Back from an adventurous and restful spring break, our students have hit the ground running. Collectively the students have attended five different workshops in the last three weeks, including: Butoh (with Misturu Sasaki), African dance with (Ashai Lombardo Arop), Tarantella (with Gianni Bruschi), Laban (with Dance Program Director, Sabine Fichter), and a three day Experimental Lab (with Sam Mcgehee and Saso Vollmaier). To hear more about how these weeks have been going, we asked dance student, Nadia Ureña (Muhlenberg College), physical theatre student Sarah Shin (Boston University), and one year physical theatre student, Dalton Hedrick (Coastal Carolina University).

What has been going on at the villa or in classes since you came back from spring break?

NADIA:  We got back and it felt like we went from zero to 100 but in a good way. We had a week long Butoh workshop, which was learning new technique as well as putting on a show at the end, and we got to work with the one year students. It was a lot of community building and seeing what works and what doesn’t. We got to talk about ourselves telling stories about our hometowns, and the stories were different every time, so we really learned about each other. Then we had african dance and tarantella and we’re also putting on a show for that. It’s been exhausting.  A lot of powering through and putting the pieces together with things we created before spring break. Then CabLab rehearsals have been going on like crazy so we’re figuring out when to meet and rehearsing, having showings for each other, and getting feedback on what we’re doing. So we’ve been working on three different shows since we got back from break.

SARAH: Since we got back I feel like we’re in a slingshot because we’re about to get launched into intense amounts of work and projects. It’s as if before break was more relaxed and now this is the real thing and it’s testing our strength.

DALTON: We came back and we had a Butoh workshop with Mitsuru where we got to be in class with the dancers and that was followed by the experimental lab where we were in class with the theatre students. We also continued work on our final devising project. It was great to break from our small group of four one year students, and work with the theatre and dance students. With all those new energies in the room it’s an opportunity to learn. As we continue devising we’re meeting with Saso, Kevin, and Giangiacomo for various specialized classes all seen through the lens of our final devised piece.

Have you made any new discoveries about yourself in your time thus far at the ADA?

NADIA: I realize I like group-work more than I thought I did. I have severe only child syndrome, so I really like to work alone. We have such limited time, and I’ve been learning how to be efficient in a group. It can be just a week we have to create something, so it’s cool learning how to work in this collaborative process so quickly. I’ve learned how to be a better group member. I’m also learning how to just keep trying at something even if your bad at it, specifically with speaking Italian, so I really try in town to speak to Italians. You have to be persistent at it because they’re going to speak English to you but if you keep going you’ll get better.

SARAH: It feels like I’ve rediscovered, and remembered how important being personal is to my artistry. I think over the years I’ve thought that making art starts personal and then we break away from that and then it’s being abstract or thoughtful with original ideas, but starting with the personal is true and authentic and there’s nothing wrong or immature about that.

DALTON: It’s been exciting to realize that whatever I have to bring into the room at any given moment is worthwhile, and productive for the space if I choose to have a good attitude about it and allow others to help mold it. In terms of myself personally I try to view all my experiences from an artistic lens as well. In life, I was born and raised as I was, and I now have a few things to think about: how do I bring myself and background into a space of others who are different from me, how do I allow them to help shape me, and how do I allow who I am to help shape them?

What has surprised you about working with your ensemble

NADIA: Because there’s only 9 of us, even though it’s a small group, a lot of ideas get circulated really quickly. Sometimes we do things we’ve already done and we get tired of each other, but then we’re always finding and looking for new ways to enjoy each other. The intensive weeks are hard, when do we feel tension in the group and know there’s something wrong, I think, “what can we do to sense that tension, and problem solve without really saying out loud that we have a problem to solve?” We’re all pretty vocal people and we have a lot of energy and we talk a lot, but we don’t address problems outright, which is surprising to me. We solve problems in unspoken ways which is helpful but also frustrating. There’s a lot of gauging when to put a problem out loud into the air and when to keep it internal.

SARAH: I think I’m noticing how each different person processes and collaborates in a group setting. Some people need to talk out loud and say ideas in front of the whole group, and others just need to have an internal moment and do it. Some people like to lead and give directions, I personally just like to stay back and observe and then pop my voice in whenever it seems necessary. I think, we’re all interested in process and getting to a product, but we differ in how we think about the speed in which we should create something or whether or not we think about the endgame first or just start with the unknown.

DALTON: Coming from a group of 14 [in the Fall semester] down to a group of four, I’ve realized that there are just as many practical  challenges involved in a small group as there are in a large group. It’s impossible to hide. I believe sometimes we try to hide in order to be helpful thinking, “I don’t want to bring this into the room. It’ll slow down progress”, but it’s impossible to do so in a small group because everybody knows what everyone’s feeling all the time. But it’s been wonderful working through that and knowing how everyone feels because I’m starting to think not only for my own wants and needs, but for the wants and needs of other individuals in the ensemble. I’m starting to catch a glimpse of what ensemble means. Truly breathing and being with one another through the good an the bad moments. The word and concept “ensemble” previously felt very theoretical and intangible, I’m starting to see what it really means on bodies.

Do you have one thing you are working on or one goal in mind for the rest of your time here?

SARAH: Staying honest with myself, and speaking out, and remembering that that is welcomed and there is time for that still. As things get harder and it feels like there’s less time, but there is time to take a step back, reflect, and take care of myself.

NADIA:  Just to keep pushing through. It’s easy, since we’re so physical, to say I’m tired and to give up. It may be the third dance class of the day, but if I’m  tired I like to think, how does that inform the way I’m taking in the information as opposed to giving up and missing things.

DALTON: I think the magical quality of this place is that we’ve been exposed very horizontally to a lot of different techniques, skills, teachers, and energies. My goal, really for this whole semester really has been to start searching vertically through this devised piece I’m making with the other one year students to culminate everything I’ve learned into something practical. I’ll be leaving the ADA with over 100 pages of notes, but that won’t be as valuable as thinking back on the devised work I’ve made using those concepts. I’m also just enjoying every second because it’s easy when you live here and work here and sleep here and eat here to take it for granted, but now that the time is ticking down I’m finding everything so beautiful and I’m re -remembering all the reasons that I was first infatuated with this place.