Tuesday Tunes

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

Tuesday Tunes

           Cyd Charisse

If I had to give up either acting or dancing, I’d choose to keep dancing.

Charisse was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nickname “Sid” was taken from a sibling trying to say “Sis”. (It was later spelled “Cyd” at MGM to give her an air of mystery.) She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons at six to build up her strength after a bout with polio. At 12, she studied ballet in Los Angeles with Adolph Bolm and Bronislava Nijinska, and at 14, she auditioned for and subsequently danced in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as “Felia Siderova”[5][6] and, later, “Maria Istomina”.

The outbreak of World War II led to the breakup of the company, and when Charisse returned to Los Angeles, David Lichine offered her a dancing role in Gregory Ratoff’s Something to Shout About. This brought her to the attention of choreographer Robert Alton – who had also discovered Gene Kelly – and soon she joined the Freed Unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she became the resident MGM ballet dancer. In an early role, she had her first speaking part supporting Judy Garland in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls. Charisse was principally celebrated for her onscreen pairings with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. She first appeared with Astaire in a brief routine in Ziegfeld Follies (produced in 1944 and released in 1946). Her next appearance with him was as the lead female role in The Band Wagon (1953), where she danced with Astaire in the acclaimed “Dancing in the Dark” and “Girl Hunt Ballet” routines.

As Debbie Reynolds was not a trained dancer, Gene Kelly chose Charisse to partner with him in the celebrated “Broadway Melody” ballet finale from Singin’ in the Rain (1952), and she co-starred with Kelly in 1954’s Scottish-themed musical film Brigadoon. She again took the lead female role alongside Kelly in his penultimate MGM musical It’s Always Fair Weather (1956).

In 1957, she rejoined Astaire in the film version of Silk Stockings, a musical remake of 1939’s Ninotchka, with Charisse taking over Greta Garbo’s role. In his autobiography, Astaire paid tribute to Charisse, calling her “beautiful dynamite” and writing: “That Cyd! When you’ve danced with her you stay danced with.” She had a slightly unusual serious acting role in Party Girl (1958), where she played a showgirl who became involved with gangsters and a crooked lawyer, although it did include two dance routines.

In her autobiography, Charisse reflected on her experience with Astaire and Kelly: “As one of the handful of girls who worked with both of those dance geniuses, I think I can give an honest comparison. In my opinion, Kelly is the more inventive choreographer of the two. Astaire, with Hermes Pan’s help, creates fabulous numbers – for himself and his partner. But Kelly can create an entire number for somebody else … I think, however, that Astaire’s coordination is better than Kelly’s … his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you! … To sum it up, I’d say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on-screen. But it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both delicious.”

After the decline of the Hollywood musical in the late 1950s, Charisse retired from dancing but continued to appear in film and TV productions from the 1960s through the 1990s. She had a supporting role in Something’s Got to Give (1962), the last, unfinished film of Marilyn Monroe. She made cameo appearances in Blue Mercedes’s “I Want to Be Your Property” (1987) and Janet Jackson’s “Alright” (1990) music videos. Her last film appearance was in 1994 in That’s Entertainment! III as one of the onscreen narrators of a tribute to the great MGM musical films.

 

The Band Wagon

 

Silk Stockings

 

The Broadway Medley from Singing in the Rain

 

 

Facts About Miss Cyd Charisse 

 

Took her name Cyd from a nickname originated from her brother. Initially, he could not say sister and called her Sid. She took the nickname and convinced her agent to keep the name with the present spelling. He feared that Sid was too masculine.

Grew up in the Texas dust-bowl town of Amarillo. Her Baptist jeweler father, a closet balletomane, encouraged her to begin her ballet lessons for health reasons.

She danced with the Ballet Russe using the names Maria Istomina and Felia Sidorova.

Although one of the greatest female dancers in the history of the movie musical, her singing in films was almost always dubbed, most notably by Carol Richards in Brigadoon (1954) and a young Vikki Carr in The Silencers (1966).

In 1952, she had a $5-million insurance policy accepted on her legs.

Lost out on two of MGM’s biggest movie musical roles. She fell and injured her knee during a dance leap on a film which forced her out of the role of Nadina Hale in Easter Parade (1948). Ann Miller replaced her. She also had to relinquish the lead femme role in An American in Paris (1951) due to pregnancy. Leslie Caron took over the part and became a star.

Unlike many top female dancers in the era of movie musicals, she was trained as a ballerina in the Russian tradition.

During a family vacation in Los Angeles when she was 12, her parents enrolled her in ballet classes at a school in Hollywood. One of her teachers was Nico Charisse.

Said her husband could tell who she had been dancing with that day on an MGM set. If she came home covered with bruises on her, it was the very physically demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.

Fred Astaire, in his 1959 memoir “Steps in Time”, referred to Cyd as “beautiful dynamite”.

