DANCING IN THE YURT

DANCING IN THE YURT

Santa Fe, the home of the Pueblo Indians is also the home of Ruth Zaporah. She has a lovely house situated at the end of a dusty dirt road with huge pot holes. Driving very slowly is a necessity but there is usually a young Mexican child zipping around the potholes on a mini motor cycle with several friends chasing and laughing in the warm sunlight. I had expected cooler weather but wore tee shirts the four days I was there.
Several years ago Ruth built a Yurt that she uses as a dance studio. A Yurt is circular, domed, portable tent used by nomadic peoples of central Asia. It was in this environment that I taught a weekend workshop to eight women of varying ages. Seeing these ladies open up to the idea of impulsive play as an experiential learning device was the highlight for me in this particular workshop.

Cammie Meets the Older generation

Of course there were other people attending the New York workshop besides Ruth Grauert. It was a very small but very good bunch of old friends. There were five of my dance buddies from the 1960's two of whom I hadn't seen for 40 years. Susan Crietz, Virginia Laidlaw, Bob Beswick, Ruth Grauert and Jeanette Stoner, (who just watched the last Sunday session), made this a very nostalgic event. They were joined by Pamela Knowles who first did a few weekend workshops with me in Sydney several years ago and the lovely young Cammie Kelly both of whom are now living in New York. I had Pamela who is a very good jazz singer do a vocal accompaniment to a solo movement piece of mine. She was absolutely magnificent.

It was with great delight that I watched Cammie, who I believe is still in her twenties, dance along side these much older improv people. It stimulated me into doing a rolling duet with her, something I thought was totally beyond my soon to be 66 year old body. Then there was the trio she did with Ruth and Virginia, the three of them doing a silent dance piece totally connected in their use of time, space, shape and motion (Nikolais words) primary movers, basic articulaters, facings and spacings (my words). I loved seeing my two worlds (student & teacher) mesh so easily.

In the next two weeks I get to be with the two women who were so influential in helping me evolve my teaching style, Ruth zaporah and Terry Sendgraff. I'll teach weekend workshops in Santa Fe and Berkeley. Stay tuned.

A Most Amazing Woman

She turned ninety years old in March. She was the technical director of Henry Street Playhouse when I started dancing at the age of eighteen. Taught me everything I know about lighting design during my eight years of training with Alwin Nikolais. She is always direct and clear in her communication. Occasionally I would perceive her to be a bit abrasive, but there was always this underlying hint of humour and a continuing desire to share her knowledge with me. On Sunday, the 4th of October she attended my class of improvised movement theatre and participated for the whole of the four hour class. Physically she was the equal of the four of us who were in our sixties the only thing she couldn’t match was the flexibility of the woman in her twenties. Creatively she was adventurous, equally strong as an initiator and responder to the evolving improvisations. She was a bit of a naughty student quite often interrupting my flow of instructions with her own thoughts and questions and I had great fun feigning frustration at having to deal with this mischievous individual. She made my day, my weekend, in fact the whole of my journey so far a more than Wunderful experience. I did not expect her to participate as much as she did, nor did I suspect that she would add such quality to the improvs. Seeing her took me back to my early days as an aspiring dancer at Nikolais’ studio and reminded me of how much his teaching influenced what I am doing today. She also was a blessing to my present having wanting for years to show some of my original teachers how I had evolved seeking their approval and hoping that in some way I would come to the belief that I would also receive affirmation from Nik if he were still alive today. Ooops, that brought a tear to my eye. If you haven’t noticed I am waxing lyrical about this 90 year old woman whose name is Ruth Grauert.