Words of Wisdom from Julian’s First Male Teacher and Mentor

When Julian first began dancing at the age of 3, we enrolled him in a jazz/tap/ballet combo class offered through the Batavia-IL park (or rec) department. It was okay, but not great. A year or so later, we enrolled him at Moves Dance Studio under the tutelage of Kim Farrah. There he thrived and really began his serious dance training.

The first year he attended classes at Moves, he danced with Kim. The second year, I think, he began taking some classes with Anthony Foster. Anthony was the first male dance teacher Julian had ever had, and he loved him. He especially loved the fact that Anthony had begun as a break dancer, although by this time he was an accomplished dancer in most areas, including ballet.

Julian took both hip hop/break dancing and ballet classes from Anthony. Eventually, I asked Anthony to work with him in private lessons. I already knew that Julian needed that type of male mentor to help him along. Anthony provided just that.

I can still remember the two of them at the bar in their black tights, black ballet shoes and tight white shirts. Anthony towered over Julian; Julian looked up to him with such respect and awe.

Both Anthony and Julian have come a long way since then. Julian is dancing in a pre-professional company and just returned from a summer at American Ballet Theatre’s New York intensive. Anthony is the artistic director for his own  pre-professional dance company, Soleunique, as well as the managing director for Moves Dance Studios pre-professional program. A choreographer, dancer and educator, Anthony’s all-encompassing and diverse training background includes authentic tutelage in the forms of classical ballet and classical jazz under direct descendants of George Balanchine and Gus Giordano. Supplemented by break dance and gymnastics in his early years, Anthony quickly made the transition from street to stage and a few notable small-screen appearances, such as on season 1 of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and in music videos for the artists Echo & Groove Jam. His stage credits include leads in the ballets, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Les Patineurs, and The Last Waltz as well as performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When not at his home base, Anthony travels the U.S. as a guest instructor and choreographer for professional companies, studios, dance conferences and conventions. He has had the honor of teaching on faculty for Columbia College Chicago, The College of DuPage, The Embracing the Dream dance conference, has been traveling the U.S. with The Deux and is now on faculty for Dance Masters of Wisconsin.

That said, I’m so pleased that when I asked Anthony to write a blog post for me, he accepted. (In fact, he wrote two! I’ll be posting the other one later.) I simply asked him to write about boys and dance. Here’s what he had to say:

Boys & Dance

By Anthony Foster

choreographer/dancer/educator

As most gentlemen do, I started serious dance at a later age—in my teens.  Fortunately for my teachers and for me, I had a history of competitive gymnastics under my belt. This provided a massive catalyst towards flexibility, though we used different and opposing muscle groups in the two activities. I also had many years of “street” and break dance behind me.

Even with these experiences, I found it a strange thing to move from one facet of dance to another.  When anyone (male or female) grows up dancing their own style without knowing a completely different world of dance exists out there—one full of steps, counts, vocabulary, and terminology—and then moves into a structured dance environment, it is a complete shock to the system. You go from knowing it all to knowing absolutely nothing!

Long before competitive dance television shows and when MTV actually showed music videos, my sister and I would sit in front of the T.V. and learn moves from shows like Dance Party USA, MTV’s The Grind, Soul Train, etc. We would constantly go out to teen dance clubs and school dances just to get our groove on. The dance steps we used had no structure or discipline; our dancing was so raw.

Thinking back to my first few dance classes, I have to relate a story about when my sister and I went to see the movie Step Up in the theater. In a scene where Channing Tatum experiences his first real rehearsal, he says, “What the hell is a pique?”  My sister and I must’ve been the only dancers in the audience at the time, because all the belly laughter was coming from our seats. I would have to admit that my experience in those first classes wasn’t much different from his.

Catching up to the much-younger and more-experienced females in every class was a challenge I took very seriously.  Never did I find it embarrassing. The dance studio was my “safe place” at a time when things in my youthful household were falling apart at the seams, making it easier to focus my attention on training.

As I learned about dance in general, I also discovered a few things about boys and dance. For males in the world of dance, it’s different than for women.  Everything about what we do in dance is different—from the way we stand, offer an arm and even walk across the room. There is nothing feminine about what boys or men do in dance.

Unfortunately, in some cases, boys are products of an environment saturated with females, and the boys have little or no access to positive male role models as instructors.  As a result, some boys have a tendency to mimic the girls they see in class and often learn to have a strong, feminine presence in the studio or on stage. This is not the boys’ fault, as they are simply following the direction of their instructors.  Many male teachers have been discussing for years why male teachers are expected not only to make a male dancer look like a strong male but also (even more so) to ensure that female dancers are trained accordingly. Yet, most female teachers look at a boy and say, “Just do it like a boy.”

Similar to sports, dance is athletic and demanding.  Many of you probably have seen the tee shirts that state, “If dance were easy, they’d call it football.” Dancers, male and female, are some of the hardest-working individuals on the planet (right beside gymnasts).  This art form involves more than running fast, catching a ball and hitting the guy who has the ball as hard as you can.  It requires knowledge of your body, of your muscle groups and of how to move your body to get successful results.