Got her start in Hollywood when Ballet Russe star David Lichine was hired by Columbia for a ballet sequence in the musical film Something to Shout About (1943). Cyd, who was then billed as Lily Norwood, appeared in the scene and attracted attention. Movie offers, including a dancing role opposite Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), led to a seven-year contract offer by MGM.

She was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in March 2002 in Austin, Texas.

One of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in the movies, other actresses that have also done this includes Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Vera-Ellen, Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Caron.

One of the few, if not only, world-renowned prima ballerinas to be featured in a popular hip-hop music video. She had a cameo in “Alright” (1990) by Janet Jackson.

She was an honorary member of the National Federation of Republican Women along with Laraine Day, Rhonda Fleming and Coleen Gray.

Although she is interred in a niche at Hillside Memorial Park, a well-known Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles, Charrise was in fact a practicing Methodist. Her funeral was even presided by Dr. Gary Allen Dicky, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Westlake Village.

Tuesday Tunes!

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

Tuesday Tunes       

             Happy Tuesday Everyone!

        Jimmy Cagney!

 

Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

 

James Francis Cagney, Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer, both on stage and in film, though it is film where he has had his greatest impact. Known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal stylings and deadpan comic timing he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances. He is best remembered for playing multi-faceted tough guys in movies like The Public Enemy and Angels With Dirty Faces and was even typecast or limited by this view earlier in his career. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its 50 Greatest American Screen Legends. No less a student of drama than Orson Welles said of Cagney that he was “maybe the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera.”

Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. His biographers disagree as to the actual location: either on the corner of Avenue D and 8th Street or in a top floor apartment at 391 East Eighth. His father, James Francis Cagney, Sr., was of Irish descent. By the time of his son’s birth, he was a bartender and amateur boxer, though on Cagney’s birth certificate, he is listed as a telegraphist.  His mother was Carolyn (née Nelson); her father was a Norwegian ship captain while her mother was Irish. Cagney was the second of seven children, two of whom died within months of birth; he himself was very sick as a young child, so much so that his mother feared he would die before he could be baptized. He later attributed his sickness to the poverty in which they grew up. The family moved twice while he was still young, first to East 79th Street, and then to East 96th Street.

The red-haired, blue-eyed Cagney graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1918, and attended Columbia College of Columbia University where he intended to major in art. He also took German and joined the Student Army Training Corps, but dropped out after one semester, returning home upon the death of his father during the 1918 flu pandemic.

He held a variety of jobs early in his life, giving all his earnings to his family: junior architect, copy boy for the New York Sun, book custodian at the New York Public Library, bellhop, draughtsman, and night doorman. It was while Cagney was working for the New York Public Library that he met Florence James, who would help him on his way to an acting career.[18] Cagney believed in hard work, later stating, “It was good for me. I feel sorry for the kid who has too cushy a time of it. Suddenly he has to come face-to-face with the realities of life without any mama or papa to do his thinking for him.”

He started tap dancing as a boy (a skill that would eventually contribute to his Academy Award) and was nicknamed “Cellar-Door Cagney” after his habit of dancing on slanted cellar doors.

He was a good street fighter, defending his older brother Harry, a medical student, against all comers when necessary.[10][19] He engaged in amateur boxing, and was a runner-up for the New York State lightweight title. His coaches encouraged him to turn professional, but his mother would not allow it. He also played semi-professional baseball for a local team,[17] and entertained dreams of playing in the Major Leagues.

His introduction to films was unusual; when visiting an aunt in Brooklyn who lived opposite Vitagraph Studios, Cagney would climb over the fence to watch the filming of John Bunny movies. He became involved in amateur dramatics, starting as a scenery boy for a Chinese pantomime at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, one of the first settlement houses in the nation, where his brother Harry performed and his soon-to-be friend, Florence James, directed. He was initially content working behind the scenes and had no interest in performing. One night, however, Harry became ill, and although Cagney was not an understudy, his photographic memory of rehearsals enabled him to stand in for his brother without making a single mistake. Therefore, Florence James has the unique distinction of being the first director to put him on a stage.  Afterward, he joined a number of companies as a performer in a variety of roles.

In his first professional acting performance, Cagney danced costumed as a woman in the chorus line of the 1919 revue Every Sailor. He spent several years in vaudeville as a hoofer and comedian, until he got his first major acting part in 1925. He secured several other roles, receiving good notices, before landing the lead in the 1929 play Penny Arcade. After rave reviews, Warner Bros. signed him for an initial $500-a-week, three-week contract to reprise his role; this was quickly extended to a seven-year contract.

Cagney’s seventh film, The Public Enemy, became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period. Notable for a famous scene that makes dramatic use of a grapefruit, the film thrust Cagney into the spotlight, making him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars as well as one of Warner Brothers’ biggest contracts. In 1938, he received his first Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, for Angels with Dirty Faces for his subtle portrayal of the tough guy/man-child Rocky Sullivan. In 1942 Cagney was awarded the Oscar for his energetic portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was nominated a third time in 1955 for Love Me or Leave Me. Cagney retired from acting and dancing in 1961, deciding to spend time on his farm with his family. He exited retirement, twenty years later, for a part in the 1981 movie Ragtime, mainly to aid his recovery from a stroke.

