My vocabulary of dance
Dance requires vocation, knowledge and skill for your body as well as
your mind. Dance demands the whole you - not only your brain and body - It
demands your heart and soul and becomes a poetic and dramatic explosion.
I will sacrifice myself to the movement, so that I am pure and clean
enough to step on stage and take the audience under my skin - so deep that they
can taste my soul.
A little naive girl stood in the corner of a studio in Copenhagen, where
her dreams crashed but also where she learned to dream. It was a warm morning
in August 2008; She was sweating and trying to keep up with all the tall
ballerinas. But every time they went left, she went right. The teacher screamed
and the only thing, the young girl wanted, was to keep up with the others. After
the lessen an unknown elderly lady looked at her and said; “I was looking at
you the whole class. You where dancing with your soul, you will need to
remember that”.
A serious young woman took her first class with the legend Nini
Theilade. She felt secure and nervous at the same time. In the class the
teacher said to her out of the blue; “Many young girls come to me and ask me if
I think they should dance. I say to them, if you’re meant to be an artist you
would never be in doubt”.
The two women’s words made a huge impression on me. They said two
completely different sentences I will never forget. The first gave me
confidence, will and love. The second story is my mantra. I have never doubted
in who I am, I have questioned it a lot of times, but I’m not in doubt.
I’ve grown a lot as a dancer. I know my body in and out, and I’m on a
wonderful journey exploring movement and I’m still hungry for more learning.
I’m playful with my surroundings and try to find loopholes where I can show a
part of me.
I believe movement can never be set or dictated by anyone. You need to
find your tools and figure out what moves you; I need to share things with
others - I move to share with others as
much as I move for myself. My movements aren’t private. I want them to be joined
with and questioned by others.
I see myself as a storyteller - Every time I dance, I add a word to my
vocabulary.
- Nanna Jensen
