BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance

Behind the Scenes at our Ross School Residency 2015

Week Five with Geena!
    BodyStories: Teresa Fellion dance was thrilled to return to The Ross School SummerProgram! Week Five was a blast as we shared with our students the BodyStoriesDance Curriculum, which includes techniques such as composition, modern, jazz, hiphop, ballet, and dances from a myriad of cultures. Dancers ages 6-14 had the chance to learn movement from BodyStories repertory, study a variety of techniques integral to our company, and create their own movement with our composition classes!

Our students were amazing. In just five classes, they really started to take ownership of their individual creativity and become genuinely excited about the weeks ahead. Read below a cute quote from one of our students…

Student 1: “You work really hard and your dances are so good!”

Please contact education@bodystoriesfellion.org to study with us privately, to attend classes in our BodyStories after school Program in NYC during the school year, or to see how BodyStories can visit your school with classes and/or performances!

Enjoy some photos and video clips from Week Five of our Residency. 

Behind the Scenes at our Ross School Residency 2015

Week Four with Teresa!

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion dance is thrilled to be returning to The Ross School SummerProgram! We are having so much fun with our students, sharing with them our BodyStoriesDance Curriculum, which includes techniques such as composition, modern, jazz, hiphop, ballet, and dances from a myriad of cultures. Dancers ages 6-14 have a chance to learn movement from BodyStories repertory, study a variety of techniques integral to our company, and create their own movement with our composition classes! During Week Four the Dance Minor students even had a chance to create a site-specific dance piece on the playground.

Please contact education@bodystoriesfellion.org to study with us privately, to attend classes in our BodyStories after school Program in NYC during the school year, or to see how BodyStories can visit your school with classes and/or performances! Enjoy some photos and video clips from Week Four of our Residency. Our students were amazing. Look at some of what they learned in just three classes!
 

Behind the Scenes at our Ross School Residency 2015

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion dance is thrilled to be returning to The Ross School SummerProgram! We are having so much fun with our students, sharing with them our BodyStoriesDance Curriculum, which includes techniques such as composition, modern, jazz, hiphop, ballet, and dances from a myriad of cultures. Dancers ages 6-14 have a chance to learn movement from BodyStories repertory, study a variety of techniques integral to our company, and create their own movement with our composition classes!

Behind the Scenes at our Ross School Residency 2015

Week One with Geena!

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion dance is thrilled to be returning to The Ross School Summer Program! We are having so much fun with our students, sharing with them our BodyStories Dance Curriculum, which includes techniques such as composition, modern, jazz, hiphop, ballet, and dances from a myriad of cultures. Dancers ages 6-14 have a chance to learn movement from BodyStories repertory, study a variety of techniques integral to our company, and create their own movement with our composition classes!

Please contact education@bodystoriesfellion.org to study with us privately, to attend classes in our BodyStories Afterschool Program in NYC during the school year, or to see how BodyStories can visit your school with classes and/or performances!

Also, read below to hear a few words from the students and Geena…


“It was really fun and I learned new techniques and a new dance from Trinidad. I can’t wait to see BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance in the city.” –Lua
“I think we did a great job and we worked so hard on our dances, we did incredible!” –Kati
“My favorite was the energy circle.” –Karla
“We worked so hard and we showed the parents our best.” –Sophia
“We learned so much, I really like dance and my favorite dance in the show was the modern dance.” –Tilly
And a word from our outstanding faculty member, Geena!
“I had a great experience during my first week at Ross. The students’ excitement about my choreography kept me going! I was glad they enjoyed learning the dance from Trinidad. It was fun to share it with them!”

Behind the Scenes with Gee Marie

In the months leading up to Danspace, we sent over 15,000 emails! This number is not an exaggeration. Between sending save the dates, invitations, acquiring presenters, press, and email blasts, our communication is constant. There is so much that goes into getting ready for a performance than just the creation of the piece that I never thought about while watching a show. It is the creativity and hardworking dancers that makes the marketing and administrative tasks more important. It is the dancers hard work that makes me want to work hard. I want the dancers to have a great season and that comes with getting butts in seats! And that’s not all, getting sponsorships, ads in the program, and donations for an after party. If this wasn’t a lot already for a 3-person office staff, we launched our Kickstarter a month before the premiere. Kickstarter has an app for your smartphone and every time I get an update that we got a backer, I say ‘Yes!’ no matter where I am. New Yorkers are used to weirder things!

It has been quite the journey with BodyStories to Danspace this season. I was one of the lucky few to have a front seat or rather ‘backstage’ view to the whole process. I have seen the piece be worked and reworked since rehearsals and showings in early September, our Holiday Fundraiser, and the ITE showing at DANY studios in January. It has even grown a ton since the recent preview a month ago in Boston. I am excited to see the final product and see how the audience reacts to it. I know that some of the audience is already excited about it from the amount of support we are receiving through the Kickstarter campaign. It is nice to see how much BodyStories is loved and that has a lot to do with the amazing dancers Teresa Fellion has put in her company. And Teresa Fellion herself who gave this piece life when she first introduced it as part of her thesis at Sarah Lawrence.