Cagney walked out on Warners several times over the course of his career, each time returning upon much improved personal and artistic terms. In 1935, he sued Warners for breach of contract and won; this marked one of the first times an actor had beaten a studio over a contract issue. He worked for an independent film company for a year while the suit was being settled, and also established his own production company, Cagney Productions, in 1942, before returning to Warners again four years later. Jack Warner called him “The Professional Againster”, in reference to Cagney’s refusal to be pushed around. Cagney also made numerous morale-boosting troop tours before and during World War II, and was president of the Screen Actors Guild for two years.

 

 James Cagney shows us how to dance down stairs

 

 

Great Dance Routine: James Cagney and Bob Hope

 

 

 Yankee Doodle Dandy


 

 

Fun Facts about Mr. Jimmy Cagney:

 

Famous for his gangster roles he played in the 1930s and 1940s (which made his only Oscar win as the musical composer/dancer/actor George M.Cohan most ironic).

Cagney’s first job as an entertainer was as a female dancer in a chorus line.

(1942-1944) President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG)

Pictured on a 33¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 22 July 1999.

Was best friends with actors Pat O’Brien and Frank McHugh.

Earned a Black Belt in Judo.

He was voted the 14th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Extraordinarily (for Hollywood), he never cheated on his wife Frances, resulting in a marriage that lasted 64 years (ending with his death). The closest he came was nearly giving into a seduction attempt by Merle Oberon while the two stars were on tour to entertain WWII GIs.

His electric acting style was a huge influence on future generations of actors. Actors as diverse as Clint Eastwood and Malcolm McDowell point to him as their number one influence to become actors.

Lived in a Gramercy Park building in New York City that was also occupied by Margaret Hamilton and now boasts Jimmy Fallon as one of its tenants.

Though most Cagney imitators use the line “You dirty rat!”, Cagney never actually said it in any of his films.

His performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #6 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

His performance as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931) is ranked #57 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is ranked #88 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.

Turned down Stanley Holloway’s role as Eliza’s father in My Fair Lady (1964).

Turned down the lead role in The Jolson Story (1946), which went to Larry Parks.

Broke a rib while filming the dance scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) but continued dancing until it was completed.

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan at a ceremony at the White House on 26 March 1984.

Wrote that of the sixty-two films he made, he rated Love Me or Leave Me (1955) costarring Doris Day among his top five.

A studio changed his birth date from 1899 to 1904 to capitalize on his youthful appearance.

He refused payment for his cameo in The Seven Little Foys (1955) even though he spent ten days learning his complicated tap routine for the film.

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last installment of MFA Monday by Frame dancer Laura Gutierrez!

Laura was recently mentioned in the Top 25 Dancers to Watch in Dance Magazine!

Congratulations Laura!!!!

Check out her reflections on whether or not to attain a Master of Fine Arts!

 

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I was talking to Brandon one night, and he told me about the moment when he knew he had made the right decision in returning to school to get his MFA. (I would tell you more, but I don’t want to blurt out someone else’s business!) I thought about this and realized I’m not ready to go back to a strict academic environment.  Although I do miss the daily grind of technique and composition classes– not to mention the secured performance opportunities– it’s crucial for an emerging dance professional to create his or her destiny.

Dodging MFA school set me full speed ahead on a course where I’m figuring out that in order to be an independent artist you have to become your own executive director, managing director, company manager, and agent.  Performing under choreographers, working at Hope Stone, Inc., teaching at HSPVA: this mishmash of practical experience might prove more valuable and just as important as going to grad school for Dance.

Last week I read Sydney Skybetter’s article and the following passage jumped out at me:

“The world you thought you were entering is long dead, and none of the old (anti-intellectual, super-sexist, super-classist and SUPER-racist) rules of dance history need hold true for you. So go forth. The search for new ways of moving, dancing and sustaining a career is ON.

The dance world today is not the same as the one I grew up hearing about and wanting to be a part of.  I’m just now at a point where I’ve learned I can mold my career the way I see fit.

 

 

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headshotLaura Gutierrez is a graduate from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and received her BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. A recipient of a 2009-2010 William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellowship at the Lincoln Center Institute, she presented her choreography The World Within in the Clark Theater. Since returning to Houston, she has been a part of Texas Weekend of Contemporary Dance, Big Range Dance Festival, Hope Stone, Inc’s emerging artist residency HopeWerks. She was also a part of Tino Sehgals installation in the Silence exhibit at The Menil Collection and most recently performed in Study for Ocupant choreographed by Jonah Boaker at Fabric Workshop Museum in Philadelphia and Frame Dance Productions. Currently she is on Adjunct Faculty at HSPVA and is the Office Manager/HopeWerks Director at Hope Stone, Inc.

