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. 

Student profile: Jesper Nilsson

I come from Rydsgård, Skåne, Sweden. I started dancing, mostly breakdance and street dance, when I was 11 years old. At age 16, I auditioned and was enrolled in the three-year Dance Artist education at Lund School of Performing Arts. I had taken quite a few workshops previously with various choreographers and dancers from all over the world. I had also performed in the musical; Fiddler on the Roof which was set up in Lund, Sweden and danced in opening shows and promotional commercials for a radio station in Sweden.

Since my enrolment in CCDS I have continued to live at home in Sweden and take the train to Copenhagen every day; A journey that takes about one hour.

It's very exciting being a student at CCDS because of the ever-changing schedule of different guest teachers coming in! I love it! And you really get the good individual constructive criticism that you want and need to be able to change and achieve an insane amount of improvement in just one year.

I wanted to study at CCDS because it offers an opportunity to receive really good individual coaching and great tools to improve in a very short space of time. It really gives you a great awareness of your body and what you need to warm up and be able to do your best!

During my study year at CCDS I expect to gain a higher level of maturity in my way of moving and thinking when I dance and to develop an even higher level of technique and flexibility than I already have.

After this year I plan to audition for Modern Dance Theatre, Island Academy of the Arts, Khio and SEAD.

Jesper Nilsson, 2012

Dance scholarships!

Some of our students have to seek financial funding to support their living costs as students. Our experience has shown that it is worthwhile putting some effort into researching and applying for dance scholarships.

Two of our current students Jesper Nilsson and Michelle H. Flagstad applied and were awarded scholarships for their work in 2011. Both Jesper and Michelle are hard-working, dedicated and very structured students. We are really proud of them! 

Jesper Nilsson is from Sweden. In the summer/autumn of 2011 he applied for and received two scholarships in support of his dream to become a professional dancer. The first scholarship was a 1.000-euro, cultural scholarship from his hometown, called Skurups Kommuns Kulturstipendium. The second one was a 500-euro scholarship from Rune Ljungdahls Stiftelse.

Michelle H. Flagstad is from Norway. Unfortunately, the Norwegian student financing system does not support Michelle’s education at CCDS. Michelle researched into different funds and applied for several scholarships. As a result she was awarded 20.000 NOK from G9alt fond by Sparebank1 as well as a 15.000 NOK scholarship from Tom Wilhelmsens Stiftelse to develop as dancer. Michelle says she is very grateful for the support, and for the fact that dancers are able to get scholarships - not just musicians, artists and athletes. 

School life

Check out these great videos made by one of last years graduates, Lisa Nielsen!

 

CCDS PART 1 from Lisa Nilsson on Vimeo.



CCDS PART 2 from Lisa Nilsson on Vimeo.