Additionally, dance sees no gender, and we thank Mr. George Balanchine for deciding men are more than props for women in ballet.

It’s a fact that boys in dance are ridiculed, picked on and looked at as “sissies.”  I’ve been in my fair share of arguments and have come pretty damn close to fist fights over such labels.  In the end, I can laugh all the way to the bank when the guys who were making fun of me in high school are still punching their timecards at the warehouse while I get to work with great-looking, young females everyday! (Thanks, Mom!) I know this is not exactly every male dancers’ cup of tea, but hey…

Let me also mention, that there is a misconception that all males that dance are homosexual. What, ballet makes a boy gay?  If that is the case, you can forget everything you might know about the soft and pretty. Male dancers, in this day and age, are surprisingly strong!  Most can jump higher than an Olympic high-jumper, kick their legs harder than the worlds’ best soccer player, and lift weight comparable to body builders (in some cases).

My tips for boys,whether you’re just thinking about getting into dance, have recently begun or have been a veteran for years, are as follows:

• Stick with it.  You are the change we will see in this industry.

• Trust your body, and take risks.

• It’s an strange world to enter, but the rewards last forever.

• Do some research on the following strong, male dancers: Desmond Richardson, Rasta Thomas, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev, Nick Lazzarini, Danny Tidwell, Keith Clifton, Barry Youngblood, Gregg Russell, and Gregory Hines.

• Boys, you are loved and supported in this industry.

• Do not skip any steps and sign up for the proper level of class.  If you’re 15 years old and in ballet class with nine year old girls, so be it!  Your time will come.  Be patient and good things will follow.

• Even if you are starting late, like I did, you can become a great male dancer. Male dancers have the ability to catch up with their female counterparts quickly. But don’t forget you can’t succeed in the world of dance with less technique than the women have obtained during all their years of training. You’ll have to work really hard to obtain that level of technical proficiency.

How to Get the Most Out of a Summer Ballet Intensive: Rasta Thomas Offers Advice (Part 2)

During my conversation with Rasta Thomas about how boys can prepare for a summer dance ballet intensive, which I wrote about in my last post, he also offered some pretty savvy advice for how our young men should conduct themselves once they actually find themselves on site and ready to begin the intensive itself. Here are a few questions I asked him on this topic and his candid replies:

 

Once these boys arrive at the summer intensive, what advice would you offer to them?

At that point, it comes down to ability. A lot of times schools use these intensives to cast their auditions for their year-round programs. So, you need to go there with something to prove not to anyone else but to yourself. You want to prove that you gave it your best shot, and you are going to allow for the opportunity to sign you if that is meant to be.

 

What do you mean by that? How does a young man “allow for the opportunity to be signed” for a year-round program like, for example, American Ballet Theatre’s school?

You need to put your best foot forward every day. Every day is an audition not for someone else but for you. Every day, every class, requires an intensive burst of energy. You have to push like a horse running out of the starting gate from the minute you wake up.

I remember I used to eat my eat my cereal in a split, do my homework in a split. I used to have sandbags at the bar to hold down my feet, I used to have friends push down my knees. Some of the best exercises are partnering exercises, so it’s great to find a good partner.

 

It can be tough for the boys to make friends, especially in a really competitive ballet intensive program. Do you have advice for the kids when it comes to who they befriend during a summer program?

Finding a group of kids that are there with the same principles—to work hard—is better than finding the kids that are just there to have fun.

 

What are your final thoughts on how young male dancers can get the most out of a summer ballet intensive?

Depending upon how serious you are, it comes down to preparation, what you want to get out of the program, and allowing yourself to be in the best shape to simply benefit the most while you are at the intensive.

Training and pushups and sit ups and cardio and lines and pirouettes and jumps and turns…These are things you work on for rest of life as a dancer. But a summer intensive allows you a focus point in a fixed amount of time to push. It’s almost like a competition or like working for a recital or like pushing your hardest to get a role or to dance with the best girl in class or just to dance with any girl in the class to get partnering experience.

Live in the studio even if class is over and nothing is going on in the studio. Bring your iPod. Bring other dancers. Make this a nonstop, 24-hour, until-you-pass-out working environment for yourself. If you can do that, you’ll benefit greatly.

How to Prepare for a Summer Ballet Intensive: Rasta Thomas Offers Advice (Part 1)

At long, long last, I have some really superb advice for all the boys attending summer ballet intensives. Actually, any boy attending any type of summer dance intensive will benefit from the advice offered by ballet great Rasta Thomas.  

I first “discovered” Rasta after I’d actually seen him perform as Eddie in the national tour of  the Twyla Tharp/Bill Joel hit musical Movin Out. I was interviewing Dennis Nahat, artistic director of Ballet San Jose, for my book on mentoring boys who want to become professional dancers, and he suggested I also interview Rasta. He mentioned that while Rasta had not taken his advice and joined a ballet company, he was doing a pretty good job of making a living as a “free agent.” Indeed, he has and still is doing just that. And while he’s gotten more than his share of accolades as a ballet dancer, he does way more than ballet these day–and he encourages other male dancers to do the same. You can see this in the repertoire of his company,  ”Bad Boys of Dance.”

