Kelly Tyerman's Contemporary Designs in Choreography

Since my introduction to Isadora Duncan, I was eager to try some Modern dance at the Victoria School of Contemporary Dance. When I arrived for my adult beginners class, instructor Kelly Tyerman was whipping some elementary girls into shape. “Keep your knees up and change places!” Kelly shouted and then laughs.

Kelly was more relaxed working with the adults, as she lead us through a variety of warm-ups. We twisted and writhed on the floor like new-born animals, stretching our backs and arms. I thoroughly enjoyed this warm-up. Most dance classes have similar warm-up exercises, but because of all the unusual movements used in Contemporary dance it is important to stretch. It reminded me of dance classes I’d taken as a child where we were encouraged to imitate the movements of horses or giraffes. Contemporary dance is very organic: elemental. Each movement reminds me an object pushing through wind or water.

Kelly is a full-time dance teacher who teaches thirteen classes a week, so she constantly seeks new inspiration. “If it's just yourself and the same movement all the time it gets boring, and right now I've got 40 pieces on the go, so if you don't use your dancers for inspiration it's easy to get stuck,” she said.

We practiced swinging our arms like pendulums, loosely flapping them against our bodies. The eight of us took turns leaping across the room with a combination of toe steps and jumps. There is constant momentum in each combination, swinging our arms or legs around us to propel the movement. Kelly loves the freedom to create movements, and freedom from the ballet dance syllabus she followed as a child. She is sometimes overwhelmed by the endless possibilities this form can contribute to dance. “In contemporary dance you can create anything you want,” said Kelly. “Still after 27 years of dancing, there is so much more that I can do.”

As I watched her work with the class, she sculpted her choreography to her students body shapes, trying different positions within their small groups. Part of the inspiration for this piece were the costumes that Kelly pictured when she listened to the music. She pictured everyone as wearing straight jackets with long sleeves, and throughout she uses these as a theme: dancers struggling to escape and pulling on each other. Kelly said that for a Contemporary dancer, inspiration is everywhere if you’re willing to look. “You can take any gesture or pedestrian type of movement and make it into something.” said Kelly “Like talking on the phone.”

Currently Kelly is working on a piece with one of her classes called The City, where they adapt everyday city movements into dance. It is this openness and fluidity to Contemporary that makes it a great dance for people of all skill levels. “I think that there's this real stigma around dance that you had to start it when you were a kid or you can never do it, and it's just not true,” said Kelly. “I know what it's like to go somewhere where you're new, you're kinda scared, and you make so many excuses not to go, but as soon as you come, you'll be so happy that you did.”

I certainly had fun with Contemporary, although my leaping skills left something to be desired. It brought together some of the philosophies that are arising throughout dance, as cultural fusions become the norm. Contemporary seems to be on the pulse of whatever culture is influencing the dance and their observations of modern life.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any video of Kelly teaching, but this is a guest choreographer working with Victoria Contemporary Dance's youth group.

The Inspiration of Paola Blanton

Paola Blanton stands in front of the room every inch of her what you'd imagine a dancer to be: lean, toned limbs and torso, exemplary posture, neatly gathered pony tail. She gazes towards the corner of the room and gracefully unfurls her arm straight out--to the finger tips. “Dance with your intent, from your solar plexus. I'm an Isadora Duncan dancer.”

Paola's passion for dance took her from being a high school humanities teacher, to an international dance guru. She has danced on every populated continent, and her expressive style of Raqs Shaqi Orentale belly dance has kept her workshop choreographies in demand all over the world. Currently she runs a dance school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

At the invitation of Asmira, Paola is in Victoria to teach a series of workshops and exercise classes to local belly dancers. The first choreography I learn with her is called the Temple Priestess, and our movements remind me of the goddess poses I'd seen used by Wiccans to celebrate Solstice. The arms either gather energy toward the dancer or rise up in supplication. We learn the universal gesture: arms gather and cross near the feet, sweep up the body and uncross as they rise over the head. I immediately feel more powerful, focusing on opening my chest with this gesture. She describes the difference between a feminine elongated open hand and the masculine hand pinched together at the finger tips. “See, feel, then move towards what you want,” says Paola. She deftly spins in the direction she is reaching.

As she teaches, Paola continues to mention her studies of Isadora Duncan technique. Paola has studied several times with at the Isadora Duncan School of Dance in New York. Also an accomplished writer, she has published several articles including, What Isadora Duncan Can Give Belly Dance, in The Gilded Serpent.

In Duncan technique, we learn first to cast our sight, follow through with the plexus/heart center, and then deploy a motion or gesture. The limbs serve the intent and intelligence, not the other way around, especially when it comes to hands. Hands try to control everything we do....Whether we type at a computer, chop vegetables, mow the lawn, grade papers, or crochet sweaters....The tendency is to lead with the hand. Duncan tells us, lead with the sight, follow through with the plexus, and finish with the hand or arm or whatever body part we are deploying.

This technique reminds me of the creative process of writing a story. The best Middle Eastern dancers are the ones who describe the emotion of the music. With each choreography I learn from Paola, I learn a story, and a new dance vocabulary to speak through the music. Isadora Duncan believed in letting inner emotions propel movements and transcend technique and form.



