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Angel Prince: Embodying the dreamspace between music and movement
by KIM COPE TAIT
Photos courtesy ANGEL PRINCE
Rehearsal:
I am fascinated as I watch: Angel Prince creates as she moves. She talks her dancers through the fluid motion of her mind as it is translated through her body. What I see happening is the best likened to the work of a sculptor. How the truly gifted sculptor allows the form to emerge from the stone, simply does the work of peeling off the layers, helping it to find and reveal its shape. For Angel, the dance emerges, quite naturally. Her task, and clearly her gift, is to intuit it. Feel it in the air around her body, how it moves in the music around her ears.
When I first met her, it was easy to understand her as a performer, a dancer and lover of life, but when I saw her work, as an instructor and as choreographer, I was able to understand more fully what makes her tick. It is not just dancing or just teaching, or even just coming up with movements that fit music. It is art. The dynamic business of intuiting form from nebulous matter and bringing to life in physical movement what we might only have been able to sense viscerally. Perhaps the greatest gift she gives to those she teaches is a way to communicate with the body ideas that are truly profound and which might simply be obscured by language. There is no argument in what simply rises in our hearts as we watch the body move and express. It just is. Thus is born the gift to the audience.
The first time I observe her in action, it is just under two weeks before the actual performance of "Fresh Step." her yearly dance concert at Gates Performing Arts Center. Angel is working on this number called "Army of one." and her dancers follow her synthesis of the tone of the song with what is brewing in her dancer´s heart. They trust, listen, follow. They are receptive, used to Angel´s style, her fluidity. They look wholly undaunted that new sequences are being added to their dance only days before they will perform it. They are confident, and perhaps the most important thing is that they know they their trust is returned; they know that Angel trusts them to learn the moves, record them not only in their muscle memory but also in their performer´s sensibility, and then deliver them-when it counts. "Can I see it now?" she asks. It is a question, a request, a gentle expectation.
The dance is vibrant, energetic, smart. Angel is open. Not critical. No need to be. She too is confident-that the dance shapes itself with her as its instrument. The dancers fall in line, and each "take" is a little tighter, a little lighter, a little more unified. The next dance is called "Light Enough to Travel." It has the feel of Africa. All I can see as I watch is grace, strength, freedom as expressed in the body. It is a jaunty, sassy full expression of the feminine sensibility. As in a crown of sonnets, each solo component is connected to the next "line" of dance by a common motion, a movement that links one to the other, creates the chain and propels one dancer to the next height, building each to each. I am intrigued by the dynamic process that characterizes Angel’s choreography.
She pauses a moment, her laughter like bells as she feels the music move through her and spark the next turn,
the next sweep of arms or dip of the head. It is all there.
She simply intuits it and, without hesitation, transmits
it to her dancers through the model of her own body,
her own liquid movement. “How are we going to end it?” she asks the dancers,
and I feel anxious for them, just hearing the words.
Again, I consider how brief the time between today’s
rehearsal and the actual show. But here again I recognize
what I am looking at. This is the difference
between amateur and professional. This flexibility, this
openness for movement to flex and heave like a wave,
trusting the body to capture it in just the right form
and then remember. Together with the other dancers,
remember this perfect expression of thought, music,
emotion and sound. This, I think, is action. Direction.
The essence of choreography.
Angel is a professional, and her innovations in movement
and live performance find a welcome and synchronistic
venue here at Gates with dancers from all
over North and South Kohala, who range in age from
14 to, well, fifty-something. During the ‘tech’ I watch,
amazed, as she shifts hats without even a hiccup in
between the various roles she plays in the creation of
“Fresh Step” which will be presented tomorrow night
in this very auditorium.
Up in the sound booth, she becomes very serious,
directing the individuals who will conduct the sound
and lighting for the performance. She leans over virtual
blueprints of the concert and points to different moments
where a spotlight is needed, a red background
with dancers in silhouette, total darkness. Her instructions
are concise and clear, always edged with
her graciousness. “Perfect,” and “thank you” roll off her tongue as she exits the booth with a little spring in
her step. On to the next task. She is backstage, assisting
with costuming, rounding up dancers, consulting on
hair and makeup, giving a dancer a nudge of encouragement.
She is the one who will corral the dancers, 5
minutes before the curtain rises, and give them what
they need: a strong dose of her exuberance, her own
radiant smile and this simple injunction: “Go out there
and have fun!”
The Show:
The dancers stand in a large
circle, holding each other’s
hands and shivering out the
nervous energy that is fluttering
in their bellies. Their smiles are wide and their energy
level high. “You know it,” Angel coaxes, “now go out
there and do it!” Together, and on Angel’s prompt,
they utter three enthusiastic “Yeses” in unison, arms
overhead, hands still held together. Tonight’s show is
the culmination of months of work and discipline. Repetition,
synthesis of new elements, coordination with
fellow dancers and of course, absorbing as much as they
each can from their luminous instructor. Backstage,
they are buffered from a full house by the traditional
red curtain. When it rises, when the audience becomes
quiet and the music begins, they know that they will be
on, one number moving quickly into the next, the audience
barely recovering from the visual and emotional
impact of one dance before it is asked to take in the next
one. It is a breathless experience, for the dancers and
the audience alike.
Incorporating traditional ballet, jazz, modern dance,
hula…even salsa and hip-hop, what Angel has created
is an eclectic concert unified by a pervading sense of
class, style and polish. This is, indeed, an innovative show with over 30 performers, cutting edge music and
creative costuming, where one woman’s vision becomes
aesthetic nourishment for a captivated and hungry audience.
The dancers who have just performed or who
are ‘on deck’ wait in the wings, faces bright and anticipatory.
The lights move across their faces, and they feed
off of the energy of the performance happening before
them. There is a buzz of constant activity, preparation,
light nerves and excitement that is infectious.
With my camera, I stand to the side and inevitably
(though certainly unjustifiably) feel part of the action,
too. Their exuberance becomes my own, and I feel the
inspiration that must enliven their bones every time
they step onto that stage. I feel what it must be to perform
like this, and my sense of appreciation extends
not only to Angel, whose brainchild “Fresh Step” surely
is, but also to each one of her dancers, however minor
their role. Each one plays a part, each one is integral to
the synergy that comprises this machine. Tight, well constructed,
polished number after number unfolds on
the stage and this, I think, is at the heart of the dancer’s
dream. At any level, this kind of energy must be the
same…always in anticipation of giving the audience
what one has to give.
The show ends as quickly and dramatically as it began.
The dancers line up and give their bows, the
crowd making the enthusiastic noise of appreciation
and approbation as they do. The lights full on their
faces and bodies, their smiles are perfectly visible now.
There is pride here, a sense of accomplishment and
yes, I recognize it, sheer enjoyment. Because there it is,
after all, the point: to have a good time! I kid you not
when I say that I truly considered trying my hand at
dancing after this show. What I felt was simply what
all the dancers in Angel’s group felt, I am certain. It is
the sense that nothing is impossible, that the body is
a perfect implement for expression of the self and that
under Angel’s direction, what occurs in the dreamspace
between music and movement is honored, breathed in,
given life in the form of dance. Here, anything is possible,
and with Angel, there are no limits.
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