Ralph Escamillan - Dancer

In the past few rehearsals i had a breakthrough, which nominated me as a featured dancer for those rehearsals.  For one of the rehearsals Pam, Melina and i had to use Melina’s solo she developed from the day before and find ways to use contact in it. We played with some lifts and contact through our limbs and taryn would come often to see what she liked, and fix what she didn’t like. There were a number of lifts where i was the one that was lifting and since im not as experienced in lifting liked to have more time to figure pathways out. But before we got to a point where we actually got it, taryn would change it because it was not working. I was annoyed a bit and did tell her half way through to back off a bit just because we all need the time to figure stuff out. Which after the three of us found our rhythm and cleared up pathways and it was all fine and dandy!  She later made us do our phrase we made x3 to the point of exhaustion which actually turned out pretty well from what she said.

Frustration for me is normal and when i come to it, i need my time to figure things out whether it is in the studio, at home or at work. Me being in a room of professional dancers, and me dancing the least (4years), i  feel pressured to get better fast! But since i don’t have as much experience it will take me a bit more time than others, but i will work my ass off to get it. For example the lifts we were working on, since I don’t know as many pathways to lift someone it was hard for me to think of alternate ways of lifting.  But again this is why i also love contemporary dance, i get to be pushed in ways other dance genres may not be able to push me.  Im happy to be a contemporary dancer… and lucky!

In the following rehearsal, taryn made us use words to describe each person and later we did an improv trying to find ways to turn them into their opposites. In the improv there was a moment where jenn asked me the question “why are you here?” repeatedly. At first i replied with “because i wanna dance… For in layers…” then i figured out that “i don’t know what im here”. As we sat infront of each other, and me, dumfounded by the idea i felt a shift. A change in the alignments of the planets… i broke away from what i knew and was just in the moment. I sat there thinking “why am i here?… WHY AM I HERE?” a question everyone should ask them self, but is it a question that needs answering? There are something that the universe has not given an answer to, and for good reason. So i think the answer is that the question will always be unanswered, but it the idea of asking the question in the first place… and to explore the idea of one.