Student/Teacher/Performer/Admirer: A Correspondence with Ramona Kelley of Twyla Tharp Dance

Many years ago, dancer Ramona Kelley was a student of mine in a teen modern class in Berkeley, California. Over the years, it has been exciting to see her head off to college at NYU and then launch into a professional career. Ramona merges technique and joy onstage and is magical to watch. Knowing that she will come full circle and be back in Berkeley in October 2015 to perform with Twyla Tharp at Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, I thought it would be fun to correspond over a few months prior to the performances. This correspondence, shared on the blog, offers a window into the world of Twyla Tharp as well as following a young and talented dance artist based in New York City.

Ramona Kelley is originally from California, where she began her training at Berkeley Ballet Theater under the direction of Sally Streets. She is a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA) scholarship award winner and she holds a BFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ramona danced the principal role "Betsy" in the North American/Japanese tour of Tharp’s “Come Fly Away.” A current member of Twyla Tharp Dance, she has also worked with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Oakland Ballet Company and The Phantom of the Opera 25^th Anniversary Tour among others.

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I am excited to begin this correspondence. Questions percolating include ideas such as:

-How are you touching dance history?

-What is the most challenging piece you are rehearsing right now, and why?

-How do you find the balance between honoring history and presenting something as new, or reworked, in 2015? 

-Have you met any of the original dancers from the pieces you are currently performing?

 

From Ramona:

I first met Twyla auditioning for her Broadway production "Come Fly Away." I had seen the show (set to an amazing score of Frank Sinatra recordings accompanied by a live band), and I loved it! My good friend – the gorgeous Laura Meade (also from Berkeley) – played the character "Betsy," a sweet, innocent girl who falls in love for the first time. Laura recommended me to Twyla, and I went in to audition for the show twice. The first time around I was thrilled and nervous to meet Twyla, but the fun and challenging movement was the focus of my afternoon. I didn't get the job (I believe she was specifically casting a much taller, leggy dancer). I was called back, months later, for the touring production of the show, this time for the role Laura played. This character felt more right, and I auditioned with Christopher Vo, who would become my partner in the show. We had a great time working together in the audition! Twyla has an amazing ability to see everything that goes on in a room, and I think she saw how much fun Chris and I were having when she cast us.

Over the course of the year and a half I performed "Come Fly Away," our company worked intermittently with Twyla herself. She would come out to see the show when she could, but she had an excellent team of dancers who had worked with her for years to watch the show and give feedback when she wasn't around. We traveled all across the U.S. and Japan, which was incredible but also difficult on all of our bodies. On a layoff before our Japanese tour, Twyla invited the cast to two weeks of "Treefrog" class – an amazing technique class she has developed. The class combines modern and ballet exercises as well as repertory pieces with a focus on the relationship of the feet to the floor – the isometric pressure like the feet of a treefrog as it climbs swiftly, ready to spring into action. These classes provided an incredible opportunity to work with Twyla every day.

When "Come Fly Away" ended I tried to stay in touch with Twyla, hoping to get a chance to be in the studio with her. It wasn't until almost two years later that I was finally able to work with her again. I was performing in the 25th anniversary tour of Phantom of the Opera when I got word she needed a dancer. The Phantom company generously gave me a leave of absence, and I got to come and work for a month with the Tharp company, developing the two works we will be performing on the 50th anniversary tour. Since returning to NYC this past December I have been working for her on these works, creating a new work (hopefully to be performed in 2016), and on some older works including "The One Hundreds" (1970). 

The two pieces we will be performing on the 50th tour are both amazing to dance. They are quite different – one is a bit more traditional set to Bach music; the other is hilarious and far out of the box with jazz music. Although these pieces are both new, the material used incorporates movement phrases from Twyla's earlier years. Looking closely, a Tharp fan (or ex dancer!) could pick out material from pieces such as "Eight Jelly Rolls" (1971). Twyla keeps amazing video archives of all of her work, so when working with older phrases we often get to see a bit of the original dancers the movement was created on. Watching Twyla dance her own material has been invaluable and inspiring – her body is so unbelievably intelligent! The richness and history imbedded in the material gives so much to work on. I sometimes feel that I could perform these works for years with a new focus each show. Both works are incredibly challenging, but a blast to dance!

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