Photo: Blaine Covert
Hometown: Windsor, NY
Current city: Oakland, CA
Age: 51
College and degree: BA, self-designed major in Cross-Cultural Performing Arts from Elmira College
Graduate school and degree: SUNY Brockport, MA in Dance (entered at age 24); UC Davis, MFA Dramatic Arts (entered age 47)
Website: Paufve Dance
How you pay the bills: by teaching dance
All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, Choreographer, Artistic Director of Paufve Dance, Teacher, Grant Writer, Administrator, Presenter
Non-dance work you do: Washing the dishes and so forth - have made a living teaching dance exclusively since about 1995 I think.
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Describe your dance life in your….
20s – By age 20 I had been a factory worker, ice cream scooper, hotel maid, waitress, receptionist and a data entry clerk. I also worked for one long hour at Burger King. I started college late, starving for knowledge and a bigger life which did not include factory work or burger slinging, though I did continue waiting tables for about the next 15 years, which I do not altogether regret. Thought I had left the dance years of my youth behind, and with an interest in anthropology and linguistics, spent my junior year in South India where I happened to learn about and became fascinated by modern dance and contact improvisation. My first formal modern dance training was with Saga Ambeogokar at Elmira College and former Margaret Jenkins dancer Lonna Wilkinson at Cornell. Working with these two fabulous teachers I fell in love, like wow, what a beautiful mystery modern dance, can I really do this? My family thought I was nuts (you’re too old, it’s too impractical, blah blah) as I took my unlikely dancer self to auditions for grad programs in dance at Michigan, Illinois and finally SUNY Brockport, which offered me the best deal so there I went. After completing the course work I moved to the Bay Area and studied with Margaret Jenkins, Joe Goode, Sara Shelton Mann, Rodney Yee, Frank Shawl, Ellen Bromberg, Beth Harris…. Moved about 700 times, slept on a lot of couches, lived on a porch and in a storage space. Earned money selling cookies and canvasing for left-wing causes, as a receptionist, as a fake engineer, more waitressing, auditioned to teach aerobics but couldn’t muster the spandex outfits, and finally finished my MA thesis, all the while cutting my teeth in the late 1980s SF Bay Area dance scene, training, making dances, showing work, teaching, and performing with Nancy Karp + Dancers.
30s – First dance job was at St. Rose Academy in San Francisco until the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged and closed this 100 year old HS. Was then offered the dance job at The Athenian School at the foot of Mount Diablo in Danville. My first year there we took our musical production of Godspell on tour to Czechoslovakia, a crazy gorgeous experience. Left Athenian for my first of many adjunct teaching gigs at CSUEB, many thanks to Laura Renaud Wilson who took a chance on hiring me. Made a lot of solo dances, received Izzy nominations, started doing Pilates, more waitressing, began teaching at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center (which quickly became the home of my work and the hub of my world) moved a bunch more times, adopted 3 cats, got married and moved to Portland where I cried a lot then got over it and made work, performed tons, taught at Lewis & Clark and at Reed, danced with the Gregg Bielemeier Project, discovered the Alexander Technique, which changed my life, saw a lot of amazing dance through PICA, then moved back to Oakland in time to turn 40.
40s – 9-11 happened and then I got divorced, which took forever and disrupted my career in huge emotional and practical ways though still managed to keep making work, which saved me. Did some of my best dancing in my 40’s (surprise!). Started Paufve Dance and throughout the decade made seven concerts with PD, earned a few more Izzy nominations, performed and taught continuously on the west coast, performed a bunch on the east coast, was awarded choreography residencies in Wyoming, Hawaii, CA, became devoted to being a student again through studies in NYC at Movement Research, at Earthdance, and many west coast workshops exploring somatics and experimental work. Started two performance series, 8x8x8 and Bare Bones, taught at St Mary’s College, UC Davis, USF, started the Bay Area HS Mini Dance Festival, earned an MFA at UC Davis, did a major job search, settled on a tenure track position at Sac State. The theme of my 40s – things fall apart and you keep going and making work.
Photo: Kegan Marling
50s – In my 50th year premiered a major new work, saw loved ones die, left the job at Sac State, returned to teaching HS at Marin Academy, thankful to be living again in Oakland, working to rebuild Paufve Dance. Currently working on a solo show, striving to take my work and Paufve Dance to the next level, whatever/wherever that is, learning to meditate and not postpone happiness. So far so good, will keep you posted.
What’s the key to being a dancer and balancing all of the hats you wear – as dancer, teacher, choreographer, artistic director, and lifelong student?
If there is a key it is different for everyone. For me it is love. With all the challenges of being a dance artist in this culture, it always comes back to love, the love of moving and being moved, the need to make stuff or I don’t feel alive, that is all.
In your choreographic process, you frequently videotape rehearsals. What role do these videos serve for you as a choreographer? What work do you do between rehearsals?
I videotape solo rehearsals to see what I am doing, which is a tough one because I find that what feels good is not necessarily what works, but feel I also cannot trust a camera entirely as an external eye, as any kind of truth.
Group rehearsals I videotape mainly for the dancers' memories and for archival purposes.
What do you look for in a dancer?
Humanity, hunger, strong character, oddities, groundedness, deep intelligence, ethics, passion, compassion, a pinch of crazy, dancer chops, a wild mind.
What are 3 pieces of advice you want to give to aspiring choreographers?
I have no advice for aspiring choreographers; it’s a completely individual endeavor/path.
How did you learn how to teach?
Mainly by teaching, which means I am still learning from endless practice, observations, trial and error, listening, hours and hours of continual research, study. Beyond the sweat, it’s also about staying awake, present, participating in and studying life, you know?
Advice to young dancers on teaching:
Teach what you know, keep after things you don’t know, pay attention, try new things but also stick with what works, don’t second guess yourself too much. And while you can borrow and make your own, don’t steal outright from other teachers.
What are the key skills a “modern dancer” needs in 2013?
I’m still trying to land myself in the 21st century without turning my life over completely to FB and google. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
On training and care of the body…..
You’re training is up to you, your body is yours, you are perfect the way you are, but you can always be more of who you are. Don’t do things that hurt. Breathe, stay tuned (in and out), eat good food, work hard, push yourself, find good teachers, don’t overdo it, less is more. Release techniques are absolutely necessary to study, dance from your bones and all that but you also need to develop your muscles.
Non-dance movement practices important to you include…..
Pilates/Alexander Technique/yoga, meditating, walking, observing people, animals, architecture, nature, hanging out with my cat, listening to music, reading, paying attention to other artists’ work, thinking about sex and death, reading a lot, watching films, spending time in nature, etc.
European dance. Who and what is catching your eye? Who are 3 people in the European dance scene you feel young dancers should know about?
Only 3? There are so many! Mainly just pay attention to dance going on elsewhere – not only Europe, but Israel, South America, Africa, Asia, etc.! And how about small town and rural America?
Advice to young dancers in general:
Don’t waste time worrying about age, size, or whether you are good enough.
Current passions and curiosities:
All the unbearably kind strangers I met on a recent research trip to Europe. Gods and Monsters, Jesus and Vampires. Learning to play the piano. Working with Eric Kupers. Death, Life, Sin, Heaven, Karma, Reincarnation, Art - Really, what is this all about?
Last summer I read a book about prayer that spoke of the ‘nous’ an untranslatable word that appears in Greek scripture. The author claims that while the usual English translation is ‘mind’ it actually refers to the heart as the source place of prayer, an inbetween place beyond reason or emotions, a portal to the unknown. The ‘nous’ seems to describe where I live these days. It is also the inbetween place I seek in the process of making a dance, and in the dance itself.
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