Okay, so I have taken my first dance class since hurting my back at the beginning of May. I have lost so much muscle and flexibility, I was very apprehensive, but I was itching to get out and DANCE, so I picked a class, hopped into the car and told my husband Saul not to expect me home for dinner.
Miami Contemporary Dance (miamicontemporarydance.net) has the highest internet and newspaper visibility of all the modern dance companies in the South Florida area, so I have has my eye on them for a bit. The director is Ray Sullivan and evidently, he's developing his own technique because all of the Modern classes are advertised as "Sullivan Technique of Contemporary Movement" levels 1-3. Hmmm.
I chose the Thursday night level 2 class taught by the company's Assistant Artistic Director Soledad (a firey little woman from Argentina). First off, the classes are held in a residential building/hotel (Suncoast Suites) on Miami Beach in what undoubtedly must have been the ballroom/conference room at one point. If they have admin offices, they are not in sight. You have to ask the desk manager for the building where the heck Miami Cont. Dance is to find the place because there is no obvious signage on the outside of the building (which, by the way, has seen better days). But once you are in and warming up on the stained salvaged carpet, you feel like you are, of course, in a place where struggling artists make art.
The class - obviously leans HEAVILY on the Bartenieff Fundamentals and Graham technique which makes me wonder why he's trademarking his technique... Why not just build a curriculum based on the principles you've gleaned from your training?
Does this sound familiar to anyone? A modern class that starts on the floor and progresses to standing with across-the-floor exercises towards the end and jumps as a tag-ending. Floor-work includes homologus, core-distal extensions and leg-swings that move from body-half to contra-lateral. Then contraction work that builds from stationary, homologus contractions to moving contra-lateral.
Center work begins with foot work from parallel, to turned-out first position through fourth on your axis building to off-axis.
Across the floor work combines turning and on and off axis as well as fast foot work releasing into the ground and launching out of it.
A through-line of the class is attention to the core (lower abdomen muscles as well as the illio-psoas group) as a means of initiation. Emphasis on releasing extraneous muscle groups thereby developing the muscles closest to the bone and building efficient fast-twitch response. I suspect the performances of this company include powerful, yet graceful jumps and amazing petite allegro.
So, sounds familiar, right? Again... why do artists feel the need to put their name on techniques? I may eat my words later if I find that the company has conducted much research and published based on the Sullivan Technique. We'll see.
End-note. I've bought a package of classes because I enjoyed Soledad's instruction very much and the class very much. But when I asked for advice on other classes and other companies to check out, she conveniently didn't know of any other Companies or studios to recommend even though she just gave a young man from Dance NOW! a free class and told him that she wanted him to dance for MCD instead. Hmm. This, in my opinion is not a friendly artist way of operating. Artists should help each other out, not try to be blood-sucking businesses. That's not why we do what we do. I hope they redeem themselves because I need a good place to dance, but so far, not an awesome first impression.
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