Senior dance and business double major Madison Lee received a Sally A. Radell Friends of Dance Scholarship to attend the Bates Dance Festival this past July. Read on for a reflection on their experience.
Looking back at my time at Bates Dance Festival (BDF), I feel a deep sense of gratitude towards the staff, the faculty, the other dancers, and Emory Friends of Dance for making it possible for me to attend. It was cathartic to leave Atlanta behind for a week and dance with people I didn’t know. I never once felt a sense of competitiveness at Bates, just support and enjoyment.
There was one class that I was really excited for and hoped would be helpful in my thesis project, and it was Alex Springer and Xan Burley’s composition course. I learned a lot through their class, and I plan to use some of their movement generation exercises in rehearsals for my upcoming thesis rehearsals. For example, we spent a lot of time improvising on the first day of class before making any phrasework, and it really helped me distill my movement style into phrase. Improvising for an extended period of time forces you to discover your movement patterns, movements you like and don’t like, as well as new movements you wouldn’t normally try. We also explored making duets, trios, and ensembles, and we made a site-specific works on the BDF campus.
I also took Hip Hop and Countertechnique courses. A large part of my dance background is in Hip Hop, so it was nice to go back to my roots and learn choreography that had a large amount of historical moves. Our teacher Duane Lee Holland ensured that we had well-rounded and spreadable knowledge; at the end of every class, he would go through every step in the combination and tell us the name and the origin of the step. As someone who has spent time training and learning about the history of Hip Hop, I think it is so important to maintain the culture and stories of the dances, especially for those who have taken classes but haven’t necessarily learned the background knowledge. Countertechnique was very challenging, especially because I had never done it before attending Bates. We utilized momentum and weight shifting to travel across the floor and find points of balance before falling again.
I had never done a dance intensive before, especially at the collegiate/professional level, so I tried not to have expectations going in. I highly enjoyed my time at Bates… and hope that my takeaways show up in my future work.
Thank you for sharing this reflection Madison! Click here to learn more about The Friends of Dance at Emory.
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