Reviews

Creativity and the Gift of Dance
By Terry Goetz, Director of Education and Outreach, CDC
Reprinted from January 08 CDC Dance to Learn e-newsletter

On Sunday, December 9, 2007 the audience in the Shorewood High School theater was witness to an amazing performance by the young dancers and choreographers of Kaleidoscope and Mosaic Dance Companies. The dancers choreographed dances that were inspired by works of art. These dances were poignant, playful, inspiring, intense, socially aware, thought provoking, exciting, and all were choreographed with a maturity that belies the ages of the creators. The fact of the matter is collaboration and creating something out of nothing is never easy, even (or especially so!) for adults. As Anne Green Gilbert said at the beginning of the concert, "If our leaders had to work together and dance together the way these children do, we could achieve world peace." The beauty of this concert is that it so richly illustrates that creativity and collaboration can be nurtured and taught. Creativity is not the sole property of geniuses or the gifted, anyone can be taught to use the tools needed to create. This is what the Creative Dance Center does so well and so easily in all of our dance classes! Using brain-compatible teaching principles, understanding how emotions are deeply linked to learning, exploring the concepts of dance, teaching the devices and forms of choreography and allowing students to manipulate movement material and create their own dances in class means they are practicing the craft of choreography, the art of collaboration, and creating something out of nothing on a regular basis. This is how creativity is nurtured, how creativity is explored, how creativity becomes the right of every individual. This is how we develop leaders who do know that collaboration and creativity are vital components of our lives, at home, at work, at play, at school, in our communities and in our world.

Here is some writing that Mosaic dancers shared about their experience creating and performing Storm at Sea.
First, we found people that we wanted to work with, and then Anne laid a bunch of pictures by different artists on the studio floor, and we picked one that we thought would be good to do a dance of and that we liked. Then we started interpreting the picture, and coming up with some thoughts about our picture. Some words we came up with were anger, rage, water, storm, shipwreck and seagulls. We all thought the dance should start out slow, and get bigger and faster. That would be like at first the waters being calm, and then turning into a raging sea. At the next rehearsal Anne and some of the dancers brought in pieces of music. We listened to them and listened for starting out soft and gentle and then getting loader and faster and more intense. We agreed on Beethoven's 5th. Then we started coming up with ideas of movements to use in our dance, and listened to the music and saw where the movements should go in the music. We had a shipwreck part, a seagulls part, a weaving part like waves, a part where we danced like foam. Then we started practicing and cleaning things up, and made up solos. We performed for the other Mosaic dance group, and they gave us a few comments. Then we spent a lot of time trying to get the timing right. It was a really exciting experience to be part of this concert because it was our first time actually choreographing our own piece. It was fun to be on stage, and it was a little bit scary because there was a big audience out there. But it was really fun performing for so many people and having them appreciate our dance. We had a good time before the show waiting behind stage for our turn. And it was cool to be dancing in the same show as the older Kaleidoscope dancers because they are really experienced and are really good dancers.

Tess Sevetson, age 9

The inspiration for Storm at Sea was a picture of a windy ocean. When we started talking about it, I knew exactly what the first movement should be. Our group consisted of six girls and two boys. When I suggested what the first movement should be, everyone loved my idea. The next rehearsal I brought a classical music CD with Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven on it. Beethoven is very dark and dramatic, perfect for an angry sea. The connection was made immediately. My mom said that Beethoven's Fifth is too popular, but I knew it would complement Storm at Sea perfectly. Everyone else on the team liked the music. That is how Symphony No. 5 became the music for our dance. Working with the other dancers was very fun and easy, especially since the picture and music helped us a lot. We were a group where everyone had different ideas, but somehow we got it all in. It was very fun to perform and working with a lot of boys was a fresh change from girl world, as boys do not dance very often. My favorite part was the fence, where all the dancers got into this line of different shapes, then danced offstage. Since we all danced offstage at different times, we all got a little solo.

Sophie Ding, age 11

I felt a little nervous when there were different ideas about what moves to do but everyone felt good about the dance at the end. I was scared at first when I was performing it but then it got fun about half way through. My favorite part was when I could dance around the stage in any way I wanted.

Alejandro Frederickson, age 7

We formed the group. Then we picked from three different pictures. We decided to use this painting because it looked the most danceable. Anne made Sophie the leader of the group because she was the oldest. Anne gave us three songs to choose from and we chose this one because it sounded the most like a storm. Everyone got to say their ideas and if the group thought they were good, they were put into the dance. Some ideas needed some work before they were put into the dance. I felt very excited performing this piece. It was nice to know I was part of choreographing it.

Viv Daniel, age 8

Storm at Sea was a really great dance, I loved performing in it. Here is some background about it. When we chose our picture, I thought of everything we could make out of it. I thought we could make so many amazing movements out of that one picture. When it was time to share our ideas, and figure out what we wanted to do with it, I had so many ideas, I thought they would burst out! The picture was of a huge wave with a little wrecked fishing boat in the lower left corner. One movement I thought of, we all did during the dance. With our arms out, we walked forward and back, our arms imitating waves flowing back and forth. During the performance, I didn't feel quite human. I felt like water. All the dancers, moving together, and separately were like intertwining threads, becoming one, becoming the waves. Nothing mattered, just my dancing. Nothing else existed, just me, Mosaic and the stage.

Caroline Baker, age 8

Young Dancers Bring Gentle Steps To Valley
by Katherine G. Bond
Special to the Valley View newspaper, Duvall, WA, reprinted from 5/10/99

DUVALL
Never have I openly cried at a dance performance. Until now. After days of processing the Littleton violence, the April 25th performance by Kaleidoscope caught me by surprise.

Presented at Cedarcrest High School as part of Duvall Arts Commission’s “Arts Onstage,” Kaleidoscope’s dancers are aged 7-14. They drew the audience in with a vibrant program including numbers such as the whimsical “Munch, Glunk, Yum” (my kids’ favorite), a dance of dinosaurs made all the more wonderful by dancer Jeff Eaton’s quirky facial expressions.

“Night Terrors,” choreographed by director Anne Green Gilbert and the dancers, brought us back to a child-world peopled with monsters, where blanket-wielding sleepers conquer their fears.

Another treat was “Une Belle Danse,” with its stunning multilevel choreography by high school senior Danielle Payton. Gilbert’s philosophy that young people are able to achieve a professional level of artistic expression has brought Kaleidoscope into the international spotlight.

These students are professional in every sense of the word

The company’s showcase piece is the moving “Tribute to Stephen Biko,” in memory of the slain South African activist. Choreographed by former company members Ming Gail and Melanie Kanna, the unfolding story held the audience at rapt attention.

But the dance that left me weeping was “Oh, Be Gentle.” Anne Green Gilbert combined American Sign Language with movement to offer a plea for gentleness toward all living things.

As the children moved downstage to the words “Have you been wounded?,” some carrying others in their arms, I sat with my son in my lap and felt the tears come. I let them. All week I had been asking, “Why?” But the children, their graceful motions, their faces full of feeling, tapped into a sorrow I had not yet expressed. This is why we need the arts. They have the power to heal us in ways we cannot explain.

That’s what dance - and children - are capable of doing.