Back to Class
After a failed attempt at creating a weekend workshop, my partner in Fearless Young Artists Studios said, “ LaQuet, you need to go back to class and show people what Fearless Young Artists Studios and your methodology is all about. The people need to see you in practice.”
I’m wise enough to know good advice when I hear it and sought out classes to take—starting with a 60-minute barre/dance cardio with KKSweat. I could handle a shorter duration and I wanted to push myself a little more. A few days later, I stepped up my confidence to a 90 minute Beginner Jazz class with IngaMarie Gerson, who would refer me to sub some of her classes at STEPS on Broadway. Keep in mind that I've been trying very hard to get a class at STEPS for a year! That class was a sign that there was more in my tank and reassured my drive to persevere onward to apply my methodology in various classes. With every advancement of time spent in the studio, I got to meet the part of myself that started dancing, singing, and acting in the first place. The one who took class because it was fun to pursue the freedom of expression!
Then, I started embracing my mantra, “I’m being Bold, I'm being Brave, I’m being Fearless!” Which led me to an Adv Contemporary class with Brandon Coleman. I took his class twice before working with him in a choreography workshop that cemented, inspired, and empowered my process as a choreographer, director, and artist. Brandon’s work explores lots of weight shifts. So too does the range of my instrument. After his classes, I could not stop my hand from writing. Ideas sprang into my head daily of movement phrases, I started to hum and sing again. Most impactfully I began to find the wings in my second Choreopoem, “Together Marching”.
Finally the journey back to class led to a four hour workshop held for four weeks. The choreographic incubator, Centrifuge, led by the remarkable Omri Drumlevich who brought in guest choreographers to inspire the “makers” (choreographers) to create phrases inspired from improvisation prompts, places in our studios, curiosities, and group reflections. Two hours into our work, Omri invited dancers into the studio space to explore our phrase work outside of ourselves. We had limited time and space, but always challenged with exploring how best to get our work onto the dancers. I had experienced that level of encouragement and positive push in a workshop in years. Adding to the magical magnitude of this workshop was taking it with my dear friend and partner in FYA Studios, Alexis Borth. She and I’s shorthand of communication became more grounded and solidified because of this workshop. More than ever, I want to create movement for her and on dancers like her.
What these classes offered and provided has been a refreshing splash of curiosity and confidence in knowing what tool to use and when with ease, flow, and connectivity. Something that I previously lacked when I was taking class more frequently. Back when I was on the road to burnout. Then burnt out.
This past month, however, became a mellifluous practice of play and exploration for my instrument. A place to experiment. Where as previously, it was a place to “catch up,” “network/be seen,” or “get snatched.” I had not experienced the privilege of exercising my instrument simply because I could and Should! The momentum of being back in class has led to making new friends organically. I am now getting my foot in the door to teach at professional dance studios in NYC. But most importantly, it’s been a place to play and become conscious of the process within my work.
I’m learning how necessary practice is to remain in the ease of my instruments’ tools, the flow of an ever-changing artistic field, and the connectivity felt among artists seeking to find the higher ground of themselves in community with others.
The lessons learned in the past month have everything to do with being present and patient with where I am.
