Photos by Shannon Butler of Shabu Studios

Note: This article was first published in Stance on Dance’s fall/winter 2024 print issue. To learn more, visit stanceondance.com/print-publication.

Anything said about making art sounds at once cliché and reductive. “Making art is healing” sounds like a quote right out of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Regardless, that is my biggest takeaway from the making of the dance film, Emerging. Although perhaps “healing” isn’t the right word, as it’s a word that has been hijacked by the wellness industry and misses the grittiness of moving through pain and challenge. The process isn’t a trivial inconsequential undertaking, but more like trying to make molasses run uphill in the winter. “Catharsis” is more accurate, a word that brings up images of shock therapy and exorcisms. For me, it’s far more accurate of the art making process.

It was 2020 when my dance partner Monica Parra Allen and I came up with the idea for Emerging, to weave science fiction metaphors into a dance film format, to go big with an idea, put dancers in makeup, on location, and explore what it means for two different groups of people to grapple and gel. For two years, we went back and forth on the concept, first over FaceTime, then when we felt comfortable in the studio together. We played with movement, we created storyboards, we picked the brains of potential collaborators, we threw out ideas that were beyond the scope of the project, and we picked up new ideas that seemed more feasible. We changed the scope entirely. All this was while navigating a global pandemic and the first project of this scale or type that either of us had undertaken. I attribute the very creation of this work to the close friendship and communication I have with Monica. Creating art is intimate and terrifying. It is best done with someone whom you deeply trust!

What started as an inkling of an idea in isolation and boredom in 2020 turned into production in 2022 and continued on into post-production in 2024. Since editing has gone through two editors and right back around to me, I have four years of retrospection to see how naïve Monica and I were back in 2020. Concepts and big questions do not a dance film make. We lacked basic understanding and language to communicate what we wanted of our collaborators.

We entered production with two cinematographers, a makeup artist, a photographer, three dancers, and Monica and I. Between shooting the promos and full production, we hired six more dancers. We hired people we knew and trusted, but also hired dancers who we had no prior experience with. This made for even more communication challenges; the whole range of human emotions were crammed into an eight-week rehearsal timeline. There are a lot of personalities in a group of 15 people. Add to that everyone having their own lives to navigate, plus two collaborators whose lives legitimately fell apart. I love this film. But it is also filled with pain. The costumes I made came out of a marathon day of grief sewing, as I cried for another’s loss and furiously tried to clothe my dancers mere days from shooting. Finally, at the end of filming, there was this copious amount of raw footage that needed to be turned into something.

The Emerging project was always intended to take Monica and I out of our current state of art making – sporadic, small, scrappy – right on past emerging artists, to a more established place. These are labels I don’t put much weight on, but the title pun was definitely intended. And I’m happy to report that it seems to have worked, with the film being finished and moving on to the film festival circuit. But the state of art making doesn’t necessarily feel different. I spoke with a filmmaker lately who in casual conversation said, “Post-production exists on its own timeline.” That is how an inkling turns into four years of all-consuming work and why the labels “emerging” or “established” have little meaning in the trenches of actually making art.

I often get asked, “Where did you come up with the idea for Emerging?” My answer struggles somewhere between a condescending “Don’t ask an artist how they come up with their stuff” and a vague unhelpful shrug, complete with a dopey face, I’m sure. I haven’t figured out how to talk to people about my art. The whole point of being a dancer is less words, please! I also legitimately don’t know how we came up with the idea, except for bouncing an idea between Monica’s brain and mine for the two years before filming. “Ephemeral” was a word that came up often during my university dance career, applied primarily to live performance. But it also describes how an idea turns into a dance film. Much of the “thinking” takes place in the movement. The biggest sticking point is explaining in words what appear as images in our minds.

When I have a really sticky problem to sort out, I get this powerful image of my brain enveloping the issue, and squelching and sucking it in with all the goo a brain should have. I had that image a lot during the making of Emerging, attempting to jolt my subconscious into solving problems while trying to claw something worthwhile out of the muck. Whatever my brain came up with was then regurgitated to Monica for her take on it. The process has made us better at problem solving. It has also made us less naïve about making art.

Healing has come knowing that this piece of art – this wacky science fiction dance film – can hold so much more than the story we wanted to tell. Emerging holds all the emotions, the life incidents, the personality clashes, and the naivete we brought to the project.

The cognitive dissonance between what people see when they watch the film and what we know went into it is jarring. People experience the images, the movement, the music. They don’t see the agony of making art, but it doesn’t matter. For Monica and me, we see the pain, the grief, the constant agonized decision making, the real-life meltdowns – not just ours but of everyone involved – but also the joy, the camaraderie, the laughter, and the utter silliness it takes to come up with anything gritty, anything joyful, anything new.