Though a Californian by birth, Rasta spent his early years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Trained at the Kirov Academy in Washington DC, under Oleg Vinogradov, Rasta made dance history as the youngest recipient of the Jury Prize at the Paris International Ballet Competition in Washington DC, the Junior Gold Medal at Varna at fifteen and the coveted Senior Gold Medal at the Jackson International Ballet Competition when he was only sixteen.

Appearing as a guest artist with the most prestigious ballet companies throughout the world, Rasta has appeared with the Kirov Ballet in Russia, The Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, the K–Ballet in Japan, Lar Lubovitch, Complexions and American Ballet Theater in New York, Universal Ballet of Korea, Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco, and the Beijing Central Ballet in China to name a few.

In 2007 Rasta debuted his own company, Bad Boys of Dance, at Jacob’s Pillow. This dazzling, high energy, all male company combines the best of ballet, Broadway, Tango, and Hip Hop to showcase male virtuosity at its best.  You can read  more about Rasta here.

If anyone knows what boys go through as they make there way in the world as dancers, Rasta does. And if anyone can given them advice about a ballet intensive, Rasta can. So, let’s hear what he has to say.  (I’ve left his comments in a simple Q & A format, so you can really “hear” Rasta speak.)

What is the first thing you would suggest boys do to prepare for a summer intensive, such as those run by American Ballet Theatre or San Francisco Ballet?

They can prepare themselves mentally. The first step is to approach anything new with an open mind. You are going there to learn, and you are going there to be challenged.

If you are willing to spend your “summer vacation” at a ballet intensive, and this isn’t something against your will, you are already far ahead of pack. That shows your determination and your love of what you do in a profession that is quite painful. It shows that you want to prevail and use your body in a way that thrives and lives in you. So, I think the mindset you are in is already appropriate, because you are agreeing to do this summer program and you want to do this summer program.

Beyond that, the next step is to figure out what you are hoping to get out of the summer ballet program. It will be what you predestine the experience to be. If you go there to learn, if you go there to be competitive, that’s what it will be

Also, if you go there looking for insight into your future, you can get a first hand experience of what the next step may be. This will allow you to find early in life what that yellow brick road is for you. That can be very educational. Everyone at the summer program is just a student, but the next step is an apprenticeship and then core and then soloist and then principle.

A summer program allows for an amazing amount of information to be downloaded if you’re open to it. If you go there being shy and bashful, or whatever your inhibitions are, you’ll need to abandon those. You need to say, “I’m here to learn.” Don’t judge yourself. Don’t think you are not good enough even if there is someone better than you. Think, “I’m going learn. I’m here because my parents sacrificed for me, my teachers sacrificed for me, and I sacrificed for myself. This is where I’m supposed to be. If you go into it with the mentality of “I’m going to benefit from this the most I can every single day, and you live, sleep and eat ballet, you will get tenfold more than other people will.

So, that’s the first step: mental preparation.

 

What’s the second step?

Before they go, they must get in the best physical shape they can. Whatever their syllabus or regular routine is, just push it even more. Take twice as many classes. Stretch a little longer.

A lot of times, dance classes don’t prepare you for dance itself. Class is more strength and conditioning training then stretching. I always say, ‘In dance you have to stretch your potential in addition to strengthening your potential.’ There’s a lot that can be done outside the studio. For this reason, I would say stretching, stretching and stretching are the keys. And if you’re flexible already, then spend time strengthening, strengthening and strengthening. If you are somewhere in the middle, then focus on both flexibility and strengthening before you go to the summer program.

Focus on your feet and your legs as well as on the other parts of your body. Know what your weaknesses are as well as your strengths, and specifically practice what you are bad at in preparation for the summer program.

 

Are there specific things that the boys can do in addition to taking class to get in great shape for a summer ballet intensive, such as cross training?

Cross training is a given. Dancers in general need to cross train. The boys have good weather on their side right now, so swimming is a great activity. Tennis and basketball are good. Even jumping rope is good. Jumping rope for 10 minutes a day will do wonders. Practicing variations is good, too. Strengthening, stretching (or flexibility), cardio, and repetition (of whatever the step is, such as a pas de bourrée, passé, or pirouette)—these are the four fundamental things they need to be doing. In terms of repetition, they need to do every step 10,000 hours each. To become good at anything you have to put in 10,000 hours—not consecutively, of course.

 

Since their dance programs might have tapered off by this time of year, which means they might not actually have access to as many dance classes just prior to going to their summer ballet intensive, what else do you suggest boys do to get in shape?

[Rudolf] Nureyev used to take ballet class at the back of the airplane. All you need is a little ledge to hold onto. You don’t even need a perfect surface. Don’t do anything that is going to make you hurt yourself, of course. There is always something you can practice. Do the exercises of the dance syllabus outside of class even if it is just moving your arms and your head. You don’t have to be in a structured class with a teacher giving you exercises. That’s the reason you had ballet class for the whole year—so you can do it without the teacher. You are your best teacher. Pull those things out of classes that you want to improve on, and do them in the living room in front of the mirror. Do relevé at the grocery store in line.