I am still having trouble believing that the Premiere at Danspace is happening in just 9 days! I remember asking Teresa back in September if I could stay with the company through May because I would like to see them through their season. It is finally here and I have lost count of how many things I have done to prepare for it. There is still more to do as we head into tech week or as we called it in high school drama, ‘hell week’. In that final week we will be bringing everything togehter, lighting, music, last marketing push, and ending the Kickstarter.
I think people who come will be impressed by the piece’s artistry and the space, and how the dancers perform within that space in order to take them into their world. Teresa has worked with lighting designer, Tim Cryan to really take advantage of how to bring the audience on this journey. Thank you BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance for letting me be a part of the family since September and allowing me to help bring you to your destination at Danspace Project, May 21-23!

Holiday Benefit Party 2014

At Gibney Dance Studio
Food, Drink, Art & Silent Auctions, Live Music and Dance! We couldn’t have asked for a better turnout. It was great to celebrate a great year with everyone who came. 

Dance Performances by Corey Bliss, Iman Barnes, Zach Bergfelt, Alex Jenkins­, Andrew Magazine, Monica Mordaunt,  Audrey Rachelle Stanley, and Corinne Teklitz.
Live Music by Orin Kurtz,  Vin Scialla, and Chris Macchia.

Introducing Our Company Members!

We would like to introduce you to one of our company’s talented dancers, Andrew Magazine! In this post he tells us about his dance journey, how he has come to love dance, and how he has evolved into the dancer he is today.

It’s safe to say that dance has infiltrated my psyche; my thought and decision-making processes, my devotions, my prospective on human-to-human interaction and reaction. Most concretely, a wise woman and dance/life mentor of mine, Debra Fernandez, Chair of Dance at Skidmore College, imbued in me Merce Cunningham’s extraction of the I-Ching: life is a series of broken and unbroken lines and each set of broken lines is made up of many unbroken ones. This idea has both grounded and shaken me many times over, giving me solid solace in the most unsure times (and as a dancer, there are certainly plenty of those) and reminding me that life will hiccup soon, when it feels stagnant.

I began moving at age ten, when my middle school, The Trevor Day School, required all students to take two weeks of each art form offered at the school. Cycling through the visual, fine, and performing arts, I was unamused, uninspired, unsatisfied until that first day of dance class. I was in a period of great transition at the time, dealing with loss, new and unfamiliar environments, and a shaken world with a whole lot of uncertainty, but then I began to soar; I found that flying through space and time in the studio was much more tangible and alive than other art forms and, quite frankly, than anything I’d ever felt (except maybe really good chicken noodle soup).

I was exposed to high caliber modern dance early in life, as I was fortunate enough that my school brought in such choreographers as Tere O’Connor and David Thomson, among others. Those opportunities left me hungry for more of that rigorous thought towards movement, so I sought after more of that intelligence when I attended Skidmore College. It was there that I fell in love with classical ballet and the cleanliness that accompanies formal modern concert dance. I became enamored with the classics, but wanted more questions answered. I began to demand efficiency of myself, not just accuracy (as classical ballet provided) thanks to my fantastic teachers and mentors there at Skidmore. I was truly hungry, which is why after graduating I took an apprenticeship with Vertigo in Jerusalem and found my somatic and physical significance when I was exposed to the value that the Israeli dance community places on Contact Improvisation. I guess you could place my gravitation towards a dance form somewhere between the Ballet Russes and cliffside contact jams in the desert.

BodyStories has helped me find my voice as a professional dancer, it has shown me how fast things can change, how important the individual is to group work, and to value the opportunity to move. I am grateful for what I’ve gained through my experience with BodyStories thus far, for the people I’ve been privileged enough to work with and learn from, the work I’ve had the freedom to investigate, and the positivity that pours out of Teresa through all of her dancers and collaborators.

Introducing Our Company Members!

This week’s blog highlights Corey Bliss, an amazing dancer who has brought so much to our company since 2009. We love Corey! Read about her life as a dancer and her favorite experiences bonding with our company.

I started dancing at age 4. My mom worked full time, so my grandmother was in charge of keeping me occupied during the afternoons. There was a dance studio across the street from the hospital where my grandmother worked as an ER nurse, so she thought that would be the perfect activity to keep me busy – convenient, too! I took my first class and was instantly hooked. It turns out I was quite the ham, and loved performing and being on stage (especially when it involved lots of sequins).

Dance has defined my life from the first day I set foot in the studio. It was the only activity that I never wanted to give up or cut back on when I was growing up – I just kept wanting more, and more….and, yes, more. I was (ok, still am) a bit of a nerd, and had a hard time in school socially. So, dance became my escape…a place where I could truly be myself, in all my awkward glory. In fact, I met my two closest, lifelong friends in dance class in second grade. Dance fuels my soul, and I feel very, very lucky and blessed to have an inspiring and consistent performing career, in addition to two rewarding part-time jobs in the dance field.