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Emerging won Best Dance Film at the Toronto Experimental Dance & Music Film Festival and is being adjudicated for entry into several other dance film festivals. Learn more and view the trailer at irregulardance.com.

Jessie Nowak has been a mover all her life, but has taken time away from dance twice because the training required was not compatible with her own physical and emotional needs. After she had her kids, she found a circuitous route back to dance, which has formed her current approach. No longer is she interested in perfect technique or virtuosity, but rather finding and amplifying everyone’s own strengths as movers. She firmly believes that dance is for every body, regardless of each individual’s unique challenges. She fuses her years of formal training with improvisational methods to create deeply inclusive work.

The post Beyond What People See appeared first on Stance on Dance.

I’ve been running Stance on Dance as an online publication for 12 years and publishing a print edition for three years now. In that time, I have never tired of discovering new corners of the dance world. I am honored to continue that vein in this issue.

In these pages, you’ll discover more of dance’s incredible richness as a practice and form of expression: Snowflake Calvert describes Queering Cultural Forms, a program of the Queering Dance Festival that provides a platform where traditional cultural dances are explored and enriched through a queer lens. Julia Allisson Cost details the process of painting a picture book, and how she experienced the process as similar to choreographing. Bonnie Eissner profiles Bobby “Pocket” Horner, a street-dancer turned Broadway star who asks difficult and important questions about the nature of working on Broadway. Erin Malley shares the ways in which the Argentine tango world is in flux after the pandemic. Jessie Nowak reflects on the agony of artmaking as she created the sci-fi dance film Emerging. And Donna Schoenherr makes the point for better aging in dance opportunities through her work at Ballet4Life and the nonprofit Move into Wellbeing®.

Additionally, I interviewed Zazel-Chavah O’Garra, director of ZCO/Dance Project, about how her brain tumor surgery catalyzed her passion for integrating dancers with disabilities, and Vicky Holt Takamine, master hula teacher of Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima and the executive director of PAʻI Foundation, about how she is working to preserve and perpetuate native Hawaiian arts and cultural traditions for future generations. Finally, Erica Wilson renders raw and surrealist moments in dance in her quest to capture gesture and flow.

I learn something new every time I edit a story or interview a dance artist, and I feel I’m just getting started understanding the breadth and depth of this field. If you have a stance on dance, please get in touch at emmaly@stanceondance.com. I look forward to learning from you too!

GET YOUR COPY OF THE Fall/Winter 2024 PRINT ISSUE NOW!

Illustration by Erica Wilson

The post The Fall/Winter 2024 Print Issue! appeared first on Stance on Dance.

The Fall/Winter 2024 print issue features the following:

Snowflake Calvert describes Queering Cultural Forms, a program of the Queering Dance Festival that provides a platform where traditional cultural dances are explored and enriched through a queer lens. Julia Allisson Cost details the process of painting a picture book, and how she experienced the process as similar to choreographing. Bonnie Eissner profiles Bobby “Pocket” Horner, a street-dancer turned Broadway star who asks difficult and important questions about the nature of working on Broadway. Erin Malley shares the ways in which the Argentine tango world is in flux after the pandemic. Jessie Nowak reflects on the agony of artmaking as she created the sci-fi dance film Emerging. And Donna Schoenherr makes the point for better aging in dance opportunities through her work at Ballet4Life and the nonprofit Move into Wellbeing®.

Additionally, Emmaly Wiederholt interviewed Zazel-Chavah O’Garra, director of ZCO/Dance Project, about how her brain tumor surgery catalyzed her passion for integrating dancers with disabilities, and Vicky Holt Takamine, master hula teacher of Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima and the executive director of PAʻI Foundation, about how she is working to preserve and perpetuate native Hawaiian arts and cultural traditions for future generations. Finally, visual artist Erica Wilson renders raw and surrealist moments in dance in her quest to capture gesture and flow.

If you donate $25 or more to support dance journalism, you will receive two issues of Stance on Dance’s print publication. Stance on Dance is a 501c3 and your donation is tax-deductible.

Get your copy now!

We will only be able to ship our print publication to readers within the United States. International donors will recieve a PDF of the print publication. However, all content in our print publications is eventually made available online. Follow us on  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to stay up to date on all the stances on dance!

