This week, we are lucky to have San Francisco Bay Area dancer Julie Crothers writing for the blog, sharing about her experience at New Dialect's Winter Intensive in Nashville, TN. (Julie is joined by two other Bay Area artists, Nina Wu and Courtney Armani.)

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Tucked toes

Stay chill

Ride the drive

More fearless

Behavior rather than execution

 

Highlight of Wednesday: Character work! We spent most of the afternoon exercising our voices, storytelling, realizing character, and practicing slurring between different characters. It was fascinating to explore where character originates, how it is informed by imagined surroundings, and what characters feel most at home in my mind bank. It almost felt trance-y, allowing a character to take over rather than thinking it up and making it happen.

Opening myself up for risk-taking: The day began with three hours of floor work technique, and I found myself pushed way beyond my comfort zone. Woo! I've done plenty of floor work in classes around the Bay and in college, but this was intense, and exhilarating, and definitely required risk-taking. Being a dancer born with 1.5 arms, I'm often negotiating my own ways of figuring out how to do floor work that is heavy on the hands. I learned quickly this morning that in order to succeed in the fast-paced and agile material that was being thrown at us, I was going to have to think less, fear less, and just go for it. It was scary, and deeply satisfying. I was doing things I've never thought I could do and walked away with a lot of tools to help me in the future, and a lot of soreness for sure.

 

Photo: Andy White