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

Hey Framers!

Today’s MFA Monday is by Framer Laura Gutierrez!

Explore her thoughts, doubts, and dreams as a professional dancer considering obtaining a Master of Fine Arts degree. 

 

I am a performer. I am a choreographer. I am an educator of Dance.

Becoming a surgeon, dentist or lawyer is not something in my future. Although, I have definitely entertained the idea.

The point is that getting my master’s in anything not related to dance is out of the question.

The only other reason I would consider getting a degree in something not related to dance is for financial stability. But, as of today, I have no clue where to start because for the next 15 years I definitely want to be teaching, creating new works and performing.

Just when is the right time to get an MFA?

I’m currently in a place where I’m re-learning and redefining my choreographic process and finding out what inspires me. As a teacher, I’m finding out what my strengths are and fine tuning my weaknesses. Last but not least, as a performer I’m finally finding choreographers that best suit my style. There are also numerous projects that I would like to complete and residencies I would like to apply for prior to going back to school. 

I feel what I’m learning now is extremely valuable and the experiences I’ve had are just as important to me as getting an MFA. I will end by saying I have the hardest time living in the moment. As I do understand “Life is a Journey, not a destination.”

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get-attachment.aspxLaura Gutierrez is a graduate from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and received her BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. A recipient of a 2009-2010 William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellowship at the Lincoln Center Institute, she presented her choreography The World Within in the Clark Theater. Since returning to Houston, she has been a part of Texas Weekend of Contemporary Dance, Big Range Dance Festival, Hope Stone, Inc’s emerging artist residency HopeWerks. She was also a part of Tino Sehgals installation in the Silence exhibit at The Menil Collection and most recently performed in Study for Ocupant choreographed by Jonah Boaker at Fabric Workshop Museum in Philadelphia and Frame Dance Productions. Currently she is on Adjunct Faculty at HSPVA and is the Office Manager/HopeWerks Director at Hope Stone, Inc.

Stay tuned for Laura’s concluding remarks next week!

MFA Monday!

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday Framers!

We hope your week has started on the right foot, but either way this post from Sue Roginski will have you reflecting and reveling in whatever the week has in store for you. MFA Monday features reflections from Master of Fine Arts holders and Sue is a standout among the masters! 

 

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Part 2 of 3

MFA dance programs bring teachers/professors/mentors rich with information, creative talent of course, experience, and support. These important individuals are more than a pleasant perk and can offer serious guidance (beyond school-real life stuff included) at times in a challenging program.

Once you finish graduate school and become a “master”, the re-entrance to the art/dance/performance/teaching/professional world can get very lonely.

 

Shyness

(note to self…don’t be shy)

I think one of the most difficult things for me in graduate school was the fact that I had a hard time, and I mean a really hard time putting any kind of work: be it written-choreographic-fragmented ideas or investigations “out there” for feedback. Sharing creative stuff can wreak havoc on the sense-of-the-artist-self.

I’ve had many a conversation with grad school friends (pre and post) regarding the vulnerability that is felt when sharing choreography or just putting work out into a public space/arena. Once it is out there it is immediately exposed to critique, praise, dialogue, exposure: in other words… it becomes a potential thing/entity for CRITICISM.

 

Feedback

It can be intense and can feel like one of the riskiest compromises of self and to self-confidence.

 

On Feedback

During the process of creating the MFA project my committee chair/professor and mentor Susan Rose reminded me that all individuals viewing rehearsals would have quite varied and different sets of feedback. I remember she said, “Try not to have everyone in the studio at the same time”. This was an interesting concept to me. Whispering to myself a thought: I actually could choose what feedback would work for the project. I did not have to absorb and utilize all of the notes that were offered to me? Susan reminded me to sift out what was necessary for the work. I could then insert that feedback into my own process.

 

Seek out feedback

In a year (second year thought) you will be out there on your own, so seek out mentors-teachers-professors during your grad school experience.

 

Experiment

Try something in your work and choreographic process you may not try otherwise. After all you are inside (where?) the safe walls of an academic institution.

This is the time to try something and fail.

Fail…I know that word is loaded with negative connotations, but graduate school is a space where those misses or failures can be discussed and analyzed and given some important time. The mentors love to be in on your process/project.

 

Luxury of time

Time goes by so quickly in this space: grad school place

My advice is to remain in contact with your mentors.

They will most definitely want to know what you are working on after graduate school.

