Choreography Workshop
Much like actors long to direct, dancers long to choreograph. Nevada Ballet Theatre offered its company members such an opportunity with its first Choreographers' Workshop at the Paris Hotel Theatre in Las Vegas.
Being the first to take on the challenge can be daunting. Dance companies have subtle and not-so-subtle hierarchies. Choreographing a first piece may mean giving directions to people who are not accustomed to getting them from peers or it may just mean stepping out of a comfort zone. In any case, it can be scary. As Racheal Hummel-Nole said, "Very scary, because you know, you never know. Will people want to sit and watch what I create? You know, you get self-conscious about it. First it was just me and my steps. And then it was me and my girls and my steps. And we all loved it; we didn't know if anyone else would love it. But as we started to show things and share between choreographers what was going on and get some positive feedback..." Enough said.
"I think the hardest part for me was to be confident. I second-guess myself usually a lot and just to kind of think, 'Is this the right step,' or, 'Is this how I want to do it,' or 'Should it be like this?' When you are creating something, you can't second-guess yourself."
And yet, originally, that's what she did. "Actually, before we even heard about this, my husband and I went on a road trip and I had just got the CD from Madeline Peyroux, who's a French artist and she's singing in English. And I thought, 'Boy this particular piece, I really would like to do choreography for that.' And I'm not a choreographer, I'll tell you. I just had never done it before."
What she created was a supple piece, replete with round, flowing movements and soft, rich undertones. Each dancer seemed connected to the next, not only by the choreography, but by the vision created by the long white skirts, rippling like water. Intentional or not, they effectively enhanced the movements. It was an audacious "first" for a classical ballerina. Racheal, admittedly accustomed to restraint and structure, broke out with abandon, applying an unencumbered joie de vivre to everything from movement to costume to music.
It's a wonder it turned out that way because as Racheal said, "I would say that out of the dancers that did choreography, I'm probably the most very classically trained. I mean, everyone is classically trained but some of the dancers are Ballanchine trained, which is a little more free. I'm very, very strict Russian school, Vaganova school and I think it was just to break out of that. Instead of using the arms in a way that's really held, I wanted it to be really just relaxed and nothing like what we usually do. It was kind of also a gift to the girls to get."
Racheal was likewise smart enough not to overplay her hand on her first choreographic effort. "I kept it short. I didn't want to make it too long of a piece because, you know, it's not necessarily the length as the substance of it. And I thought, you know, 'I can do five minutes of very inspired choreography and then five minutes of not inspired choreography or I could just keep it down.'"
"I never would've thought choreography until after tonight. I just never would've ventured because it's just very vulnerable to put yourself out there like that and hope that people will receive it well."
But receive it well they did and Racheal exulted in her triumph. "Doing this choreography I think it was the first time that I just actually said, 'I really like something that I've done.' Just unabashedly, 'I really like what I did here.' And the girls were a huge part of that."
"I set three different parts on the girls separately. 'You do this and then you do that' and then when I put it all together, I mean I just went on the floor because it was very surprising that it just worked. It's really intimate what you create and then to see someone else do it and do exactly what you've imagined, it's really surprising."
Becoming a choreographer, branching out into a more creative field takes solid technique and fire in the soul. Racheal possesses both and longs for more. "Yeah. Don't be afraid to do it. Just go in the studio with the music you're interested in and pull the blinds or whatever you have to do and just go through it and work out your steps and then be confident about it. Go for it. Definitely." Putting shape to dreams is always better than sitting on the sidelines and wishing.