Stance on Dance sends free copies of our twice-a-year print publication to college dance programs and other dance learning spaces. To date, we have partnered with dance faculty at Antioch University New England, Arizona State University, A:shiwi College, Austin Community College, Bennington College, California State University East Bay, California State University Long Beach, Colorado State University, Cuyahoga Community College, Davidson College, Florida International University, Keene State College, Kent State University, Loyola University Chicago, Old Dominion University, Ohio State University, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Skidmore College, Sonoma State University, Texas Christian University, Texas State University, Texas Tech University, University of Akron, University of Arizona, University of California Irvine, University of California San Diego, University of Florida, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, University of Kansas, University of Maryland, University of Nevada, Reno, University of New Mexico, University of Richmond, University of San Francisco, University of Silicon Andhra, University of South Florida, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Utah, University of Washington, and Utah Valley University. If you work in a dance department or other dance learning spaces and would like to learn more about this program, email emmaly@stanceondance.com.

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BY JESSIE NOWAK

Making a living by dancing with a company: This is the narrow definition that “making it” as a dancer meant for most of my life. Which company mattered far less than the badge of approval from those in and out of the dance community that I was a “real dancer,” a “professional dancer.” The alternative to “making it” was a struggling or starving artist.

That one specific description followed me around for far too long, crippling me into inactivity instead of inspiring me to pursue new heights of success. That definition – really, a stereotype – was reinforced by the movies I watched and publications I read, as well as conversations with friends. Even as my first instructors didn’t see a future for me in dance because I didn’t have the right body type, they encouraged me to stay with the dream. As a dance major at university, the students never discussed what we might do with our dance degrees. It was assumed that we would start auditioning after graduating and, if we didn’t make it, we would teach. This was an ironic reinforcement of the cliché that even my professors outwardly rejected, “Those who can’t do, teach.”

Rather than move to a big city to start auditioning after college, I got engaged to my longtime boyfriend, which seemed like game over for my dance career. The stereotype didn’t include a husband and family. The stereotype was that of a solitary life, company members existing as family, and the day a dancer decided to settle down was the day she stopped dancing. So I started personal training and stopped going to class. I choreographed a couple of solos and small group pieces, but without the income to continue formal training, I felt incapacitated to find a new niche. The fact that I hadn’t “made it” paralyzed me. And soon I stopped dancing altogether.

Fast forward four years and two babies later. I dealt with postpartum depression for a long time without understanding it. It wasn’t until after my second son was born that I felt I had to make a change, or I would complete the atrophy that had begun when I stopped dancing. It wasn’t so much the possibility of my dreams as a matter of survival that brought me back to class. That first teacher – so accepting of literally everyone in his class – was the catalyst for my slow steady return to the dance world. There was no hierarchy of technique or body type in his class. He constantly encouraged us to continue coming if we weren’t getting it. If it’s new, it’s just new; it doesn’t mean we can’t do it. I will be forever grateful to that teacher for his encouragement and inclusive way of teaching dance.

As I grappled with the stereotype and began reconsidering the possibility of a career in dance, I came to consider how the dance industry is not built on a few elite dancers. Rather, it is built on dancers and teachers and also administrators, choreographers, fundraisers, donors, theater managers, lighting technicians, costume designers and countless others who make what we do possible. And that is only within my own narrow field of modern dance. Once I started to look at the expanse of styles and cultures of dance, the list of people who can and are involved continued to grow.

I began to realize how ridiculous my understanding of “making it” was. And instead of allowing it to paralyze me for another 30 years, I pointed in a direction and went.

I now work in funds development for Dance Wire PDX, an organization that aims to enhance the prosperity and visibility of dance in Portland, OR. It is everything I never knew I wanted to do. I also teach classes for mixed ability and experienced students using the DanceAbility method. Dance Wire and Danceability have made what I do possible and have been instrumental in allowing me to question my own narrative. The world of dance has exploded for me. I now specialize in movement improvisation that literally anyone can do via DanceAbility, but am also daily exposed to forms of dance I never could have imagined through Dance Wire. My experience of dance is richer than ever.

The problem is baked into the very idea of “making it.” We don’t make it or not, but rather craft our place within the dance world. Dance is full of artists who didn’t find their niche, but instead made their own. It is a testament to the abundance of creativity among dance artists. Those are the artists who I wish to stand among, those who choose not to be measured by someone else’s judgment of being “good enough,” but see what is missing in the field and choose to fill the void. I count myself fortunate to be among these incredible artists. My future will not be determined by someone else’s judgement of my talent or body or training or drive. It will be determined by the choices I make every day to move forward.

