This is day 17 in my Dance Inspirations Advent Calendar (II)
Most dancers seem to hate adage. And if they don’t hate it, they need such ‘support’ from the music that playing for the exercise is like administering CPR to a cow, or blowing up a tyre with a puncture. You hardly dare let the music breathe in case they fall over or lose the will to développé.
I was surprised, then, to hear Victor Alvarez say, during a quiet moan about the drudgery of daily class when you’re not feeling like it, “Actually, I don’t mind adage. Wafting around a studio to Chopin, I like that bit. That’s fun.” It’s worth knowing that not everyone needs adage music to be an iron-pumping piano frenzy, and that for some people – even men, it’s an opportunity to let the spirit free and be poetic.
I don’t know which piece of Chopin he may have had in mind, but I adore the ‘Raindrop’ prelude, and I’d give anything to see Victor waft around a studio to it.
