Everyday Dance Fieldwork Diary: Interview with 'Diana' (May 29, 2014)

Interview with 'Diana'
Dance Industry Professional

Thursday May 29, 2014

9.45 am - 10.20pm

Phone interview

Note:

The person whom I interviewed has chosen to remain anonymous for the purposes of my research so I will be using the pseudonym of 'Diana.' The reason I sought Diana out for an interview is because she is a dance professional with fifty plus years’ experience in the ballet world. Currently she is the Artistic Director for an international dance organisation. I was interested to speak to someone whose career has largely been dedicated to one dance form and get her views on everyday social dancing.

For the purposes of this interview, I adhered roughly to the list of questions I had set out for interviews with dance professionals*. However by this time in my fieldwork, I was feeling much more confident about the interview process and had realised the value of allowing the interview to take its own course based upon the responses of the interviewee. Therefore whilst I did ask set questions, I did not do so in a strict fashion.

The interview was conducted through a phone call which I recorded. I have not included the audio version online as Diana inadvertently revealed her identity during our discussion. I have also omitted this section of the interview from the below transcript.

Transcript:

Hello.

Hello, good morning!

Good morning. I’m taping you right now just so you know.

Right, ok.

Ok, so I know you want to be anonymous so I’ll do my best to remember. Thanks for doing this by the way.

It’s a pleasure.

And if there’s anything you’d rather not answer, just say so.

Yep sure.

Right so shall we just get started?

Yes that’s fine.

Ok, so you’re based in London?

Yes.

LS
And can you just tell me what you would define as your profession?

I’m [a] Artistic Director.

Can you tell me a little bit about what dance forms you have trained in and teach?

D
Yes well I started learning Greek dancing when I was a child.

Really?

Yes and that was on the curriculum in my school.

Ok, how old were you when you started that?

I was nine, nine and a half when I started something like that and I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed the freedom of movement, I enjoyed the music and the teacher at the time, well the teacher that was teaching the classes was also a ballet teacher and she suggested to my mother that I take ballet lesson because she thought that I had a talent for movement. And that’s how I got into ballet. I didn't even know what it was when I first started.

And so how old were you when you started ballet?

D
I was about ten. Quite late actually. Late starter.

LS
And how did you find it when you first started?

Loved it. The teacher suggested that I took private classes to start with because I was a bit of a late starter so she gave me some lessons and then I just took to it straight away and realised that that was what I really wanted to do. I just wanted to dance.

And did you do any other forms of dance alongside the ballet while you were training as a child?

D
No. Purely ballet, I think mainly because there wasn't that sort of opportunity. The ballet school that I went to, the dance school, privately run dance school, really only dealt with ballet and the syllabus for examinations so I really didn't have access to anything else. The only other dance form that I did do was at the grammar school I went to which was ballroom dancing.

Oh ok. How did you find that?

Oh I really enjoyed that. I really, really enjoyed that and I think more so because my parents also loved ballroom dancing so on a Saturday night they would often go to dances and their favourite dance was the tango so I think I picked up a little bit from them and that side of it for me. I enjoyed it because we used to dance, we were partnered with the partner boys school, because we used to dance with blokes as well. It was a Thursday evening. Every Thursday during term time and I really enjoyed that as well. I don’t know whether it was partly to see the boys but it was social dancing really, and it was for me, something to look forward to.

So in terms of your formative years, so you did the Greek dancing as a child and then you did ballet training. And alongside that you were doing some ballroom social dancing as well…

I did also do a little bit of national dance at one point.

What’s national dance?

D
Yes national dance. That was probably when was about, I think I was, actually when I started ballet. I only did it for a little while. I must have been about ten then. It’s long.

So in terms of all those forms you just described, do you remember back at the time when you were doing them, did you feel differently when you were doing each form or did you just find that each one, you just enjoyed because it was moving your body and rhythmic and so forth? Or did you feel that you occupied different parts of your personality or whatever in terms of the different forms?

D
I think it gave me an opportunity to express in a different way because ballroom dancing obviously was with a partner and the ballet was on my own so I had to move in a different way. I had to consider my partner although in ballet I had to consider the other people around me in the room if your dancing in a group so you don’t go crashing into someone. But the actual contact was different so therefore the expression was different because in ballroom dancing I was more focused on presenting to my partner, whereas in the ballet, I was presenting to my imaginary audience or my teacher or even the pianist actually. You know, the people around me so I suppose it was a broader sense of performing in ballet.

And how long did you, because I’m assuming and I may be wrong, that ballet went on to become your primary dance style? Is that correct?

Yes.

So how long did you train in ballet for?

