Known worldwide for his Emmy nominated work with Madonna , Alex Magno is a highly regarded international director and choreographer for the stage and screen. His diverse resume includes works for Madonna, Yanni, Britney Spears, the Parisian Lido,  Ballet Hispanico, Ringling Brothers, and the Academy Awards, to name a few, as well as his own highly acclaimed dance company With Passion.

Alex took time to share his unique story with Dance Informa.

Tell us about your upbringing in Brazil and the impact it had on you as a dancer and choreographer.

My upbringing has absolutely had a strong influence on the kind of dancer and choreographer I am today.  As a Brazilian, improvisation is part of your DNA, it is entrenched in the culture, the music and the way of life, and I am no exception to that rule.

I grew up in a small town called Vila Kenned outside Rio De Janeiro, and at an early stage of my life I learned how to cultivate my imagination, to improvise (in life and dance), and  create my own world in which anything was possible, even though the world outside me had infinite roadblocks. I remember every Sunday getting together with the entire family and gathering around in a big circle for an impromptu music and dance jam, with the entire family playing rhythms on whatever was around that could be used as an instrument. This is where I learned not only rhythm, but how to improvise, listen to the music, and let it move me.

I did not grow up taking dance lessons, but I did do Capoeira and two different styles of Karate. In my teens, I put a dance group together called “Old Jazz” and we used to go to different night clubs and perform. I would make up the routines that were influenced by watching different dance videos and films. So I actually began choreographing before I began training as a professional dancer. I ended up getting discovered in one of those clubs and got a scholarship to begin training.

How did you get to LA?

I arrived in LA in 1986 after winning a choreographers competition in Brazil (sponsored by Paramount Pictures) in which the prize was a trip to LA with all the expenses paid for one week.

It was very surreal for me; they had a limo waiting with the driver holding a sign with my last name. This was a far cry from the harsh reality of life in Brazil at that time.

I ended up staying and received scholarship at one of the best dance studios in the US at the time – Dupree Dance Academy. There I took classes with amazing dance teachers such as Doug Caldwell, Hama, Jackie Sleight, Randy Allaire, Rosemary Randy, Tony Cappola, Melinda Cordell, and Vicktor Manoel, amongst others.

You’re known worldwide for your Emmy nominated work for Madonna. Tell us about your experiences with her.

I worked with Madonna on two worlds tours. The first tour was The Girlie Show Tour – a tour that was all about staging, choreography, costume and lighting. It was one of Madonna’s few tours that relied heavily on theater, and the choreography shared an equal spotlight with Madonna herself.

The first thing Madonna told me after I auditioned as a choreographer for her was, “Alex, just so you know, I approach each of my songs from a character point of view. I need you to not take it personally if I don’t like a certain step or if I challenge you to tell me the reason why you’re choreographing this step or that…You are going to be fine as long as you keep those guide lines”.

Lucky for me, that was the way I used to work, in a very theatrical way. All of my movements came out of a character.

There is an interesting story behind me working with her a second time. A few months prior to the Drowned World Tour starting production, there was news that Madonna was going to be touring again, but I had no information on who was to be her next creative team. So I submitted to Madonna’s manager a full tour concept, along with my new choreography reel. It happened, just by coincidence, that some of the concept I sent to her was very similar to the direction that Madonna and her director Jamie were thinking. That synergy was what got me the gig the second time, and eventually the Emmy nomination. This tour was the perfect balance of music, theater and hi-tech production.  It was one of the most challenging tours, because I had to choreograph all different styles of dance, ranging from Martial Arts, to Tango, Flamenco, Contemporary, etc.

Madonna is an artist who is highly intelligent, deeply in tune with herself and always true to what moves her. She makes no excuses for her motivations and beliefs. As an artist, it is inspiring to be able to create alongside someone so bold and fearless. The other great thing about Madonna is that she is always clear – she loves it or she hates it. That may be harsh at times, but in the end you always know that she is truly happy with the final product. She will push until it is perfect.

What was it like to be nominated for an Emmy?

Being nominated for an Emmy, for doing what I love, was an absolute honor. The Drowned World Tour was actually the only one of Madonna’s tours to be recognized with that honor.

You are often called a “story teller” when it comes to your body of work. Why do you think that is?

