TWO

Beverly Brown and Leslie Woideck are two women who have been exploring dance in two very different ways for a long time. Beverly Brown visited Cleveland this summer while Leslie lives here. Both dancers taught a summer session class at CWRU. I observed both classes as well as a performance by Beverly Brown.

Beverly Brown communicated things about herself as an artist and a person in her performance of July 12 which complemented my impression of her as a teacher. Her two solo pieces, especially, Whelk Woman and Fire Fall, in which she seemed to explore some remote and frightening parts of her personality, were very intense. They were a step removed from ordinary, day-to-day communication. In contrast, Leslie Woideck wants to get in touch with people through dance, but not as performer to audience. She is much more interested in creating a non-competitive atmosphere in her class, in learning from her students, in encouraging them to learn from her. She wants to be aware of her body rather than in control of it. She just wants to dance.

The class of Beverly Brown's which I observed was unusual for two reasons: It was held outside and was all spontaneous improvisation. This was possible, Ms. Brown explained afterwards, because the students in the class feel comfortable together. They mimicked each other, sang, chased each other, climbed the fence, danced and played with each other for two hours.

Beverly Brown studied intensively with Erick Hawkins, one of the pioneers of modern dance, in New York. For five years, she was his female lead dancer. Ms. Brown began working with Erick Hawkins in 1965, a time when she had already defined herself as a dancer but was not sure what direction to take. She went with Hawkins with the understanding that, like the rest of his students, she would submit totally to his ideas of dance, art, and life. Beverly Brown believes strongly that the best, way to find yourself is to have a sound training to base your ideas upon, rather than complete freedom. Hawkins gave Beverly Brown the direction she needed. She thinks that the absence of tradition poses serious problems for the artist, that without it he or she is making decisions in a void. She believes that there is some truth in Erick Hawkins statement that young people have no business choreographing until their bodies are trained instruments.

Beverly Brown left the Hawkins company in January 1974. She felt she had fully immersed herself in his theories and tech. niques; that the time of absorbing was over and the time for making her own statements about dance had begun. This process suited Beverly Brown. She admits it may not work for for everyone. Creating original dances came naturally "with maturity" after years of training her body and performing.

DANCERS

Ms. Brown choreographed her first work in 1970. The first whole concert of her own dances will be presented this April in New York City, at The Greenhouse, a choreographic co-op of which she is a founding member. She is on her own now and it feels right. She is beginning to open up to new ideas, especially to the possibilities of improvisation, due to her contact with Leslie Woideck. Since she will be teaching and working at a number of colleges across the country in the coming year, she will have ample opportunity to experiment with different approaches to dance. Ms.Brown says she is no longer interested in being the kind of teacher Erick Hawkins was, in "leading the thinking" of her students. Her main concern now is being taken seriously as a performer and a choreographer,

Leslie Woideck, has been dancing in Cleveland for ten years. She studied briefly with Erick Hawkins and with Kelly Holt, one of Hawkins' leading dancers. Leslie has taught dance to children and teenagers for about eight years and has been working with adults. for about three. She now teaches a class for "dancers" at Case Western Reserve University and holds a class for "people who dance" in her home.

Leslie does not see herself as "training" dancers, but as helping people to love the experience of movement, to get in touch with themselves to accept their own humanity.

Leslie's two hour class was warm and relaxed. It began with exercises done in a sitting position, and concluded with dancers moving across the floor, Musical accompaniment, which was provided by friends, consisted of drums, flute, and marimba. Although music is an important part of the class, Leslie explained, "Music is not necessary, people have internal rhythms, which if they listen to them, are stronger and louder than anything outside." Leslie took time for each movement, letting everyone become comfortable with it, make it of themselves. "We need to learn it's

all right to take time, to explore... to discover.", she says. Leslie began to realize, when she worked with Erick Hawkins, how much there was to experience in every movement.

She led the whole class across the floor In a new step. Then she moved among the students, relaxing a stiffness or an unnatural gesture. She did not hesitate to tell someone if he or she was doing well or having trouble with an exercise. Yet she was not singling anyone out for praise or blame, but encouraging dialogue among class members, and be tween the class and herself. "The teacher doesn't know everything... I have so much to learn from them; I want them to tell me what they need."

کرمانی

photo by Amie Albert

Development of technique of training dancers to perform are not Leslie's goals as a teacher. Although students in her class may acquire advanced skills and may go on stage, that would only be a by-product of what Leslie is trying to do. What she wants is to dance. She is interested in the person who dances, not in the audience. In Leslie's class there are no goals in a linear sense-no push to perfect or achieve, no competition. They dance for each other. An awareness of yourself as human leads to an awareness of how you touch the lives of the people you dance with. Sensitivity to the space you occupy includes everyone else in it. Most important Leslie feels, "Dance is... bringing myself alive."

page 5/ What She Wants/ October 1974