The best kind of imitation there is: Dance
When I heard we would be speaking with Pascal Rioult, the man behind Bolero, and one of his dancers, Sara Elizabeth Seger, I was intrigued. After watching the dance and asking Pascal Rioult some questions about his choreography, I thought back to the imitation theory mentioned in What is dance? By Roger Copeland and Marshall Cohen. Dance can be used to imitate nature, someone else, or feelings. The possibilities are endless. Though the imitation theory is just one of three theories used to describe what dance is, I saw it very prevalent throughout the entire performance and presentation by Rioult and Seger.
The most notable cycle in Bolero is as follows: the group is doing a more stiff and angular dance while one dancer is singled out and making more natural and flexible movements. Each of the dancers is given a chance to have a mini solo where they detach from the group and flow naturally. They may not be consciously copying one another as they are dancing. Rather, all of the dancers seem to act as a model for each other without entirely thinking about it. They maintain uniformity by stimulating the dance that the others are doing in a timely and natural way.
As you can see, the background dancers are uniform while each of them takes turns to break from the group and do a different choreography. Two of the seven “solos” are pictured. Click on the image to view the full video[/caption]
Watching all eight dancers doing the routine was like watching a red-capped manakin dancing to impress his mate. When I think of both cases, I do not entirely think of the dance itself, rather the steps it took to get to the performance itself. Birds learn to dance by shadowing older males who are ready to mate. They watch, they learn, and they repeat the steps in front of a potential mate. While these dancers were not dancing for the same reason as the red-necked manakin, the process was similar. I asked Rioult how he choreographs a piece, he explained that he does not do the dances himself. Instead, he comes up with the piece in his mind and has other choreographers who are able to interpret his thoughts into a physical form. Again, imitation popped up in my mind. The entirety of Bolero is an imitation of Rioult’s thoughts. Bolero begins in Rioult’s mind, then he imitates his thoughts by describing to his choreographers and dancers what he is thinking. Then his descriptions are interpreted into a physical form, the dance itself. The entire process he described was like a series of imitations.
The final segment of the event was the most exciting. We were taught all of the movements of Bolero by Sara Seger, one of the dancers who performed it many times. Again, imitation. We were to imitate the dancer as She broke down the dance step by step. I attempted the dance myself as per Seger’s instructions. Unfortunately, I was unable to nail the moves as perfectly as Professor Feiner. Much like Professor Feiner, my good friend Varsha Boochay was able to learn the dance very well. From being thought to a physical movement to being a broken down lesson for others to learn, Bolero exhibits imitation from beginning to end.