Because I explore the movement from a character’s point view, from real emotions we all can relate to. Dance is an art that can be both abstract and communicative, but in order for it to be effective, it must provoke emotion.

Most of my work has universal themes that cross frontiers, language, age, culture and gender, but when you apply them to a specific setting they become much more tangible and emotionally effective. I appreciate dance that is about the beauty of the movement, but for me the steps are secondary to the emotion.

In every work I do I try to bring all of the colors of the music to life through the movement, showing the unspoken poem of the song and getting to the core of the music itself. The idea is to have the music translate visually through each body movement.

You’re an avid dance educator in addition to being an award winning choreographer. Why are you so passionate about teaching?

Because it keeps the flame of dance alive. I had some amazing teachers that inspired me to be what I am today, so I feel that is part of my job to pass that on.  It is also what keeps me artistically alive. It is my “creative workshop” where I create the castles out of “playing cards”, it is a place where I see magic being created.  I learn from my students, they teach me to become a better teacher, choreographer and director.

What is next for you?

I am currently directing, choreographing and producing Benise’s The Spanish Guitar world tour. I am also in development for a new dance multimedia show starring actress/dancer Jenna Elfman, as well as shooting a series of dance short films.

Alex Magno is represented by The Movement / A Dance Management Company
www.MovementMGMT.com

By Steve Sirico of Dance Teacher Web.

In this special 2 part series we will explore tips to running a successful studio. Think about your business and how these tips apply to what you are doing. Even if you are doing what I recommend, try to think in terms of how you might switch up your approach for even greater success.

Keep in contact with your current customers.
This means emails, newsletters, surveys, customer events and anything else you can think of. The reality is that everyone is busy and you are low on their radar. If you lose contact, then you risk losing business. Most people stop coming to a business because they think you don’t even know they exist. And don’t worry about being a pest. Just keep giving them useful information and special offers that they will love to receive.

Keep marketing to your current customers.
Most businesses focus on attracting new clients and marketing to them. But think about this: If you are doing business with a company you like, you are more apt to buy more of the same. A lot more! When you have devoted clients, you can ask them to give you testimonials so you can then promote what they love about you.

Create WOW moments for your customers.
Make plans to have special events that are both publicised and unannounced at your school. Think of ways to surprise your students and their families. Ideas include highlighting a special student of the month, free giveaways for students who work hard, special projects where everyone wins something, and just random acts of kindness. They will make you the talk of the town.

Get your staff and faculty to buy into your philosophy…or sever the relationship.
Donald Trump likes to say “hire slowly but fire quickly”. Most people do the opposite. They hire on a gut reaction and then try to hold on when things go south. If you are having an issue with any faculty member or staff member it is best to try to resolve the issue immediately! If no solution is at hand then use that apprentice line—“You’re fired!”

Build your preschool program.
If you build it they will come. Make a special brochure or schedule exclusively for them. The more time offered the bigger your program will get. Try doing a special show that is short and informal with just these younger students—both enjoyable and easy on the families and their time.

Build programs for each niche.
Beyond preschool, offer programs for all ages and special areas that include athletes, kids who are singers and actors, recreational, competition teams, dance teams and even adults. Now the key is to find ways to market to each group exclusively. “Find a need, fill a need”—if you do, you will always have plenty of business.

Don’t let the parents run the ship.
Parents will love to give you their two cents about all kinds of things: Who should be teaching, what they should be teaching, during which hours they should be teaching. And it doesn’t stop there. Listen to your customers, but do not waiver from your company vision. Your parents will take over if you let them and then you will have a hard time regaining control. It’s your business, you are in charge. Make sure they know that and they won’t over step the boundary.

Insights from Company Dancer Brittany Fridenstine

By Stephanie Wolf 

Manhattan based dance troupe Morphoses challenges the norms of a ballet company setting. In the wake of Christopher Wheeldon’s departure, director and co-founder Lourdes Lopez opted to forego the typical formula of having a sole, permanent artistic director. Instead, Morphoses created a “Resident Artistic Director” position; enlisting a new artistic leader for each performance season.

In the midst of her first season with the company, NYC freelance dancer Brittany Fridenstine gave Dance Informa a glimpse into Morphoses’s residency at Martha’s Vineyard and working with the current Resident Artistic Director Luca Veggetti.