Isadora Duncan (1878- 1927) rebelled against the Victorian society of her lifetime. She cast off her corset in favour of flowing tunics, and combed the ancient ruins of Greece and Rome for dance postures of worship. Isadora’s dance philosophy was personal expression and she is credited with first inventing modern dance. Her inspirations were Nature and Greek myth, so it’s no wonder Paola fell in love with Isadora’s philosophy on a trip to Delphi, Greece. Paola now performs with the idea of expressing dance subjectively; to share expression and emotion rather than only symbolical gesture. “She shook up my entire world,” said Paola.

On the last day of exercise classes, we gather in a circle with a candle in the middle of the room. Paola leads us in a swaying of our hips as we kneel facing each other. There is a warm quiet to the room as we carefully sway and stretch, our limbs weaving through each other. Paola writes that there is no one true history of belly dance, a dance that takes it’s form from each region, each dancer and her experiences. But there is something essential we all can share when we let go and just dance ourselves.

Kickin it with Brooke Kilgore at Vibe Street Dance

A gaggle of teenagers hittin' it hard greeted me as I walked into Vibe Street Dance's hip hop sessions at Euro Dance Studios. In the characteristic way of adolescents, the mostly female group of about twenty students clustered chatting at mach speeds when the music was off; but as soon as the beat dropped this eclectic gathering became a cohesive group. I could tell from the concentration and attitude they but into the moves that these girls loved their hip hop. I was about to find out that hip-hop dance was all about the attitude.

I decided to drop-in with an open class where there was various levels of dancers. I didn't feel out of place for my skill level, but fashion-wise I stuck out like a sore thumb. Evidently, sweats are the way to go for a hip hop session and I had made the uncomfortable choice to wear cords. No one made me feel uncomfortable, I was just self-conscious. I didn't quite feel cool enough.

Missy, our instructor, pulled out a new piece of choreography for us to try. The warm-up was short and everyone was eager to get dancing. Hip hop is a combination of locks and smooth movement, which theoretically and somewhat technically is similar to the muscle isolation in belly dance, but the speed and precision challenged me. Each movement, whether soft or hard, requires complete commitment to look good. I carefully studied Brooke Kilgore, the founder of Vibe Street Dance, to try copy some hip hop attitude.

At 24 years-old, Brooke is a home-grown Victoria entrepreneur. With a little push from family and friends Brooke opened Vibe Street in January of 2006, Victoria's first and only hip-hop company. Since she was not studio trained from childhood Brooke had her doubts about being able to make it in the dance profession. But what started as a teaching a few classes part-time at recreational facilities after she graduated from high school, grew with student demand into a full time job. And she always knew that she wasn't interested in a 9 to 5.

Even though she is now a dance professional, Brooke has never felt that connected to the Victoria dance community. While growing up she felt like she was always more “funky” then the local prevailing ballet culture. Also her family couldn't afford pricey dance classes, something Brooke hasn't forgotten with her own school. She offers special arrangements for students whose family's can't afford the full price.

When Brooke was younger there weren't any hip hop schools in Victoria, so she learned her moves by watching Janet Jackson, Usher or Aaliyah VHS tapes and mimicking the choreography. Brooke said it could be a labourious process, “play/pause—see what exactly their hands were doing there--/rewind.”

Since the Canadian hip-hop dance scene is still growing, Brooke often travels for dance training and workshops. She was in L.A. last summer, Montreal and Toronto this spring, and she is constantly on the lookout for conventions with world renowned choreographers. She even studied with Shane Sparks of So You Think You Can Dance fame. Sparks was a choreographer whose hands on approach really helped Brooke learn by repositioning her entire body. “He uses every milli-count of a beat, so there is no resting between counts,” said Brooke. “He moves on fast, so it's do or die.”

I tried to keep up with the quick lifts and drops of Missy's choreography. Hip hop choreography is unstructured, there are no specific terms to describe movement. Hip hop has a certain funk to it and is not as “uppity” as the Jazz Funk that is taught as hip hop at many dance academies. Brooke says most movements in hip hop should be “danced into the ground” with bent knees. “Real hip-hop in my opinion starts from the bounce,” described Brooke. “You've got your head bobbin' like 'yeah, this is a good track'...its almost like it's in you.”

Brooke draws a lot of her influences from the music of Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Ali & Gipp, Lil'wayne, Ice Cube and other “ghetto-grime” hip-hop. But now Brooke is looking to local influences for her choreography. “I've been asked to choreograph a music video for a local band,” said Brooke, but she couldn't discuss the details for contractual reasons.

The pop, the lock, the angles and slides of Missy's choreography filled the room with movement. She used the momentum of one last swooping move to turn us around, then bounce up into the air, releasing our fist like an explosion at chest level.

There's no doubt that Victoria will hear more about Vibe Street Dance in the future, with its fresh, young crew. As I walked away from my hip hop class there was a bounce in my step that wasn't there before, and I felt just a little bit cooler.