I appreciate and love to watch all types of dance, from ballet to bharata natyam. But, I definitely prefer to perform and explore modern and contemporary styles. I am a verbal person, so word prompts usually get my creative juices flowing in the studio. Once the movements have been created and are being refined, however, I try to find the precision in the physicality to enhance my performance quality. I often create some pretty messy movements in rehearsal, so I like to go back later and pick apart a sequence to discover exactly what it is physically that is initiating or informing the movement. In doing so, I do draw on the larger theme or influencing idea, so that there is some motivation behind the precision. There is nothing I love more than the performing, so I suppose that being on stage is my ultimate connection to the movement – when the lights go up, I am ON. The movement develops a life of its own – new dimensions…

Teresa has a collaborative rehearsal process that I really enjoy. It’s great to be valued and appreciated as a true dance artist, as opposed to “just a body learning and doing steps.” I did not grow up or train in a collaborative environment, so the process can sometimes be a challenge for me (especially when I am not feeling so creative on a given day). But, those challenges have also helped me to constantly evolve and grow as a dancer, even after being with the company for over five years. I am inspired daily by the strength and artistry of the other dancers in the company…they always push me beyond my limits. As an artist, I can’t ask for anything more!

I would have to say that the highlights of my tenure with BodyStories: Teresa Fellion were touring and performing in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2010 and 2013. There’s nothing quite like reading that first glowing review from an international publication…it’s quite surreal. Also, the company’s creative residency at Dragon’s Egg this past January was a wonderful bonding experience for the whole company – okay, so we may have stayed up a bit too late playing card games and sharing stories and laughing until we fell over, but we made some serious magic happen in that space in just 2 and a half short days!

Thanks Corey, for describing the love and connection of the company with your beautiful words! Be sure to come see it for yourself on June 21 at the MMAC!

Introducing Our Company Members!

We would like to introduce you to one of our company’s talented dancers, Julia! In this post she tells us about her past experiences, what she loves about dance, and how she evolved into the dancer she is today.

I starting dancing in kindergarten around the age of 5. My mom enrolled me in ballet and tap at a studio down the street from our house in Massachusetts. I always knew that dance just made sense to me. It is my way of communicating. It is also one of the main things in my life that makes me feel really happy. Taking class and performing gives me confidence and joy and makes me feel superhuman. There’s nothing else like it.

Here she talks about what type of dance she prefers

I really enjoy dancing with a lot of release and rebound. I also love full weighted partnering. I  also like to connect all of my movements through imagery, sounds, and experience. For example, a ripple through the body may turn me into a flag whipping in the wind, or I may make the sound of wind with my mouth when I do the movement, or I might imagine the experience of your hair writhing and blowing from the hair dryer. I also make a lot of noises when I’m teaching or remembering movement.

She reveals her journey with BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance

My favorite experience with BodyStories was our trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for the Fringe Festival. I truly enjoyed bonding with the company dancers, exploring a new country, and sharing Teresa’s work with dancers from around the world. My favorite part of the trip was when we did a contact improv jam with local dancers. They were so willing, open, and inventive and it really made the whole journey more personal and magical!

Julia’s experience working with BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance has been one to remember! She has brought great creativity and energy to the company. Please come see her amazing performance on June 21!

Introducing our company members!!

This week we are excited to feature Koryn Ann Wicks! Koryn started working with the company in 2012 during our chashama Anita’s Way residencies and performances, and then joined us as a Guest Artist in 2013. Below she shares her background and process as a dancer. Please come see her perform on June 21!  http://www.ticketfly.com/event/571661

I began dancing when I was around 3 or 4 years old. My older sister started taking dance classes the year before me and when I went to her recital I threw a huge fit because I wasn’t allowed to dance on the stage. One of the teachers took pity on me and let me come up on stage for the finale. After that I was hooked.

To me, dance has always been a kind of balancing act between physical and emotional. At its core, dance is a form of expression through movement; it is the ability to communicate with the body. For me it’s really about navigating that relationship; having the technique to execute movement and the artistic presence to make that movement speak.

I think that I can express this best through ballet. I’ve always really loved ballet. I love the lines, the purity of the technique, and the strength it gives you as a dancer. Although I don’t perform a lot of ballet, its definitely the foundation of my technique.

I also really enjoy a lot of the newer contemporary dance forms such as Gaga or Sidra Bell’s contemporary systems. I like the emphasis on improvisation I see in a lot of contemporary forms and the way they encourage us to find new forms within the body.

These forms of dance make me feel a strong connection to sound. There are a lot of instances when I’m rehearsing where I think of movement in terms of a noise; silly things, like thinking of a chug as a grunt to get the right quality.

I’m also really big on physical precision in my dancing. The dancers I most admire have a beautiful sense of precision and its something I’m always striving towards in my work. There is something really serene in giving each movement its due; not rushing through them, executing with integrity.