Getting to Know Derick Grant--Part 1

by Nicole Harris

Somewhere around 2004 I took students of mine from Impulse Dance Center to a Manhattan Dance Project workshop where I met tap teacher Derick K. Grant.  I was instantly enamored with his laid back yet individualized teaching style and when I found out he taught regularly in New York City I promised to begin showing up at places he was.  A few months later I walked into his class at Steps on Broadway in New York City while I was in town visiting my sister and knew just who I was.  "You're that girl from Boston.  You said you were going to being stalking me and here you are!"  Since then I have been lucky enough to study fairly extensively with Derick and I consider him to be one of the biggest influences on my tap dancing today.  Last year he and I sat down to talk about his career, his choreography and his view on life.

NH: What was the first thing you ever choreographed?

DG: Lord have mercy, the first thing?  Well, let’s say the first official thing was a solo. It was called “Drums.” I was a rookie in the Jazz Tap Ensemble and I was challenged to choreograph a piece. I got to work with Jerry Kalaf, who was the musical director. It was the first time where I worked with live music, and had to like come up with arrangement, and make a dance. That was pretty cool. I was probably about 19. 

NH:  What are your biggest challenges as a choreographer?

DG:  For me being entertaining. I found that most of the tap choreography was very green. My main problem was getting people to dance while they tap, ‘cause most choreography that is used in shows is used with the purpose of telling a story. And most choreography that is used in tap dance are musical compositions. So finding a balance where you can use the body as a narrative, as an actor, but then use the sounds coming from those same movements, as a musical composition, is hardcore. 

NH:  Who are some of your favorite choreographers?
DG:  I’m going to have to say Jerome Robbins or Bob Fosse.  I started to study ballets because I realized that ballets were bodies of work that represented choreographers, and those pieces would live long after the choreographers died. And that in terms of being a choreographer, that’s kind of like the point, that’s like the painter making the painting. You want to have a piece that can live beyond you. You know? So then I started checking out the ballets, seeing what they had in common, and then what made them different from each other in terms of style and storytelling. And I had some success, I mean it was a rocky road because I don’t know a ton about ballet, so I probably missed a lot of the subtleties; they all kind of looked the same to me after awhile. I mean I know what’s a pretty turn, what’s a pretty leap, but that’s about the extent of it.  With Fosse and Jerome, you can see it in the body, like that’s a tap dancer there.  It was easy for me to respond and to understand that.

Special Thanks to Melissa Dollman for her assistance in getting this interview transcribed.  We love you!

Getting to Know Michael Vernon

by Nicole Harris

I have to admit, there are very few forces in the world that can make me voluntarily take ballet class. Michael Vernon is one of those forces. I met Michael at a Manhattan Dance Project workshop many years ago. Every year we would bring our students out to take class with Michael and the rest of the faculty. (psst! Keep an eye out for interviews with other MDP faculty too!) Sadly for me (although luckily for the students there) Michael became the Chair for the Department of Ballet at Indiana University right around the same time that I moved to New York, but whenever he's back in town I do my best to get over to Steps on Broadway (where he is on the faculty) to get in a few pliés.

Sarah Friswell, who has taken many of Michael's classes at Manhattan Dance Project over the years, chatted with Michael about his life as a choreographer, dancer and teacher.

SF: Who are some of your favorite choreographers? MV: George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Frederick Ashton.

SF: What’s your hometown?
MV: London, England

SF: What made you realize you wanted to be a choreographer?
MV: It was just a natural transition about the same time as I started dancing. My first teacher was a choreographer with choreographic classes so I grew up with it.

SF: What has been your favorite piece that you’ve choreographed and why?
MV: A piece with music by Philip Glass called “Endless Night”. I loved the music and loved the quotation by William Blake where the piece got its name.

SF: Do you have any unique fixes for “choreographer’s block”/what do you do when you get stuck while choreographing?
MV: Just push through it. Either stop and think or go slowly. It’s like anything. You sometimes fall back on something that you know works and you can always change it later. Listen to the music. You can always come back. No steps are really set in stone as they say.

SF: Do you prefer to work with a small group or a large group?
MV: It depends. That’s hard to answer. It depends on the ballet. You can get a great effect with big groups. Small groups you can work with detail and get to know the dancer so much better.

SF: What do you do first: choreograph steps then find music or find music and then choreograph steps?
MV: Music first.

SF: What is your favorite thing about being a choreographer?
MV: The form of expression. One is born into this sort of life and it’s satisfying. It’s the whole process of working with dancers, music, and a concept and putting it together on stage.

SF: You have an incredible background in ballet. Have you ever choreographed anything other than ballet?
MV: I studied Graham, Cunningham, tap, jazz, historical dancing, musical theater in the UK and was in a Broadway show. I use a balletic background, sometimes pure ballet and sometimes based on ballet.

SF: Do you prefer choreographing, teaching, or a combination of the two?
MV: I love teaching, I’m not saying I’m a good teacher, and I enjoy choreographing, I’m not saying I’m a good choreographer. But I believe they go hand in hand.

SF: What has been the most memorable experience of your career so far?
MV: Studying with Margot Fonteyn and Nureyev in the same building with the Royal Ballet at its heyday.

Photo Courtesy of Indiana University.