“Moving towards a less and less inhibited expression”
Alice Godfrey is an amazing dancer who has been working with NDT1 and 2 and with Sharon Eyal’s “L-E-V” and she is also a teacher.
- You have an outstanding and brilliant career so far, working with NDT1 and 2 and with Sharon Eyal’s “L-E-V”. What is the key of all your successes?
“Honestly - I feel that I have been very lucky. I’ve had, since I was young, people find interest in me and guide me in the right direction. I’ve had the combination of support and fortunate timing. What credit I could give to myself is probably a quality of openness - that allowed me to fall into whatever I was offered with gratitude and eagerness. I worked very hard, because I was conditioned to have this attitude; palms stretched open for any opportunity in dance. Although I see now that it doesn’t need to be this way, these things offered themselves to my advantage and brought me to these amazing companies.”
-Why did you decide to join “L-E-V”? What fascinates you about this company?
“I joined L-E-V because I’m in love with Sharon Eyal and her work. I’m in love with how she sees the individual, and intuitively makes space for that individual to discover all of their gifts. I feel that in L-E-V, there is a common goal : and that is for each individual to fully realize themselves, which lends to the grace of the whole work. “
-How did Sharon Eyal’s work influence your dance?
“I am still in the process of getting to know Sharon’s work, and the dancers of L-E-V, who carry the spirit of it with such honesty. I experience over and over again that the better I get to know myself and awaken qualities within me - the better I understand her work. Because it’s about experiencing the truth in your body as sensation, and not the idea of something. Each time I discover something in me, I see that I have also discovered something in her work. I think that this “getting to know” underlies all of my dance now, as a limitless motivation. I would also say that Sharon Eyal’s work has awakened the fantasy mind, the child’s mind in me, as a home to move from, without shame. “
-And what did you learn from your experience in NDT?
“I came from a limited knowledge and exposure to European dance despite having phenomenal teachers in South Africa, so when I arrived at NDT I was shaken and my eyes pried open. I was exposed in a condensed fraction of time to different kinds of creators, movers, thinkers..I had the luxury of learning about where I might fit into this world of dance, of what interests me less and what more. I learnt about performing a lot. Because we perform A LOT. I learnt about maintaining freshness and spontaneity in work that you will have to perform countless times, and how to always find the new. I learnt about the creative process. I learnt about working through fatigue, and the joy of fatigue! I learnt also about hierarchy in any system - including an apparent creative one such as NDT. I store so much information in my body, like a movement archive folded into layers under my flesh - and I carry this suit of experience as a strength. An underlying support for everything I do moving forward. I’m extremely grateful for my time there. “
-You worked with really different choreographers. How could you always be able to adapt yourself in every specific work?
“Learning to adapt is just something you do at NDT. It’s part of the package. I believe any dancer with intelligence put into that position will learn the skill of adaptation. I also think that adaptation has something to do with simply opening yourself to the choreographer - there will be a transference, a communication - and you will find yourself able to empathise with their world and their passion.”
-Where does your passion for movement come from?
“I’m not sure where my passion to move comes from. My Mom’s a brilliant musician, perhaps she played lots of music to me while I was in her tummy. I’ve read that in the growing foetus; the ear organ is the first perceptive sense, developed already inside the womb before birth when our eyes open and tiny mouths grasp.”
-How were you able to develop your artistry during your career?
“I’m not sure I have developed my artistry..I’m still figuring out what that is.”
-How much is important improvising and researching as a practice?
“Improvising and researching has been very important for me. I think I have spent most of my career pretending. Pretending to have understood the dynamics inherent in movement. Now that I am researching more myself, always with an effort towards curiosity and not judgement, I feel increasingly in control, in the sense that I better understand dynamics, what is required in movement, and most importantly to nourish the connection at the source of movement. Pretending seems to be a common education in dance - pretending not to feel pain or discomfort, pretending to feel easy in movement and steps, usually accompanied by fear. But pretending and fear is probably the most useless place to work from.”
-What is technique for you? How can we use it?
“I think that technique has something to do with body awareness. I also think that it’s has something to do with differentiation. The refinement of this awareness and differentiation allows you to make ever more choices. So maybe technique can also be measured by the scope of choices you have within your grasp, when communicating a physical idea. That every ripple you bring to your flesh is result a choice - not accidental. Even chaos or out of control physicality can be a choice, if you can maintain perfect awareness inside of it. I think that this is technique.”
-You started performing when you were really young. How could you be that determined at that young age?
“I think that the determination I had when I was young was part of my personality. It was combined with these people who saw potential in me and put me in the right places. But I could just as easily have been a determined and competitive horse-rider”
-You are also a teacher. What do you want to pass down to your students?
“I am teaching a little. What I am interested in sharing at the moment is the urgency to un-inhibit yourself, and to move towards your curiosity, but also your joy and passion - because in my feeling these are the places of greatest potential and creativity. Also the source of spontaneity and discovery of physical qualities. I try also to communicate that information from the outside should be treated as a hypothesis, until confirmed in your own experience. For example words are used to communicate or invoke a movement quality, but words are not the experience themselves. The ‘confirmation’ is a physical one. And you might only experience it in a week, or a year, or three of practice.”
-Why do we need dance in today’s society?
“I think that we need dance like we’ve always needed dance. To communicate, to pray, to celebrate, to remember, and to know ourselves.”
-Do you have other dreams or goals you would like to achieve in your future?
“The future seems very uncertain. I know that I want to keep dancing to express: What I feel when I hear a bird song, The love I feel for my shining mother, And how love is sometimes accompanied by pain, The helpless sadness I feel for illness in the world. - And then hopefully continue moving towards a less and less inhibited expression. And then - to integrate this expression with the every day, with the sharing, with the logic and with the practical.”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
“Well, I would say feel free to contact me anytime with questions. I feel ‘advice’ should be dealt with in the specific and not in the general”
Thank you so much Alice! It was such an honor to interview you!
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