Photo by Chris Nowak

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Jessie Nowak holds a degree in dance from Western Oregon University, where she traveled to perform at American College Dance Festival, Dance Coalition of Oregon Benefit Concert, and Dance Mosaic, as well as was presented in numerous concerts on campus. Upon graduation, Jessie sought out choreographic opportunities, continuing to present at Dance Mosaic from 2011-14, and danced a season with Lyrik Contemporary Dance Company. After Jessie had her children, she lost dance for several years. Her journey back has formed her new approach to dance, an approach that seeks to spark interest in everyone and is welcoming of anyone. From 2018-19, Jessie completed an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Funds Development through University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She currently works in funds development for Dance Wire PDX. She completed her Teacher Certificate through DanceAbility International in 2019. She is passionate about everyone finding their inner dancer.  

The post Choosing to Fill the Void appeared first on Stance on Dance.

Meet our director and editor:

Emmaly Wiederholt is a dance artist and arts journalist based in Albuquerque, NM. She founded Stance on Dance in 2012. Emmaly earned her MA in Arts Journalism from the University of Southern California and her BFA in Ballet and BS in Political Science from the University of Utah. She further trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and performed extensively around the Bay Area. Her first book, Beauty is Experience: Dancing 50 and Beyond, was published in 2017, and her second book, Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance, was published in 2022. Emmaly is also a master DanceAbility instructor and facilitates movement groups at the UNM Hospital adult psychiatric ward, as well as is a founding member of the dance advocacy nonprofit ABQ Dance Connect. She continues to perform throughout the Southwest.

Photo by Allen Winston

Our contributors have included:

Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, a performance artist and organizer in the Bay Area.

Gregory Bartning, a photographer in Portland, OR.

Liz Duran Boubion, the director of the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers in the Bay Area.

Liz Brent-Maldonado, an artist, writer, educator, and producer in San Francisco, CA.

Michelle Chaviano, a ballet dancer with Ballet North Texas.

Bradford Chin, a disabled dance artist and accessibility consultant in Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA.

Shebana Coelho, a writer and performer currently studying flamenco in Spain.

breana connor, an interdisciplinary artist, facilitator + healer in Albuquerque, NM.

Lauren Coons, an interdisciplinary artist, performer, healer and educator in Albuquerque, NM.

Julia Cost, a painter, textile designer, sewist, and dancer in Maui, HI.

Sophia Diehl, a dancer in New York City.

Bonnie Eissner, a writer in New York City.

Katie Flashner, a.k.a. The Girl with the Tree Tattoo, a World Champion ballroom dancer and author in ME.

Micaela Gardner, a dancer and choreographer in Baja, Mexico.

Sarah Groth, an interdisciplinary artist from Albuquerque, NM.

Cherie Hill, a dance educator and choreographer based in the Bay Area.

Lorie House, a dancer, choreographer, and lawyer in NM.

Silva Laukkanen, a dance educator and disability advocate in Austin, TX.

Mary Elizabeth Lenahan, the director of Dance Express in Fort Collins, CO.

Shannon Leypoldt, a dance artist, teacher, and sports massage therapist in Berlin.

Erin Malley, a dance artist and tango teacher based in West Michigan.

Julianna Massa, a dance artist in Albuquerque, NM.

Aiano Nakagawa, a dance artist, educator, facilitator, writer, and event producer in the Bay Area.

Jessie Nowak, a dance artist and filmmaker in Portland, OR.

Kevin O’Connor, a multidisciplinary artist in London, Ontario, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bhumi B Patel, an artist/activist based in the Bay Area.

Stephanie Potreck, a sports nutritionist and health advocate who currently resides in Germany.

Jill Randall, artistic director of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, CA.

Kathryn Roszak, a choreographer, filmmaker, educator, and activist in the Bay Area.

Donna Schoenherr, director of Ballet4Life and Move into Wellbeing in London, UK.

Maggie Stack, a dancer and teacher in Reno, NV.

Camille Taft, a CO front range-based mover and visual artist.

Mary Trunk, a filmmaker, choreographer, and multimedia artist in Altadena, CA.

Diana Turner-Forte, a teaching artist, healing arts coach, and writer in NC.

Ana Vrbaski, a body music practitioner in Serbia.

Nikhita Winkler, a dancer, choreographer, and teacher from Namibia who currently resides in Spain.

Erica Pisarchuk Wilson, a dance artist, visual artist and poet in Albuquerque, NM.

Rebecca Zeh, an interdisciplinary artist in Sarasota Springs, NY.

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Our board:

Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert

Cathy Intemann

Alana Isiguen

Courtney King

Malinda LaVelle

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