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 of "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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From Blog Director Jill Randall:

I recently asked Ramona to write down ideas for one week – one a day. What are the big ideas percolating in rehearsal? What are the concepts and themes that Twyla is currently focusing upon?

This is based on my Time Study #1 Project, where I wrote down a dance-related concept each day for one entire year.

Here Ramona captured the big ideas from each rehearsal last week. "TT" refers to Twyla Tharp.

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From Ramona:

Words and ideas from last week taking classes and working with Twyla Tharp:

• Breathe! Find the "meat (of the movement or section)" – TT on our first day of rehearsal. We were revisiting a particularly challenging duet which is very aerobically taxing
• Have legs like the roots of a tree – TT on being grounded
• Huge movement=generous movement – TT discussing Bach's generous music, how we should match that generosity energetically; give to the audience.
• What are your fingers doing? – TT discussing that we shouldn't make a position with our fingers (as most are taught as kids in ballet class). Her image to us was to imagine our fingers as a take-off strip for airplanes, to imagine the energy elongating out of the hands
• Appreciate what you have instead of fixating on what you are not – work towards perfection, but appreciate the milestones of a successful rehearsal or run of a piece. – TT to my partner and I after we tore apart a section we were working on, which she thought was a good run!
• There are about 18 positions from demi-pointe to plié – TT on really going through our feet with every relevé!
• Perfection vs Ultimate – TT on reaching for perfection in executing movement, which requires more finesse than saying "this is my best, or ultimate movement"
• Command the pirouettes! – TT on mastering a difficult turn. Confidence will make the hard movement easier.
• Don't try to top the section before you – TT on contextualizing a piece of choreography – look at what came before, and present a different idea!
• Be politically incorrect! – TT telling us to do something taboo in our culture – show the body enjoying itself! In this case, have fun and enjoy the sensation of moving and dancing with others.
• Focus your breath – TT helping us get through a very winding section of her piece set to Bach music
• Don't get complacent – TT on taking chances, going further, trying to always make something better
• Invite your shoulders down your back. Marry the arms and legs together – ballet class at Steps on Broadway, taught by Heather Hawk

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