Postcard from the Florida Dance Festival: Day 2

Dancer and choreographer Priscilla Marrero continues to keep us up on the happenings of the festival, from classes and rehearsals to performances. It was nice to wake up my second day of the trip with my friends. We had breakfast in the dorm and headed out to warm our bodies through yoga before our first class of the day. We began with Karl Rogers Modern 5 class, a dancer with David Dorfman Dance. Last summer I had the pleasure of participating in his combined class with Jenna Riegel, another dancer with the company. I also participated in their Repertory class, where we performed an excerpt from “Prophets of Funk.” We had the opportunity to see the company perform as well as taking class with David Dorfman. Karl’s class was a blend of movement release work, rhythm, and good old deliciousness. One of my favorite moments was his response to a rhythm puzzle — both in our bodies and our minds — on the importance of failure. He mentioned how in a dance class it is important to fail — because that meant that you were going for the movement completely. I connected with that comment, as some of my most exciting moments in my artistic or personal life are when I have embarrassed myself in trying something new, or taking the risk. It reminded me of Anne Bogart, who in her book “A Director Prepares,” she mentions on the importance of allowing making mistakes during creative processes. Yummy! Mistakes are good! We also had live music — oh how nice and important it is to move with a live musician! Speaking of taking risks: how about trying a nice challenge with hip hop with Jennifer Archibald of Arch Dance Company! Phew! Another delicious class — filled with grounded, intricate movements, precise placement, all with your own style….or swag as they call it? Last summer — my first approach with her movement — I went through every possible emotion and psychology mindsets. From “what are you doing in here Priscilla” to “Yay, I think I have some swag” were all the things running through my mind. There are some beautiful movers in that class: strong, and precise. Love to see them enjoy it. After class, it was time to switch my hat. The rest of our team, our lighting designer and captain techie for Vertical Sprawl, Thomas Aratanha Fonseca and our sound dude Corey Silverman joined us to complete the family. We went right into our tech rehearsal, set up our technical duties, lit up the space, and made sure everything was ready for our performance tomorrow. Things are looking nicely…excited for tomorrow’s big day. Overall it felt nice to see some familiar faces from last year’s summer. It gives a chance to kind of keep going on where we left off….” Visual I Dance 2010 at Inkub8, choreography by Priscilla Marrero and Carlota Pradera. Photo: Brad Fernihough Photography