Dance Techniques 2010

62 Interview
Anouk van Dijk Interviewed by Edith Boxberger
Practical Tools
for a Demanding Profession
What techniques have you studied, and what has
influenced you? I studied at the Rotterdam Dance
Academy, a contemporary dance school where Graham,
Cunningham, and Limón were the main techniques
taught, where we also had ballet six days a week. I had
several important teachers, but one really inspired
me to find my own method: Charles Czarny, a man with
the sunshine on his face. He would go to the mirror
and kiss his own reflection. I found it very peculiar, being
seventeen, eighteen, but I also understood that this
man is very happy. He taught me, as I now teach my
students, that as a dancer you have to come to terms with
yourself, love yourself—and do so rather sooner than
later because dancing is such a demanding profession.
A lot of my fellow students found Czarny’s classes
extremely boring because he would teach the same class
for weeks in a row, but for me it was an eye–opener.
Every day he chose a distinct topic that we worked on
exclusively—like breath, tension in the neck, parallel
position, musicality, weight, phrasing in the music. It was
endless. In Countertechnique, this conscious shift of
focus has become a very important facet.
What happened after you graduated? After
my graduation in 1985 I went to New York and studied
downtown, midtown, uptown. Downtown was Movement
Research, where I took classes in Release Technique
and Contact Improvisation. Uptown, I studied tap
and midtown I took ballet classes. I just felt I needed more
knowledge.
Then, after contracts at Werkcentrum Dans and
De Nieuwe Dansgroep in 1988, I joined the Rotterdamse
Dans Groep. This company was going through a
golden era at the time: Stephen Petronio, Randy Warshaw,
Tere O’Connor, and Amanda Miller all did their first
commissioned works there, so I was really lucky. I was
in every piece, doing a lot of dancing. But I didn’t
know how to deal with it, stamina–wise. The mentality
of the company was: Do it all by will power. And
since I am physically a very strong person, I would get
injured because of over–powering, putting too much
strain and power on my muscles when I was tired. I got
really skinny, I didn’t know how to keep up eating
enough because I was so exhausted the whole time. So
then, it became like, ‘I have to find ways how on earth
to survive this career.’
Which ‘ways to survive’ did you discover?
In that difficult time, I first heard about Alexander
Technique. I was intimidated at first, I really came from
the ‘doing’ side, not from ‘contemplating what I was
doing.’ And since Alexander Technique is not a dance
technique, I found it a bit scary when I heard dancers say,
‘I am truly transformed, I dance so much better this
way.’ But since it was clear I needed to find some other
way to survive in this career, I was determined to find new
information. In 1991 I started Alexander Technique
lessons with Tom Koch and I can say from the heart that
without him, I would not be dancing still—I would
have destroyed my body. And I think a lot of dancers who
have to stop by the time they are thirty-three or thirtyfour
have to do so because they never learned to dose the
power and flexibility they have in their bodies.
What changed in your dancing? It took me much
longer to find out what was helpful from Alexander
Technique than I had anticipated. Only when I gave up
trying did it suddenly click for me. I even remember
standing in the room with Tom’s hands on me, desperately
thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve tried it all, I understand
what the technique is about—but I just don’t get it.’ So
I was standing there and decided to do nothing more
than repeat, in my head, after Tom: ‘Now let go of this
and this, Anouk, and widen that and that—with no
expectations whatsoever. And suddenly it worked. And
I remember thinking—very Dutch–like—‘Did I spend
all this money to find out it’s that simple, not expecting,
not doing anything?’
Of course it took me another year before I started
to find out how to use it in dancing. I remember the piece
I was in, the section, the music, the movement, when
I realized that what I was thinking was really working.
While I continued moving, I doubted I could still have
this Alexander–directing going on in my head while I was
moving full–out. I was afraid I would start to mark.
But I found that I could actually move with less energy.
By the end of the piece I was not nearly as exhausted
as I usually was. I realized, ‘This is really important, I’m
learning to apply the Alexander principles in movement!’
That was really a turning point.