I wouldn’t call myself a deeply religious person. But I do miss the church, I miss the unity and the Priest.
I feel now more than ever young people lack role models which act as guides to steer ourselves towards the pursuit of our goals.
College for me was like the church. Teachers were like Priests – without the adherence to scripture. They were placed at an alter to themselves and, as the name suggests, they were teachers rather than mentors. At the highest ranks I find the dance world concerned with developing talent rather than nurturing it. Dance needs mentorship, dancers need their talent nourished – to be a dancer is a deeply personal journey, a journey that asks one to commit one’s body to art.
When I first started dancing around ten, I was allowed to take the time to assume movement, allowed to have my own skin fill the shape. I was given this time because there was no product, no end-goal, no ultimatum. When moving into the professional world I was taken aback that this concern for the individual and the constant reiteration of the body and therefore the art, the work, had been all but abandoned. As a dancer in Ireland I fear this, it leads to work lacking a soul – like the same corpse being reanimated in different forms again and again, three times a year, every year, in order to keep relevancy and, ultimately, funding.
When I went to college I felt quite isolated by my teachers, like I couldn’t do what was being asked of me. My body wasn’t right for it. I built up an image in my head of my muscles knotted and unwilling to meet the expectations of others and, of course, thinking this made it true. It made the gap between my body and my praxis greater. My connection between theory, the mind and the body was split.
I’ve been really blessed since leaving college that I’ve worked with many artists who reject this idea. Artists who see the malleability of body, understand what it is to work at a deep, specific level. Many of these artists I would consider mentors. They take the time to impart their knowledge to you and that’s what builds the dance. They’re unconcerned with the deadline because they know – entrusting the body first with their practice means the piece will come, and it will be much better off than if it had been choreographed and taught.
Rising Voices [RV] gave me that nurturing of talent, gave it the time that it needs, and the atmosphere it requires to fully embrace the process. I feel like RV is rebellious in this way – it rejects what I’ve been told about how dance is made and learned in the contemporary world. I think my own view of dance has been changed for the better. To me, Alex’s views are radical. He rejects the current over-concern with hyper-emotional and performative dance. He is fixated (and has inspired a fixation within me) with the body, its state, its functionality, and he allows the body to carry the meaning within a work. I found this massively liberating – finally I felt I was learning about dance, not superfluous metaphor and drab performativity.
Now when I dance, it is rich, full, confident. My approach to theme and topic is through the body. I think as a dancer – not a dramaturge, or writer, or actor. I wouldn’t have gotten here if it wasn’t for RV. It’s the adherence to scripture, a belief in the body as the basis of dance that makes teachers into mentors. I felt seen and was given the time to see myself, wholly. I look forward to carrying this vision into the future.
Ben Sullivan, dancer and participant in Tipperary Dance’s Rising Voices 2022, a creation and training space for young dancers.