Class may have tapered off, but there are many hours in the day to be used—maybe not to take class but to improve your instrument.

Will boys do more jumping, turning, partnering at a summer intensive?

Definitely.

 

Is there anything they should be doing to prepare for those moves and activities  in particular?

For partnering, it’s always about lifting, so they should be doing push ups, sit ups, handstand push ups, pull ups, leg squats, and any resistance exercises, such as using dumbbells for their biceps and triceps.

For turns and spins, it’s just repetition.

For jumps, you need every muscle in your legs to be strong to jump as high as you can. So, exercise all the different muscles.

 

Are there some particular exercises you would recommend?

You can break down every point of the body and do exercises for strength and flexibility. For the feet and legs in particular, here are a few.

To strengthen the ankle, lie on your back and do 30 circles with your ankle clockwise and counterclockwise. Put your thigh at 90 degrees perpendicular to floor and your shin and foot parallel to floor. Hold knee in place and turn your ankle 30 times in each direction and then move it 30 times like gas pedal up and down.

Stand up and do sets of 16 or 32 relevé and eleve to work your calves. And the same with leg squats. Do this every day and build up to 50. It should hurt every other day. There should be a little soreness and then a little recuperation. Scientifically, you have to damage and injure your muscle for it to grow. If you aren’t sore the next day, you didn’t push hard enough.

Picking up pencil with your toes strengthens the toes [and actually most of the foot]. Use a Coke bottle or Perrier bottle and flex your foot and point your toes, and then roll your toes over and back over the bottle.  Keep the toes pointed the whole time, but flex the ankle. That works the arch.

Sit with your feet under the couch to stretch your feet.

Do your splits every day—two minutes a day in each split. If you can do them already, put a phone book or couch under your front leg.

If you don’t have your splits, take a warm or hot bath. When you get out, put on two pairs of sweats, sock and a hoodie, and stretch while the muscles are warm. Massage as you stretch.  You can also get up against a wall and in a side split straddle. I also used to lie on my back like a frog and put my legs in a double passé position.

 

Not surprisingly, there’s more to this interview than what I’ve posted here. So, keep a look out for Part 2 coming soon, in which Rasta  will advise boys on what they should be doing once they actually arrive at the summer ballet intensive.

Interview with Duncan Cooper (Part 4): The Issues and Difficulties Faced by Male Dancers (How to Make Choreography Your Own)

Last, but definitely not least, here’s part four to my interview with Duncan Cooper. If you don’t remember who Duncan is, please go back to this post to read the brief bio I offered in the part one.

Working on Flexibility and Weaknesses

Continuing my conversation with Duncan,  I wanted to know if he often saw the kind of flexibility issues with which my son, Julian, struggles. He has tightness in the hips, and can’t get his splits. Of course, he has grown about eight inches since last July, which means his muscles have not caught up to his bones, but he has never been very flexible.

Here’s what Duncan had to say: “Some boys are just naturally flexible…You have to do a lot of stretching. When I was his age [14], I warmed up for 30 minutes to an hour before class in the studio before the class began stretching. After class I would stretched to cool down.

“In dance, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. And if you don’t use it, you’ll never get it,” he concluded.

In general young male dancers need to know both their strengths and weaknesses and to realize, more often than not, they are presenting their strengths, he added. “But you need to work on your weaknesses. Often a weakness for some boys is flexibility. Some are very flexible. Some are good turners. Some are good jumpers, but they might not have the other two qualities.  To be well rounded in all is better than to be just good at one.” 

In other words, boys must not just focus doing the things that come naturally to them but on the things that don’t. They must practice these weak points until they become strengths.

The Male Mind or Psychological Issues that Affect Boys

When I asked Duncan if he thought boys had any unique psychological issues, he laughed and said, “Yes. Sometimes we joke around that men have shorter attention spans in class than women. Maybe it’s based on a kind of ADD male testosterone issue where they get so much testosterone that sporadically they are all over the place,” he commented. “The tendency is for them to have focusing issues, especially when they are together in groups.”

He went on to add, “Men are often more challenge than women, because they start dancing later then women do.” While they might find it easier to find jobs, because there are so few male dancers, they are often struggling to catch up with their female counterparts, who likely have been dancing longer.

While this engenders a desire to move fast, “going fast” tends to be a “guy thing” in general. I mentioned Julian’s desire to move up the levels at Ballet San Jose School more quickly than he was allowed, and the ballet mistress there, Lise LaCour, not allowing him to do so. Duncan responded that this attitude was not uncommon for boys, and he cautioned, “It’s not about going to the next or another level. It’s not about going through eight levels and you get a new Karate belt. It doesn’t work that way. It’s not about getting a trophy. It’s about becoming an artist.”

Likening this process to wine, he said, “You can’t rush good wine. Wine is going to develop on its own time. It’s the same with an artist.”

Men have to learn more than just how to dance well, and this takes time, too. They have to learn to be good soloists and, as mentioned in previous posts, they have to dance with emotion and be “matinee idols,” which means being great actors. Additionally, they have to possess the ability to be a lead dancer, which means carrying a production, such as a Broadway show, a contemporary piece or a full-length ballet. “For that you have to be a good dancer and a good partner,” said Duncan. “Men are notoriously bad partners.”

