Margi uses our input changes for each project. Sometimes her homework assignments drive every element of the piece, from the way we develop movement and relationships, through the arching story of the piece, and even to the text we speak. Other times, its influence is only peripheral, driving certain elements, such as time and relationships, rather than the actual ideas being brought to life on stage.

Though Margi usually keeps her ideas secret until she has them fully formulated in her head, in a casual conversation I got a glimpse of what’s to come. Without revealing the plan, I’ll just say that she hopes to use information gathered from a popular book many of the dancers have read and use it to set boundaries that define our relationships as we generate movement. I think it will be a fascinating translation from fiction to dance and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.

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Submitted by TDC Dancer Maggie Koller on Sunday, October 7, 2012.