The importance of dance - reflections from a new student

WHY I DANCE

Today is the last day of week 6 at CCDS (pre-professional education).

We have been busy preparing "Waltzing Bodies" for the upcoming Copenhagen Culture Night performance in the old Power Station of Carlsberg.

After a long day of technique class and rehearsing, back in the changing room, I could still smell the residue of the oil in the machine and the dust on the marble floor of the Power Station in my hair. I looked down at my bruised knees, shoulders, hands and feet, feeling amused by thinking of the song “I Bruise Easily" from Natasha Bedingfield. I asked myself once again what the hell I decided to step into "Dance" at such an unusual age?

Is it to fulfill my emotional needs or my physical needs? Or perhaps both? Or it rather depends on the day!

Or maybe I just want to talk.

TALK? Talk to whom? Talk about what?

Since when did I start to care about words?

I thought that I was the “leave me alone” kind of girl.

Should I wait for a response from God knows where?

Well, actually I am scared of the interaction? Then I guess the next

logical thing to do would be running away, run as fast as I possibly can!

with my eyes shut and ears closed!

Maybe not with my eyes shut, otherwise I would loose the direction and trip and fall!

Oh, no, that's my worst nightmare! – TO FALL

I could fall into a black hole.

But if I really think about it, is it so bad to fall into a black hole?

No, it can't be that bad! One thing I know for sure is that I would enjoy

the total silence in there!

BLACK = SILENCE, is it a physical equation?

Is there a hard surface at the bottom of the black hole?

If yes, then it would break my tailbone; then I won’t be able to dance for

a few weeks; then I will be devastated and will feel trapped alone in the

dark and the hopelessness would kill me.

But wait, honestly I can hardly imagine that I am the only person in the

building of Dancehallene/Vestebro/Copenhagen/Danmark/Europe/Earth who forgot to keep her eyes open while running away from things.

 If we all run at the same time and from the same place towards the same direction with eyes wide open, we could create a strong gravitational field, stronger than the black hole!

Watch Out! The black hole is rolling towards US!

My heart skipped a beat, did yours too?

I tripped and fell.

No matter where the force comes from and what that force is, with or

without my eyes open,

I still tripped and fell and I still got bruises on my body,

and I am still feeling hurt!

Ehnnnnnnn, I just felt a tingling in my right finger tips!

I guess I just danced!

Dance for me is a trajectory of a journey. It provides me with a path to

understand and interact with myself and with my surroundings physically, emotionally, realistically and imaginatively. Inspiration and curiosity keep me grounded. Without dance, I would be LOST with eyes shut and with numbed fingers and toes.

- Amanda Xue Hai

Greetings from a former student - now training at Codarts.

Photo by Kim Tonning

Dear Morten and Lotte

It has now been a month since I moved to Rotterdam and this week is the second normal week with a normal schedule – we have had a week’s intro and weeks of training before that.

I love it! Everything is better than I ever could have expected. Our teachers are super dedicated, experienced and special in each their way. I enjoy everything from ballet, Laban, Graham, ballet history, anatomy and many other subjects. The school is incredible and with 10 studios there is room for a little of everything! The whole system seems really good and solid to me. We have a whole program with information and help with problems from injuries and psychological problems to financial problems – they take good care of us and really want healthy, strong and smart students.

The level is really high. In our class it is clear to see that they have chosen students with a very good classical technique. Most from my class come from ballet high schools or similar to that like The National Conservatory Dance School in Portugal, so I am really challenged in ballet.

30 students have been chosen from 600 candidates – normally they take in 60 students but they have chanced the system and want to make the dance department smaller – or so I understood it. From 30 students approximately 5 are from The Netherlands and the rest are from all over Europe. I see it as a really big privilege that I got in and can’t completely understand that I am a part of Codarts! The only thing about the shool that is a shame is that the building does not open until 08.25 in the morning. We have our first class at 9 o’clock that means only half an hour for warm up! I am trying to change that.

Besides our regular schedule there is so much more going on. I participate for example in salsa classes every week taught by to students from second year. Every Saturday there are usually different workshop (the last three weeks in floor work) and on top of that I have become friends with students from the circus department and have started to learn to joggle with diablo and cones and train hand stands. I hope to be able to combine that with my dancing and thereby grow as a dancer.

So to sume up: I have a big smile on my face and enjoy every day here. I love Rotterdam and have settled in well – good apartment and nice people around me! And being Danish I get educational support into my bank account each month!

I cannot thank you enough for everything you have taught me – it is clearly an advantage with all the experience I gained last year! THANK YOU! If you would like to, you can read the blog I am writing about my experiences in Rotterdam:

daneindance.blogspot.com

Many many many happy greetings from Astrid! (:

Reflections from a former student!

Dear Morten and Lotte

I wanted to send you a little greeting. I have thought of you several times because I have realized the benefits I have received after my year at the school. Because of that I want to say THANK YOU!

When I was in the middle of it all I couldn't see how much I had advanced and I never really found my place in the group. Now that I'm on my own, I feel the great difference. I would never be where I am now with out you behind me.

I have just started again after six months of illness and six weeks of summer holiday with three hours of intensive training daily to get back into shape.

Therefore I have once again reflected on my life in dance, and when I once again thought of you, I decided to let you know how grateful I am.

So thank you for everything  - I wish you a good start with the new students.

Many warm thoughts from
Malene

The Sound of Dance - A testimonial from previous student Lucrezia Maimone

"Everyday when I wake up, I try to feel my body, my heart, muscles, feet... And like a train here comes a voice, it repeats the words of Morten and Lotte: "drop the tailbone!" "extend the arms!", "keep focus". They resound inside my brain, as an echo bouncing back continuously.

