Emily Wolfe / Journal No. 3

Emily Wolfe (Spring 2017)

April was one of the most challenging months of the short yet busy professional dance career I’ve had in NYC. I feel as though I have been pushed to re-evaluate the elements of my dance career, in an effort to be honest with myself and overcome mental blockages. At the end of March, I ended the creative projects I was involved in, which left me to begin April with a new openness and period of reflection.  This has been one of the first periods of time where I’ve had stagnation and doubt, though I know I need to have grace in realizing that work sometimes fluctuates for a reason. Being an independent dancer is not exactly a linear path. It takes patience and endurance to continue to show up and sweat with no reward except self growth. It takes a lot of work to stay up to date on everything that is happening in physical practices and performance. I’m in this career for the long run, so I need to work on building healthy and honest patterns of research and evaluation.

I have been seeking insight from my community through classes, and being at Gibney helped me to stay active in the field by finding information about performances and workshops. I strongly dislike auditions. I know I’m not the only one, but I don’t like the idea that people judge a room packed full of apples against oranges for a few brief moments in a high pressure situation. I realize persistance is key and I should audition to be seen, but I’d rather be seen for my work ethic in class and with respect for my creative process. Perhaps I need to find a balance here.

In April, I have been working to specify what I need in my performative and creative career and to understand my identity. I find myself at the intersection of two perpendicular lines; One line runs north to south that represents the classical side of my physicality, musicality, and discipline. The other line runs from east to west representing my contemporary creative theory, collaborative process, and experimental improvisation. I want both to occur simultaneously and find (or create) a group of creative artists that run along that bisecting line. I know this work probably exists, but I haven’t seen or learned enough to find it. I need to continue to unearth this type of work in my dance making practice.

The variety and volume of work in the modern dance world can honestly feel disorienting. I have been trying to make it to more performances this month and am realizing how important it is to see everything and to network outside of the studio. There is always something to learn. Dance will always be my passion and career path, but sometimes, I don’t understand what I want or how to find it. I want to intentionally build my career and I suppose I am currently at a moment to take the time to seek, outward and inward. Being in class has been a stabilizing factor and helpful in giving me a view of dancemakers who I wouldn’t have normally experienced. My average class choices for the month of April perfectly display my perpendicular personalities: Gaga, Ballet, and Pilates. My body and mind find it’s full potential in this physical cocktail.

- Emily

 

Emily Wolfe / Journal No. 1

Emily Wolfe (Spring 2017)

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