Meditations on Metamorphosizing

The first time I ever saw Mordine & Company Dance Theater perform was a couple years ago at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts. I was relatively new to Chicago and its dance world and I had only performed for a few smaller companies. I was struggling to find myself and to find that company that would help push my dancing to the next level. As I sat in the auditorium and saw Mordine & Company’s “LifeSpeak” I had no idea that a year and a half later I would be one of those dancers on the stage performing that same piece. I had no clue as to how difficult the piece was, or of how hard Shirley would make me work. All I knew sitting in that audience was that I wanted to dance like those dancers on stage.  They were so aware of their bodies and how they worked. They were all unique and not a single one outshined the other. They seemed so honest and I wanted to be just like them. Now that I am part of the company and learning “LifeSpeak” myself, I feel I am nothing like those dancers who I watched before, but I am getting closer to discovering my own voice in each rehearsal. 

The new piece we are creating now is called “All at Once/Acts of Renewal” and deals with many ideas, but the one that resonates with me the most is the idea of transformation. We have been exploring that moment just before you transform, and discovering that it is full of frustration, stress and difficulty. And when finally break through that wall of resistance, you become something else—a new version of yourself that still contains elements from your past.

Throughout this process of working on the new piece Shirley has asked us many times to take movement phrases we have created and transform them. We’ve explored how these phrases are affected by others moving in the space, we’ve pushed the movements to a place outside our comfort zone, and we’ve played with minimizing the movement to get down to the essence of the phrase. Through these exercises I have learned so much about my voice as a dancer, and I feel that I have a much clearer idea of what I want to say and how my body feels portraying those ideas.  But I have also realized that through working with Shirley the past year and a half that she has helped me transform my dancing (and by extension, myself) into a new person.  One that is less wary of venturing beyond predetermined boundaries and is unafraid of new experiences yet to come, but who also contains part of her old self and knows and respects where she came from. There were some difficulties and frustrations before I let myself change, and I am sure there are more ahead of me. However, I’m certain that the process of transformation is what I found to be so inspiring about those Mo & Co dancers that I saw onstage in the past.  And with hard work and willingness to evolve, I hope that in the future I can encourage someone else like those dancers inspired me.

-Stacy DeMorrow, Company Dancer