The experience at CCDS is one of the most interesting events that a young dancer can have. I didn’t realize it immediately, but now with the distance of one year since my studies there, all the information I achieved, is becoming a reality in my daily life. The notions I learned from these great teachers have become a part of my everyday thoughts.

Now I'm working on bringing out my own character, focusing on the importance of keeping the path shaped from my spontaneity, with a clean imagination without any filters to interfere with my integrity. I am currently working with an Italian contemporary dance company and also with a small new-circus company. 

I really wish that I will wake up one day and listen again for the reality of their voices guiding me. No matter the time, the weather, the emotional feeling or the job, in everything I do, I still hear this little voice in my mind, not so far away, I can hear it, and I'll never stop hearing it. I will never forget them.

Lucrezia :)

Check out Lucrezia's work here:

This video shows Lucrezia doing her solo work project for CCDS, filmed in a corridor at Dansehallerne:


This video shows some of Lucrezia's more current work:


And her most recent work:

Jesper Nilsson's scholarship story made it to the local Swedish media. Well done Jesper!

Auditioning for "Peeping Tom"

Peeping Tom is a Belgium dance theatre company. CCDS student Sarah Elena Deppeler writes about her experiences and thoughts during her audition for the company. Sarah made it to the final four in the audition despite still having a few months left of her dance education at Copenhagen Contemporary Dance School. This was her first audition for a professional dance job.

Peeping Tom

Small countries have to find a niche to stand up to their big neighbours. I am favourably impressed by the richness of Belgium’s contemporary dance scene. The diversity of different companies and styles is proof of a brave population and a creative environment. 

One year ago, I saw Peeping Tom perform for the first time; the intensity of the mountain landscape, where a handful of campers were confronted with their loneliness, left me breathless. 

12 months later, I saw by chance, that the company is holding an audition for a replacement for this very performance. A small piece inside of me tumbled and without thinking any further, I sent my application.

32, rue Vandenbranden – je viens! 

In-flight, I realized, how radically my life changed. Instead of studying in dark libraries for the university, I was about to make the first move into a new fascinating world. Contrary to expectations, I wasn’t nervous. I felt, that the first half of the year at Copenhagen Contemporary Dance School provided me with reassuring tools. 

The audition took place in a wonderful building called “les brigittines”. The bone-chilling cold outside couldn’t choke my anticipation. After the warm-up I entered the studio, where we started, after some short information, directly with improvisation. 

Stay focused, don’t repeat yourself, use every part of the body, drop your tailbone and go further, further, further – dance it out. 

This advice from Morten, Lotte and the guest-teachers hummed like music in my ear and helped me find self-confidence. 

With a pleasant feeling inside, I felt ready to focus on the following choreography. 

How to distort, twist and bend your body beyond recognition? During the last six months, stretching became as essential as coffee in the morning.

Keep your lower back in the floor, support yourself with your hands and over all, touch the floor as if it were a friend. 

Not that easy, if you have to run into walls, jump higher than you thought you could, just to collect all this energy finally in gentle rolls on the floor. 

It felt like flying.

For the rest of the audition, I noticed over and over again a smile flashing over my face. In this nerve-racking situation, I never felt lost. Somewhere on my back, there was this growing bag, filled with tips from CCDS, which put me in the right direction.

Although another dancer was chosen for the role, I feel proud. I came further than I ever dreamed and turned over a new leaf. There is a very specific part of dance, which is conforming to me. 

It’s great to have this new tool in my bag.

By Sarah Elena Deppeler

Dancing is breathing with the whole body.

One of our students, Sarah Elena Deppeler writes passionately about dance when she applies for an audition. We have persuaded her to let us publish her most recent letter of motivation. Read her words and take inspiration from her thoughts about the process and purpose of dancing.

Dancing is breathing with the whole body.

We live in a highly engineered world conducted by mind. Every day, people pour over numbers and letters. Our brain is sophisticated and beyond doubt, it allows us to handle the complexity of everyday life. But we can also use this capacity to express ourselves variably. Thousands of words form a language. To be able to communicate in a foreign language you have to learn long lists of vocabulary and phrases. During my language studies I realized that no matter how well you know a language, you are rarely or never capable of expressing exactly what you think or feel. It seems, that some inside processes are not expressible through language. But what if those thoughts constitute the deepest interests of human being? 

How can we survive without taking heed of what provides the basis of our existence and stimulation – our emotions? 

While dreaming we sometimes have the impression of understand whatever holds the world together in its inmost folds. Dreaming is a state of half awareness where hidden fragments of the world and we appear in a different light. With closed eyes and deep breath we find a language that is unmistakable. I believe that dancing comes very close to this state of mind. Before children learn to speak, they make themselves understandable through movements. In highly emotional situations, people mostly don’t talk but move – tremble, convulse, run or jump. The body language is international, leaves room for interpretation and is nevertheless unambiguous. I want to dance because I want to find a different approach to my thoughts. Intensity and emotions, colours, fragrances, moods and atmospheres are nowhere as united as in dance. Good dancers captivate the senses of the spectator in an impressive way. Dancing is everything but indifferent. A dance performance affects everyone in a certain way no matter whether the message is readily identifiable or abstract. No words in the world can touch as deep as dance can. 

Without any background in dance I discovered two years ago the richness of contemporary dance, which I’m more grateful for than I can put into words. 

After some hesitation I see my non-dancer-background now as an interesting strength that can contribute to the diversity of dance. 

I would like to continue my (never ending) journey. Work as a professional dancer and choreographer, to reflect upon my thoughts using the body, to tell stories and encourage an audience to face up to the world and themselves.