Passion Portrait: Sandy Silva

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Artmistice Dance

SANDY SILVA-

DANCER & CHOREOGRAPHER-

I thought I was going to be a healthcare practitioner. I was on my way to college and stopped off at a festival and saw dancers and musicians playing together. I was completely blown away by their conversations. The way they talked to each other and listened with their instruments and bodies was all so rhythmic. Eventually I was living in a house with musicians. Between classes and studies, I would listen to them practice with a metronome and play tunes through the night. I couldn’t get enough of it and I wanted a piece of it. I knew that to fully immerse myself, I would need to travel, discover new cultures, embody their percussive dance language, listen and embrace their music. Everything I do now comes from my travels and life experiences. I don’t feel that it was conscious choice. I was simply obsessed.

The work became an unending process. When you repeat something a thousands times, you get it in your body and it becomes you. I think I found what I loved and just rode the wave. It wasn’t “should I” or “can I”, I just had to do it!

I never auditioned, because I never had to. I know this might sound slightly cocky, but I was one of the few people doing it! When I travelled for work, study or to festivals, I would listen to musicians and if I liked what I heard, I would ask if I could go in the corner and dance a little. They would reply: “Get out of the corner!”. Sometimes I would get a gig with them or even a small tour months or even years later.

There’s still more to learn and thankfully, there’s also more I want to do. As I get older and listen to my body, I have to adapt to where I am physically and spiritually while exploring what is true to me. That is where the work comes from. Naturally, I am not the same as I was in my 30’s or even early 40’s. I want to continue to explore and refine ways to speak with my body and share it with other people.

Website: http://www.sandysilvadance.com/

Aged to Perfection

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Artmistice Dance

I recently had the honour of attending the International Body Music Festival in Istanbul with dancer and choreographer Sandy Silva. I have always had tremendous love and respect for her and her work, especially having been involved in her latest labour of love which took all of two years to develop. Being from a more mature generation of dancers, I feel that we share a similar relationship with dance that only comes with age and experience.

The landscape of dance education has changed immensely in the past couple of decades, with technology spearheading the way dancers learn and demonstrate their skills. With dance being more accessible online, anyone can watch and learn almost instantly, without leaving their home. It’s a remarkable thing, but not without certain consequences that can affect the standards and traditions of our industry. The basic rules, etiquette, discipline, and professionalism learned in the classroom are often lost or undervalued; customs that can severely affect one’s chances of getting good and steady work. As mature dancers and educators, we live and work by a code that must be carried on to future generations in order to maintain a certain level of respect in our industry.

This has been a milestone year in my life and I have never been so proud to be a mature dancer and to be surrounded by so many who still work and create, not despite having aged, but using experience as their principal asset. As art imitates life, our experiences are what contribute most to the growth in our interpretation of dance and they are what enriches our performance. Much of it has to do with intention. As Sandy puts it, “what becomes more important is not what you can do or how much you can do. It’s being clearer with what you want to say. You’re more efficient, more concerned with really connecting with the audience. It’s not ‘let me show you what I can do’.”

It is the consciousness of fleeting moments that lend to a heightened appreciation for what we do. “The thing about dance is that it’s temporary” says Sandy. “With age, you really appreciate it. You know that everything has an end. You don’t take anything for granted. There is that feeling of the temporary in the present.”

There was a time when dancers were afraid of getting older; counting the years they have left to their career. However, some traditions are meant to be broken. Dance, its interpretation, its appreciation, its creation, does not have an expiry date. If anything, like waiting for a fine wine to age, it only gets better with time.

Cross-Training, a Question Of Survival

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Artmistice Dance

After only 4 seasons on air, the show So You Think You Can Dance Canada announced there wasn’t going to be any further seasons and the show was cancelled. I have to say that I’ve always had mixed feelings about the show. While it did put dance back on the map and created more demand for dance in most live performances, my experience with certain clients made me realize that the show had created unrealistic expectations for those who do not work within our industry. For instance, the rehearsal footage gave the impression that choreographies could be put together fairly quickly and with little rehearsal time. It’s take time to create a piece of work and it’s difficult to justify this to potential clients when they have little or no reference. It’s even more difficult for them to consider paying for the hours of preparation and rehearsals. Nonetheless, one thing I was grateful for was the emphasis put on the importance of cross-training in different styles.

So You Think You Can Dance functions on the basis that the best dancers are those that can assimilate and perform in various styles of dance. It’s all about the survival of the fittest and one-trick ponies, or so-called “specialists,” are quick to be eliminated. However, these expectations are not exclusive to the show, nor are they new. For decades, unless a dancer was fortunate enough to be picked up by a company, in order to keep the contracts coming dancers were expected to be skilled in more ways than one discipline. Despite these rather obvious standards and the show’s emphasis on the importance of being competent in several styles, I have noticed that there has in fact been a drop in dancers who cross-train in Montreal. One dancer I spoke to, a believer in cross-training, confessed that she has had to drop classes in order to focus on her specialty as a result of having to balance a full-time job, teaching, contracts, and her participation in two dance crews. It is a valid point. However, it is sad when a dancer’s full-time job is not actually dancing.

As an independent choreographer, I have been fortunate enough to work with dancers who are absolutely exceptional in their specialty. So you can imagine my frustration in having such an extensive roster of incredibly talented individuals that I cannot hire when it comes to creating a piece, or even an entire show, that incorporates a fusion of styles. I can only dream of creating work like The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, where each dancer has equal opportunity to showcase their specialty, while being just as skilled in group choreographies.

When training in New York, Los Angeles, or London, I’m always encountering the same dancers in different classes. They get it. There is a hunger and a drive that is unfortunately not felt so much here. A friend who has returned to Montreal after living and dancing in New York shares my frustration. She believes that our dancers are simply not encouraged or educated on the importance of cross-training in the same way they are in more competitive cities. She states that “if they should leave Montreal and go to Toronto, Vancouver, the US, or Europe, they will be surrounded by dancers who are ready and able to perform whatever is asked of them.”

My friend did put an interesting spin on this discussion. It is not only about competition and competence in fulfilling contracts, but also about longevity. She has observed that a large number of those who do not cross-train are ballet dancers and urban dancers. Given the physical strain of classical dance and breakdance specifically on the human body, no one would benefit more from cross-training than them. The career of a ballet or breakdancer is relatively short given how physically demanding these styles are, but by cross-training, one is able to use his or her body to its full potential, physically and artistically. When the body is no longer able to sustain such unforgiving styles as classical and breakdance, there is a life and career beyond that stage in finding strength in other styles.

In the dance world, the law of the survival of the fittest dictates that one cannot afford to focus on a single specialty. It is not only a question of how much work a dancer will get, but how long a dancer will dance. So to all of you specialists out there, get out of your comfort zone and try something new!