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backyard

Sue Roginski graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987 with a BA in Dance and from the University of California Riverside in 2007 with an MFA in Dance (experimental choreography). She is a teacher, choreographer, and performer who has produced her own work as well as performances to benefit Project Inform, Breast Cancer Action, and Women’s Cancer Resource Center. In the past few years, Sue has had the opportunity to share choreography at Anatomy Riot (LA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Unknown Theater (LA), AB Miller High School (Fontana), Culver Center of the Arts (Riverside), Society of Dance History Scholars (conferences ’08 and ’09), The Haven Café and Gallery (Banning), Back to the Grind Coffee House (Riverside), Heritage High School (Romoland), KUNST-STOFF arts (SF), and Riverside Ballet Arts (Riverside). She also has been privileged to dance and perform with Susan Rose and Dancers since 2005. Sue teaches at Mt. San Jacinto College and Riverside City College and divides her time between Riverside and San Francisco where she had a ten year career as dancer and collaborator with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Sue performs with Dandelion Dancetheater (Bay Area based ensemble) and Christy Funsch (SF dance artist) whenever possible, and in 2010 created P.L.A.C.E. Performance (a dance collective) with friend and colleague Julie Satow Freeman. Her ongoing creative process infuses choreography with improvisation.

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday Framers!

Another busy week and another fabulous MFA Monday series! This is the FIRST post of three by Sue Roginski! Enjoy!

 

backyard

Sue Roginski graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987 with a BA in Dance and from the University of California Riverside in 2007 with an MFA in Dance (experimental choreography). She is a teacher, choreographer, and performer who has produced her own work as well as performances to benefit Project Inform, Breast Cancer Action, and Women’s Cancer Resource Center. In the past few years, Sue has had the opportunity to share choreography at Anatomy Riot (LA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Unknown Theater (LA), AB Miller High School (Fontana), Culver Center of the Arts (Riverside), Society of Dance History Scholars (conferences ’08 and ’09), The Haven Café and Gallery (Banning), Back to the Grind Coffee House (Riverside), Heritage High School (Romoland), KUNST-STOFF arts (SF), and Riverside Ballet Arts (Riverside). She also has been privileged to dance and perform with Susan Rose and Dancers since 2005. Sue teaches at Mt. San Jacinto College and Riverside City College and divides her time between Riverside and San Francisco where she had a ten year career as dancer and collaborator with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Sue performs with Dandelion Dancetheater (Bay Area based ensemble) and Christy Funsch (SF dance artist) whenever possible, and in 2010 created P.L.A.C.E. Performance (a dance collective) with friend and colleague Julie Satow Freeman. Her ongoing creative process infuses choreography with improvisation.

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Part 1 of 3

At 40 I sent in my acceptance letter to the UC Riverside Department of Dance for the MFA in Experimental Choreography. I had been dancing in San Francisco for 17 years and was feeling the need for a change-shake-up-something new when I encountered an information session for UCR’s MFA/PHD program in SF.

200px-UC_Riverside_seal.svg

The Unknown 

It was a big deal to say the least to leave a community I was a part of for 17 years: a leap into the unknown. No worries about missing friends, community or city, graduate school sucked me in and under, and for two years I was immersed, overwhelmed, invigorated, challenged, inspired, overworked, and in desperate need of a comb or brush. Not that everyone does grad school the way that I did, but haircuts and daily moments of primping become a low priority when reading 300-500 pages a week become part of a dance experience. The program at UCR: “Critical Dance Studies” requires MFA students to take the PHD seminars. The four core classes blend cultural, historical, political and rhetorical “approaches” to the practice of making work as a choreographer. Rigorous in nature, theoretical and in depth, the program does not ask you to let go of everything you bring with you, but does require an open mind and sponge-like willingness to absorb what is covered.

The Uncomfortable

In a week I was IN, and there was no turning back. The first PHD seminar had us reading Michel de Certeau and Foucault, and in the MFA studio course dancing representations, we considered the dances that needed “program notes” and HOW to proceed in the making of a dance without those.  “Representations” includes a series of choreographic studies. Create a gendered portrait. Such a good assignment, but the hard part of course was actually being exposed to performing a solo again, being watched, and the feeling of being under a microscope. You must be willing to put your self out there and at times embrace the failure. The class not only consists of receiving feedback after sharing the study, but offering thoughts in the moment after a colleague performs her/his study. Dance, respond, observe, articulate, think, move, create, absorb, share, expose, unearth, contribute – just scratches the surface of grad school tasks.

Graduate school seems to have many of those performing moments. In seminar imagine that you’ve done all of the readings, have a solid understanding of what was read, and can contribute articulately to the discussion in class. I cannot imagine that. That was never the case for me. I would have a hard time grasping the reading material and through seminar would think intensely about what I could add to the dialogue. During year one I couldn’t/didn’t speak. I wasn’t ready at the time, but didn’t realize that. I spent many moments in seminar trying to figure out what to say. It was debilitating. I almost forgot I had been OUT of school for some time at age 40. Everyone was so smart! I could have just practiced listening, being.

Side Thought

Graduate school is a ton of work condensed into a short amount of time, so there is a lot of doing and expectations always dancing alongside the doing.

