“I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words.”

~Ruth St. Denis~

“To dance is to be out of yourself.  Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.”

~Agnes De Mille~

“Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery.”

~Martha Graham~

Since it is the time of the year that a lot of dancers are starting pointe or may be returning to pointe after a litte break, it seemed like a good time to refer back to an article from our July 2007 newsletter on breaking in and caring for your pointe shoes.

Click here to read more about pointe shoe life/care.

Want to see what it’s like to be a dancer living in New York City?  Dance 212 follows the lives of 4 dancers as they chase their hopes and dreams.  View the first episode in Lorin Takes the Lead.

“There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.”

~Vicki Baum~

“We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive…
and part of the living, incarnate cosmos.”

~D.H. Lawrence~

The other day a mother and daughter came in for tights for the daugher’s recital that evening.  I found out that it was her first one and that she was excited about it.  What a treat!

Recital time can be an exciting or nerve-wracking time.  No matter how used to performing we might become, most of us usually continue to have some sort of excited or nervous response before we go onstage.  But why?  If it’s nervousness, what are we worried about?  Making a mistake, not being liked or perhaps looking silly?  What I find is that before I perform, my ego tends to get overactive.  It’s just trying to protect me, but it does so by editing.  While there is a time and place for the ego’s work, the stage is not one of them.  I find that when my ego takes over, I usually wind up not delivering my best performance because I play it safe.  In other words, I edit instead of let true inspiration in.

It is when I haven’t listened to worries of ego but instead have tapped into the excited energy I felt before the performance that I have danced my best on stage and felt completely connected to the audience.  Those have been some of the most incredible times in my life, and I hope that many of you, whether you are new to performing or a seasoned veteran, are able to achieve that awesome, hard-to-describe, “in the zone” experience this recital season.

Last night I stayed up late so that I could watch my DVR’d episodes of So You Think You Can Dance.  This is going to be an amazing season!  All of the dancers were so good, but ultimately I agreed with the judges’ choices for who should be going home.

The reason I wasn’t watching last night’s episode in real time is because I was attending a SIFF screening of Afghan Star, a documentary about the Afghan version of “American Idol”.  The trailer says, “After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Afghan pop Idol is taking the nation by storm… but this is more than just a TV show. In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing.”  For many years, music and dance were outlawed in Afghanistan, but even though the laws have been lifted, there is still conflict about whether these things should be done.  At one point, one of the female contestants (there were actually 2!) dances a little bit on stage while singing her song, and afterwards she has to fear for her life.

Watching this documentary, I was struck by how very lucky we are in the West to be able to freely express ourselves through music and dance.  We take these freedoms for granted sometimes, I think.  However, I could see how the people in the film came alive by participating in the ”Afghan Star” event, either as a spectator or a participant.  The TV show’s producer said that during the period that music and dance were outlawed, Afghanistan was like an empty house with the lights off.  Hopefully the fragile tolerance that has developed for musical expression will be extended to dance as well.

Mark your calendars!  The 5th Season of So You Think You Can Dance starts on May 21 on Fox.  Last year they added Bollywood dancing to the repertoire.  I wonder what surprises are in store this season?