Dancing for life

Baxter Arts Centre hosts contemporary dance workshop

Carol Anderson and Arwyn Carpenter held a workshop on contemporary dance at the Baxter Arts Centre in Bloomfield on Saturday afternoon. Seven participants, in a range of ages and abilities, took the opportunity to learn some of the basics of contemporary dance from these two accomplished teachers and dancers. Anderson and Carpenter were both professional dancers—the latter as a child—who have now become sought-after teachers in the discipline.

“Contemporary dance draws on ideas of texture, of different qualities of movement and the idea of the dancer’s inner life informing the work,” said Anderson. “It’s a later step from modern dance, which is a revolution against the strictures of ballet.” The aim of the three-hour workshop was to show the concepts of directionality and awareness of space, combined with being synchronized to the music and maintaining a relationship with the audience and dance partners.

Olive Scott participates in a contemporary dance excercise. The grade 12 student from Belleville also studies ballet and tap dancing.

The workshop participants came from across the County and Quinte region, as well as farther afield. Cristina Gonzalez came from Toronto specifically for this workshop. “I trained with Carol Anderson when I was much younger in the Canadian Childrens’ Dance Theatre,” she said. “They are great teachers.”

Anderson started the workshop with some deceptively simple exercises using slow, deliberate movements that nonetheless required controlled muscle movements and good core body strength. This was followed by the introduction of an exercise system known as gyrokinesis, specifically designed for dancers to encourage fluid, rhythmic motion. After that,

Carpenter got the group moving, first simply walking diagonally across the floor with one participant following the other on the count of eight. This was slowly reduced to the count of two, with the participants alternately walking forwards or backwards and maintaining eye contact with their partners. Carpenter then started the choreographed portion of the workshop, with slightly different sequences for participants based on their ability or comfort level. “This is a way of getting into motion with a community of other movers,” said Anderson. “It’s a simple but fun and effective way of making a group of people move together. They’ll be coming from the same ideas, and they’ll move from the same prompt, but they may do something different.”

Anderson hopes this workshop will be first of a sequence offered at the Baxter Arts Centre. She lives in Toronto, but has spent the past 21 summers in the County. Carpenter is a part-time County resident and is also keen to continue these workshops. “Once you’re a dancer, you’re always a dancer. It’s something you always do,” she said.

This sentiment is echoed by Anderson. “You still have sensations and you still have potential at every age and stage. Dancing is essential to my being. It is my metaphor for life.”