Debbie Allen has a legion of fans from her illustrious career as dancer, choreographer, actor and film and TV director. But her main passion in life is changing lives through dance. She is as well-known for her gigs as the director of Fame and with Michael Jackson as she is for her school in the disadvantaged areas of Los Angeles.
On the eve of her visit to the Brisbane Festival, Sally Clark asked her to share some insights with Dance Australia readers on what might make a difference in their own dance studios or performances.
Her advice to dance teachers was this:
"Just take time to re-evaluate yourself as we evaluate the students on a daily basis. Dance is very pejorative - it's all about, 'No! That's not right! That's not good enough! Do that again!' [So] how can you evaluate yourself so that you remain inspirational to your students? How can you bring in something that just, maybe, totally goes against every principle that you've taught them? That just shakes it up a bit? How can you open up the comprehensive vocabulary?
"It feels to me like this is the time when we need to all look at dance being one of the true languages of the universe and we must speak it everywhere and sometimes we need to be a little more inclusive with some of the other techniques."
And for dance students:
"One of the things I try to express to my students is that you have to know, when you look in the mirror, who is looking back. You have to know what makes you feel. What makes you laugh. And what makes you cry. So you must engage in the world. You can't live just in a little house - in a neighbourhood - and be a dancer. You can't just think my legs are going up - and that's it!
"No -- you must read and educate your mind and go to museums and see paintings and see colours that you can express in dance. These are the things that make you really powerful, so that when you move that arm and it goes into infinity you know what you're feeling and you know what that feels like.
"You gotta work hard in that studio: you gotta sweat. But you're not competing with anybody but yourself! You are competing with yourself and your teacher is your guide. But you must be educated about what is going on in the world - so then your dancing is about something."
'Freeze Frame' will run from September 19 to 21 at the Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
See a full interview with Debbie Allen in the August/September issue of 'Dance Australia'. Buy at your favourite dance shop or newsagent or email subscriptions@yaffa.com.au to subscribe!