Summerdance

July 26, 2007
by Liva

I find myself right in the middle of SummerDance at Stone Mountain Farm, nestled in this magical land where close to 4 dancers are sweating and expanding their dance horizons each day. That's the word for the day....expansion. We have such wonderful teachers this year...Mirah Moriarty and Rodrigo Esteva are teaching release technique and the students are getting to explore dancing on low levels and with courage, weight and balance challenges and a sense of freedom that they never knew they had. NIna Jirka, our amazing ballet teacher originally from the Kremlin Ballet in Russia is herself, exploring ways of teaching the basics of placement and groundedness in order to fully embody the ballet vocabulary. She uses yoga as well as her own forms to diligently demand excellence and attention in the moment from each student. Kieran Jordan, Irish/modern/sean-nos dancer from the Boston area, is here this week only to share her wealth of knowledge of Cape Breton step dancing and sean-nos (old form of Irish music and dance) combined with innovative movement ideas. Toby Stover and Fode Sissoko are working with the students on West African Drum and Dance focusing this week on a Congolese dance. The day is so full and that doesn't include the 1/2 mile walk from the stage in the meadow, to the unique studio above the horse barn. Rustic, unique, envigorating, fresh are just some of the words that come to mind. I myself love watching and helping to shuttle the students back and forth when there's a downpour. Amber Wirthmann has done a great job as program director and there's a whole new crew coming on for next week.