ABSTRACT
Tensegrity is the tensional integrity of one’s body that one senses during moving. One’s bones float in this structure. One creates verticality, yet one’s bones do not stack. Activating tensegrity in moving led me to my body as a teacher. Reflexivity, reflection, introspection are all part of constructing this relationship, but supporting each of these is the physically sensed structure of tensegretic connections in the moving body. In learning to hear and work with these connections, which are paradoxes that pop up during the continual changing of one’s bodily shapes, I listened to my body, deeply and fully, and that is a somatic perspective. I share with many other dance artists a penchant for investing into the somatic view of dance. What distinguishes my journey is that I began developing my inner perspective in ballet – not the usual route. I was a principal ballerina during the 1970s and 1980s. Even though I danced at a time when dance genres were just beginning to fuse, ballet is still a dance genre where the product in terms of the way in which the body looks is emphasized more often than the way the body feels as it moves. As a principal ballerina for both the Chicago and Cincinnati Ballet Companies, my decade as a professional dancer had its share of wand-waving and tiara-wearing, but there were also roles from Lester Horton and Lars Lubovitch, and many, many roles from Ruth Page including Frankie and Johnny. It was the role of Frankie when performed in New York City that inspired Peter Anastos to come to Cincinnati to create a solo for me titled Isadora Dances. There were also jazz pieces and avant-garde works, one titled November Steps by Minsa Craig that was recently revived by Tom Gold Dance for the Guggenheim Museum. My point here is that I had to learn how to work my one body in many different ways to perform the over 60 varied roles in my repertoire. I learned how to do that from activating tensegrity in my body. Of note, and as a credit to tensegrity as well, I had no major injuries. Bleeding toes, muscle cramps, that sort of thing, yes, but no surgeries, broken bones, or torn myofascial tissue that prohibited me from dancing for weeks or months at a time. Activating tensegrity is a process of sustaining a healthy self through change.