Process

As a dancer and performer, there is much emphasis placed on product, the performance, or the “show”. I feel as an artist there is ego involved so you want to be praised or complimented. It took me about a year to settle into the concept of process as the crux of an MFA rather than “performing”. Of course, show up, be in the moment, be present, but don’t over analyze what you are contributing each moment that you’ve just contributed something. Experiment and investigate AND hold onto a bit of you while you are moving outside of a comfort zone. After all it is you who got into the program.

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Stay tuned for more from Sue next Monday!

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

Got a case of the Mondays?

 

Well, this will surely lift your spirits! Another installment of musings from Master of Fine Arts holder, Heather Nabors! Enjoy!

 

heather

 Heather Nabors is the Assistant Director of Dance Programs at Rice University. Heather relocated to Houston this summer from North Carolina. Heather has been a teacher and freelance choreographer in NC since 2005. She served as an adjunct faculty member at Catawba College, Greensboro College, Elon University, and UNCG. In 2012, Heather founded ArtsMash, a collaborative arts concert in NC. Her work has been presented at ArtsMash, The Saturday Series, UNCG Dance Department Alumni Concert, Greensboro Fringe Festival and the American Dance Festival’s Acts to Follow. She has choreographed over 14 musicals in NC for community theaters and local high schools including Rent, Oklahoma! ,The King & I, Legally Blonde, Little Shop of Horrors, and Children of Eden. Heather received her MFA in Choreography from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

 

 

 

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

 

I am an only child. When I was seven, my favorite t-shirt exclaimed “I’m the boss” in 70’s iron on fabulousness. I did not enjoy sharing my toys with my younger cousin. I did not appreciate being told what to do by anyone. I would create countless dances in my bedroom and force my mother to watch every last one of them.  It took a little while, but eventually I grew out of this self-centered phase (well, for the most part) and over the years, I have learned how to work quite well with others.

One of the best lessons I have learned from my work in musical theater is the art of collaboration. As a choreographer, I am used to being in charge. It is my dance and I make the final decisions. (“I’m the boss,” remember?) When I am choreographing a musical, artistically, I am the low woman on the totem pole. I have been fortunate to work with good directors who respect my opinion, but I know that if my choreography interferes with singing or action on the stage, I have to rework it. The music and dialogue are set, so I have to be flexible. I have a healthy ego, but I know when to leave it at the door. It is a trait that has served me well and has allowed me to continue working.

My graduate school did not have a combined performing arts department and I don’t remember any department co-mingling or collaboration. The only non-dancers I saw enter the dance building were the pianists who accompanied our technique classes. One semester, I ventured out a bit and took an art class with a fellow dancer. We were the only non-art majors in the class and our classmates regularly spent class staring at us as if we belonged to some exotic species of bird. Unfortunately, I never considered venturing to the music building and asking a music student to write a piece for me. When I first experienced the intense collaborative process of putting together a musical, I realized what I had been missing. I had always enjoyed the feedback process offered in choreography class, but I had never worked with anyone outside my field. It was refreshing to get a non-dance perspective on things and bounce ideas off other artists with radically different backgrounds.

A few years ago, I met a lovely musician and asked him to create a score for me. This collaboration was one of the most exciting and frustrating experiences of my life. I am a task driven list maker. My partner for this collaborative process was a little more laid back. I had to develop a new set of skills that allowed for freedom on both ends and didn’t squash his or my artistic voice. I also had to loosen the reins and put faith in his ability to create something that enhanced my work and expressed his point of view.  I videotaped my rehearsals and we viewed them together. I tweaked my work to fit his notes and he found the nuances in my movements and used that to fuel his writing. The piece turned out well and I loved this collaboration so much that I am marrying the composer. (I can now have free music whenever I want it! Yay!)

As choreographers, we can become isolated and lose our sense of community and collaboration. It is easy to get tunnel vision and miss connections with other artists that can inform and reinvigorate our work. Furthermore, I have seen many choreographers lose jobs and burn bridges because they never learned to play well with others. Use your graduate school experience to form partnerships outside the dance community. Collaborate with painters, musicians, filmmakers, and mimes. Take in all the art on your campus and let that fuel your creativity. It is great to be surrounded by a supportive group of dancers, but there is much to be learned from artists in other disciplines as well.

 

MFA Monday!

by Lydia MFA Mondays

 

 

 

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Monday! Another start to a great, full week!

Another  MFA Monday featuring….

(drum rrrroll please)

            Heather Nabors!

