Posters for dance don't have to be boring

Disclaimer: I love living in America. I have been here for a total of about 6 years now. Many of my dearest friends here are dancers and choreographers, and this post is not about anyone in particular. It's just some thoughts on my impressions. 


Here's the thing. I think American dance companies need to work on something.

Your advertising posters.

Often in posters / flyers for dance shows (not always, but let's be honest, it's most of the time) we see ... a picture of a dancer. A dancer mid-jump in the air. Two dancers. Three dancers. A dancer in an arabesque. A dancer doing something else that shows that they're - yes - a dancer.

That's it.

Yawn.

Choreographers and people marketing dance: You are creative people! Be creative in your marketing! We assume your dancers can dance. Don't get me wrong - I get that you're selling a dance show. Of course you want to put your cast first and foremost in your advertising. But as an audience member, I'm most intrigued by posters / flyers that also give some hint of the piece itself. Some atmosphere. Some theme. Some emotion. Some...something.

I grew up in Ireland, quite used to seeing posters for performances that were often, quite frankly, so artistic and interesting that you sometimes had to look closely to see what they were actually posters for. What they did, cleverly, was draw the observer in - I wanted to take that second look. I would walk past posters for companies like Dance Theatre of Ireland or Fabulous Beast on the street and they'd make me stop in my tracks. (Anyone remember that poster with the close-up of Olwen Grindley's arm and the camels - or was it horses - walking across it? Brilliant!) As a teenager, I would send little begging notes to Artistic Directors asking if they had any spare posters that I could put on my bedroom wall. These became inspirational posters for me, a young dancer wanting to make a life in the performing arts. They were pieces of art in themselves.

The posters I see in the U.S. do not make me want to bring them home.

What brought this little ramble on today was a Facebook post by a dancer friend in Ireland, advertising Csilla Nagy's piece this evening in Dublin:

Intriguing, right? It draws me in. It proffers questions: Why is she hiding her face? Is she pregnant? Will that be incorporated in her piece? Why is there foliage around her? Will the piece explain this or is it, like it's poster, a mysterious piece - like the inside of the body?

It does what good marketing should do: It makes you want more. 

Look, I'm as guilty as the next dance artist of putting my dancers in my posters - the poster is usually a snapshot of the piece, and the piece isn't the piece without it's dancers. But I do my best to create interesting posters too, with the intention of giving the prospective ticket-buyer another reason to look twice. (And before we get into a money debate over this, let me say: Apart from once, very early on in my career, I have not had the budget for a graphic designer in 10 years of creating dance. Like a lot of dance makers, I do 'em myself.)

I beg of you, dance makers of America (and, ok, some of you outside America too) - Get creative with your posters, please. Make me want to put your posters on my walls again. Your dancers' long limbs and heavenly muscles are wonderful, and I know that decades of work went into honing them - but that can't be ALL your piece is about. Is it? 

- Rachel 

Here are some other cool ones...

http://www.fabulousbeast.net

http://coisceim.com

http://www.junkensemble.com

Update: After I tweeted this blog post, @clouddancefest turned me on to an article by Article 19, a British online dance publication. Great stuff! They look like movie posters.

Photos from the Bangalore workshop

Hi everyone, 

Here are some photos from the expandance technique workshop I taught while in India last year, I realized I hadn't put them online. 

Thanks to Shridevi of NaVaRaSa who hosted the workshop and to Rimona Ganapathy for the photos. 

- Rachel 

NaVaRaSa's beautiful studio in Bangalore

The first improv

Guided meditation

Stretching and massage in partners

Artwork from the first improvisation

Group meditation

Shawbrook in the news and some words on a choreographic mentor

When I was nine years old, I first attended Anica Louw's summer dance course at Shawbrook Ballet School in Co. Longford, Ireland. It was a trial by fire. We engaged in up to ten hours of movement a day, in what I quickly came to realize was a sort of 'boot camp' for dancers. I loved it. We participated in two classes a day (in modern and ballet technique), two rehearsals (one by each teacher creating a new piece in a week) sessions in theatre etiquette, and our own rehearsals, where students were given the opportunity to choreograph a piece of their own. 

Yes, choreograph.

This is where I first learned about choreography. That it was a Thing that Existed. 

In 2003, in an address to the Backstage Theatre audience assembled for the National Dance Awards, Anica told the story of when I had come home after that first week at summer camp, aged nine, and announced to my mother in the kitchen "I want to be a choreographer."(The National Youth Dance Company - now Shawbrook Youth Dance - had just won the group award with my choreography). "And look at you now" she proclaimed, looking directly at me. 