That comment led to a logical question: How does a young man become a good partner? “Good male dancers will listen to what their partners need. Each woman needs something different. They’ll also know the women’s choreography. If you know the woman’s part in partnering, you know when to pick her up and when to put her down.  Often guys rush through that. That’s part of the skill of learning not to rush,” Duncan explained.

Making Convention Choreography Your Own – or Not

On a different note altogether, I asked Duncan, who is on the faculty of New York City Dance Alliance, what he wants from convention attendees when he gives them choreography. When he gives the boys, for instance, a special piece of choreography, what gets a child chosen to be on stage?  Does he want them to make that choreography “their own” or to perform it exactly as he has shown them to dance it? Here’s what he said:

“I’m looking for individuality. I’m looking for them to show me something different in the movement that I haven’t seen in all the other kids. Just because you are going up on stage doesn’t mean squat. It might mean I saw you do something well, but I’m not always looking for the kid that does something perfect as a ballet dancer. Sometimes I’m looking for the kid who is learning the most, who is challenging themselves the most, and that isn’t always the person who knows ballet technique the best. I want to see someone who is stretching their learning curve, and that doesn’t always come from the person who can do perfect ballet technique.

“I bring people on stage that has different skills. One might be able to turn, one might have a great leap, one might be able to do the move and phrasing in a unique way. Each dancer has something special, but it’s not just about who gets up on stage, and that’s what I want them to see.”

Duncan stressed that while being in a room full of great dancers and working with new and inspiring teachers represents the upside to conventions, the downside consists of the plastic trophies and the competition to get chosen to be on stage. “That’s not ultimately what it’s about. Your trophy isn’t going to do you any good when you go to an audition. They’re not going to say, ‘Oh, you were the gold winner at New York City Dance Alliance.’ They don’t know who you are when you are at an audition for a Broadway show,” he said. Thus, young dancers – male or female – need to learn to interpret what goes on at a convention in a different manner, to see it in a different way, and to not let any part of the convention discourage them.

As for making the choreography your own, if the instructor says to do so, go for it! “If I say to make the choreography your own, you self-discover yourself,” Duncan stated. “Show me what makes you unique within the choreography. Don’t be afraid to step up and fail. Screw the choreography up. Sometimes you have to do that to get it. Stop trying to be perfect and please the teacher. Sometimes you try to please the choreographer or teacher so hard that you actually do a disservice to yourself. You are pleasing yourself. You need to be in the moment and work with that.”

Duncan described how the director at San Francisco Ballet would offer him tips when he was working on a turn, and the turn would get worse rather than better. “I was thinking he had the ultimate answer and not relying on what I know I feel when I do the turn. He wasn’t in my body. He didn’t ultimately know where my balance is. He could give me some clues to get there. That’s why I tell kids, ‘I’m not trying to get you to bake a new cake; I’m just adding some frosting to it.’ So don’t screw up what makes you great. Don’t lose your self identity as a dancer.”

Advice for Young Male Dancers Who Find the Road a Tough One to Hoe

For all those young male dancers out there, like my son, who constantly are faced with tough choices – sports or dance, conforming or being different, summer dance intensive or summer camp, fight or walk away when teased, Duncan had some words of wisdom to offer.

“That’s life. It’s hard. They’re feeling like, ‘I’m different than all the other kids.’ Often they are all taught to wear the same clothes – what’s trendy and cool. The down side to that is that the most beautiful thing is your uniqueness as an individual and as an artist. That’s a great thing. Do what you want to do. You don’t have to follow what rest of flock is doing. Be a male ballet dancer. Who cares what those other guys think? Do what you love; that’s a good thing. Don’t conform and confine, obviously within the constraints of what is good for you. If you want something in life, put yourself out there and go get it. I wish I had heard that more as a kid. But it’s not easy.

Duncan has faced some difficult issues and decisions as a male dancer as well. “I found having three knee surgeries by 21 years old hard. I thought I was the be all and end all, and I thought I’d be dancing for the rest of my life, and all of a sudden it was being taken away from me…That was very humbling,” he confided.

Additionally, he said, “It was difficult for me, because I was an African American dancer. As I got older I began to see that the image of a ballet dancer was European…This goes back to ‘I don’t look like everyone else,’ so now I’m not going to get the part. No, you don’t’ look like everybody else, because you’re unique. Or maybe that’s when I was a kid and I got beat up in school because I danced ballet. How does one deal with that? I ran to school every day. You can roll up in a ball and cry or you can get over it and move on.”

The fact that life is hard – maybe harder for male dancers (even though the girls tend to think it’s easier for the boys) – actually can become an asset. “If anything is easy in life then you probably won’t be the best at it, and you probably won’t know how to deal with things when things get tough. That’s big lesson to learn,” said Duncan.

‘Everybody is going to have their own set of challenges,” he says. When my son – or yours – finds himself in a room filled with kids who are all better dancer, without mom or dad to help him anymore, denied all the roles he thought he would – or should – be given, Duncan concludes, “That’s when he’ll find out what he’s made of.” That’s when knowing how to deal with life being hard (and not rushing) will come in handy.

