Insight
Journeys of the Artists
It seems obvious that time and experience affects our work and lives. How this is transmitted to our art and expression is less clear.
However Hotfoot has asked three practicing dance artists; each at a different point on the career ladder ‘so what is it all about and how does it happen!’.
Taking the time to think through our questions are Zeze Kolstad, Diane Mitchell and Menelva Harry. This is what they had to say…
1. How and why did you start dancing? What was the catalyst…?
Zezé Kolstad: Having a mother from the dancing nation Brazil has always been a strong influence. I started taking ballet classes at the age of ten with a friend from school, and decided at the age of fifteen that this was something I wanted to pursue. The catalyst for me when it comes to dancing was the joy dance in itself gave me.
Diane Mitchell: I‘ve always had a love of dance and music. Throughout my teenage years, I performed with a local youth steel band, and rehearsed in the same building as Kokuma Dance Company. I remember peering through the windows and thinking, ‘I wanna do that’. It was several years later while living in France that I put those words in practice. I studied African dance (movement language of the Fon/Ewe tradition, Senegambian and Congo regions) under the auspices of Jean Fortune de Souza and Lolita Babindamana, which quickly progressed into a performing career.
Menelva Harry: I became interested in dance at secondary school, when my deputy head teacher, Mr. Turner, invited a group of us pupils to watch London Contemporary Dance Theatre. I was about 10 or 11 years old and was blown away by their performance. Dance then became my best new thing. We pupils talked about it so much that Mr Turner set up a dance class for two terms with LCDT dancer Annie Annick. My enthusiasm for dance was in no way looked at as a career. I was committed to gymnastics and dance helped my floor routines which I enjoyed creating. But by the time I was 14, I realised I was increasingly involved in dance and less in gymnastics.
2. Did you always feel part of the dance world you entered as a young dancer / artist and where there any events that changed your thinking towards your dance outlook?
Zezé Kolstad: No, I didn't always feel part of the dance world. I grew up in Norway in a very white environment and didn't at the time have many black role models in dance. This changed when I moved to England. I have worked with several black dance companies here, like RJC, ACE Dance and Music, State of Emergency projects etc. I have had the privilege working with skilled black dancers and choreographers like David Hamilton, Donald Edwards, Gail Parmel, Joanne Moven, Bawren Tavaziva and many more have inspired me. England is such a rich country when it comes to the arts compared to Norway. There are artists from all over the world and with different heritage, who collaborate and work together. This will always have a positive effect in the arts.
Diane Mitchell: The ‘dance sector’ can often seem like a strange, amorphous thing, and this is exacerbated by how my career has constantly ebbed and flows. Sometimes I have been highly active in performance, other times more reflective undertaking research, and even nursed a serious injury. All these things affected how much I have felt part of the dance world. I think that I have often felt on the margins, although as I’ve gotten older I have really begun to see more clearly my peer group and feel very much part of it.
Menelva Harry: NO. I don’t think I felt a part of the world until I finished my training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Being a part of something often includes involvement and I’ve had moments, now and then, that made me feel part of the dance world. However, I feel more involved in the dance world when I am in the studio improvising, devising, researching material. This is when I can be completely immersed in what I am creating, plus when I am also involved with funders, other artists and auditioning new dancers. Nina Fonaroff, who taught choreography at NSCD, turned my love of dance and performance into a focus on choreography.
3. What are the biggest influences on your artistic development …is there something or a message that you try to express?
Zezé Kolstad: I think one of my biggest influences would be my mixed heritage, having roots in Brazil and Norway. I get inspiration from both cultures. Regarding my choreographic work I am still trying out ideas the come to mind. I do not want to restrict myself to a specific theme or message. I want to be able to express myself freely. However I am interested in the relationships between people. When I look at the works I have created in the past, I would say that they are theatrical, playful and articulate.
Diane Mitchell: My great influences have been those choreographers who can delve deep into a cultural movement language and infuse it with a contemporary language as oppose to contemporary dance. Vincent Mantsoe, for example, brings a richness and freshness to how his body fills time and space through intense South African ritual and spirituality. This is what I try to achieve and have worked with Vincent to understand his processes and practices.
Menelva Harry: Seven years ago, whilst looking for an added ingredient to my artistic development and creation of movement through improvisation, I discovered what is now the biggest influence -Bagua martial Arts. Two years later I enrolled on an intensive course in China. Five years on I continue to develop/ create my own language using Bagua and other martial arts forms. However my message is feminine strength.
4. What are the biggest challenges / obstacles to you achieving exactly what you want artistically and how do you want audiences to receive your work?
Zezé Kolstad: I think every choreographer’s challenge is how to get your idea clearly across to your dancers and for them to understand, embrace and execute the idea with energy and passion. It is important for a choreographer to have good communication skills, being able to challenge the dancers, inspire them and be a good leader. I know that not everybody will like the work that I create, but it is important for me that it reaches a broad audience, and that people generally - not dancers or those particularly into the arts, can enjoy my work.
Diane Mitchell: Alongside my performing career in dance companies, I have worked with international choreographers to create two solos. I have performed them in the UK, and had an international performance in Armenia. However, I still feel way off from where I would like to be. The solos did not really get a chance to have a life in order to evolve and grow. Apart from the usual struggle to gain funding, it also relates to the difficulty in achieving any sort of career progression or growth upwards and forwards. I think this is one of the major hardships.
Menelva Harry: It’s a financial struggle as we all know, trying to create work, earn a living, maintain a high level of performance and training, in addition to funding, accommodation, travel…. Space! With Pegasus Theatre, Oxford closing in April 08 (which will increase my project budgets by 25%-35%), trying to negotiate a reasonable fee for space in Oxford is becoming one of my biggest challenges. I would like my audience to be challenged, inspired and feel a sense of enjoyment, experience the unconventional through dance, music, costume and design.
5. In five years time what would you hope to see in the dance sector of dance of the African Diaspora?
Zezé Kolstad: I would like to see a greater growth of dance of the African Diaspora and hopefully see some more collaboration across boarders.
Diane Mitchell: I hope to see artists working in dance of the African Diaspora in the UK achieving more large scale productions and tours, particularly on stages such as Sadler’s Wells. And greater support for its female choreographers here.
Menelva Harry: I would like the sector to embrace artists of African descent whose work also embraces non African traditions and styles. The African Diaspora lead to the settling of people around the world, and it would be equally interesting to see how the movement of people has challenged what we see as dance from the African Diaspora.
