This week, we’re delighted to introduce you to one of the outstanding dancers in the company, Sam Wong. Originally from Santa Monica, California Sam shares with us his thoughts on dance, life and his experience with BodyStories so far…
I began dancing after growing up spending most of my time in theatre – I trained growing up at the Santa Monica Playhouse in Santa Monica, California for most of my young life and then switched to intensively training in dance at the end of high school. I’ve always loved performing & dance to me, was a fuller, more lived way of performing in comparison to much of the theater I did during that time! I certainly feel like my theatre training has had a great influence on my dancing and it has helped me in a lot of ways. To me, dancing just felt right and I haven’t looked back since…
Sam talks about what dance means to him.
To me, dance is one of the closest things we have to tangible magic. There is something otherworldly when the right movement travels across your body, the wind in your ears and the floor beneath your feet. It is like building and riding your own roller coaster everyday, accessible to you at any time. You can see it when invested dancers perform beautiful movement, they are somewhere else yet so present and alive. When I dance, it is about being able to connect with something bigger than myself and feeling alive.
I love all dance and I’m constantly seeking to play with the different types of dance I learn. But currently I enjoy contemporary ballet the most – simply because I find that there is something amazing about being given a strict set of well defined rules and guidelines and getting to choose which you want to keep and which you rather break and then go back to. Mentally and physically it is mind-blowing. I’ve recently discovered a drive to improve my hip-hop as well, as it is a completely different way of naturally moving than I prefer – and that’s why I love it!
My perception of dance keeps evolving over time as I learn and hear new things. One of my most favorite words of wisdom was from one of my past teachers at The George Washington University, Anthony Gongora, who teaches Modern/Postmodern dance. While he was teaching another student one day, he told her “when you move, think about moving the air particles around you”. I found that beautiful. In a ballet class the teachers posed, “Why don’t you dance from your inseams?” Loved that one as well. Recently I’ve been thinking about sculptors, how many great sculptors say they can just look at a block of material, see the 3D image, and remove the unnecessary surroundings. Conversely, I have been thinking of imagining the space around me to be a large block of material and there is just enough space for me to fit into a pre-designed space where I can only fit into the exact shape given.
Here is another memorable experience from working with BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance that Sam would like to share with everyone.
A great moment for me was when we performed at APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) in January. We got to dance at Jazz at Lincoln Center with a beautiful view of Columbus Circle lit up at night through the backdrop. If only in the last quarter of NOGOOHA the music hadn’t cut out! We had to dance the end in silence…certainly an unexpected challenge as the last moments are in unison taken off the music!
The dancers definitely had seamless performances that evening, surpassing even the most challenging technical glitches that can happen in live theatre!