At age nine, Brittany began training intensively at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, WA. Her professional life began at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and she went on to dance with Ballet Memphis, Minnesota Dance Theatre, the James Sewell Ballet, and American Repertory Ballet. Her freelance career has led her to work with Terpsicorps Dance Theater, Burklyn Ballet Theare, Terra Firma Dance Theatre, Chamber Dance Project, and National Choreographers’ Initiative.

Brittany enjoyed three rich weeks of artistic exploration with Morphoses at Martha’s Vineyard, as the company prepared for performances of Luca Veggetti’s new ballet Bacchae at the Joyce Theater, NYC, which premiered October 25, 2011.

Describe your time at the Vineyard. What was your typical daily schedule like?

We were housed in a beautiful, enormous home, which has 15 private bedrooms with bathrooms. There was a communal eating and sitting area, and 2 dance studios. Across a garden was another building with 2 more studios, plus a pilates and workout space. It was a beautiful sanctuary to get immersed in a creative process.

We began class at 10am [every day]. Lourdes Lopez, the director of Morphoses, alternated with our ballet mistress Eve Lawson. We went right into rehearsals from 11:30am – 2:30pm and then breaked for lunch. Then we resumed 3:30 – 4pm for cleaning, and usually continued with other tasks until 6.

Morphoses presents Bacchae

Is this your first time working with Luca Veggetti?

I met Luca in 2005 at the National Choreographers’ Initiative. I was selected to perform in his piece and instantly loved the intensity of his movement. I kept in touch with him and his career and had an opportunity to do a solo improvised performance that he staged in Saarbrucken, Germany and Bologna, Italy. Later, I did another structured improv event with Luca at the Austrian Embassy in NYC, accompanied by our current, and amazing, flautist Erin Lesser.

How much studio time did you have with Luca at Martha’s Vineyard?

I am dancing ensemble work and we typically had 4 to 5 hours with Luca. The lead dancers had about 2 to 3 hours.

What is the creative process with Luca like? How did it differ from the last time you worked with him?

Luca is very exacting. He has a specific movement language, which places more importance on energetic flow than on shapes. There are numerous moments of suspension, sometimes halting, then quick re-entry to a flow. It requires great awareness of every part of your body all at once, and he wants it perfect immediately.

In the past, I utilized more improvisation with Luca. With this experience, there was more staged material, but he still demands it have the feeling of improv. It has been amazing to work with the other dancers who are extremely talented and unique.

Tell me more about the community amongst the dancers.

The dancers are all amazing artists. We have fostered an environment of mutual admiration and respect. At the Vineyard, we were all forced to spend every hour together, but I think we all loved it. I hope to work with all of them again. It will be sad when I don’t see them every day.

Can you describe Luca’s new ballet Bacchae?

The ballet is based abstractly on the tale of Bacchae, the Greek God Dionysius’s struggle between rationality and irrationality. We have a stage within a stage. There is a platform, utilizing specific technology to make sounds out of our movement. This creates another live element to the production. Our movement is part of the music and each show is slightly different. There is a puppeteer and puppet in the show and an amazing flautist, who interacts with the dancers. Additionally, the dancers all have text.

By Leigh Schanfein

Last year at this time, I was offered a pretty sweet deal: go to Sydney Australia, where housing and various other expenses would be covered, work with a colleague whose unique movement style I found truly intriguing, create and perform a new work with a group of pre-selected enthusiastic and experienced dancers, and serve as rehearsal director for the work in subsequent settings. Oh yeah, and I would go halfway around the world to do it. Giving purpose to my meager savings, I bought a flight and flew from New York City to Sydney to work with emerging choreographer Ian RT Colless, his company Untitled|Collective, and the DirtyFeet dance organization.

If you haven’t already heard of it, you should. DirtyFeet is a non-profit contemporary dance organization founded in 2005, with the intent to provide opportunities and workspace for emerging independent dancers and choreographers in Sydney. As part of this effort, DirtyFeet offers choreographic labs for emerging choreographers, performance series for independent dancers, and dance workshops for the community at large. The beautiful thing about this organization is that it functions much like a collective, bringing independent dancers together with the common objectives of creating dance and developing as dancers. DirtyFeet members pay a small annual fee for the privilege of taking part in residencies, performances, and classes organized by DirtyFeet’s co-directors Anthea Doropoulos and Sarah Fiddaman.

