Kayla Harley

My experience with Collage Dance Collective, similar to that of YoungArts week as a senior in high school, was one of those pivotal moments for me as a growing artist. Reaffirming. Encouraging. Edifying. Inspiring. I was quiet most of the time. Absorbing the information I received by watching how professionals work. They were tentative in rehearsing each step, inhabiting corrections right away and assessing the needs for their body to make the movement appear seamless. As a whole the company supported one another by communicating openly and honestly, it allowed them to become intimate for a show that was due in less than a week. I use the words they and them....because it wasn't until a few days later did I realized I was swimming in that pool of professionalism and artistry as well. Unlike my experience at River North--I wasn't being shoved into a corner copying movements from someone else's body and pasting them into space when it was my turn. The weight of physical a...

What is your relationship to the mirror as a dancer? Are you dependent on it? Use it as a source of information? Is it a complete distraction or interference with your ability to move through space? All of these realities are true and valid in the lives of dancers today...surrounded by images of ourselves all day everyday in the studio we are forced to examine our bodily-being and to grapple with the idea of perfection. The mirror, a source for information, provides a two dimensional image of what actually exists as three-dimensional object in space. Essentially the experience or relationship to a mirror image of ourselves is one on the surface of who we really are. The perspective of ourselves, what we see, and what we think we see is often shaped by the specificity of technique and the nurtured ideas of beauty in the dance world. How can we begin to shift our interaction with self-image on a daily basis in a way that doesn't deplete our confidence and create doubt? Please ...