Thanks to Jonathan Wolken...

by karen Krolak

Photo Credit: Robert Whitman

This morning my friend, Joanne, forwarded me an obituary for Jonathan Wolken from the New York Times. Uff, I just wither when dance legends die, especially so young.

Although Pilobolus Dance Theater began in the year that I was born, I did not discover them until I attended the American Dance Festival in 1992. When I auditioned for the partnering class with two Pilobolus dancers, Jack Arnold and Carol Parker, I was oblivious. If someone had suggested to me that all 5 foot 4 inches of me could lift a 6 foot tall man, I would have cackled hysterically. And, I probably would never have enrolled.

That class obliterated my definition of myself as a dancer as it taught me how to leverage my weight. Watching Carol, who was tiny except for her very pregnant belly, flip people over or perch up on some one's back, thrilled me. At the end of the 6 weeks, I felt empowered physically and artistically. I am not sure if any other workshop has ever prompted such a transformation in me.

I never met Mr Wolken but I have told the story of how he founded Pilobolus to many kids, including all the boys in the Dover Sherborn High School musicals during my time there. As the New York Times so eloquently begins, "Jonathan Wolken, a nondancer who four decades ago helped found a dance troupe, named it after a fungus and watched gleefully as that troupe — Pilobolus Dance Theater — became one of the most popular modern-dance companies in the world." Seriously, how can anyone resist being inspired by such a story.

To this day, I still use Pilobolus' flocking exercises to begin my modern classes. Those three looks, three touches, three hugs turn students' focus onto the group as a whole. It gradually teaches them how to share weight. Through our conversations after the exercise, kids stumble onto metaphors about how to be a good partner, a concept that extends far beyond their time in the studio.

Thanks Mr Wolken for your indirect influence on my life and on my students. Your ideas will continue to ripple out for a long time.

(Also, I have long since lost touch with both Jack Arnold and Carol Parker. In those pre-email, pre-Facebook days, that was so easy to do even if you had the best intentions. If anyone knows them, please forward this post to them. This is obviously a tribute to their legacy as teachers as well.)

NEA Grantee of the Day - American Dance Festival

(Part of an ongoing series that demonstrates how some of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Direct Grantees have influenced Monkeyhouse's growth.)

by Karen Krolak

American Dance Festival, Inc./Durham, NC/$50,000 - In 1992 I spent 6 sweat soaked weeks at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. Our days were crammed full of technique and conditioning classes taught by legendary performers and some exciting emerging artists. After a day and a half of auditons, I landed in a Modern class with Dianne McIntyre, an Advanced Jazz class with Bernard Johnson, a Music Theory tutorial by Carman Moore, and a Pilobolus style partnering intensive with Carol Parker and Jack Arnold. Seventeen years later, I still use cherished tidbits from those classes when I teach. Monkeyhouse's Firk II particularly draws on partnering skills that I acquired at ADF.

All the technique classes were accompanied by live musicians, an exquisite luxury that far too few studios can afford these days. Most of the accompanists still work at the festival and either played drums or piano. One week in Dianne McIntyre's class, however, we were treated A Capella improvisations by Toby Twining. I was so intrigued by his startling range of vocalizations that I purchased his CD, Shaman. My 1998 piece, Idolum/Invisible to the Eyes (see photo above, was set to track 1, Hymn, from that CD. (Thanks again, Mr Twining, for giving this virtually unknown artist in 1998 permission to use it.)

Evenings revolved around rehearsals and attending performances by luminaries of the dance world including, Pilobolus, Paul Taylor, Donald McKayle, and Liz Lerman. On a few rare occasions when there was a gap in my schedule, I observed Daniel Nagrin's choreography class.

The summer program also introduced me to artists, such as Ron K Brown, Donald Byrd, and Mark Dendy, whose work was just begining to attract national attention. As it happens, one of the only students that I really remember from ADF was a striking male dancer with a pierced eyebrow (it was 1992 and tattoos were still taboo in the dance world) named Miguel Gutierrez. It has been thrilling to watch his remarkable artistic trajectory.

Thanks to everyone at the American Dance Festival for six weeks that continue to spur my creative endevours. Thanks also to my parents who encouraged me to attend.