As a freelance dancer in New York City, I face the challenges that come with jumping from choreographer to choreographer and from project to project, without always feeling as though there is time or room for my own development as an artist within each role I undertake. There is immense pressure for choreographers and directors to prove something with every expense, and the very fact that the choreographer is putting together a performance, along with the efforts required to put the project together, is often what negates his or her efforts as an artist. Choreographers do not have the luxury of cultivating their dancers. This is the primary reason why I am impressed with DirtyFeet. The collective experience can give both choreographers and dancers the freedom so necessary to artistic development.

Dancers perform "Meeting Place". Photo by Krista Bonura

This brings me to the choreographer who invited me “Downunder”, Ian RT Colless. If you haven’t already heard of him, you will. Ian, who hails from the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, holds degrees in dance from Queensland University of Technology and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He has won accolades and awards for his choreography for musical, opera, and dance performance, and is now based in NYC, where he held an internship with Battery Dance Company. The internship was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts – Skills & Arts Development Grant from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board. Indeed, Ian is a descendent of the Gundungurra Nation of Aboriginals from the Blue Mountains.

Upon first meeting, one would never guess Ian’s full heritage. The tall, lanky, and fair-skinned man could be any dancer at any studio, until you see him move. How can I describe Ian’s style? Quirky doesn’t quite cut it. With the angles of a stork blended with the fluidity of a snake, he mostly does things that you can’t imagine anyone else being able to do. However, what any dancer will come to realize through working with Ian is that the way all of us with our different training, flexibility, strength, technique, and heritage can all move as one, is by cultivating a shared intent. If a hundred different bodies perform a movement with the same engagement and purpose, then they will look as one because the audience feels the commonality.

When we began work in the DirtyFeet choreographic lab, we quickly realized we were not trying to emulate Ian’s movement, or even to dance in a way that fits within the parameters of his influence. Instead, we were to perform as individuals in a communal context. Ian never said, “Do this move in your interpretation of an Aboriginal way”. That would have been absurd considering the lack of exposure someone like me has had to Aboriginal dance; it probably would have ended up an accidental mockery of something to be honored. Instead, Ian informed our movement by exposing us to his land, his family, his community (Gundungurra Nation), and his understanding of traditional dance and philosophies so that we could use it as motivation while dancing explicitly as ourselves. We were given information with which to shape our intent.

I believe one of the reasons we, as a group of dancers from a surprisingly diverse background, were able to accomplish what we did within a three week choreographic lab was because Ian shaped the project to double as a cultural residency. We learned about Ian’s Aboriginal heritage and how it influences his work. We were subsequently asked to use our own backgrounds as a driving force. We drew upon our memories, externalized them, reinterpreted them into movement, and re-internalized them through the absorptive power of dance. By doing so, we ended up with a way to realize other people’s memories in our own bodies, creating a very powerful device by which we understood each other.

It seems to me that DirtyFeet provides the perfect format for choreographers and dancers who work with the understanding that that which makes a dancer unique is what should be enhanced through performance and not subdued to fit a mold. If you ever have the opportunity to work in this way, I’d certainly recommend giving it a try. You may even make it to a new part of the world in the process, and you’ll certainly make it to a new level of understanding about your own dancing. If you haven’t already had the opportunity to explore yourself through the exploration of others’ culture and experiences, you definitely should.

Since the residency, I’ve served as rehearsal director for performances of this work, Ripple, in Manhattan and Queens, NYC, and performed with Untitled|Collective in Boundaries.3, Ripple, and the newest work Meeting Place, at various Manhattan venues. I never imagined at this early point in my career that I would be able to hop on over to Australia for a choreographic residency, and then find such unspoken self and shared cultivation amongst a group of dancers. I certainly got a sweet deal.

Learn more about Ian RT Colless and Untitled|Collective at www.untitled-collective.com.
Learn more about DirtyFeet at www.dirtyfeet.com.au.

Top photo: A performance of ‘Ripple’. By Hayley Rose Photography

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