Well I really took it seriously, well from the time I started actually so from ten to fifteen. I left school at fifteen. I happened to be, I was shifted up a level at school when I was nine because they thought I was intelligent so I hopped a year. It wouldn’t happen these days because you can’t leave until you’re sixteen but it did in those days so I was always the youngest in my class. So I actually left school at fifteen. Cause I went to the Royal Ballet School which was full time.

And when did that training go on until?

For three years. I was eighteen when I graduated into the company.

LS
And then when did you start teaching? When did teaching become your vocation?

I danced professionally for just over three years which is a relatively short period of time. I decided that I wanted to teach so I stepped off the stage and straight into teaching.

And how long have you been teaching for then?

Ummm. Errrr.

Since then.

Since then. Oh gosh.

A long time.

Yes. Forty, well over forty years.

LS
Ok. Apart from dance, are you, do you have experience or training in any other art forms? Such as painting or music or anything else?

No. I sung in the school choir. That was fun too. The interesting thing is that I didn’t learn to play an instrument. Money was a little bit tight at home at the time. There was three of us and my parents worked very hard to give us every opportunity, but really one had to have a choice between dance and anything else.

Had you had the opportunity to be trained in another art form or had training now in another art form, is there a particular one that stands out that you would be interested in learning?

D
I think I would pursue piano.

Piano, ok. And why’s that?

I suppose because I can just about read a score. I can certainly find my way through a ballet score by reading the top line or underneath or an arpeggio or something like that. Music is a very big part of what I do and what I love actually. So I think to be able to sit down and play the piano would be wonderful. And the other thing that I love doing is singing and I think to purse that as well. I have a dream of standing at the Royal Opera House stage and singing an aria would be quite something.

Well you never know!

D
You never know.

Just moving back to dance. For you given your experience working in dance and with dancers, what are the key characteristics that define a dancer for you both to watch and also to be? Because you've danced professionally yourself and you've also trained and worked with a lot of dancers. So what’s the difference in terms of how you define a dancer?

D
What do I think are the most important things?

Yeah so what, like if you were to call someone a dancer, to watch them or train them, what would be some of the three defining characteristics that you've found in common in all the dancers that you've worked with. If you have found anything in common?

Well I think if someone really loves what they’re doing and they’re dedicated, that goes a long way. You don’t need to be, and this is broadly across everyone who wants to dance, not just professional dancers because there are young people who never go into the profession but who really love to express through movement. And if they’re keen to do that, then that to me is the most important thing because then you can work together to bring out the best for them and in teaching. It’s not for me, it’s for them because they’re the ones that going to benefit from it so that’s the most important thing.

So do you think that’s the same for anyone dancing do you think? That that is the primary, or for yourself when you were a dancer, that love and the desire….

Yes because I think that gives you the focus and the determination and also the discipline to be able to progress and do what you want to do. If you don’t have that, then you’re not going to make it basically. You’re not going to enjoy it. And uh if you go into the profession, it is more than the job of work as there so much involved there, and it’s a short lived career if you’re going into the profession, you might as well go fully into it order to make the most of it because it doesn't last forever.

I don’t know if I actually did speak to you about the kind of dancing that I’m looking at for this dissertation. Did I?

No, not really.

Ok so the kind of dancing I’m looking at for this dissertation is spontaneous, untrained social dance which is a very long winded way of saying the way people dance on the dance floor at social events like weddings, parties. The dance that basically anyone can do if they wish, well most people anyway. I’m just curious to what makes people dance the way they do at these events because everyone has their own style of dancing at certain events and it may change over time. So that’s what I’m looking at. So I’m just going to ask you a few questions about your own kind of experience of dancing at these things.

Right.

So firstly, do you dance at social events when they come up?

Yes.

And how would you describe the way you dance at these events? Do you have a particular style? Like do you have moves that you do regardless? Or do you kind of just go with the flow?

I go with the flow. I go with the music. Very much with the music. So I’ll be inspired by that. I might be inspired by the people around me as well. So if I’m dancing with people I know very well, like if it’s a wedding for example, I mean at my nieces wedding all the family were there and all of her friends obviously. I was doing things that I’d never done before basically, because I was led on by youngsters. Dances that I hadn't seen and you know, modern things that I don’t often get the opportunity to join in with. So I was going with the flow really and letting one’s hair down and just going for it. Because everybody was enjoying it and I think that one’s inspired by the atmosphere of people around you. So if everybody’s going, ‘Hey let’s just get on, let’s just do it,’ they lose their inhibitions. Which is a lot to do with it in my view, and they let themselves have a good time. You can do anything you like really. So I might go for a, if there’s a samba or a tango or something like that, something a bit more specific, then I’ll try and get into what I think is that style, in my own way because I don’t necessarily have a partner. If there’s a partner there, we might go into it together and feel that movement and music and put your movement to it. Equally if it’s a pop song, off I go like a sixteen year old. Depends on the music really and the people around me.

