This is so good I had to post again. Thanks Stephanie Tuley. From a ballet perspective, I think that trying to do West African dance with a Europeanist use of the spine and the peculiar muscular imbalances that come from external rotation could easily cause problems, just as trying to do a grand allegro exercise with an Africanist use of the spine and relationship to gravity could cause problems. With a teacher who understands this and properly teaches the necessary fundamentals in terms of weight, energy, and alignment, it SHOULDNT be a problem. But ballet dancers, especially intermediate level dancers, with their propensity to emulate shape instead of energy and timing, are unlikely to be using their bodies in the same way as trained West African dancers, even if they are appearing (in some matter) to keep up. Similarly, a West African dancer in a ballet class might keep up perfectly with timing and energy, but will appear to be farther behind than they are because they are being interpreted by ballet dancers in terms of the shapes they are making. From what i saw in my class, Fara Tolno has the capacity to be an insanely gifted ballet dancer, though he doesnt need to spend the time and energy to train his musculature and approach to movement into the style because he is too busy being phenomenal at what he does.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 19:32:46 +0000
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