SCRIPT FOR PANPAPANPALYA POWERPOINT – SONIA YORK-PRYCE  July 2018 

I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to Elders past and present.

 
SLIDE 1 - Valuing lived dance experience  
The PhD research examines the role of dancers who extend beyond the paradigm of age and their contributions to current dialogues within the field of dance. It investigates ageism and longevity in today’s ballet and contemporary dance culture and seeks to explore taboos in and around the aesthetics of the older experienced dancer. The individual ‘other’ dancer. These dancers are redefining what the “Older dancing body” can do.  
We all know that ageing is a Taboo subject – getting old, but it is undoubtedly tolerated far less, if at all in the dance world.  The considered norm to retire in dance is 35-40, but we know many chose to end their careers earlier.  
As an olderdancer I am investigating attitudes towards mature dancers and as to why they are not valued more in the current dance world. I am seeking VALUE – VALIDATION and VISIBILITY of the older experienced dancer.   

 

SLIDE 2 - Helen Newell & Mark Edward discuss the riches encased in the older dancing body, they acknowledge this phenomenon, as a  
“valuing oflived process and the body as a phenomenological breathing Curriculum Vitae”  (Edward and Newell tears fears ad ageing dears)  
Mark Edward argues:  
“It is not a case of older dancers performing past their ‘dance by date’ but rather, their performance skills are a sharing of an accumulated, individual dance expertise, a quality that can only be embodied if you are an older experienced dancer. [ENDOTE Mark Edward 2000?)  
Lived dance experience  
Dance scholar Elizabeth Schwaiger argues  
 ‘that the dancer’s body, at any age carries a specialised embodiment, their instrument is their physicality. The aged dancer’s body carries such a strong dance vocabulary and should be valued. The performativity of the dancer could only exist because they hold alife time of dance experience within them. This is only possible because they are ageing dancers.  (Endnote Ageing Gender Embodiment and Dance (2012)  

 

SLIDE 3 - Ageism –   
Justine Copeland argues:  
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 “unwatchability of the old of course contrasts with the ‘watchability and the obsessive watching of the young.’       P.3 2013 (Dance Aging and the Mirror;Negotiating Watchability)  

 

SLIDE 4 – Kathleen White states:  
“ageism saturates dance culture in which the dancer has to accept the undefended aspect of age”  

 

SLIDE 5 - And yet dance scholar Nanako Nakajima suggests:  
 “Dancing beauty can be old” (Endnote The Aging body in dance (2017) p,)  
A lovelyseque to the internationally renowned company  

 

SLIDE 6 – the first flux NDT3 NDT3 a company formed for older experienced dancers by Czech choreographer Jiri Kylián Here we see Sabine Kupferberg then in her 40s and Gerard Lemaitre in his 50s  
From an interview with New York Timescritic Roslyn Sulcas Jiri Kylian argues,  
“I think it’s foolish if we as choreographers are not able to use this fantastic experience. These dancers have worked with 40/50 choreographers in their lives, so you can imagine the information that is stocked in their bodies.  It is a little history of dance that is inside, and I think that choreographers can easily, page this library, find out things that interest them and produce wonderful things for dancers between forty and death.” Endnote Bodies of Knowledge.  
From MY interview with Sabine Kupferberg in 2015 she discusses the early NDT3 performances:  
“I think all the audience was not believing it would happen because it is a very courageous thing to do. We all were all over 40 and people were joking – that what is this, are we coming on inwheel chairs? but then we had a performance that was actually very physical and when I look back at the performance now, I think we were amazingly physical – we were not at all 40 or 50 we were looking like dancers of a normal mature age – absolutely not physically limited, absolutely not in an age when you would think they should do something else.”    
Jiri Kylián states “So, it is challenging for choreographers to find material that makes them stand on stage in their own right and with dignity. So, in a way you have to invent other ways of choreographing and of approaching the other dance, they bring their pride, their skills, their talents, their fantasy. You know they live here. That’s how the performance becomes so powerful”    ENDNote Don’t Stop Now Jiri Kylián Kylián brought renowned choreographers to produce work  Maurice Bèjart, Maguy Marin, NachoDuarto, Ohad Naharin, Christopher Bruce and Carolyn Carlson, just a few amongst many who contributed to the NDT3 repertoire.  
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SLIDE 7 Corporeal difference   
In 1991 dance critic Eva van Schaik wrote with regard to NDT3   
 “That mention for the elder dancer should be seen not as a justified cause for the involved dancer but also as an artistic need for dance in general”.   

 

Slide 8    Hege Haargenrud – “Use my body while it is still young”  
There is a flux or shift in western dance culture where perceptions of youth versus mature dancer are seriously being questioned.    
Hege states:  it’s a work with four dancers aged between 64 to 79, they used to be some of the bigger dancers in Nederlands Dans Theater, here in the Opera, here in the contemporary dance field here in Norway, and from Cullberg Ballet, in Sweden. So, it’s some really remarkable dancers and I wanted to make a piece because there is a lack of older dancers. We don’t see older dancers,   
The audience wants to see that body, on stage, that is not flawless, that is marked by age, but can still do remarkable things, I really think people want to see that  
In my interview with Siv Anders, former Culberg ballerina a mere 79, who features in Hege’s work and the primary research –  
“I know that in Oslo they thought it was very interesting to see the old, the four dancers/performers, theywas a kind of review on the radio and they mentioned me for my body. Also, I say don’t over dance that you can’t dance.”  Of course, It all depends what kind of performance I do, because, like I said in the beginning, I told myself to tell other people, tell me when it looks pathetic.”  

