ABSTRACT
Educating the dancer in the principle of aplomb resonates clearly with the pre-eminent choreographer Balanchine’s ideas about time and expression in dance, and is pivotal. ‘Music is something that occupies architecturally a certain portion of time. On more subtle levels, Roger Tully's class opened a fresh way of experiencing time in training that has proved grounding and liberating. Dance training is a kind of ‘material thinking’ in the body, which engages action and reflection simultaneously. The sequences of dance action seem to be initiated neither by movement or music, but arise simultaneously from the same ‘place’ of stillness. Class is the action research at the heart of the dancer’s personal praxis. Canvassing fellow mature dancers, they all cite ‘joy’ as one reason for attending. Studying in unusual environment with somatic attention to the feeling of the geometry of the ballet forms has invited a deeper reflection about the author experience of the ‘fundamental principles’ in relationship to time.
