An Unconventional Journey
“I don't have any heroes,” Lone K. Larsen says.
This statement is surprising if one considers Larsen's career: She has worked with some of the dance world's leaders and learned from Martha Graham herself. In an era where the word “hero” is used to amp up nightly newscasts, political press releases and Oprah episodes, it's striking to hear Larsen toss the word to the curb.
Larsen, who speaks with a refreshing warmth and frankness, hails from Denmark and currently lives in New York City. And like her view of the word “hero,” her path to become a successful dancer and dance teacher has been equally unconventional.
Larsen was born in the small town of Ribe, Denmark's oldest town that traces its roots back to the vikings. Ribe didn't offer much in the way of dance programs for eager dancers like Larsen, who dreamed of becoming a classical ballerina. The nearest ballet classes took place hours from her home, so instead Larsen took up the two forms of dance that her surroundings offered: ballroom dancing and a “rhythmic gymnastics-jazz class” until she was in her late teens. During this period, Larsen notes that she found herself wishing for more dance opportunities. But ballroom dancing kept her busy. Fridays and weekends were devoted to competitions. More than once Larsen thought of giving up her dance dreams in favor of a normal teenage life. She knew that the only way that to have a future in dance was to move to a bigger city where the opportunities dwarfed those in Ribe.
Larsen's parents had a different future in mind for her – one that included a university degree - but none of the universities in Denmark offered a degree in dance. Larsen finished high school and moved to Copenhagen to start a degree in music to please her family. During her first year, she visited New York and quickly realized that in the United States she could continue dancing and receive an education. She applied in secret to one school, Boston Conservatory, and was accepted without auditioning.
For someone whose resume included jazz gymnastics and a Danish ballroom league, Larsen still muses playfully as to why she was accepted.
“I got recommendations from everybody who thought it would be a good idea,” she recalls. “They [Boston Conservatory] wanted photographs from me...and I did some really stupid photographs up in the attic in my house. I had my brother take them so my parents wouldn't find out. I don't know if they thought it was body type or they wanted foreign students – I have no idea why they took me, because I really didn't know that much – but they did!”
Larsen packed her bags, her basic knowledge of the English language and traveled to the United States completely alone, but dedicated to her potential.
“I traveled by myself, that's how determined I was.” Larsen recalls the events with a combination of amusement and foggy details. “And the cheapest way possible to travel was with my down comforter and my pillow and my suitcase.” And that is how she arrived at her dorm.
In Boston she began a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, and learned the forms of dance that had eluded her for so long, including ballet and modern dance, the latter of which would become her focus. Larsen admits that her earliest exposures to modern dance left her underwhelmed. It wasn't until two very specific performances she saw in Boston that she became devoted to the art form.
“One thing I saw was a ballet performed by a company called The Concert Dance Company. I was just left looking like a zombie, in my chair in the theater, just sitting there in awe. And the other thing I saw was the Martha Graham Dance Company. And that was it. I decided right there and then that this what I want to do and that is what I've been searching for the whole time,” Larsen says.
After graduating from Boston Conservatory, Larsen knew she couldn't afford the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance or the cost of living in New York, and moved to Chicago to dance and teach. Within months she was broke and returned to Denmark where she took a job dancing with a theater company in classic musicals like “Annie Get Your Gun” and “West Side Story.” Larsen also started her own modern dance company, Ballet Plus, but wasn't able to put the Martha Graham Dance Company out of her mind. She won a scholarship to finance a short stay in New York in 1986. Larsen returned, enrolled in classes, and accepted an offer to participate in a repertory workshop for a piece called “Heretic,” by Martha Graham. The workshop was lead by Yuriko, a Martha Graham alumna and founder of the Martha Graham second company, the Martha Graham Ensemble. After the workshop ended, Yuriko invited her to join the ensemble.
“The big question was, do I leave what I started in Denmark or do I go back to New York?” Larsen says. “And it was a very painful decision that I made, but I made it. I said this chance comes once in a lifetime in New York. So I grabbed it.”
During her time with the Martha Graham Ensemble, Larsen paid close attention to the instructions of her teachers and peers. Yuriko, who Larsen considers her greatest influence as a performer, was a strict teacher with an incredible ability to explain the feeling and emotion that would come out of a movement when the movement was done in a certain way. By 1987, Larsen received her first invitation to dance a small role with the primary company, the Martha Graham Dance Company, on an as-needed basis. There were no permanent places in the primary company, but Larsen took on roles whenever they were offered to her. By 1989, her efforts paid off and she took a full-time role in the company.
“It was fascinating when she would come into the studio and work on a new piece...especially when she was alone with us in the room. She was very sweet,” Larsen remembers of Martha Graham's presence in the studio. “She couldn't do very much – she was quite old now – and sat in her little chair with arthritic hands, but she was clear in her mind. And it was the things that she said that were so amazing.”
At that time there were 32 dancers in the company. A hierarchy existed in the group between the primary dancers and the “the little ones,” as Larsen refers to her place in the pecking order, and Graham's interaction took place primarily with the two principle dancers, who would then address the rest of the company. Larsen's tone shifts slightly as she recalls an instance in 1988 when Graham spoke directly to her after observing Larsen teach a class on Graham's technique.
“I had to teach a real class with her watching, and that is the worst thing you can just imagine!” Larsen says. “Having her come in and watch you teach her technique with her watching you do it—I was so nervous! And all I was concerned with was that I did not want her to think I was awful. And I really don't recall any specific thing other than that task. She said I did a good job – and that was it.”
Larsen danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company while teaching at the Martha Graham School for the next four years. Her work with the company ushered her onto the stages of the world's greatest dance venues. Yet it's increasing clear, as Larsen speaks, that one of the most critical elements that she took from her time with the company was learning how to teach future generations of dancers. Larsen, who concluded her full-time work with the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1993, teaches the Martha Graham Technique at Marymount Manhattan College, is a faculty member at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and guest teaches at various international venues.
“You have to be generous if you want to be a good teacher,” Larsen says with transparency. “You have to be generous with yourself, be patient, be a good communicator, have a very good knowledge of the material. Because otherwise, forget it. Drawing from your own professional experience and being able to bring that to the classroom...Really caring for [your students] and wanting to see improvement. Giving the students the tools that they need to have to help them improve and succeed. Those are some of the very important parts, I think.”
Larsen freely admits that her style is different than what she was taught in the Ensemble, where she was guided by Yuriko's firm hand.
“I believe in positive reinforcement and I have seen kids fare much better with that message,” Larsen says, but notes that coaching professionals provides a uniquely different set of circumstances than teaching students. “If you are working with professionals, those things don't matter. They are either there or they are not there. If they can't handle the job, get out. Professionals, they get paid, they take what comes.”
And as a teaching professional at two major dance institutions, Larsen continues to handle the job while accepting new challenges, including choreographing a piece for the upcoming show at Marymount Manhattan College. Larsen admits to nerves related to her return to the role of choreographer after having been immersed in the Graham Technique for so long.
“I always learn something depending on the reaction of students and their results,” Larsen says. “I learn something from all the people I teach.” And in that way, Larsen's journey and Graham's legacy are forever intertwined.