Roxanne D'Orleans Juste and her life force. The Jose Limon Dance Company!
At the Joyce Theater last November the Jose Limon Dance Company celebrated its 60th anniversary. Performing in every piece was Roxane D'Orleans Juste, principal artist and the company's Associate Artistic Director. Her name has been intertwined with the art of Jose Limon for over twenty-three years. She has performed in "The Moor's Wife," (Desdemona in the tragic Shakespearean tale which has become the trademark production of the Limon company) as well as in "There is a Time," and "Missa Brevis." Through her intelligence, physicality, and determination Jose Limon's choreography has become a living archive, one we can be certain is carefully drawn and performed with meticulous care. The road from her Canadian roots to being one of the foremost interpreters of Limon work is indicative of how young dancers must find their way through the maze of intricacies confronting them as they start out on a dance career.
"My parents insisted on ballet training for me and my sister as part of enriching our childhood in Montreal," she began. "We went to the home of my first teacher, Aline LeGris, and had to change in the hallway. When she opened the door for her young students it was like entering a great ballroom, full of memories and artifacts and a world that fascinated me." Shortly after this meeting, D'Orleans Juste and her family moved to Haiti where she met Lavinia Williams, the great teacher and mother of former Ailey star, Sara Yarborough. "It was Lavinia who encouraged me to think about dance seriously," D'Orleans Juste recalled. "At age ten, I was only dancing for fun." Williams dispelled that attitude and taught me to stay focused on ballet.
Returning to live in Canada D'Orleans Juste did just that and enrolled in a special program at the National Ballet School. By this time she was too old to join the children's division or think about a career as a ballerina so instead she focused on becoming a ballet teacher for children, ages 10 to 18. "This was to be my field of endeavor, or so I thought, and I was pleased with the decision," she said. "In reality I was still too young to know what my next step would be."
Because of the generosity of the Canada Council she was awarded a research grant that permitted her to travel both to Europe and New York to take classes and explore the boundaries of dance. "I spent the whole day taking notes and observing classes," she said, still intent on returning to Canada to live and work. "I had no idea I would live in New York, but then, as Fate would have it, I entered into two long-term contracts: one with my husband, a New Yorker, and one with the Limon Company, based in New York.
She won't easily forget her audition for the Limon Company. "No," she said, an instant smile of remembrance crossing her intent face. "When you are young you just want to dance. You dance with the heart, never mind the steps. And, I was shocked that I forgot my steps completely."
Aside from her duties as performer, teacher, rehearsal coach, and general support to Carla Maxwell, the director of the Limon Company, she is also performing her own choreography. Recently on a program by "dancenOw/NYC" at the Dance Theatre Workshop in New York, D'Orleans Juste performed excerpts from "Touching Stone," a stunning and cerebral solo work carefully calibrated to bring forth the intensity of her own dancing while separating herself from the technique in which she has been immersed.
Keeping herself afloat with all these responsibilities resting on her slight frame took some juggling of priorities. "Well absolutely, I take class," she began. "And I learned a valuable lesson. A therapist once told me to write down my regime. Then she asked me 'how can you train, rehearse, perform in the company, create your own work, and have a life. You are not going to last much longer.' And my mentor, Anabelle Gamson, made clear to me that being a member of the Limon Company and doing solo work means I must really take care of myself. Over training is not going to do any good, and will make me injury prone. As a young dancer one thinks they can do everything. I don't have the same resiliency. Working from eight to midnight after a full day of rehearsal - well, I just can't do that anymore."
Jose Limon developed one of the few substantive techniques in modern dance. D'Orleans Juste believes that Limon wanted to have his work continue beyond him. Where other choreographers may not have cared, his body of work is carefully preserved and performed by his company among them some dancers who had actually worked with him. "Modern dance heritage will fade if we don't make an effort to preserve the masters," D'Orleans Juste pointed out. "If I hadn't felt Limon's work was timeless, I would not have stayed for so long. "