Emily Wolfe / Journal No. 1 — The Simon Family Scholarship

It has been an incredible experience to be the first recipient of Simon Family Scholarship, and to invest time into training and developing myself as an artist. Now that I have many options and opportunities for movement every day, I have found the need to deconstruct the question “Why do I take class?” By looking at my training habits pre-scholarship (the past two years since I’ve moved to NYC) and my experiences from the first month of the scholarship, I am able to set new goals that accelerate my exposure.

I have realized it is important to analyze my physical habits and question my comfort zones. Since moving to New York two years ago, my average training consisted of two ballet classes a week and three to four yoga classes at a studio where I have a monthly pass. I took ballet because it is a structure I have grown up with, and have found how to discover my artistry though its form. I could also depend on it to give me a full body exercise, get me on my legs and keep my body flexible. On the opposite end of the training spectrum, I would attend Kundalini yoga classes to enrich my spirituality and to train my body and mind to push through its perceived limitations. I am a performer and choreographer, so my body needs to be prepared to do anything on a daily basis. In my physical practice, I want class to be a container in which I find myself, rather than trying to fit into someone else’s container. It can be difficult to take risks in exploring the dance world because it often consumes time and money that we don’t have… So whatever we do, it has to be the best.

For the first month of my scholarship, I unfortunately had to deal with an ankle sprain I had acquired on New Year’s Day. Every human, but more especially every dancer has to deal with finding ways to recover from injuries while continuing to do the work they are doing. With this scholarship so fresh, and the amount of dance work I have to do, I had to become creative about what types of classes I needed. I was forced to seek classes that would keep my body strong yet not over work my ankle. This month I was able to explore all of the amazing somatic and body practices that Gibney Dance has to offer. I had tastes of a few different classes, including Qigong, Pilates, Witchcraft, Klein, and Alexander Technique. Having these options have allowed me to stay in work while rewiring my body and brain to create healthier physicalities.

I am passionate about the infinite amount of possibilities for approaching the body and dance! With the diversity of class offerings at Gibney, I am excited for the opportunity to be open to new physicalities and teachers that I may not naturally choose. While I am exploring different movement methodologies for myself, I’ve suddenly become curious about the community around me and am wondering about their class choices. This month I am going to launch a small survey to analyze which classes dancers take and why. I anticipate there will be a wide range of responses and I want to investigate trends or the different dance “cocktails” that are preferred. One of my personal goals of this scholarship is to network in the dance world by connecting to people in the community. I will be able to achieve this by interviewing people I interact with at Gibney or in class. With this scholarship, I want to act as a megaphone reflecting back responses about current dance training because I realize everybody needs something different. What my body likes and brain has stylistic opinions about, can often be 100% different than someone beside me.

I want to ask:
What are the basic elements of your physical practice?
What do you need from class?
What type of classes do you like?
How often do you take class?
Why do you take class?

I look forwards to presenting a pool of data over the next coming months and I plan to continue looking for new ways to ask/answer questions about the economics of training.

- Emily