How many men in their thirties would want to try contemporary dance classes? Hannah Waldram talks to Patrick Robinson about football, sweat, and dance.
If you are a thirty-something male, chances are you’re not exactly thrilled at the idea of starting dance classes. Even more less enthused by dance classes in an abstract arts form, which you generally associate with prancing and pansies.
But that very same thought didn’t put off Patrick Robinson, 31, who started beginner contemporary dance classes four years ago. He was lured in after watching an impressive half-hour performance at Birmingham’s Artsfest and later learned the dance style was called contemporary. Being struck by the athleticism of the dancers, when he saw a flyer for contemporary beginners classes at DanceXchange he decided to give it a go.
“One reason why I joined was to broaden who I meet in Birmingham a little bit. I’ve always been sporty as well and I thought it might help me get a bit flexible.”
After seeing the physical gains dancing has made on his body – making his muscles more flexible for footballs which helped get rid of cramps – Patrick hasn’t looked back. Hi first teacher, now choreographer Kate Mason, has been replaced a few times, but once thing which has kept him going was the high quality of teaching. Here is the current teacher, Maria Blundell-Palethorpe, taking about what goes on in a beginners contemporary class at DanceXchange:
Patrick said: “The standard is high even for a beginners class – they’re not letting you slack.”
But getting his footballing mates to come round to the idea of his new found hobbie was a different problem.
“I’ve only told a certain number of mates that I go,” he says. “If I’m in a situation where I’m off to town to go to the class, I say it’s a “keep fit” class – so it’s a bit of a cop out. For the friends that I have mentioned it to – you get a bit of light-hearted teasing.”
But Patrick has persuaded some friends that it’s not all about girly movements and men in tights – inviting them to performances to break their preconceptions. When he was in a show himself last year, they couldn’t fail to be impressed by some gallant lifts.
“It’s not until you see it done professionally that you realise it’s not a poncy thing,” he says.
He does think, however, classes could be improved with discount priced tickets to DanceXchange shows, and giving students more choice over what music they dance to.
“Because contemporary is abstract the meaning quite a lot of the time comes from the music.”
Patrick has tried Brazilian martial art, capoeira, salsa-based Ceroc dancing and karate. But he enjoys the mental challenge provided by contemporary, as well as the physical benefits for the pitch.
“It gives you spring in your jumps for headers – it’s certainly more interesting than doing thirty crunches at home. Plus it gives you an awareness of posture. You meet interesting people. You get to move – because in my job, you’re sat down. To think about coordination makes a change.”
All in all, Patrick seems to have mastered the impossible balance of becoming hooked on contemporary dance, while maintaining the normal lifestlye of the thirty-year-old man. In his day job he’s a teacher in Sociology at Cadbury Sixth Form College, he drinks beers and plays football. But every Tuesday evening he enjoys the mental and physical challenge of movement and dance. If the government want to get people dancing, they need to find the little bit of Patrick in everyone.
Here Patrick lists three reasons why people who are thinking of starting a new dance class should pick contemporary:
Beginners contemporary dance classes run at Birmingham’s DanceXchange every Tuesday 6-7.15pm for free for the whole of October, and £6 (£5 concessions) afterwards. For more information see the DanceXchange website.
Hannah Waldram speaks to Patrick Robinson about beginners contemporary dance by hrwaldram
Hannah, this is great, gets past those preconceptions many have about contemporary dance. I’ve tried the dance class at the Dancexchange a couple of times and it was good fun but, as Patrick says, there’s no slacking. I find dance really is the best type of workout and fun to boot. I did find I was getting lots wrong and didn’t get the routines right first time, but once I learned to not worry about that and just enjoy it I had a great time.
I’d really like to see a Bluffers Guide to Contemporary Dance for audiences as well as people thinking of doing it. Because contemporary dance gets a lot of stick and there are preconceptions out there, many won’t give attending a show a go – even those that might enjoy a ballet or musical dance show.
Many feel they don’t ‘get it’ – that there’s some deeper meaning to the pieces they can’t comprehend because they don’t speak the lingo. I’d love to see some of the basics spelled out in simple terms so people can get a grasp of things, and get possibly get past that feeling that the dancers are expressing themselves in an alien language.
You up for it?
Thanks for your comments Nicky!
A rough guide to contemporary dance for audiences is a great idea. You’re right many people feel they ‘don’t get it’ but sometimes there isn’t anything to ‘get’ – contemporary dance seems to be moving from choreographers building on a theme or an emotion to simply exploring movement itself. Vincent Dance Theatre who just finshed their stint at The Patrick Centre went a little bit too far with this though, with their ‘No more dancing’ anti-contemporary manifesto – a little bit of meaning is required to get the thing off the ground. But sometimes the best contemporary dance I’ve seen has been just a beautiful, vibrant and energetic display of excellent dancing – no meaning required – just something for the audience and the dancer to both enjoy. Will get onto the rough guide.
Dance is definitely a great workout too – and the classes at DanceXchange are all free for October – a great way to try a few new things. As contemporary is my usual pot, I’m going to try Club Jazz tonight!
Totally agree with you – there often isn’t some deep meaning to get but half the problem is many are under the impression that there is! Maybe just pushing that point that it’s simply something lovely to appreciate will help in itself.
Take my Mum – I’ve tried to get her to see Hofesh Schechter and Diversions with me and both times she’s refused because it’s contemporary dance and feels she won’t understand it. The point about both companies is their striking, beautiful dance – there’s not much more than that to understand! Now if I’d offered her tickets the ballet, she’d have bitten my hand off.
There seems to be a real barrier there for many people – whether it’s real or imagined.
Many people say they didn’t think they’d like contemporary dance until they actually see it! You just have to drag your Mum along (tell her it’s a ballet) and then hope she likes it.
I’m taking someone who thinks he hates contemporary along to see Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray – only because I’ve seen it before and I know it will blow his mind away. But you do have to be careful – if I had taken someone to see Vincent Dance Theatre’s anti-conceptual conceptual piece at dx on Wednesday they would have been put off contemporary dance forever!
There is a barrier and contemporary has the least following of all the dance styles – possibly because some people don’t realise it can mix in a whole load of other styles too – like Keisha Grant’s recent piece at The Patrick Centre.
Those barriers will continue to be broken down when choreographers take contemporary to the people rather than waiting for audiences to come to them – like Hofesh Schecter’s (genius) workshops at the Roundhouse in London last year. Great way to get young people interested in an art form they would otherwise not hear about.
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