Le Vent Nous Portera
Do you ever wonder how you got to where you are? Right now I am sitting in the International Wing of the Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport waiting to hear my flight announced over the intercom. I am flying back to Heathrow Airport to ring in the New Year with Big Ben and the rest of London. Then it's off to Barcelona for a few days with friends and finally back to Oxford to finish my last two terms of a one-year Master's degree in Victorian Literature. Yup. The wind certainly does carry us.
Over the summer I made the decision to take a hiatus from the DC dance scene to return to school for English. I don't know if all dancers feel this way at one time or another in their career, but I was lately in a place where I needed to separate myself from professional dance. What is the saying - if you love something set it free? Though I am studying at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, I must confess that more often than not, I am not thinking of my course but of dance. To be fair, dance was a major factor in my decision to accept my place at Oxford. I am pursuing this degree in English in order to study it in relation to dance. And though it is proving to be a challenge, it is one that I am wholeheartedly behind--much like finding dance in the city itself.
Unlike at universities in the States, non-conservatory universities in England do not offer courses in dance. So Americans who come here expecting to find a good class in college quickly realize they will not find it and more often than not end up meeting each other--along with other eager international students--in Nickely Burke's contemporary class on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Artistic Director of Biserk--a contemporary dance company in residence directly outside the city center at the Pegasus Theater--and Australian fireball, Nickely teaches a class that serves her dancers well. Not quite release technique, not quite classical modern, her class--nearly the only acceptable one in Oxford--is somewhere in between and is great for keeping in shape both bodily and mentally and for working on performance. Indeed, Nickely's class was where I began: it proved not only useful for movement quality, but also for networking. It was in one of her Wednesday classes that I met Graham Alexander who told me to contact Miranda Laurence who was starting a contemporary dance group at the university. Hurrah! - Now I am teaching every other Sunday, performing in college, and can call myself one of the founding members of Freefall Dance, the said student dance company. In a similar environment, a Biserk dance performance at the Pegasus in fact, I met Florencia Lopez Boo, a former-dancer-turned-young-and-up-and-coming-choreographer. She is a tiny little thing with a rubber band of a body. Originally from Argentina, Florencia received an MA in Economics in Brussels and is now in her third year of a PhD in the same field at St. Antony's College (one of the 39 colleges that comprise Oxford University). She has resurrected a duet of which I am fortunate to be dancing the second part. Her third reconstruction of "(Santa Maria de los) Buenos Aires" incorporates tango, makes use of black skirts and red roses and is a chance to be theatrical as well as emotive. So not only am I performing at university, I am also making my professional debut in London in early February, on top of honing my Graham technique and learning tango. To cap it all off, I have been able to continue teaching Pilates and am substituting for dance classes in the area. Life is good.
So how did I get here? It's not as if I planned this really; and it's not as if I was fed up with dance. Literally up to the day my plane left for the Mother country, I had performances at the Kennedy Center with more opportunities to follow throughout the year. Was I silly for leaving? Fortunately I didn't give myself time to ask that question. But now that I have had nearly four months to think, I don't believe I was or am. I think I was ready to go and to see: to see the world outside the DC studios; to experience new intellectual and movement communities. And by simply looking for them, I am now, on top of studying for a long-sought after MA in Victorian Literature, teaching, performing, choreographing, and most importantly still dancing. I have found a community in which I belong on the other side of the pond. I have spoken highly of the dance community before; but when everything else is changed, it remains so comforting to know that that community of special people exists everywhere. I just had to see it for myself.
Many thanks to Nickely, Florencia, Graham and Miranda. Please visit www.biserk.co.uk to learn more
about Biserk Dance Company
and www.pegasustheatre.org.uk and www.theplace.org.uk to learn about the upcoming choreographers' showcases of which "(Santa Maria de los) Buenos Aires" will be a part. Seek sublimity in dance--it's out there!