Dance
Department Guest Facultys Stay Short but Sweet
by Douglass Dowty
In
the time that they have been at Oberlin, Guest Dance Faculty members
Kent de Spain and Leslie Dworkin have taught dance students from
their own unique perspective, that of the free-lance and highly-lauded
performer, artist and teacher. De Spain is a noted expert on dance
improvisation, while Dworkin excels in an experimental style of
dancing called Release-based Technique. Each of them
hold degrees from Temple University and Dworkin is a 1995 Oberlin
alumna.
Since joining forces in 1991, Dworkin and De Spain have appeared
at the nations leading dance institutions, including Jacobs
Pillow in Massachusetts and Judson Church in New York City. They
have also toured with the Brazilian modern dance company, Grupo
Tran Chan, and were members of dancer Kei Takeis loose-knit
company Moving Earth.
While they dont usually do actual work with each other in
the dancing field, this duo travels together and have served parallel
appointments at many higher learning institutions, including UCLA,
Bryn Mawr College and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
Their residence at Oberlin ends the beginning of Fall Break.
The following is an abridged version of an interview conducted with
Dworkin and De Spain Wednesday, Oct. 10.
Douglass
Dowty: How did each of you individually become interested in dancing?
De
Spain: I had no thought of ever dancing as an adolescent or whatever,
but I was interested in acting and singing, and was literally forced
to dance in a musical. The director said, If you want to be
in the show, youre going to have to dance. So I started
to dance and loved it. I was supposed to enter UCLA as an economics
major and entered as a dance major.
Dworkin:
In some ways, I feel I didnt choose dancing, it sort of chose
me. I just feel compelled. There are video tapes of me when Im
three dancing around. I didnt have much training in high school
at all. Then when I got [to Oberlin], I made a somewhat conscious
decision to really pursue it more, though I was not a dance major,
I was a religion major. Once I graduated, I started dancing in a
small company in Michigan, and realized I had to do this.
DD: Why did you come back to Oberlin? Was that the prime motivation?
D:
I definitely wanted to come back and see how things had changed.
I havent been back to this place since I went here. Its
great to be back. Things have changed a lot
the [dance] department
has changed a lot. But also its great to be teaching, so we
go wherever they offer us work, [laughter] and they offered us something
while Nusha [Martynuk] and Carter [McAdams] were on sabbatical.
DD:
Where are you two going when you end your term at Oberlin?
D:
Were going to New York for a short time
Kent has to do
a presentation for a conference there. And then we are moving to
the San Francisco Bay Area.
DD:
What conference?
DS:
The Conference for Research and Dance. I do a lot of writing on
improvisation and others things. But I also do a lot of presenting
on dance and pornography.
DD:
Mr. De Spain, can you explain a little about your interest in improv
dancing?
DS:
Its a particular interest of mine. Performance improv is particularly
different than choreography, because youre having to deal
with the form and the content in real time, instead of planning
ahead of time. When youre improvising in performance, you
have to make it up on the spot. Yet you have to have some of the
same sense of where a piece begins, where is it going, where is
it coming to a conclusion. [My interest in that] came out of the
training I got, really. When I entered UCLA it was a time when a
lot of Improv was going on in the mid-70s. I was really just
thrown into it. It was what everyone else was doing, and I thought,
wow, this is really interesting.
DD:
Ms. Dworkin, can you explain a little about your specialty [in Release-based
Technique]?
D:
It describes a qualitative range and can mean different things to
different people. Im really interested in a more body-friendly
way of using the body. Less outward shape and more an internal sense
of the body, of its weight, of its natural rhythm. When I work with
dancers, I like to open up the timing structure so that [the dancer]
can choreograph a phrase in their own time [as opposed to a set
meter]. Each person can have a kind of personal mark that way.
DD:
What is it that you are really trying to leave with the students
here at Oberlin?
DS:
For me, its a sense of the drive and passion and joy that
we get out of a life of moving. I just want to instill that in them.
Its a kind of weird combination of work ethic and joy.
D:
Part of it is if they can just get a taste of what it is like to
become more personally invested in the moving, and find a way to
really taste it on their own in a way thats satisfying for
them. And I remember when I was here it was just so wonderful to
have a bunch of people come and do a variety of things. I think
we have a different approach than a lot of the other faculty members,
and I hope its sunk in a little bit the short amount of time
we were here. A range of moving experiences.
Leslie
Dworkin and Kent De Spains students will perform Wednesday,
Oct. 17 at 5 p.m. in Warner Centers Main Dance Studio.
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