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Josephine Jewkes,
Dancing, but Still Probs? | |||||||
Josephine Jewkes, dancer with Rambert and formerly an ENB Principal, writes each month on the "dancing life". Here is a link to the previous column in the series.
On 2 June, I delightedly slip on a practice skirt (no, not on a banana skin) and heeled shoes to learn the Sevillianas from the cafe scene in "Cruel Garden". This is an excellent part with which to return to the stage - simple, untaxing steps, but lots of character and style required. Lots of fun too, as I choose a crazy wild-woman wig and festoon it with a lavish garland of red silk roses. I begged a little coaching in gypsy flamenco style from Rosario (our singer) who showed me the fierce, splayed hands which curlicue with innuendo. I saw also the sensual, uncompromising carriage of the dispossessed who brought their Egyptian roots with them to Spain in the form of those snaking arms and hips. Add the prescribed, Lindsay Kemp make-up of white-face-black-eyes-scarlet-lips (inspired by the Commedia dell'Arte of course), plus purple flounces and decadent orange stockings, and I have all the ingredients for a juicy little cameo in Lorca's idealised cafe de Chinitas. I also appeared with rather less success on the end of a gold-lame-helmeted chorus-line during a Buster Keaton episode and managed an absolutely classic "Funny Girl" boo-boo: as I tapped away with saccharine glee, my fellows performed the correct shimmies. Only a Telly Tubbyish "Eh-oh!" from Marie-Laure next to me finally alerted me to my mistake. I suggested that for the next performance I be permitted to roller-skate cross the front instead...... My classwork advanced rapidly once I had taken the plunge, with even grand allegro coming quite easily thanks to the painstaking preparation of the previous weeks. Maria Fay's floor barre work established good habits and strengthened the essential stabilising reflexes needed to sustain balance and control. When I braved the Cunningham class onstage in Northampton, I found my balance and control much improved and the hip reacting with only faint twinges to the deep lunges and wide transfers. It is three months since my second operation, and I finally believe that I have made a full recovery. My injury has been exceptionally long-lasting due to the delays in full diagnosis, but I have been fortunate to work with the best coaches and I can see some of my colleagues at Rambert, who have also been injured during this time, suffering due to lack of individual guidance. As Chris Bruce wants a strong classical base for the company technique, I believe that it would be a good investment to arrange for injured dancers to work back slowly under supervision of a teacher of their choice, as there is a wide gap between leaving the physiotherapist's table and returning to the hurly-burly of company class. My outlook is conditioned by the arrangements at the big ballet companies, which nearly always have a member of staff available to nurse the injured dancers back to strength. It is a good insurance policy in fact, because the dancers return with clean technique and a degree of confidence which protects them from the secondary problems which can easily arise if the dancers are too ambitious and anxious to dance to their limits (as we invariably are!) too soon. As always, it is very likely that money will be the sticking point. Talking of money, listening to Radio 3 (my private University) I heard some beautiful pieces for 'prepared piano' by John Cage (and Henry Cowell) composed for Merce Cunningham at a time when money was tight and the gamelan ensemble envisaged was impossible to afford. Cage therefore improvised with pieces of paper and wire between the strings and a new instrument was born. I now listen to 'new' music (those sonatas date from before 1940!) with fresh ears since the next Rambert choreographic workshop is in preparation for Spring of next year. My respect for those (composers, artists) who create something out of their own imagination increases as I embrace and then abandon idea after idea, stimulated fleetingly by a plethora of sounds and the images they conjure. As a dancer/choreographer I can draw on the inspiration of music for my art, but to pluck melodies out of the air? Not so difficult if one has a talent for it, I suppose. My ear is caught by an elusive and atmospheric piece of French music heard on an interview with Pierre Boulez; various calls to the BBC and assorted libraries pin it down, and my head is spinning with images and vague movements. But do I have enough invention to justify taking up the time of a handful of dancers? I realise now why some choreographers (especially contemporary ones) devise pieces for themselves: not necessarily out of pride but out of fear! I do believe that choreography is a vocation - just as are teaching and dancing - and I very much doubt that I have a talent for it, however I take the view that the workshop is an opportunity to learn a great deal which I would be foolish to turn down. So it is just courage and ideas I need now ............. Of course this also helps me to sympathise with Chris Bruce as he embarks on his new ballet scheduled to open at Sadler's Wells. I also hope very strongly that my long time away does not preclude me from involvement in it, as I did, after all, join Rambert with the hope of renewing a very happy working relationship. A director has to strive to keep all his dancers fulfilling their potential, but a choreographer must follow his artistic prompting, and I do not envy Chris Bruce his dual role, as all 23 dancers are as keen as I am to be cast in his new work. It is also good to see him given a CBE at last, as his omission from the honours list was beginning to be a subject of puzzlement among some of the dance world. In fact I sidled up to him during class this morning and muttered "I was beginning to think you must keep turning it down because you are a raging communist or something". It transpires that I am covering one of the parts in Chris Bruce's new piece ("I've forgotten which one, though", he said) but he is not calling the second cast to rehearsals yet as smaller groups in a studio are easier to work with. This means that I will be learning cut and dried movements rather than being in on the creative process. Disappointing, but I must be grateful for small mercies, as I have not been fully fit since September and he has only a cast of six, so far. In the last few days as I sweat away at my solitary barre downstairs during the release technique modern class (which is still out of bounds for my hip), I have been joined by Mr. Bruce as he does his own ballet barre warm-up to the accompaniment of Dave Heath's score for the new ballet. This means that I am one of the few people so far at Rambert to have heard the score in its entirety. (Come October I predict that the whole building will be all too familiar with it). To my ears, it has elements of Celtic music as well as echoes of Vaughn Williams and Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe" interspersed with some eerie and magical passages. Very vivid and begging to be choreographed to. What I had hoped to be my final check-up with the surgeon results in an appointment for a further scan (MRI this time) as, although my progress in ballet and Cunningham classes is excellent, the stress of release technique is still beyond me and I really need a very clear all-clear before going full steam ahead next season. "Release" involves a great deal of sinking to the floor, 'releasing' (relaxing) the muscles, rolling, recovering to standing, sinking to the floor, etc., etc. Wonderful when done well, giving the impression of bolts of silk rippling to the ground, but the complete antithesis of the ballet 'pull-up' and engendering an impression of a sack of crockery hitting the floor when done by panic-stricken ballet-dancers who cannot tell right knee from left elbow in a prone position (I am not alone). The deep flexion of the hip joint, combined with pushing deep into the floor in order to stand up, is what still pains the hip and made it ache for days after I attempted the release class being taught as a complementary adjunct to the revival of Siobhan Davies's "Embarque". No wonder the health professionals look nervous when hip injuries are involved. As it was explained to me, the joint is so large, buried under so many thick, deep muscles and bears the weight of the body at all times (except when lying down) that this makes deep and delicate keyhole surgery a risky and rare procedure and too cutting edge (oh, dear) to predict recovery patterns with confidence. So I wait for my scan and hope.
The good news is that Tim finally came home from Denmark for good on 24 June and so we can start to enjoy being together again and plan a future for ourselves.
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