Clay Taliaferro, currently a professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is perhaps best known as the dancer chosen and coached by José Limón before his death in 1972 to take over Limón’s own roles...
In The Studio With Clay Taliaferro
Clay Taliaferro traveled to Maine last summer to set his piece Dancing Woman on Portland Ballet principal dancer Karen Hurll Montanaro. Throughout rehearsals held in the theater compound owned by Montanaro and her husband, mime Tony Montanaro, Taliaferro led Montanaro toward her own interpretation of the piece. At the same time, he constantly urged her on with physical imagery. "Look—I’m suspended by my elbow!" he said, when his choreography put Montanaro’s arms in a diamond with one elbow higher than the other. When Montanaro was running backward, body bent and arms outstretched, he said, "Practice going downstairs backwards. Try to capture that feeling." And when she fell, he commented, "That was good—now you know your limit."
He often discouraged her from what he called "virtuosity" in favor of letting movements happen as part of a necessary physical response. "Let your torso lead," he said at one point. "Your feet don’t really have to do anything." When her hands were behind her, he said, "They aren’t decorative—they are always utilitarian. They are pulling you." Another moment: "If it pushes you to relevé, that’s fine. But don’t make the relevé a priority."
"He didn’t want to see a trained ballet dancer putting her body into pretty poses," Montanaro explained later. "He wanted to see a woman thinking. I almost felt as if my inner dialogue was more interesting to him than his own choreography—that his choreography was a tool, bringing the inside out."
Taliaferro taught his piece without music, which will come later. "The music and the movement are like two equal tracks," he said. "They bisect with the dancer. When the dancer begins with the music, new things will happen. I like to leave a little bit to chance."
From the January 2003 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine
(www.dance-teacher.com)
Article by Jennifer Brewer
|
