Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher and cultural critic, once said, “Those who would learn to fly, one day must first learn to stand, walk, run, climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” Today the best modern dancers seem to defy gravity, creating the impression of flying. Modern aerial dancers as seen in performances such as Cirque du Soleil are flying while performing complex dance choreography. In the early 1970s, aerial dance, literally took off as an accepted genre of modern dance. The art form uses various forms of attachments secured to a ceiling, pulley system or side of a building. The apparatus used has its own motion, which changes the way a dancer moves in response, requiring a high degree of strength, power, flexibility, and grace to perform.
Local dancer Monet Sexauer became intrigued with aerial dance while watching the work of aerial dancers Miranda Janeschild, Kevin O’Connor and Allie Cooper. Monet along with other dancers went on to perform their aerial dance routine for several years at the now defunct Cypress Lounge. Originally from Sarasota, Fla., Monet moved to the Bay Area at the age of 17 to pursue her love of dance. Monet has gone on to perform throughout the country. She shares her time between modeling for internationally renowned Sculptor Richard MacDonald, teaching the dance therapy technique known as Tamalpa and dancing.
I caught up with Monet at her studio, in front of a portrait of her by Richard MacDonald and her hand puppet, Simon Sez, to talk about dance.
Kirby Scudder: Where did your love of dance come from?
Monet Sexauer: I really like that quote from a movie where the woman in the red slippers says so dramatically, when a man asks why she likes to dance, she turns to him and says, “Why do you breath?” It’s how I communicate with the world. It is a form of expression that I developed at a very young age. I grew up doing a lot of classical dance training and I went to a performing arts high school. When I came to Santa Cruz, I studied Tamalpa, an expressive arts training program using dance as the basis with Daria and Anna Halprin.
KS: You mentioned your Tamalpa studies, what did you get from that exploration?
MS: In dance there is a lot of competition, pitting one dancer against another. When I was in the performing arts high school, it was like something out of TV series, whereby the more successful I became as a dancer, the more my friends hated me. Consequently, the more ambivalence I had about my success. When your art is your body it’s deeply personal and you feel really exposed. As a young dancer you don’t really have the maturity to deal with all that. Tamalpa has really helped me to understand my own unique expression through dance. It helped me get in touch with my own body in a new way.
KS: How did you get involved with aerial dance?
MS: I found myself with a group of friends taking aerial dance classes with Miranda, who brought aerial dance to Santa Cruz. My friends and I loved it and we thought how can we keep doing this. We bought equipment and hung it on a tree and we originally called ourselves Swing Tree Troupe. We started meeting a few times a week to practice and started studying with the choreographer Kevin O’Connor who convinced us to start performing. We started performing at the Cypress Lounge and ended up doing that for several years. It was revolutionary for me to get paid as a dancer.
Leaving her studio, I noticed the strands of light blue material and harness attached to the 16 feet high ceiling, twirling.
You can see the full video interview with Monet Sexauer at www.santacruzsentinel.com.
Kirby Scudder is the director of the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art. Details: www.scica.org.
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