Photo Credit: Joe Goode Performance Group
Hometown: Rohnert Park, CA
Current city: Oakland, CA
Age: 33
College and degree: None
Websites: www.joegoode.org www.projectbandaloop.org
How you pay the bills: Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher, Administrator
All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher, Administrator
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When did you start to dance?
I never thought I wanted to be a professional modern dancer when I was younger. I didn’t even know what that was.
I was a very flamboyant living room dancer as a small kid; I endured lots of teasing from older siblings. After all of that, my love of movement channeled into something slightly more acceptable for a little boy….. gymnastics. I did that for 9 years until I was 17. Competed a lot, trained too much and ended up not liking the rigid culture and high bodily risk. It was at that time (late teens) that I followed my interests in ritual and trance states, getting swept up into subcultures where “free dancing” to loud music, all night long, was the main form of social gathering. It was on these open, relentless dance floors that my movement experience exploded out of the confines of my gymnastic training. In these communities of movers, I was exposed to contact improvisation, capoeira, ritual and general open improvisational weirdness. I immediately fell in love. I spent much of my senior year in high school taking a three hour bus ride from where I lived to San Francisco seeking out teachers of contact improvisation. I was fortunate at a young age to work with lots of great teachers, laying a somatic foundation for what was to become a life full of dancing.
I kept studying contact improv after high school. I worked as a gymnastics teacher to pay for immersive trainings on the West and East Coast. I was a contact freak. It was all I wanted to do. I was devoted.
When I was 20 I was taking a class from Scott Wells, a choreographer in San Francisco. He asked me if I ever performed, and if I might be interested in auditioning for his company. I said yes and was given a place his company. In Scott Wells and Dancers I was surrounded by devoted dancers who had technical training, dancers who had grown up doing tendus and pliés, dancers who had incredible facility and took technique class regularly. Being around them spurred my interest, and I started to study modern dance technique.
Describe your dancing life in your 30s:
I like to take technique class when I can. I have to warm up religiously or the gods of injury threaten certain punishment. I dance for two companies and make my own work. I am constantly learning and practicing what it is to be a collaborator. I try to stay healthy, so I can keep working. I have to say no to some projects. There were many years in my 20s when I haphazardly said yes to every offer, and ended up packing my schedule way too full. Now just a few projects that I can devote more of myself to is the way to go.
Now that I am in my thirties, I am encouraging my little boy living room dancer self to let his flame burn bright. I think his joy might help me make it through such a jaded world.
Photo Credit: Todd Laby for Project Bandaloop
A turning point...
In 2002 I auditioned and was welcomed into Project Bandaloop. Bandaloop is an aerial company from the SF Bay Area directed by Amelia Rudolph. We use rock climbing gear (ropes and harnesses) to make vertical surfaces our dance floor. I was 23 when I joined the company. This turn in my life thrusted me onto stages I had never dreamed of. During my first few years, we were presented on the Kennedy Center Stage, an old post office and opera house in Macau, China, danced over a moat on the side of a castle in Montova, Italy, danced off a bridge over the Missouri River in Montana, and many other outrageous places. Most of our performing is done outside. I found I love dancing outside, projecting my view and experience beyond the horizon, dancing in the weather --- the cold, the heat, the sun, the rain. Because of the rigorous safety culture of Bandaloop, I have learned a lot about a performing moment that mixes the intense logistical and practical mind of safety management with the expressive, trancendant states of dancing.
Mentors/someone who believed in you:
Joe Goode… he brought me to my voice. He gives me guidance on how to move into being a more articulate performer (and human being), physically and vocally. He teaches me about deep silence, disappearing into the wildness of my own human messes, acceptance and physical pleasure in the process of making work. He is also very discerning and specific about making dance and performance; he teaches me how to be critical and compassionate at the same time.
How you have paid the bills over the years:
Dancing, administering and teaching. I have taught toddlers, kids, teens, and adults. Each has its particular challenges and joys. The most difficult part of paying the bills has been scheduling. Doing the “dancer hustle”-- weaving together enough paying work to stay afloat, while staying creatively buoyant. This scheduling puzzle can be difficult and frustrating. I feel lucky to have it all work out, to have found jobs that offer flexibility in scheduling, and to work with directors who understand what its like to work a bunch of jobs while being a dancer.
On teaching….
Teaching has been an important piece of my dance pie. It’s a good way to make money, and it is a great way to stay inspired and practice communicating movement ideas. I am excited by the arrival to the body and alchemy of movement that happens in a class setting. It is really beautiful to me. I am inspired by teachers who can cultivate a rigorous, detailed environment for dancers to take chances and grow in. I like teachers who encourage friendliness, togetherness and a non-competitive atmosphere.
What you look for in a dancer:
Presence, patience, sensuality, pleasure, the ability to take a ride on the movement, kindness, hilarity, fire.
Advice to young dancers:
Follow your curiosity. Be curious about injury prevention. Become conscious of your habits. Take risks. Enjoy your training. Work with choreographers whose work you like, and who can stretch you to new territory. Be an animal. Enjoy it.
Future career goals:
- Make more dances that matter to me and to the communities involved
- Sing more
- Immerse myself in wild places, and make art there
- Choreograph more theater and opera
- Continue somatic and bodywork education
To read Melecio's updated profile from 2017, please click here.
Thanks, Jill and Melecio -- read this as I head back to my teaching job, first week of school, and it's a good reminder for me about what matters, personally and professionaly, and the constant struggle for balance.
Posted by: Valerie Gutwirth | 08/27/2012 at 06:13 AM