I have been teaching for many years now, and have been and still am, an ardent student. Through my experience with the many teachers and guides I have had, and their myriad ways of disseminating information, I have discovered that the most effective way to help students learn and grow is by teaching them to be kind to their bodies and themselves in general. Through respect for one's limitations and possibilities, greater potential emerges through gentle coaxing, repetition, and a focus on erasing old habits that do not serve. This is the basis of my teaching philosophy.
It has taken me a long time to find the most organic way to allow the body to express itself. Working with linear and spiral movements, my warm-up has evolved to help dancers express these lines with the least amount of stress. The idea is to relax the body where it does not need to be engaged, while directing energy in a way that propels the movement into expression. I try to pay attention to when the dancer is using his/her "front brain" (the "I will" aspect, which to me feels overly intellectual and critical) vs. the "back brain" (the "I am" aspect, which is more intuitive). This means that there is a very strong emphasis on a more natural sense of movement. The work emphasizes the correct alignment of the spine, especially the relationship of the occipital bones to the neck in order to keep the spinal fluid flowing freely. Avoiding blockages and maintaining fluidity in the body is key.
Another important aspect for me in training dancers is the focus on secondary muscles to create a streamlined and efficient body. Strengthening these muscles allows the body to express itself in a cleaner manner, allowing it to arrive faster when necessary, and to cut through space more effectively. I pay special attention to the adductors, how they relate to the inside of the foot and the rise of the arch, and how this entire inner area rises up through the center of the body to the top of the head.
I feel that training dancers should be a form of healing. By using breath as a tool to activate the body, heart, and mind and to knit a connection through all three, the dancer becomes more relaxed and better able to communicate when he/she is finally dancing. Through emphasis on the breath, it is easier to eliminate tension and create a focused intension. When the dancer is integrated in this way, the audience feels it and is then better able to receive. Because I am training dancers to perform, it is extremely important to me that they are able to find the most relaxed and direct way to focus their expression. An audience receives the most when it senses a dancer's connection to his/her emotional center. When a dancer is connected to his/her breath, heart, gut, and music through a relaxed and available body, it is easier to transmit emotion.
Communication with music through the exploration of rhythm and its relationship to breath is essential. Varying rhythms and impulse is extremely important in creating a versatile dancer who can adapt to any type of musical and choreographic challenge. I use a wide range of musical genres and play with rhythmic possibilities in order to help the dancer entrain to new ways of hearing and interpreting music.
I believe a dancer must feel grounded in order to explore space without feeling disconnected. This relationship between the earth, other bodies, and the self allows expression to feel more secure and emerge from the inside out. This makes dance more real and valuable, regardless of whether the choreography is expressing something profound or is created "just" to entertain.
The training, for me, doesn't begin and end inside the studio. It is also how we eat, think, and relate to each other, and the planet. By emphasizing all of these elements, the approach becomes more holistic, balanced, interesting, and I believe, effective. I encourage dancers to live a full life by seeing and experiencing as much as they can so that they can bring this to the art form.
WHAT I MEAN BY CONTEMPORARY "JAZZ" DANCE
As opposed to the moniker used by so many teachers and choreographers to describe a form that emanates from the Broadway style, my concept of “Jazz” comes from the singers and musicians of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and later.
If we think of how early jazz musicians broke classical codes, using counter-tempo to experiment with conventional musical phrases, this is how I reference the concept of Jazz dance. Taking the opportunity to play with rhythm and tempo, breaking up the standard whole notes to open up the ears and body ~ this is my concept of Jazz dance.
Thinking of Ella Fitzgerald and how she used scatting to express emotion, thinking of Charlie Parker and how he used his instrument to go beyond the notes on the page in order to take flight into other dimensions ~ this is my concept of Jazz dance.
The thrill of using all different types of music is what defines Jazz dance for me, be it World (Arabic, African, Caribbean, Asian, etc), alternative, hip hop, funk, contemporary pop, rock, classical, and anything else that strikes my fancy at the moment. Breaking the musical form into the unexpected by creating movement that does not conform to a patterned series of givens ~ this is my concept of Jazz dance.
My intention is to get dancers listening and moving to music in alternative ways. To introduce them to the liberation that comes with experimenting with musicality in order to bring an audience into a heightened sense of alertness. To awaken the body as it responds to music in the same way that Jazz musicians improvise and riff on conventional songs to make them into something new.
ON INHABITING THE MUSIC
To dance well, we need to inhabit the music, not just to listen to it.
The breath is the body's music. Each musical phrase is a breath. Follow this breath and you will inhabit every phrase....
ON BREATHING
Breath is the music of the body. Follow your breath and you will always be in time.
