Dance in the Spaces
Canadians Elijah Brown and Naomi Stikeman worked together in Celine Dion’s show “A New Day” in Las Vegas and again, most recently, on a project called “One Love – Imagining the music of Harold Arlen.” Their performance approach is a little different. It involves dancing in the spaces between the choreography and the music. It’s like the ripple once the leaf has come to rest on the surface of the water.
Brown says, “I guess it’s got to do with, people tell me it’s about the intensity of focus I have. I find that I try to just cherish the tiny moments, I guess, the little moments that connect to larger things. To me, that’s the beauty of performing. It’s the tiny spaces between the thoughts. It’s not about grandiose movement.”
He believes his acting classes played a part in this skill. “My mom was in the National Ballet of Canada. I stayed away from dance for many years. I went into theatre originally. I went to university as an actor. I decided I needed to hone my craft in dance as well if I wanted to be a triple threat. In my first class I discovered that, wow, it’s like recreating acting but with your body.”
He says, “It’s never been about the movement. It’s something deeper for me. There’s always an emotion connected to a movement.”
He sees the same approach in Stikeman. “She’s a wonderful foil to have because she has such a strong conviction and presence. When you have a person onstage with you like that, it only helps to keep you grounded. If you have someone distracted and not engaged, it tends to dissipate the energy.”
Brown adds, “There’s two ways to stand out. One’s a good way; one’s a bad way…There’s many technicians out there but they almost seem bored. They’ve perfected the technique of dance but dance is more than that. It’s important to live that moment, every time.”
Stikeman agrees. She says, “I think it would be the integrity and commitment to the moment. We can all, even if you have a trained eye or you don’t have a trained eye, I think everybody can recognize integrity, even if you don’t apply that word.”
“You’re seeing a certain type of intensity. Integrity looks like you’re committed to the moment. Your whole self is present and dedicated to that movement onstage.” The result is an energy and honesty that draws the eye to her…even if she’s standing perfectly still. By then, she’s initiated the ripple.
She says, “I saw ‘One Love’ as an opportunity to play a character. I’d not played a character before. It was a new undertaking, a new task and I saw it as a way to grow as an artist.”
“There’s a certain method involved in starting from scratch and really thinking about who is this girl that I’m playing and why is she who she is. If I were asked to make a character again, I can now draw upon this experience.”
“It affected the movement because she is a firm believer in love. She has never experienced heartbreak or anything like that…Her movements were very all-embracing and quite light and warm and soft in a way. It was very rounded, as opposed to being jagged and hard.”
And “rounded” also applies to their approach to the future without the stability of “A New Day.” Stikeman is returning to Canada for her next challenge. “I’m very excited. I’m Canadian and I received a grant from the Canadian Arts Council to create my own show. It’s a multi-media performance. It’s about the quest for meaning and purpose.”
The quest for meaning and purpose also occupies Brown’s thoughts. He says, “I think if you do things with the right intention, everything will work out.” With the right intention, things take on their own momentum, as witnessed by Brown’s latest endeavor. He collaborated with composer Claude Lamet on a song about peace and love that made its way, along with 30,000 other proposals, to the Beijing Olympic Committee. His song is now a finalist for the closing ceremonies.
“It’s exciting. As artists, or just as human beings, you need to renew yourself. You need to move on and find out what the next chapter is. You need to close one door to find other possibilities.”
“It’s like learning a foreign language and just learning all the verbs and tenses. Go to France, go to Mexico, go to Spain and live the language.”
As Stikeman says, “Dancing is more than being a technician. Dancing incorporates your spirit and your soul. If you can dare to bring that to the table, it brings the technique to life.”
In other words: dance fully. Dance in the spaces. Cause a ripple.
“Learn the dance, not the steps. If you mess up the steps, that’s okay. Live the music and then whatever comes out will be okay.” Brown