Rewind, Refine, and Redesign

Introduction by Candice Spykers and Original Choreography by Students

Teacher Introduction 

This year the Grade 12 Ballet course examined how we can, as American choreographer/ educator Liz Lerman says, “hike the horizontal” that exists between community-based dance and high art, as well as challenge the hierarchy that exists within the ballet world. This meant looking back at where ballet has come from and who has traditionally made the decisions about what and who appears onstage, as well as examining our own biases of what we consider “good” dancing.

Students were asked to teach members of their family/ household a traditional ballet exercise in an effort to challenge their definition of “technique” and to examine the movement concept behind the “steps”. This practical teaching experience with individuals who had never seen the four walls of a dance studio, created a powerful opportunity for human connection and dance appreciation at a time when we need it the most. Our students demonstrated and shared their knowledge of dance by creating a movement experience for their grandparents, parents, and siblings. They benefited from not only the physical experience of moving their body at a time when our freedom to move is quite limited, but also from the joy of a shared physical experience through the curious and vulnerable eyes of someone doing it for the first time. For students, this made them re-evaluate their own success criteria when it comes to “technique” and question if aesthetics is everything in dance, again challenging traditional ballet norms. 

This shift in perspective is reflected in the work of  my mentor Jamieson Dryburgh whose research is rooted in the question of whether “technique” in dance is something that can emanate from where a learner is at, rather than be something that is never quite achievable.

As a culminating composition assignment students were asked to select a historical piece of choreography. In addition to analysing the original movement, they were tasked with researching the historical context in which it was created and why it was created. They then were to reflect on how they could devise a creative process that would allow them to get inside of the work and explore what it was about. Finally, they had to reimagine it for 21st century audiences, deciding what elements of the original work they would keep and what they would “correct”, taking into consideration what they as a 21st century audience member would want to see. It became an embodied way of learning about history and, choreographically, it meant learning about theme and variation as a choreographic form.

The class decided to title their virtual sharing “Rewind, Redefine & Redesign” after the 3Rs that we associate with recycling because we are recycling works from the past and making them new again. We rewound to study, analyse, and learn from another choreographer, redefined what we deemed as important, and redesigned a piece to make it reflect our own lived experience. 

While you will see a solo performance in most of these films, they were not created alone. During the creative process students explored all of the possible ways that we can dance with others even while we are apart and in doing this they realised  that they are truly not alone, even in lockdown. 

In “Connection Lost” Uma Roberts reimagined Coppelia originally choreographed in 1821 by Arthur Saint-Leon. The original ballet tells the story of a man who longs for a daughter so much that he creates a doll. Uma related this desire for human connection to what many of us are experiencing right now, during the pandemic. She revised the original choreography to turn it into a duet that could be performed and recorded over zoom. She explored the complications of trying to stay connected while we are physically apart, and the blending of our public and private lives that has happened  as a result. Her work also turned a solo into a duet in which she drew similarities between the maker and the doll with the role of the choreographer and the dancer. This led her to question how the rehearsal process itself could be more of a true collaboration and less of a dictatorship, in this way challenging the patriarchy that exists within ballet. Ironically, in a dance field dominated by the presence of women, we have still largely been policed and directed by male choreographers and artistic directors.

In “Freedom Costs” Williem Sadler explored the Prodigal Son originally created by George Balanchine in 1929. This ballet tells the story of a son who rebels against his father by leaving home to follow a siren, only to be robbed and injured. He must drag himself home for forgiveness from his father who had warned him of this outcome. Will developed a creative process that used writing-in-role to get inside of these two characters. He then devised his movement from text that he wrote exploring the conflict from both sides, allowing him to reflect on how one person’s actions can hurt another. In exploring a parent/ child relationship through movement he concluded that when a child is in pain, the person who cares for them the most (their parent) shares in their suffering and grief. This shows us once again how dance and theatre can teach us empathy and understanding of others.

In “The Caged Swan” Rhianna Garcia and Brianna Morris reflected on their own experience as people of colour and looked at race in ballet. They explored the symbolic use of colour in Swan Lake and questioned why black is equated with evil. 

I am in awe of the personal and artistic growth that I have witnessed in nine short weeks and I am sharing this with you because the “concert” dance world is changing and these young folks are leading the revolution in very intelligent and innovative ways!

Original Choreography Created and Performed by Students