Sure. Speaking of music, what kinds of music makes you want to dance? Do you have songs that always make you want to dance or a certain style of music? Favourites?

No. I think it’s a wide variety for me actually. I don’t think I could say that particularly style of music inspired me more than others. Obviously the ballet music that I know brings back memories of the actual steps and repertoire and occasions will be an inspiration for me to get up and fiddle around and so on. Or I even just float my arms around if I’m feeling in that sort of mood. But then party music, there are things from my era, from being a teenager that might inspire me. The twist was going on when I was young, so if there is Twist and Shout then I’ll get going. I love the cha-cha and that sort of stuff. Tango. It’s really quite a broad range but it depends what type of situation I’m in.

Some people that I've spoken to have said that even though when you get on the dance floor, you don’t really know what’s going to happen at that particular event, as you say, it does depend a lot on the mood and the music and how you’re feeling. But some people have mentioned that usually there are some signatures moves they might kind of bring out during the evening if they are dancing. For someone it might be a characteristic hip move or waving their arms around or whatever. Do you have anything like that for yourself that tends to come out?

Probably if I was doing something poppy.

OK. What would it be?

D
Umm. Difficult to describe I think. It might be difficult for somebody else to describe as well. I suppose it’s just an inner movement that’s in my body, a sort of snaky like thing with the arms in the air.

OK. And do you find your formal dance training, does it help you at these social dance events? Does it have any impact at all?

Yeah I think it does. And also from the performance aspect because I’m not inhibited. I just let it go. If people want to go, ‘Oh dear,’ I don’t really mind because if I’m going for it perhaps other people will who might have felt inhibited and I reckon everybody should have a good time and let their hair down. Basically I don’t worry about what people think. I’m not overly concerned because I know I wouldn't go so far to embarrass the people around me. I think that’s where the discipline comes in. You know you can move but you wouldn't do something that was outrageous because that would upset people so I wouldn't go that far.

What would you consider outrageous?

I suppose something that is quite erotic perhaps. Something a bit like that. Something too suggestive.

Um ok. In terms of this kind of dancing that I’m talking about, do you consider it a proper dance style, for you personally?

Well it depends exactly what it is.

I mean base level social dance that anyone can do whether they've had any kind of training. Just moving to music in a social environment basically.

It’s difficult to categorise it as a style because then you have to define what style is. Is it break dancing, is it line dancing, is it popping locking or whatever and sometimes it’s very difficult to define style. Is it contemporary or modern? What’s the difference? Is it jazz? Is it hip hop? Is it street and what’s the difference between street and hip hop? So to define something is very hard. To say yeah, that’s what it is. To say social dancing is a genre, I don’t think you could really say that. I don’t think I could define it. If I looked around at a wedding and was asked to define what people were doing, they would be doing a multitude of different styles.

You would describe it more of a genre than a style?

I’m still not clear what you mean. Is it like a wedding party?

I’m not really sure myself how I would define this kind of area but the commonality of it, at the moment, that I kind of found is that most people can participate in and do regardless.

Regardless of whether they’re trained or not and that’s great. If you go to other countries and if you’re in Greece and all of a sudden in a restaurant people will start standing up and just moving very, very gently. They’re moving. They’re dancing. It’s their own way of doing it. What you would call that I don’t really know. And then if you go somewhere else there may be people doing a very specific style which could be categorised as a genre and then at a wedding party or a party or whatever if you put on a piece of music, what was that one, what was the thing that was so popular about two years ago?

I don’t know.

It was a pop song that everybody completely mad about. I think the gentleman was Thai. Was he Thai? I can’t remember.

Oh I know who you’re talking about. Yes, yes I know. I've got him in my head but I can’t remember his name

And everyone was doing ‘the’ dance

Gangam. Gangam style.

Gangam. That’s right. So everyone was doing that. Now, the recent wedding I went to, that came on and everybody did that same dance because they knew it. No matter whether they had ever done that dance before, everyone joined in cause they felt they could. So that was an opportunity but that was led by that particular song.

Yes. And that music video.

And that video. And you know, we talk about the Michael Jackson walk and all that. If a Michael Jackson song come one, you see people trying to do that walk because that’s something they associate with that piece of music. So therefore I do think it’s very much music led. Some maybe more classical piece comes on, perhaps people know, or maybe it’s a form, piece of form music where there are words and people start to,’Aaaah,’ sing the words.

They try dancing out the lyrics.

Yeah they try sing out the lyrics without singing. Their arms are going and them something like [sings] ‘YMCA,’ everybody, as you know, whether they've ever danced or not, will do the actions.

