4. Space & Improvisation

"Even the ears must dance"

Natalia Makarova

In dance, dancers have to be alert with their surroundings, especially when they are doing performance in group. This is important as the performance requires uniformity, synchronization, and understanding among dancers. Otherwise, it will be a catastrophic disaster on stage. 

Good eyes, ears and body coordination are needed. Dancers are required to understand the floor patterns correctly, and besides memorizing their movements, they need to know their space, and how to position themselves correctly among other dancers. The real challenge happens when a large group of dancers dance on a small stage, and vice-versa. 

A dancer needs to be versatile, and able to adapt changes instantly. It happened to me once, where the stage was too small, and there were ten of us performing a dance which requires us to move aggressively. So, we have to limit our movements on stage, and at the same time, the aggressiveness must be shown in our movements. This is where creative minds are needed. 

An exemplary manager on the other hand needs to understand the climate of the organisation. Good management derives from a good interpretation of the organisation's structure, which requires a person to interact with everyone in the organisation. There are days when we will be facing difficulties in performing our tasks, however with some enhancement to the management technique, perhaps the process will be performed easily. 

To understand that deeper, one must not afraid of doing mistake (refer to 0:17, where a dancer is having some wardrobe malfunction, and she manages to return back on stage moments later, 1:15), in fact it must be followed with improvisation through creative processes.  

However, interaction and mutual understanding from other dancers are needed to ensure that the empty space is covered perfectly. I remember during my training sessions, I need to know how other dancer move and how to improvise if something like the above video happens during the show. The most essential part is actually the ability to continue though it involves some difficult circumstances. 

Besides improvisation, dancers in group also need to have the esprit de corps attitude, as the uniformity and synchronization of the dance will be depending on how dancers coordinate themselves on stage. Same things goes with management, as one can never work alone in an organisation. It needs a group of people to manage, just like any jazz jamming session, where everyone is complementing each other to produce the best piece of music. 

Nevertheless, as the esprit de corps counts, every single dancer needs to have the best competencies themselves. In performing arts, people will find your mistakes easily, hence having adequate skills is a must to make the audience understand what we are trying to perform.

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself"

Mikhail Baryshnikov