 

heather

Heather Nabors is the Assistant Director of Dance Programs at Rice University. Heather relocated to Houston this summer from North Carolina. Heather has been a teacher and freelance choreographer in NC since 2005. She served as an adjunct faculty member at Catawba College, Greensboro College, Elon University, and UNCG. In 2012, Heather founded ArtsMash, a collaborative arts concert in NC. Her work has been presented at ArtsMash, The Saturday Series, UNCG Dance Department Alumni Concert, Greensboro Fringe Festival and the American Dance Festival’s Acts to Follow. She has choreographed over 14 musicals in NC for community theaters and local high schools including Rent, Oklahoma! ,The King & I, Legally Blonde, Little Shop of Horrors, and Children of Eden. Heather received her MFA in Choreography from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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The “MFA Monday” series features the musings of local Master of Fine Arts holders. Enjoy their thoughts on the process of attaining an MFA!

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I Love Jazz Hands

I love modern dance. It is wonderful and fulfilling, but it doesn’t always pay the bills. Prior to moving to Houston, I spent nearly a decade making a living teaching jazz, tap, ballet, modern, and dance for musical theater, and choreographing musicals for community theater.

As a young studio kid, I was a full fledged Jazzerina. I spent my early years studying everything from jazz and tap to ballet and acrobatics. In college, I discovered modern dance and though it felt a little foreign in my body at first, I soon warmed to this new way of moving and developed a deep love and appreciation for modern dance. I was drawn to graduate school by my love of choreography. Once there, I was fully immersed in modern dance up to my eyeballs and I loved every minute of it.

While my graduate program did not openly discourage studying other forms of dance, it was not exactly encouraged either and the pickings were slim. There were a limited number of jazz classes (though none were taught by faculty) and tap was only offered because one of the graduate TAs had the ability to teach the class. Though it was never explicitly stated as such, the message was implicit: modern dance was “high art” while other dance forms were seen as mere entertainment; suitable for commercial pursuits but not worthy of serious study.

In graduate school, I imagined I would land a full-time teaching job within a year of graduating and soon after, would start my own modern dance company. (Totally realistic, right?) However, when I began looking for teaching jobs, I found modern dance jobs scarce and I quickly realized that in my area of North Carolina, the need was for teachers who could teach jazz in theater departments. The reality of life quickly hit me in the face and I dusted off my old jazz shoes in pursuit of a modified career path. I started teaching jazz to beginning theater students and to my surprise and delight, it was awesome! I found them open to everything and completely receptive. They didn’t see dance as commercial vs. artistic, they just wanted to move and learn the basic skills to help them succeed in a musical theater audition. Around the same time, a friend and colleague mentioned that her husband was looking for a choreographer for a musical he was directing and wanted to know if I would be interested. I instantly accepted the opportunity and so began my entrance into choreographing musical theater.

During these intense jazz and musical theater years, I learned many things about myself. I really love jazz. I love musical theater. I love working with beginners who have no formal training. And my love of these things in no way negates my love of modern dance. I don’t care what kind of dance I am teaching – I just want to move!

In graduate school, you may have visions of what you think your career will be like, but these plans may go slightly askew. Be open to every opportunity and don’t be afraid to dive into the “commercial” side of dance. Don’t limit yourself to only working in dance departments and reject teaching classes that are not a level 4 modern technique class. My working colleagues in North Carolina earn their bread and butter from being amazing tap, jazz, and hip hop instructors. In my new position at Rice, I get the best of both worlds. I get to work and train wonderful students who love modern dance. I also get to teach beginning level jazz dancers, some of whom come to me not knowing a jazz square from a square root.

I love dance in all shapes and sizes. It challenges me, awakes my senses and inspires me. I love the shift of weight, curve of the spine and release I get from modern dance. I also love a good jazz hand and tapping out the shim sham on a wood floor.  As a student, I felt the need to choose art or entertainment. As an adult, I know it’s all just dance and it rocks.

 

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

Hello Framers! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Only ten more days ’til Christmas!!!

 

This week’s MFA Monday article comes from previous Frame blog contributor and long-time framer, Rosie Trump! This week Rosie is offering advice for the before, during, and after stages of pursuing a M.F.A.

 

 

Rosie Trump holds a M.F.A. in Experimental Dance Choreography from UC Riverside.  She is a choreographer, dance filmmaker and educator.  Her teaching credits include Seton Hill University, Mt. San Jacinto College and Rice University. Trump is the founder and curator of the annual Third Coast Dance Film Festival. rosietrump.org

 

 

 

So You Think You Want a M.F.A.?

By Rosie Trump

Let me begin by saying graduate school is not and should not be for every artist.  It requires a huge personal undertaking and a significant financial investment.  You will be a different person and a different artist when you finish.  With that being said, I want to share some advice I have gathered from my own graduate school experiences and post-graduate career.

 

Know Before You Go

There are many good reasons to pursue an M.F.A.  There are also some very bad reasons. A combination of good timing and clear postgraduate goals can make all the difference. When deciding on pursuing an M.F.A., it is very important to be honest with yourself and realistic about what this degree will add to your life and career.