 

Slide 9 - Patrick Harding-Irmer Bridge the distance Created by Siobhan Davies for London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1985, Davies was adamant that an older experienced dancer brought something quite unique to the work, viewing Harding-Irmer’s rich element of lived dance experience as an absolute asset to the choreography, she states,  
“that dance then was seen as physical manifestation of youth, vibrancy, high jumps and technical expertise and I loved it when I see something that is as thoughtful as Patrick’s one simple move”. [Endnote Siobhan Davies http://www.siobhandaviesreplay.com/record/9]  
Patrick emailed me his memories of this work  
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 “Sue's Bridge the Distance was indeed a very special work for me and it came at a special time. It was 1985 and I had just turned forty...the oldest member of the company and along with Anca also the longest standing.  But I was still able to dance at a very high level. I was physically pretty much at my peak and the 12 years of performing with the company had given me a certain amount of experience and understanding of thestage craft. I knew that my technique was refined, and I was confident that I was able to bring meaningfulness to any physical choreography.  

 

Slide 10 - The Questionnaire – sent to 38 dancers hailing from the UK, USA, Sweden, Germany, Australia, Singapore,   
10 questions regarding age, fitness regimes and performing – wonderful responses from dancers –  Remember, dancer’s talk with their bodies – that’s a given – BUT to actually hear them speak, discuss their process, their bodies etc., is unusual and deeply relevant.  

 

SLIDE 11 – Louise Lecavalier “people are surprised when associating the kind of dancing I do with the age I have as if someone at 54 should be almost handicapped! My dancing is also talking about that, but it is not the most important thing at all, the dance I create is for everyone, not just older people, and good bye to all the simplistic assumptions we make about getting older. I do not feel old, and do not feel so mature either”  

 

Slide 12 - Liz Aggiss – independent British dance artist states regarding her audience:  
“They are weighing you up and they are making a judgment about you, and an evaluation about you, and I really use the way I work to allow the audience to do that very thing, especially as I am now mature. I know that the audience needs time to understand that this body is a different kind of body and this is a solo female body who is inhabiting work in a very different way.”  

 

SLIDE 13 CHarlotta Öfverholm whose three AGE on STAGE festivals in Stockholm highlighted the lived-dance experience of dancers and their value. Seen here dancing with Rafi Sady, assistant to Maks Ek, both aged in their 50s and producing vibrant, stimulating work. Charlotta mentions a press review that stated:    "I have no idea how old she is .... but you can see that she has some wrinkles and things, but, when she dances, she is forever young".  

 

SLIDE 14 The 2nd Flux - Dance On Ensemble Berlin  
DANCE ON, an initiative by DIEHL+RITTER, focuses on the artistic excellence of dancers aged 40+ whose experience, charisma and dramatic power – infact their entire dance life – is present on stage. Working with internationally renowned choreographers and directors, the DANCE ON ENSEMBLE will be creating its own repertoire and changing the usual image of dance 
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This company is following on from Kylian’s mantra, working with great choreographers, Jan Martens, Deborah Hay, William Forsythe, Matteo Fargion, Beth Gill,15 in all  
Through this they now form part of the EU creative, Dance On, Pass On Dream On comprised 9 companies including Sadler’s Wells, the Elders Project, all producing work for the older, experienced dancer  
It has just been established that The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag will continue to fund Dance On Ensemble for further 5 years with funding of 1.85 million euro.   

 

SLIDE 15 “Dance is a language we speak fluently” Christopher Roman   

 

Slide 16 - Value Kathleen White argues P. 64 “To deny the older dancer participation is to deny audiences the full power and pleasure of artists who have ripened and fully developed their experiences and grace. The mature dancer arrives at a new development stage with limitless years of experience that enable the older body to handle a greater assortment of styles with more complex insight into characterization and with a greater mix of phrasing, dynamics, and pacing.”   
The shift in the western dance world is acknowledging that mature dance is integral with creativity, life experience and corporeal difference, thus enriching the cultural landscape by keeping these mature movers visible  

 

Which brings me to  Slide 17 - The Australian Dance Artists based in Sydney Four exemplary older experienced dancers, Anca Frankenhaeuser, Patrick Harding-Irmer, Susan Barling, Ross Philip, who hold a life time of lived dance experience, former members of London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Sydney Dance Company respectively. I have had the supreme privilege of working with these dancers who have informed both the primary and creative research.   

 

Slide 18 - Brit dancers,  Jennifer Jackson, Susie Crow, Ann Dickie and Nicholas Minns mirror the Australian dancers, hailing from the Royal Ballet Company, Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Rambert, and Les Grands Ballets de Canadiens. They too feature in both the primary and creative research.   
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I asked these 8 dancers to re-interpret a dance motif of mine choreographed when I was a student at Laban in the late 1980s. at the time of filming the dancers were aged between 56-67  
Their responses produced 8 solos filmed by myself in London and Sydney. I later edited the work to produce Interprète/Inappropriate Behaviour.  These Eight older, experienced dancers perform bringing their life experience and craft to the fore.  
The film celebrates the older, experienced dancer and   
“how their practice, rather than their age defines them”  

 

SLIDE 19 – THE FILM  
Thank you!