Students Create Dance that Mimics Life

By Andrea Appleton
POSTED FEBRUARY 1, 2008

It almost sounds like a reality TV show: Two teams, each comprised of two modern dance instructors and 20 teenagers with little or no dance experience, have one week to create a choreographed masterpiece. Though there were no TV crews to film it, such were the rules of Battery Dance Company’s new arts education project, entitled “Dancing to Connect.”

From Jan. 28 through Feb. 1, the teens—students at Millennium High School—were immersed in dance from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., under the guidance of Battery Dance Company teachers. One team, led by Carmen Smith and Jason Jordan, practiced in a basement space at 15 Broad St. The first step was for each dancer to create a gesture. One exercise required the students to think of “home” and create a movement. One girl curled up on the floor to mimic sleep, another made a gesture as if rubbing something clean with her hands. For another exercise, students spelled out their names.            

“We were just trying to find ways for them to connect with each other,” said Smith. “And that’s been enough to give us all this material.”

In groups of five, the students learned each other’s gestures and strung them together into “phrases.” By Wednesday, the groups were performing as one big team for the first time, their phrases finally coalescing into a story. A moody violin piece filled the room as the first five dancers solemnly walked in formation, falling suddenly to the floor and moving into a roll as a cymbal crashed. At the other end of the room, a second group twirled quietly in place, arms in the air. A third group’s hands darted into the air as the music sped up. Soon the room was alive with movement.

“The best part is learning that simple little movements can be turned into a dance,” said Sarah Adebayo, 15. And this is precisely what the instructors want to convey.

“The thing that I hope they get out of this is that everybody is a dancer,” said Smith. “There is a rhythm to life that is dance. It lives in all of us.”

The students will perform their pieces on Feb. 14 at 10 a.m. at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

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