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Passion Portrait: Sandy Silva

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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

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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.