Michelle Boulé     “White”     Photo by Ted Roeder

"What are the skills a modern dancer needs in ______?" I ask this question each year to artists who are writing profiles for the blog. Today we can read three perspectives.

From Gerri Houlihan (Durham, NC):

You name it, they need it. Beyond a solid technique, they need to be well read and well educated, they need to be savvy, persistent, courageous, tenacious and inquisitive, they need to be able to multi-task, they need to be able to live with uncertainty, and they need to be able to find joy in the everyday tasks and challenges and achievements embedded in creating a life as an artist.

From Jennifer Edwards (New York, NY):

– Grit

– A non-institutionalized understanding of "dance"

– Personal empowerment

– The ability to see a bigger picture and a broader world

– Truly understanding relevance. "Modern dance" was born of responsiveness to the world – it has become a static aesthetic notion – it has become the very thing it was developed to dismantle. Learn the history. Respond to your world – make modern dance.

From Michelle Boule (New York, NY):

Seeing Darrell Jones and Angie Hauser dance at the Movement Research Gala honoring Bebe Miller made me think that dancers are training differently today…maybe there’s less emphasis on “technique” and what might seem like an older model of “virtuosity,” perhaps on the tails of an emphasis on conceptual work. While I love the variety of abilities in “technique” and performance presence, I still hold a fondness for the ability of a person to embrace all—an ability to fluidly traverse different performative presences with an invested interest in knowing how to articulate the body through a whole range of tasks and movement. I think the dancer needs to be curious and hungry, and also to follow what feels truest personally in terms of what they want to explore. However, I think we need to be able to embody the information we want to convey through performance, and that’s maybe where the real heat of the skill is, or as my friend Miguel says [paraphrased] “to be able to trust the messenger as well as the message.”

——-

The Growing List: Artist Profiles #1-135

Speaking as a Teaching Artist: 50 Perspectives

Blog Series: My Dance Week

———————