Dance Advantage Interviews Garret Smith of Houston Ballet II

While you are waiting for my next post, here’s a great one to read by Nichelle Strzepek at Dance Advantage. She interviewed 20-year-old Garrett Smith, a recent graduate of Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, who already is an accomplished performer and choreographer as well as a member of Houston Ballet II, Houston Ballet’s pre-professional company. He’s also signed a contract with Houston Ballet for the 2009-1010 season! To read the blog post, click here.

Then check back in a few days for the final part of my interview with Duncan Cooper.

Interview with Duncan Cooper (Part 3): Develop the Ability to Move with Emotion and Be Inspired by Dance

Amidst the hustle and bustle of tecnical rehearsals for Los Gatos Ballet’s Copellia and last-week-before-techical-rehearsals for Teen Dance Company’s 10th Anniversary Spring Concert, not to mention my daugther’s regional synchronized swimming meet in Sacramento this weekend (and my work), I’ve finally managed to finish transcribing the tape of my interview with Duncan Cooper. As promised, here’s part 3 . If you don’t remember who Duncan is, please go back to this post to read the brief bio I offered in part 1.

Continuing my conversation with Duncan from where I left off in part 2, I asked him to tell me how boys can learn to put emotion into their movement. While a good teacher helps, of course, beyond that there are some things boys can do to help them find their emotional center, if you will.

Learning to Move with Emotion

First, Duncan went back to the idea of studying the greats, but he stressed actually watching them dance. He related this to watching a superb basketball player play the game. “You can’t really understand what it is to play at that level until you actually play at that level,” he said. “No matter how much you play or learn the technique, it’s a completely different thing when you watch Lebron James or Michael Jordan or Julius Irving. They elevate the game beyond a sport into an art.” Duncan explained that young boys aren’t going to understand that until they watch Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov,  Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, or Gregory Hines.

Stirring the Desire for Greatness

I’ve often wondered how you help a child—boy or girl—develop a desire for greatness.  “You can’t expect someone to naturally be great until it is stirred within them,” Duncan explained. “A pas de deux is a pas de deux until you see two professional dancers really do it to another level. A convention is just a convention until you go to a convention where you are completely surrounded by dancers at a completely different tier and teachers that are really giving.” That’s when something stirs inside a young dancer and they also go to the next level, they rise to the occasion or they rise to the tier of those around them. Or they simply feel motivated to dance like the greats who came before them.

“That’s why watching the greats that have gone before him is important. That’s why it’s good at conventions to see a young guy dancer doing 10 turns. Then you say, “Wow. It can be done.”  It motivates you to try to do it,” says Duncan.

I mentioned that we had sent Julian into the studio to do some dancing and choreography on his own in an attempt to help him “find himself” and that emotional center in his dance. Duncan commented, “It’s good to go do choreography himself, but it’s also good to get information to inspire himself. Have him find books on great male dancers. Or go on line and search on YouTube for great male dancers. Have him watch Danny Tidwell or Rasta Thomas, the young great dancers coming up there. He should see how they are doing it. And he should watch the older dancers.  When you see that as a young dancer, it changes you.”

The Need for a Good Teacher and Getting Past the Music

None of this replaces the need for a good teacher who can impart the knowledge of how to dance with emotion, but Duncan said that happens in the studio with the teacher rather than here in a blog. “You have to find a teacher who is really able to move the student and inspire them to do the things they need to do. It’s the difference between an okay teacher teaching a jazz class and a really great teacher teaching the class. The great teacher can  impart the information to the class correctly. That’s the worth of a great teacher or a great coach or a great choreographer.”

While connecting to the music also helps a young man learn to dance with emotion and to be inspired by his dancing, Duncan says boys have to get beyond the music and understand the phrasing and just “be” with the piece of music. You have to find the inspiration and emotion no matter what the music.

In the end, he said, “What you do inside the studio is just as important as what you do outside the studio.” All of this comes together to create a dancer and dance that become less about dance and more about art.

Next time: One last post with information from Duncan Cooper! This time Duncan discusses dance strengths and weaknesses, psychological issues, making choreography your own, and his personal view on the difficulty of being a male dancer.

Interview with Duncan Cooper (Part 2): Need For Technique & Movement that Tells a Story & Portrays Emotion

Sorry for the delay in writing another post. Things have been a bit crazy at my end. I had a trial period for a writing gig I didn’t get (which took up an enormous amount of time for four weeks). I’ve been gearing up my new column at Examiner.com. Plus, we’ve had time spent on National Dance Week events, apartment searches in New York (finally found one!), parent observation day at the studio, writing and sending out press release for the year-end company performance, and attempts to find decent ballet tights to keep Julian outfitted for the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive. This week at the studio we have student reviews. In two weeks, Julian performs in Copellia with Los Gatos Ballet (find out how to purchase tickets here)—which I have to miss because my daughter has her final synchronized swim meet in Sacramento— and the following week is tech week for Teen Dance Company’s 10^th Anniversary Concert (purchase tickets here). Then, of course, we have the concert, and the dance year officially comes to an end. Phew!

