Interview with Laurana Wong

Our first interview was with Laurana Wong, and we were gifted by the talents of photographer and videographer, Laura Falkner, as well as the generous editing and production provided by Andy Miller.  We will ultimately produce a documentary film once funding is secured, and this is a glimpse into our vision in the meantime.

Interview with Marcia Pittman

Where does your inspiration come from?
I feel inspired by the feeling of being present when I dance.  Nothing else exists but my movement and the movement going on around me. 

What dance inspire(s)(d) you the most?
Learning about the modern dance movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s inspired me.  This whole movement opened up new possibilities to the definition of dance.  Something clicked for me at that point.  I realized you did not need classical training to dance from the heart.  That took me out of the formal class format and into classes for self-expression and personal growth.  My psychology and dance education became a combined goal.  

How did you get started, and what motivated you to go in your dance direction?
I started dancing at a young age and loved the escape and freedom that dance offered me.
I worked as a Dance Therapist.  I worked for several years in the mental health field.    

Tell us about your dance background and the teachers you worked with.
I graduated with a dual degree in Dance and Psychology.  In college I was introduced to the many styles of modern, improvisation, and contact improvisation.  This style of dance blended well with my work in the mental health field and with special populations.

What other art forms do you incorporate into your work?
Visual arts.

Tell us about your dance style and classes you teach.
I am the artistic director of two dance companies.  Movin’ On, a company for adults with developmental disabilities founded 1987.  Senior Sensations, a company for senior adults founded 2006.  I have been teaching dance at Sinclair Community College for over 25 years.  Wheel-chair Dance, Modern Dance, Movement as Therapy and Improvisation Techniques are some of the classes at Sinclair.  I also offer classes in the community for adults and children with a focus on self-expression and personal growth. Many of the people I work with have little or no formal training.

Why did you want to work with Women and Dance in Dayton, Ohio?
Three words—-Women       Dance      Deniz

Could you tell us what dance means to you as a woman and a part of the Dayton Dance Community?
It feels like a wonderful accomplishment to be dancing, teaching, and choreographing in the Dayton community for over 35 years.

How do you feel about your dance on a spiritual level?
Dancing for me is like moving meditation.  When I teach, a joy comes from watching others share that joy.

Interview with Erin Long Robbins

Where does your inspiration come from?
I always take inspiration from my students.  Sometimes I create a piece to showcase what they are good at and sometimes I do a work that will challenge them and take them beyond their comfort zone to push them to their next level in their training.

What dancer inspired you the most?
I would have to say Gelsey Kirkland.  I watched HOURS of videos of her dancing many different roles.  I think she was a big inspiration for most of the ballet dancers of my generation.  Unfortunately, she also later became a cautionary tale for us too.  It was hard watching someone you admire and who was one of the most talented dancers the world had ever seen go through drug addiction and eating disorder issues that eventually ended her career way too soon.  I think that made the biggest impression on me.

How did you get started, and what motivated you to go in your dance direction?
I started at the age of 4 and loved it.  I started taking every day for hours each day by the age of 8.  I loved the challenge, grace, attention to detail, power and precision of ballet.  I loved to perform and was lucky enough to get many opportunities to do so in the school in which I grew up.

Did you know this was what you wanted to do as a child?
I was hooked on dance until about age 16.  I guess you could say the pressure got to me.  The dance world can be an extremely cruel and demanding place, especially the ballet world.  I had a lot of expectations placed upon me, and it would kill me a bit when I couldn’t live up to all of them.  I burnt out, pure and simple.  I had decided to turn down a professional contract with a major ballet company at 17 and go to college instead to be a psychologist.  Several of my teachers had, I guess what you’d call an intervention.  They sat me down and told me that if anyone could renew my love of dance, it would be Jon Rodriguez who ran the dance department at Wright State University.  I had never heard of WSU, but I had taken several classes from Jon at dance festivals I had attended and liked him.  I looked and saw WSU had a psych program as well and so I decided to give it one quarter, fully intending to switch my major to psych.  My teachers were right; Jon was exactly what I needed.  He left me alone and let me find my own way.  When I graduated from WSU with a BFA in dance and minor in psych, I still didn’t have the desire to go into a dance career.  I remember Jon telling me, ‘If you really think that the dance world needs to change, go out and be that change.’  I have tried to do that by dedicating my life to teaching ballet.

Tell us about your dance back ground and the teachers you worked with.
I started dancing at the age of 4 in Pennsylvania at Allegheny Ballet Company.  I also took summer classes at CPYB, Pennsylvania Ballet and Saratoga’s Summer Program on full scholarship.  I graduated summa cum laude from Wright State University with a BFA in dance.  I had many teachers including: Deborah Anthony, Cherie Noble, Melinda Howe, Richard Cook, Jon Rodriguez, Suzanne Walker, Marcia Dale Weary, Bo and Stephanie Spassoff, Jeffrey Gribler, Robert Stelle, Bettijane Sills, Paul Gibson, Dermot Burke, Karen Russo, Gennadi Vostrikov, Barbara Sandonato, Nancy Schaffenburg, Karen Russo-Burke and David Holliday.

What other art forms do you incorporate into your work?
Dance is pretty much it for me.  Obviously, music is a necessity and acting as well.

Tell us about your dance style and classes you teach.
I teach mostly ballet which is my forte. I teach ballet for the studio I co-own, South Dayton School of Dance, Wright State, Sinclair and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company as well as guest teaching around the country in the summer.  I had a very diverse ballet education so I teach a very eclectic style taking from the Russian (Vaganova), Italian (Cecchetti), Danish (Bournonville) and neoclassical (Balanchine) techniques.  I also teach musical theatre jazz at Wright State and two gen-ed lecture classes on dance at Sinclair.

Why did you want to work with Women and Dance in Dayton, Ohio?
Even though it’s mostly females that choose a career in dance, most of the major choreographers and artistic directors in the dance world, and the ballet world especially, are men.  I feel empowering women is very important.

Could you tell us what dance means to you as a woman and a part of the Dayton Dance Community?
I think the art scene in Dayton is astonishing.  I think you’d be hard pressed to find a city of this size with a ballet company, modern company, opera, philharmonic, theater companies, community theater groups, performing arts high school, pre-professional dance companies, etc.  It’s pretty amazing when you think about it and pretty exciting too.  It astonishes me how many local businesses are willing to support the non-profit, pre-professional dance company that I help to run, South Dayton Dance Theatre. One of our major fundraisers is a silent auction and every year local restaurants like and other locally owned business and even other local non-profits step and donate money and products to the cause.  The amount of support from the community and local businesses here in Dayton is truly inspiring! Not to mention all the public that comes out to see all these arts organizations in action and the fact we have a group like Culture Works that takes private and corporate donations and distributes these moneys through  grants to local area artists and non-profit arts organizations.

How do you feel about your dance on a spiritual level?
The Oxford dictionary defines spiritual as, ‘of relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.’ Dance affects my soul; it is the passion that inspires my life.  Movement without words is a very powerful thing.