The over-arching title of my current choreographic work is Secret Experiments in Ballet. My experiments play at the intersection of improvisation and the ballet vocabulary. I am interested in deeply investigating the meaning of the ballet tradition in contemporary dance world, including who dances, where they are seen, and how the vocabulary is used.
I love the close proximity to the performers and deep investigation of the body that are hallmarks of experimental modern dance. But I have always been deeply attached to my classical training. I am excited by creating dance experiences that are three-dimensional, that surround the audience with dance and the dancers with audience. I seek to share the visceral connection that I feel in the studio, watching dancers in classes or rehearsals. By deliberately engaging with ballet vocabulary, I want to explore questions of what this familiar “code” means, to audience members and to dancers, in new performance contexts and experimental choreographic structures.
For me, the power of dance in performance is this: a real human body, moving in three-dimensional space. Fundamentally, it speaks to our humanness – our bodies all respond to breath, sweat, movement and emotion.
As an artist and a human, my challenge is to become more “embodied” each day, in a society that seems increasingly less “embodied.” I seek to give audiences the opportunity to feel the dance, rather than simply watching. I believe that watching live dance has a place in returning humans to our bodies in a joyful, wondrous way.
Emily Stein Dance 