At least at that point we have a few weeks of “down time.” However, Julian plans to dance up a storm in between studying for finals so he is in shape for ABT. In fact, tomorrow he is meeting with two of his old teachers to work on conditioning. No rest for the weary.

I have not, however, forgotten that I need to post the second part of my interview with Duncan Cooper. If you don’t remember who Duncan is, please go back to this post to read the brief bio I offered. While in the last post Duncan offered his strong opinion on dancers’ education inside and outside the studio, in this post he answers questions I posed about the issues he sees most commonly in male dancers.

Boys Must Slow Down and Learn Technique

I asked Duncan this question specifically, “What technical dance issues do you see most commonly in boys?” His response was short and to the point: “Lack of technique.”

 “So, how can boys resolve this issue?” I queried, of course, as a follow up. He answered, “The solution to that is to get into classes and to slow down and get the basics. With boys, lack of technique is more prevalent, because there are fewer boys interested. So, they often learn late about it and scramble. Like young boys just going into marshal arts, they wants to break bricks and do all these great tricks, but they don’t want to do any of the foundational work that’s required. They don’t want to sit on two logs for five hours; they want to take the easy route.”

When Duncan gives boys challenging choreography at conventions—something Julian, in particular, enjoyed about the classes he took with Duncan at NYCDA, he says few of the boys he sees in the room at conventions have the ability to do the moves correctly and “most of those boys have not earned the right to do those steps yet.” This brings up a common issue.

Expectations for Girls Are Higher

“Often we let boys do more than they should, because there are so few boys and we want boys so badly,” Duncan explained. “Women are often much better than boys, because there are more of them and we expected more of them. So, the technical level of what is expected of them is higher.” In other words, they rise to the level expected of them.

Be a Matinee Idol

Duncan said he also finds a need from boys to connect with their masculine side. “It’s not always just steps; it’s also your inner movement. I say to them, ‘Be a matinee idol. Be Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt.’”

Additionally, he said, “There is sometimes a loss of connection with them with musical phrasing. They rush through the music, so they don’t really hear the music. And then they need to relay that music in a matinee idol style.”

While dancing in a masculine way is a given, Duncan suggested boys watch Gene Kelly in any of the films he made. “Notice his charisma, his character. He’s a real man dancing on stage,” said Duncan. “Or watch Fred Astaire. See how they both relate to women and tell a story while they dance.”

 Movement Tells a Story

All of this is important, Duncan explained, because nine times out of 10 if you dancing in a show on Broadway or even doing a full-length ballet your movement tells a story. Boys need to learn how to have their movement tell the story of their dance or of their inner dialogue. “It’s not just movement for movement’s sake, because that gets boring,” Duncan said. “We want them to learn that their movements tell a story, whatever that may be, whether there is an actual story to the dance or not. If I make a gesture, it means something, it means something to you…We want them to bring their individuality out in the movement. We want it to be unique to them but we want them to stay within the framework of the choreography that the choreographer is giving them.”

No Movement Without Emotion

Duncan added that he would like boys to understand that there is no movement without emotion either. “I don’t mean be overly dramatic. But movement comes from emotional content. It’s not just this emotionless move. Whether you are relating to a women or the audience is moved by you. The greatest dancers can step onto stage and they haven’t done one step and the audience goes, ‘Ahhh,’ he concluded.

Note:Duncan had more to say, and I’ll hopefully have time to transcribe the last part of the tape and post another blog add this coming week.

Interview with Duncan Cooper (Part 1): Your Son’s Dance Education

I first met 38-year-old Duncan Cooper when Julian attended the New York City Dance Alliance convention in Santa Clara, CA, about a month ago. I was impressed with the choreography he gave the boys during his session. And Julian loved the choreography.

So, I decided to approach him and ask if he would write a post for my blog or let me interview him. He agreed to the latter, and this past Sunday we had an hour-long phone conversation. I’m going to relay most of what Duncan told me in a few separate posts.

First, let me introduce you to Duncan Cooper. Duncan started dancing at the age of five, when he began taking ballet classes at Richard Thomas’ New York School of Ballet. At the age of 13, Duncan received a full scholarship to train at the San Francisco Ballet School. In 1989, bypassing the obligatory apprentice year, he was made a full company member. At 22, after three knee surgeries, he left this position and later took on a position as principle dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem, where he danced for nine years.

In addition to teaching for NYCDA, Duncan now offers master classes around the country and teaches as part of the faculty at Alonzo King Lines Ballet in San Francisco, CA, both for the company and for its MFA program. He also offers choreography, occasionally performs and is involved with Athletes for Kids. For more information on Duncan, I suggest you visit his website. (Check out the awesome photos in his gallery…)

What Type of Dancer Does Your Son Want to Be?

The first thing Duncan stressed during our conversation was that boys must decide at some point what type of dancers they want to be.  He asked me what Julian wanted to be, and “a professional dancer” was not an adequate answer.

“Do you want to be successful in Hollywood? Do you want to be a dancer on Broadway? Do you want to be a ballet dancer?” he queried. These are the questions our sons must answer.

