BWW Blog: Claire van Bever - Setting vs Creating

As a dancer in a repertory company, you are asked to learn and perform many different pieces over the course of a season. It's a huge change from being a student, where there might only be two or three opportunities for performance a year. Naturally, the process is drastically different. Instead of rehearsing the same material non-stop for a month or two before the show, you might have 3 weeks to prepare several pieces for a performance, while also preparing for a performance with different repertory two weeks after that. Sometimes, my brain gets quite crowded with choreography! But, it's part of the job.

There are usually two different ways to learn a piece. Sometimes a choreographer or ballet mistress/master sets a piece of work on you that has already been choreographed and performed. This type of process is often quicker, but challenging when the steps you have to do don't necessarily suit "your type", or when you find them particularly challenging. Most classical full length ballets are "set", and a ballerina can't exactly change the steps to her liking. I imagine it would be quite a shock if Odile did pique turns instead of fouettes right?

Other times, a piece is created on the dancers in a company. This is when a choreographer creates and sets the piece on you, in the studio. It can be a painstakingly slow process, but in the end, it results in a piece of dance that often feels like an extension of yourself. Because, it is!

Recently, American Repertory Ballet had the chance to work with Patrick Corbin, formerly a dancer with Joffrey and Paul Taylor. The first two days of rehearsal were "play", in that he didn't set anything and just let us create movement. This type of process is so rewarding for me personally, because it puts no limits on my body or thinking process. Eventually, steps were set, but most of what we "played" with in the beginning actually made it into the piece, letting our unique personalities shine through in the choreography.

In the end, both processes bring challenges and rewards to a dancer. They both push you to work in a different way while helping you realize you strengths and weaknesses, not only in your technique, but in your rehearsal process as well. If I could be part of the creative process for new works for the rest of my life, I would be perfectly fine, but I realize the importance of preserving and setting works. It connects dance today, to the past. I'm glad that I get to be a part of a company that does a bit of both; it's the best of both worlds!