Shawbrook summer schools were to become a fixture of my adolescent summers, something I looked forward to all the school year, and I've missed those dedicated periods of creativity, camaraderie, fresh air, externally-imposed structure for creativity and support as an adult. (Not to mention the fresh air and locally-sourced, healthily-prepared food simply presented in front of you three times a day!) Adolescence is a tough time for anyone, with a hormonally-imbalanced system often creating depression and anxiety, and if you happen to be a dancer or athlete on a career path from the age of 12 (or younger), with limited time for socialising or relaxation outside of school work and training, it can be especially challenging. Anica and her husband Philip created a working structure in the summer courses where students were treated like adults, which quite often required us to stretch ourselves in ways that had yet to be asked of us. And yes, we complained of sore muscles, of curfews and shower time limits - teenagers will complain about anything - but the structure and intensity of these summer courses gave me a foundation that has never gone away. Whenever I am faced with a 15 hour day, (or months of them in a row), or a seemingly impossible task in life or work - and there have been many over the years - a voice in my head reminds me "Think of it like it's Shawbrook. You can do this!" And you know what? I have. I can. I even seek out boot camp classes at the gym now because they remind me of that intensity. 

Anica is a powerful force of a woman, and in many ways has had to be to manifest an internationally recognised school, theatre and residency space for professional dance artists in the wilds of a traditionally agri-centric county. Through a young girl's eyes, she can be formidable - something else which never leaves the cellular memory! - even now, in my 30s, my legs will start shaking at the barre if she happens to walk in to have a look at ballet class. But she is also a woman of great heart and boundless love, as thousands of students and alumni will attest. She was my first mentor as a choreographer, the person that had faith in me when I doubted myself after funding or audition rejections, and over two decades later, I still call on her in my head when I'm worried or stuck in the creative process. 

This week, Shawbrook was profiled on RTE's Nationwide programme. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you consider sending your child to Shawbrook some day. A warning though - upon returning home, your child may have changed to an almost unrecogniable degree: capable of doing their own hair in a bun, organising their own dance clothes and costumes, making their own bed without being asked, and quite possibly clutching a newly-acquired, steadfast desire be a choreographer. 

- Rachel

P.S. expandance had the distinct honour of being the first company to perform on Shawbrook's outdoor stage, with 'Sephiroth' / The Forest Piece. Newly built by Kristo Dawson and open to the elements, we prayed for weeks that it wouldn't rain during the performance (it didn't) and every day for a week before the show I weeded out the nettles so that when the dancers rolled off the stage half way through the piece they wound't get stung. Peter Jordan and his crew rigged lights in the limbs of the old Spanish chestnut trees either side of the stage, and members of Shawbrook Youth Dance hid in the newly planted saplings of Shawbrook forest with lanterns as part of the piece. (That's them in our banner picture.) In the Nationwide piece you will see the outdoor stage as it looks six years later - now with a roof! And leafy, big trees all around - compare to the saplings in the pictures here. 

Laurie Schneider and Jody O'Neill during rehearsals on a sunny day at Shawbrook

Production manager Peter Jordan creates a lighting rig in a tree

A dress rehearsal on the outdoor stage - see those wee saplings!

The newly planted forest behind the girls. 

'Flipped' / The Process - Or, what I've learned so far

Flipped rehearsal May 27th 2012

1. Choreographers talk too much.*

2. My body has changed much in the last ten years. Dancing every day from age 3 to 19, and then focusing on choreography rather than class from 20 - 30 - although continuing yoga / running / gym - created bigger changes in my body than I was aware of before starting this piece.

3. Regular workouts - even 'thorough' ones - do not train many of the muscles dancers use on a regular basis. Only dancing can do that.

4. Epsom salts are awesome, and necessary. And not just for painful muscles - but also to create space in the body, where newly learned material can start to take root.

5. I still have that tendency to want to 'get' everything right away and still need to learn patience.

6. It is humbling** to dance movements that I personally wouldn't choreograph, and, moreover, to embrace them.

7. It is a relief to let go of control, and also requires willpower and reminders to do so.

8. Some of these rehearsals feel like private dance lessons, and that is an incredibly nurturing thing.

9. I often work better when someone else is around. They don't even need to be working with me - just physically nearby.

10. Judging myself doesn't make my dancing better. It just upsets me and others around me.

11. I still look as stern ("like you want to kill someone!") when executing other people's movement material - as I did when I was seven. Matthew wrote to ''[be] engaged but not too severe in focus''. As did every Royal Academy of Dancing examiner who ever had the misfortune of being in the same room as that scowl.

