SCRIPT FOR POWERPOINT: DANSCIENCE 2015, QUT 

 

SLIDE 1 - Title – Ageism and the mature dancer

 

SLIDE 2 - THE QUESTION:

The research project will investigate the role of dancers who extend beyond

the industry expectations of acceptable age and analyse the contribution that

they are making to current dialogues relating to ageism in the field.

 

SLIDE 3 – DECREPITUDE –

 " passing directly from middle age into decrepitude"

 

 SLIDE 4- Show images of ME

 

Introduction:  Sonia York-Pryce, Master of Visual Arts Candidate

I am a mature dancer

I trained at Elmhurst, the Royal Ballet School, London School of Contemporary Dance, Laban Centre of Movement and Dance

Went back to study at 29 – where I was known as “P” – for pensioner!!

felt prejudice at being a mature dancer even then – I was also the oldest dancer to audition for Transitions Dance Company!

 

Why this project – AS a mature dancer I am investigating attitudes towards mature dancers and as to why they are not valued enough in the current dance world. I am seeking VALUE- VALIDATION and VISIBILITY of the mature dancer!

 

Ageing is a Taboo subject – nowhere more so than in dance

The norm 35-40 to retire in dance, many chose to end their careers earlier

 

Gill Clarke, contemporary dancer stated:

 

“The premature retirement of dancers was a colossal waste - not only of the dancer but their wealth of experience and knowledge and the futility of terminating their careers so early was an issue that would never happen in other areas of life”

 

Youthful versus ageing

 

Marcia Seigal speaks of

 “Dance is obsessed with youth, like all the narcissistic enclaves of our society. Dance as sport, dance as glamour factory – a passion compounded of physical mastery and an idealisation of the human form.”

 

SLIDE  6 -   THE FLUX – 1991- 4 choreographers

Back in 1990s -

Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, all in their 40s,

Known as The European Quartet, they were dancers and choreographers, questioning this dilemma

 

Jiří Kylián creates the mature dance company Netherlands Dance Theatre known as NDT3 1991 - 2006

NDT3 – Sabine Kupferberg, Alida Chase, Nikolas Ek, Gerard Lemaitre

 

Kylián created a dance company specifically for his older dancers: 4 dancers

It had never been done before – new ground

 

Kylián stated:

“These mature dancers that fantastic physicality and physical presence they have History in their bodies”

 

SLIDE  7 -Sabine Kupferberg talks:

 

Dutch dance critic Eva van Schaik discussed at the time:

“That attention 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 -   EMBODIMENT – explain -

 

Elizabeth Schwaiger states:

 

“that the dancers’ 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.”

 

Schawaiger goes on to challenge:

“that the performativity of the dancer could only exist because they hold a lifetime of dance experience within them. This is only possible because they are ageing dancers. The mature dancer’s body is the instrument of their physicality.

 

The lived body experience of dance and the kinetics of time and space, both inextricably intertwined with dance.

 

SLIDE 9  - CORPOREAL VALUE

 

Dancers and educators: Mark Edward and Helen Newell discuss the mature dancers

“corporeal ability,” their embodied experience and maturity and state how under-valued their presence is and would be if they were totally alienated. They celebrate the experienced mature dancers embodied “corporeal difference”[i] as a welcome difference when compared to the youthful “other.” They go on to say: a dancer’s body is:

 

‘a phenomenological breathing curriculum vitae’,[ii]

 

stating the mature dancer’s body has a lifetime of corporeal experience that should be utilised, celebrated and not discarded because the youthful dancer is considered the preferred form.

 

SLIDE 10 - EILEEN Kramer – words from our interview in 2015

 

“I thought I was 35!! (Eileen)

Well what is my age – (if asked) – I don’t know!

No age segregation when she choreographed or performed

Nobody said ‘what are you doing in this dance company’ nothing like that

Movement makes you feel so much better – quite recently I started exercising in bed, usually I wake up wanting coffee or croissant, then I exercise and completely forget about the coffee and enjoy myself!

Then I get up and do a few barre exercises …its so good for the feet, such wonderful exercise.

Muscle memory, how quickly it all comes back.”

 

SLIDE  11 - MUSCLE MEMORY – ballet class with Roger Tully London with mature dancers- during the Barre session of class – Naomi Sorkin former ballerina with American Ballet Theatre – exclaimed:

“I really feel like I am dancing” – divine – as so often we separate class from performance when they are one and the same

 

SLIDE 12 – group photo of dancers at Roger’s Wednesday class in a studio in Notting Hill Gate frequently used back in the 1930s by Dame Ninette de Valois, Dame Marie Rambert and Tamara Karsavina – I defy you not to feel like dancing with such history in the room!

 

SLIDE 13 – Nicholas Minns 61 (former Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Susie Crow 57 former soloist with the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet taking instruction – the learning never ceases

 

SLIDE 14 – Brit dancers warm up before filming – Interprète/Inappropriate Behaviour

 

THE QUESTIONNAIRE - sent to dancers I know and who I know by reputation – 30 + asking them how they feel as mature dancers, their performativity, their exercise regimes, their thoughts on mature dancers –

 

Images of some of the many dancers involved in the primary research

 

SLIDE   15 - Leanne Benjamin, Prima Ballerina the Royal Ballet Co, 48

 

She believed her performances were of a high standard, not just performing well for a forty-seven-year old!

 

SLIDE  16 - Louise Lecavalier – Lalala Human Steps, Fou Glorieux, 55,

 

SLIDE  17– Charlotta Ofverholm – Compagnie Jus de la Vie -  Sweden

 

SLIDE  18– Wendy Houstoun -  55 –London

 

SLIDE  19 – Australian Dance Artists: Anca Frankenhaeuser, Patrick Harding-Irmer, Susan Barling & Ross Philip

 

SLIDE 20 – Ann Dickie quote –

 

“At last, people are beginning to recognize what some of us have always known – The value of the creativity and experience of older people!”

 

READ:    Nicholas Minns dance critic:

These are not older dancers strutting their stuff past their virtuosic prime – as some older dancers have been known to do – but offering us the rich territory of individual and shared dance experience.[iii]

 

[i] Mark Edward and Helen Newell, “Temporality of the Dancing Body: Tears, Fears and Ageing Dears,” 2011.

(http://www.academia.edu/1699141/Temporality_of_the_dancing_body_Tears_Fears_and_Ageing_Dears

[ii] Mark Edward and Helen Newell, ‘Temporality of the Dancing Body: Tears, Fears and Ageing Dears,’ Paper presented at the ‘Making Sense of Pain’ conference, Warsaw, Poland, May 2011, http://www.academia.edu/ 1699141/Temporality_of_ the_dancing_body_Tears_Fears_and_Ageing_Dears.

[iii] Nicholas Minns, ‘Dancing the Invisible,’ Writing about Dance (blog), May 5, 2012, accessed March 25, 2013, http://writingaboutdance.com/?s=invisible.