Yeah that’s true.

Because they've seen it and they just join in because everybody’s doing it.

That is something I am looking within this. The impact of music videos on my generation anyway. Because I did grow up in a generation that was heavily influenced by music videos as part of pop culture and that affected, I think, what happened on the dance floor when I was growing up. But it is very true. It really does impact I think, people’s movement catalogue, of what they reference.

When I was a teenager, actually when I was at the Royal Ballet School, just to say, when I was a teenager I would go sometimes on a Saturday night with my friends to Streatham because they had a ballroom there.

The Rivoli?

Yes and a big band and we used to go on a Saturday night and dance and sometimes you got a partner and so you partnered up and sometimes you didn’t but that was fantastic because that was big band music, live. So that was very much social dancing.

And how did you find that because obviously you were doing your formal training by then with the ballet. How did that compare to …

Well it was fun to do, it was a Saturday night out, it was with my mates and there were boys around. You know, social.

In terms of the arts spectrum, going back to more formal questions, where does dance rate for you in comparison to music, visual arts, film, etc.

I think it’s way up the top personally. Because anyone can do. And actually people dance more that they realise. If you watch children in the playground, they’re dancing all the time.

I think it’s just natural for them I think.

Totally. It is for everybody really. Not everybody will sing, they might hum but not sing, but a lot of people dance without realising it.

Having said that, this is quite a broad question, where do you think dance fits within our society at this current time? Do you believe it’s something that’s innate in all people? Where do you think it fits? What is its function?

I think it’s pretty high really. If you look at all these talent programs that go on. There are masses and masses of young people, not even young people actually, older people too, dancing. Trying to make their mark dancing. And if you think about the dance clubs, ballroom dancing for more mature people. There are many, many clubs around for that. Social is something they want to do because they meet other people when they go there and young people go to clubs, I understand, and dance to the early hours. Many, many, many people are dancing and probably far more than we know. The majority probably not in a formal way but socially I think it’s huge. Yes very high on a lot of people’s agenda. I’ll go clubbing, yes I’ll go to a club or I’m going to go ballroom dancing. I’m going to go to a tea dance. That’s another very popular thing, ballroom dancing.

Ok I've got one last question for you and also if there is anything else you want to raise afterwards. I’m just curious, I know you've worked with a lot of dancers. Have you ever been out dancing socially with the dancers you've worked with?

Have I been out dancing… yes I have.

And has it ever surprised you the people that, in the studio, when you've seen them in a social dance sense, have you ever been surprised by the difference in their dancing socially because obviously it’s a different dance style. Have you ever been thinking, ‘Oh that person can really bust a move,’ or been like, ‘That person doesn't seem very comfortable dancing socially.’ What’s been your experience?

Very much depends on the individual. Some professional dancers prefer not to necessarily to, release, and some love it.

And do you think that’s what it comes down to. That key thing of whether they are just happy to let go on the social dance floor as opposed to maybe not?

Yes I think it is actually. Whether they feel comfortable doing that and want to do it basically.

And do you think that’s a learned thing or do you think it’s just something within someone’s personality?

Probably just like people who say, ‘No, I’m not going to dance.’ You go to a wedding party and there are people who just never dance. They don’t like dancing or don’t want to dance or don’t want to be up there. Don’t want to be seen to move and they possibly feel they don’t move very well. It’s that sort of, ‘Oooh, what will everybody think of me if I shuffle around on the dance floor?’ For me it doesn't matter. You can shuffle, you can hop, you can do anything you like but the important thing is to get up there, if you feel like it. There again I don’t think anybody should be forced into doing anything they don’t want to.

Ok, well that’s the last of my questions. Do you have anything you would like to raise or any questions for me?

No I don’t think so. See how that comes out

* Questionnaire: Dance Industry

Name

Age

Location

Profession

What dance forms are you trained and/or teach? What is the duration of training and/or teaching?

Apart from the above dance, are you trained in any other art forms?

What are the key characteristics that for you, define a dancer?

If you could be proficient in another art form, what would you choose and why?

Do you dance at social dance events such as weddings, parties, clubs and so forth? Why? Why not?

If so, how would you describe the style in which you dance at these events? Are there certain moves that you always execute at these kind of dance events? What are they?

What kind of music makes you want to dance? Why?

Is your dance training useful or not useful for the way you dance at these events ?

What role do you think dance plays now in our society, if any?

Do you consider the type of dancing that happens at these events to be a proper dance style? Why? Why not?

What other factors affect the way you dance at these events?

In what dance form do you feel you are best able to express yourself?

Do you have any questions?

Everyday Dance Fieldwork Diary

Saturday, 31 May 2014

Interview with 'Diana' (May 29, 2014)

No comments:

Post a Comment