While it’s important for children to define the area of dance they want to pursue as early as possible, and pursue it, he did qualify this by saying they must still learn as much as they can about all types of dance. “Of course, the concern is to be a jack of all trades and a master of none,” he said. “You want to be a jack of all trades and a master of at least one.”

Knowing many styles of dance leaves a boy open to discovering not only his talents but the opportunities available to him. “Even though you may want to be one type of dancer, you may be talented in another style and you may get opportunities in the other. You may want to use that as a bridge to something, or you may find out you want to that go in another direction,” Duncan explained.

Taking Your Son’s Dance Education Outside The Dance Studio

1. Find Out About The “Real World” Of Dance

If your son has figured out what type of dance he wants to pursue, then its time to take his education outside of the studio. As a parent, you must pick up the challenge to educate your dancing boy about the “real world” of dance, according to Duncan.

At this point, you must encourage your son to research what dance companies exist that specialize in that form of dance and how one goes about having a career in those companies. This may be hard for young boys, say 13-16, to understand, but he says parents must begin helping them understand the concept of “making a career, making a paycheck, and being sustainable” with their dancing. In otherwords, you (and I) must help your son develop a plan, or a career strategy.

Help your son understand the difference between “working” for a large, mid-range or small dance company. “In a small company dance, you might dance more but have less work weeks out of the year,” claimed Duncan. “You may not get the benefits you get in a larger company or in a union company, such as medical and dental benefits. Most kids have no clue about the importance of these things.”

2. Research The Types Of Dance Companies He Might Want To Join

As part of the self-education process, boys also need to search out people who have done what they want to do and look at the structure of how those dance professionals accomplished that goal. Did they go to college or start working immediately? Did the majority of dancers with one company come out of Juliard or some other college or dance company?

If your son, like my son, wants to become a contemporary ballet dancer, for instance, Duncan said, “He needs to spend a lot of time in books and on the Internet searching for contemporary dance companies. He should look up Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Complexions Dance Company, and Compania Nacional de Danza (National Dance Company of Spain). A lot of ballet companies are not doing just ballet,” he added, and are bringing in contemporary choreographers as well.

3. Learn About (And From) The Dancers Who Paved The Way

Also, Duncan suggested that young male dancers educate themselves about great male dancers and great dancers in the style of dance they want to pursue. “Look up great dancers on the Internet, like Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Barishnikov, or Martha Graham. Find out what their careers were like. Read a biography about them. Becoming a professional dancer is not just about learning a tendu and plie; it’s about learning how the game is played and who’s played it.”

4. Learn to Network

Don’t let your son stick to the Internet or even to books about great dancing role models. Make him start talking to real, live people. “Pull mature dancers aside and ask questions,” Duncan recommends.

“Let [your sons] know the importance of talking to their dance teachers not just about tendu and plie but about how do I go about becoming a professional dancer,” he said. “They have to learn to network now as a young adult. They need to ask the questions. Don’t be shy! Taking a dance class is not just about taking a dance class. It’s about learning to communicate with the adult staff that is giving the information beyond just the information they are supposed to offer. Never be afraid to ask a question; no question is too stupid…Go beyond, ‘Thank you, class was really good.’ Ask, ‘If I want to go here, what do you think I should do,’” he suggested.

Become A Star By Doing Homework Inside And Outside The Studio

There’s more: Our boys have to learn how to go after what they want. Despite the fact that there are less boys out their fighting for spots in companies than girls, they still have to fight for those spots. They can’t just assume they will get them or that they will be noticed.

“You want to go out there and not wait for anybody to give you anything. It’s really like anything else in life. You can get a degree in college, but if you don’t know how to be street hustler you aren’t going to last very long unless someone chooses you to be a star. You’ve got to individually make decisions about how you are going to go up there and take a hold of that,” said Duncan.

How is your son going to ensures that he becomes a star? By doing his own homework inside and outside the studio, according to Duncan. “The more you do our own homework the better you are going to be.” 

For example, if your son wants to dance Gisselle, he should learn the story, watch someone great dance it, figure out how he would dance the part, and learn the part before being asked to dance it. If he wants to become a better dancer, he should watch the other kids in his classes who are better than he is and make note of what they do differently and then go home and practice it in the kitchen. And he should watch what the boys who aren’t as good as he is are doing and make note not to do those things either. He should come home for a convention and practice the choreography he learned in the kitchen figuring out how to do it better.

“There is really no excuse. Get out of the MTV world and get into the subject matter of what you want to become,” concluded Duncan.

I’d add that we need to get our son’s off of Facebook and MySpace and find a website with great historical information about dance or great videos of great dancers, and encourage them to spend time there. I know our dancing boys don’t have a lot of free time (mine is lucky to have a Sunday morning to lounge in front of the television for a few hours), but I have found that Julian is always eager to watch a good dance video with me on the computer or to watch a film about dance on the television. It’s easy to make this type of education a family affair.

As for getting them to take the bull by the horn – to network, to ask the questions, to read and study, to go for what they want, I suppose that comes with age and desire and a whole lot of parental encouragement, support and patience. Like them, we parents have our work cut out for us.

More from Duncan in the next post.