If you are 5 or less years out of college ask yourself: Do I have significant professional experience?  Do I have ample teaching practice and a developed pedagogical approach?  Have I developed a distinctive, individual artistic point of view? If you answered no to any of these questions, spend the next two years filling in the gaps before you apply.  Additionally ask yourself, will I resent spending the next three+ years of my life being separated from friends and family, extremely poor, lonely, overwhelmed and overworked?  If you answer yes, wait and reconsider an M.F.A. in a few years.

If you are a mid or post-professional ask yourself: Will I resent spending the next three+ years of my life being separated from my established dance community, deferring earning potential and having my established methods and approaches upended and dismantled? Do I have an extra 40-60 hours per week in addition to my non-negotiable responsibilities to dedicate to intense study?

I believe a good M.F.A. experience is akin to boot camp—a very long boot camp.  For me, graduate school was the hardest thing I had done to date. On the flip side, it was also the absolutely most rewarding thing I had ever done.  I came out on the other side armed with an entirely altered perspective on dance and choreography, and a cohort of brilliant, inspiring friends for colleagues.

 

Still want to go? Tips on how to pick a good program:

Not all M.F.A. programs are created equal.  Finding a good fit for your interests will require a lot of research.  While institutional prestige and geographical desirability are very seductive factors when considering a M.F.A. program, I think the most important factors should be curriculum and faculty.

Curriculum: What excites you about the courses?  Does the curriculum have enough structure and/or flexibility?  Do the classes support your artistic and professional development?  Will you be technically and theoretically challenged? Two important factors that may not seem obvious when you first enter, but will mean everything by the end are:

1. What shape does the thesis project can take? For example, do students produce solo concerts, share an evening or write research document?  Who covers the production costs?  Where can the thesis take place–off campus, in another city, etc?

2. Is the curriculum going to be a rehash or reboot of your undergrad studies?  What I mean by this is, will you take seminars that provide you with information that you could not obtain or have not obtained in any other way?

Faculty: These are the people that will make or break your grad school experience.  Will you be excited and eager to work with these people?  Will they be interested and active in assisting your vision and growth?  Do you have compatible artistic points of view?  Do they have connections and (much more importantly) time and energy to mentor you?  Will they champion you in the post-graduate professional realm?  The best faculty most certainly do not have to be superstars or ‘nice’ people.  The best faculty will push you in directions you didn’t know you needed to go.

 

Money, It’s What I Want! Or How to Negotiate the Offer…

You buffed up your resume, did the research, applied, interviewed and now you have an acceptance offer! So let’s talk about money. Trust me, no matter how good at living on a minuscule budget you have been thus far, you will need more money than you think for graduate school.  Moving costs, books, costumes, production supplies and countless bottles of wine (as Mary describes) will all quickly add up.

I encourage you to negotiate the best possible situation BEFORE you accept the offer. Now and only now, do you hold a little bit of power.  Once you accept, that offer is your contract with the institution. Negotiating a better situation after this point will be nearly impossible.  This is also why it is important to ascertain more than one acceptance offer.  Even if you prefer one school over another, you can use the other offer to get a better deal (an extended fellowship, an additional semester of TA-ship) at your ‘dream school.’

 

Here is what you will need:

  1. Full tuition remission—you should not pay any tuition fees to attend grad school.
  2. A fellowship stipend —this is ‘free’ money that the school pays you to do your creative research.  Often times this is offered in your first semester or year.  This is the money you use to pay for rent and living costs.
  3. Teaching assistantships—these are teaching positions where you will either assist a professor with lecturing, grading, etc. or be the primary instructor for a course.  TA-ships usually require around 20 hours of work per week.  This money pays for your rent and living costs.

 

I will share with you what a mentor told me when I was considering applying to graduate school: They pay you to attend.  You do not pay them. This includes living costs.  If you are like most people, you have already racked up considerable debt from undergraduate student loans.  Do not take out student loans to pay for a M.F.A.!  I cannot emphasis this enough.  It’s bleak, but true, that once you graduate your earning potential will probably not be that much better than before you earned your M.F.A.  Do not shackle yourself to more debt!

If you receive an offer that requests you pay part of the costs and you cannot negotiate a better deal, DON’T GO!  Wait, gain the experience to make yourself a more desirable candidate, and then reapply in a few years.

Last but not least, beware of the “once you get here you can apply for XX fellowship or XX grant to supplement our offer.”  This is dangerous because these opportunities are often contingent on external funding sources that can waiver with the economy, etc. and/or are competitive.  You could find yourself competing with a hundred other graduate students in ‘sexier/more traditional/more practical’ fields for one or two awards.

 

*Helpful links:

Don’t Go to Graduate School (aimed at PhD students, but much applies to the M.F.A, too)

100 Reason’s Not to Go to Graduate School

M.F.A. Fever – an article about perusing a creative writing M.F.A.

A listing of over 100 graduate dance programs

* While some of these links may seemed aimed at keeping you out of graduate school, their real goal is to reveal the honest truth of what lies ahead.  Many artists are all too aware of the hardships in their field, but can still romanticize the academic life.