-- Rachel 

* This is not necessarily pertinent to all the choreographers I worked with. I noticed it for myself - I, as a choreographer, while creating, talk too much. It took being outside that role to see it.
** I did not have this humility age twenty, which is why I didn't dance for others and instead took the choreographic route.

Thank you to everyone who has given their time and support to this piece.

Choreography: Hunt Parr, Erica Frankel, Krista Racho-Jansen and Matthew Westerby.

Mentoring: Savina Theodorou

"Flipped" will be shown at Movement Research Open Performance Series as a work-in-progress on

Wednesday May 30th at 8pm 

The Great Room, 138 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York. 

Free / donations welcome

Map of the area and nearby subways here.

New Solo

Hi everyone,

Well, India was amazing, and I'm back in New York now and working on a new piece. This one is quite a departure from the last 9 years or so! I've been choreographing and choreographing for almost a decade, and not doing very much actual performing. And for the last year or so my dancers kept saying things like 'ah, you should be in this part' / 'this is your solo, I don't think I should do it' / 'you should dance more' etc. (You can't get much clearer than that last one really.)

The gracious people at Movement Research gave me a performance date this spring as part of their Wednesday night Open Performance Series, so I figured this might be a good opportunity to listen to the dancers, dust off the leotard (read: get into shape) and step out.

The idea for 'Flipped' (working title): Most dance pieces have one choreographer and several dancers. In this case, I wanted to flip the convention, and invite several choreographers to individually set material on one dancer. I would also flip my familiar, safe and established role, and be the dancer rather than the choreographer.

The learning curve in this process has been steep so far, and incredibly rewarding. So far, I've had the pleasure of working with Hunt Parr, Krista Racho-Jansen, and Erica Frankel in the studio, and tomorrow I work with Matthew Westerby. I intend to write more about the process in upcoming posts. 

In the meantime, here's the date for your diary for the premiere of this work:

Wednesday May 30th 2012
8pm
Open Performance will be held in the “Great Room” at the Space located at 138 S. Oxford St. in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

- Rachel 
Twitter @expandance

expandance in India

Hi expandance friends, if any of you happen to be in Bangalore this Sundayn I'm teaching a workshop in the expandance technique. Here are the details - Rachel

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NaVaRaSathe-Joy-of-learning/163150289137?ref=ts

Photos from Rock Om in Boston

http://www.lizavoll.com/

Post-show round-up

Thank you to everyone who came to see our shows with Zoe Dance in Cambridge, MA at the weekend. It was wonderful to be able to travel as a company to Boston and to share a stage with another company, to get to know them, to learn, to exchange ideas and information. Like Callie Chapman, director of Zoe Dance, I firmly believe this kind of cross-cultural live performance not only enriches the cultural landscape of the local community, but also broadens the dancers horizons, enabling them to bring home to their communities new concepts, approaches, and energy. See some footage of our Zoe Dance / expandance improvisation and open rehearsal at Green Street studios here.

Rehearsal of the 'Phoenix' section in Oberon

Post-show

Snow, dancers, and dancer holiday lights in Cambridge

Thank you Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and Tommy O'Doyle's pub in Harvard Square for helping us feed the dancers while we were in Boston. 

With your help in our last IndieGoGo campaign, we were able to pay the dancers a small dividend to perform in Boston - not enough to cover our costs, exactly, but enough to take the sting out of leaving our day jobs for four days. We also paid our composer, our costume designer, and covered our props, travel and marketing expenses. However, as we didn't reach our fundraising goal, we still need to pay the venue and the photographer, which totals over $1,000. Please consider donating today - every donation helps and is tax-deductible. And no donation is too small. Thank you for clicking here and choosing 'expandance' from the drop-down menu, and donating tomorrow afternoon's coffee money to a good cause: ART! 

There's a Groupon deal!

Hi folks - 14 hours left on the Groupon deal - get half off tickets to our show this weekend in Cambridge, MA at Oberon. See the full length, 14 months in the making, experience that is ROCK OM, plus brand new dance from Wicklow, Ireland and new work from Boston's very own Zoe Dance.

Here it is!


http://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-zoe-dance