Rewards and Benefits

April 17, 2010

Our process can be a little rushed at times. It always feels like we are just barely getting the dances into their bodies by the performance. This is because of the nature of how often we rehearse compared to the increasingly growing demands of the company. However, it is after a week like we just had that I can actually feel the benefits and rewards provided by these performance opportunities.

I create art for the process. Most do it for the performance element. As time has gone by, I’ve found more and more the rewards from performing. An ensemble thrives at these times because it forces the dancers to pull together more and, if they are lucky, grow as performers.

The Fringe Preview last Monday was, as always, a lightning whirlwind of a good time. We literally ran the 14 dancers through the acid-induced disco set of the School House Rock-adorned Orlando Shakes as a blocking rehearsal. The three-minute excerpt went by so fast. I found myself leaning into the wings to watch the dancers make their costume changes as if my being there would help. The brief compilation showcased the dynamic ensemble company’s versatility, and the dancers lived up to their potential.

Our Third Thursday’s collaboration with the Neu America Art Gallery in City Arts factory was our second performance of the week. It was such a treat to bring some of our smaller rep into another art element. The dance with the music with the backdrop of the paintings and other visual art was a multifaceted transcendence of art. Everything popped with energy and color. I think that energy inspired artistic growth among the dancers, too, because I saw some new qualities of movement. Some people had moments I’d never seen from them before. They also showed what a wonderful team and family we are.

Any chance we can get to spread the Yow Dance gospel the better. The dancers grow and are rewarded, our audience expands, and we just keep rejuvenating that community of harmony that is called art.

All of me,

Eric Yow

Downtown Energy

April 17, 2010

While the dancers from Yow Dance were performing inside the Neu American Art Gallery on Orange Avenue last week during Orlando’s really cool monthly art event, Third Thursday, I was looking at a 6-inch-long heart surgery scar on a homeless man.

And that’s not all. After I listened to the man’s story of misfortune and gave him what money I had (seriously, all I had was a dollar!), he told me how that really wasn’t enough and I should really give him enough dough to tear into some pizza just a few strides away at Gino’s.

I spent the next two minutes trying to rebalance my stash of Yow Dance magnets I was using to promote Yow’s appearance at the Fringe Festival, along with my now completely money-free purse, two flyers I had been handed from promoters in the area, a few of my own business cards and, of course, a plastic cup of Merlot. All the while, I was still trying to chat it up with passersby who seemed interested or confused by the dancers through the window at the art gallery. My job that night, as the relatively new president of the board for Yow, was to introduce people who had never heard of our company to Yow Dance’s unique style and talented group of dancers.

I was just beginning to feel the confidence needed by a person in my shoes (brown, very high-heeled, with a strap cutting into my left ankle). I’m not a dancer, I’m new to the arts community of Central Florida, and I spend most of my time thinking I look as out of place as I feel. Then Rosa and her friend stopped by to enjoy the show, and while we were in a lively discussion about dance, Rosa began to tell me what a great aesthetician she is and how she’d love to have a go at my face.

The friendly stranger rubbed her professionally trained finger in the furrow of my brow and told me how much she’d love to tighten that up. She then pointed at my teensy little crow’s feet and said she’d erase years of excessive smiling from them. And then, with a grimace, she traced the line from my nose to the corner of my mouth and said, “Oh, honey, I’ll have to fix that, too.”

Seriously?

At that point, I had to snicker to myself a little bit. Although I had endured the unfortunate drifter, the uncomfortable shoes and the well-meaning wrinkle corrector, I had also met a family running the Corporate 5-K taking place that evening, an artist who loves painting contemporary dancers, a businessman who’s never watched dancing before, and a dog-walker who told me he was not interested but watched transfixed for 20 minutes straight. I met a Spanish-language reader who just performed at the library a couple of blocks away and was mesmerized by the beauty of the dancers. I talked with a woman who hadn’t danced since college and missed the art form. I met a comedian, a Colombian painter, a pianist, a doctor, a writer, a Xanadu promoter. And dozens others.

It was an experience that sent me home energized about downtown, the art scene and the diverse cultures. I left excited about Yow Dance’s potential among this eclectic community and proud of the dancers’ performance that, even watching from the street without music, was a lovely sight. And I smiled to myself about all the new faces I encountered — knowing it was creating just a few more lines that sweet Rosa would one day want to take away.

Loving Orlando,

Tyler Reed