By Kathleen Wessel.

After more than three decades with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, acclaimed dancer Renee Robinson will take her final bow this season. Robinson is the last remaining dancer to have been chosen by Ailey himself and the only company member to have worked under all three Artistic Directors – Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison and now Robert Battle.

In 2012, Robinson officially retired, but the company and her many fans weren’t quite ready to say goodbye. After a series of farewell performances in New York City, Robinson is currently performing as a guest artist in a three-city tour that includes Atlanta, Boston and her hometown of Washington D.C.

As part of that tour, Robinson is teaching open classes – which included one at Spelman College in Atlanta on February 13th – aimed at spreading the message of Ailey and his 1960 iconic work Revelations. Now, more than 50 years after its debut, the classic work has been seen by an estimated 23 million people in 71 countries – more than any other modern dance piece in history. At Spelman, the nation’s top ranked Historically Black College/University, Robinson taught short sections of the classic work and deepened the experience with historical and personal connections.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Renee Robinson. Photo by Andrew Eccles.

“If she’ll teach me how to dance, I will give her my life!” said Michaela Johnson, a star struck Spelman student, as she watched Robinson prepare for the class at Spelman’s Baldwin Burroughs Theater. Robinson must be used to reactions like these, but humility, it seemed, is in her nature. “If I’m an inspiration, it’s because I have great examples,” she said in reference not just to famed directors Ailey, Jamison and Battle but also to the many students she has encountered over the years. “I’m an example because I’ve been influenced by them, through performance and outreach [experiences] like the one that’s going to happen this morning.”

Though she has been a professional dancer for most of her adult life, Robinson is also a natural-born teacher. “Who here has seen Revelations?” she asked a crowded stage of about 50 students, “What do you remember about it?” As they answered, Robinson wrote key words from their responses on a large, white notepad, then read them aloud. “Spirituals, struggle, praise, the elements, community. Did I hear somebody say ‘community’? No? Okay, that’s going to be my word,” she said with a laugh.

Alvin Ailey’s original mission, as he put it, was to “deliver dance back to the people,” and Robinson upholds that legacy in mind, body and spirit. After the brief discussion, she removed her outer layer of clothing to reveal a taut, muscular torso in a pink tank top. A murmur of amazement bubbled through the group as Robinson stretched her expertly-toned arms wide and began talking the students through some warm-up exercises.

“Long, long, long, long – you’ll hear me say this a lot,” she said, “Even your foot is long. Long supple muscles ready to move.” Her voice, rhythmic and expressive, was so musical I hardly noticed that it was the only sound in the room. Robinson didn’t need accompaniment for the warm-up, her rich voice was a song in itself.

Renee Robinson performs Alvin Ailey’s ‘Wade in the Water’ as part of ‘Revelations’. Photo by Andrew Eccles.

Entranced and inspired, a student later asked how Robinson has kept her body performance-ready for so many years. Her many answers included sleep, drinking lots of water and keeping yourself in good company. “I’m very serious about the way I eat,” she added, “But y’all, I will kill a diet for macaroni and cheese!”

It is this youthful energy, this easy connection with her students, which makes Robinson an ideal spokesperson for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and its affiliate school. When her official “retirement” sets in, she hopes to continue leading workshops and Revelations residencies in public schools. She’s also thinking about writing a children’s book aimed at giving aspiring dancers a behind-the-scenes look at the profession.

Near the end of the class at Spelman, Robinson taught parts of Wade in the Water and Rocka my Soul, two of the most lively and least technically-demanding sections in Revelations. As the students watched the detailed rippling of her arm, the practiced steps and piercing focus, it became clear that executing the movement was going to be harder than it looked. “Yes! I felt that!” she yelled when the group began to get it, “That’s when you start to feel the correct energy, the seriousness of it and we become involved in your journey.” She went on to explain the meaning behind these sections, the images of splashing water and the ceremony of a Baptism. “Revelations is part of humanity,” she said and paused, “I’m going to start crying.”

Robinson has performed these sections countless times, but she dances with such immediacy, as if every movement is as powerful to her now as it was 30 years ago. When she appeared on stage at the Fox Theatre the following night “holding that umbrella high” as Robert Battle said in his curtain speech, the audience erupted into applause. She led the company in Wade in the Water, stepping over the fluttering pieces of fabric with commanding grace.

Ailey’s works, especially Revelations, have “embraced people from all backgrounds,” says Robinson, and she continues to pass on that message, even off the stage. “I would like for everyone to know that’s what dance can be.”

Photo (top): Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Renee Robinson. Photo by Andrew Eccles.

LA based dance/fitness advocate Michelle Zeitlin is ready to reach out to the world with her unique brand of passion and pragmatism.

By Paul Ransom

Michelle Zeitlin is one of those polymath types; and she’s not afraid to advertise the fact. From her Los Angeles HQ she is looking to take her blend of dance and wellness to the world. When she lands in Australia in July for a master class tour she will doubtless be bringing her energetic, entrepreneurial zap to proceedings across the globe.

Dancer, choreographer, director, producer; Zeitlin has lived and worked on all sides of the entertainment fence and that hard won 360° perspective marks her out as something of a rarity.

“In an industry that can be filled with wishy-washiness and a shortage of integrity, I feel that being recognised for my authenticity is really a truth and a compliment,” she begins unabashed. “I love dance. I love expressing myself with my body. It is my flow; and I feel connected to the earth. That may sound esoteric or corny but I do feel that I’m in the moment when I move … We are naturally meant to move; it is our flight. When we move, we release endorphins and that’s good for our brains and our systems.”

Michelle Zeitlin is clearly big on ‘authenticity’. “Dance is honest for me,” she states upfront. “Just like when you can see ‘acting’ it doesn’t feel truthful; I feel that way about really good dance. It’s best when it’s simple. When movement is truthful, it comes from within. When I choreograph, I really start with a pulse, like breathing, and emerge from there.”

The other big string to her bow is the connect point between fitness and dance. For Zeitlin, dance is not simply a performance mode but something far more fundamental. “Dance is fitness and health,” she says. “There are unhealthy ways to practice dance but in the most basic terms dance is exercise, and good for the body.”

Obvious as that sounds, Zeitlin is taking it further. With a keen eye for business she is tapping into the growing market for programmes that address the burgeoning childhood obesity crisis. “There are many reasons kids are getting fatter and I’ve written a research paper on the subject,” she explains. “I’ve also been putting together a live show and ideas for a web and TV series that will be for the 6-12 year old elementary school set. Kids love to learn experientially and I’m combining my research, my passion for exercise and my love for kids with this project.”

Much of that fitness and financial ethos makes its way into Zeitlin’s masterclass program. Dancers can expect a whole lot more than a few new moves. As she is quick to point out, “I teach like a director. I’m always studying the room; who is there, and how to develop the dancers.”

On the fitness front this means a merging of ideas from contemporary dance, yoga, isometrics, martial arts and cardio. A Zeitlin warm-up is “a body strengthener and builder”, rather than a straight stretch.

Yet for all her startling passion and enthusiasm, Michelle Zeitlin maintains a very cool focus on the ‘realpolitik’ of dance and entertainment. Whereas most artists find the business side of things nigh impossible (or even downright offensive), Zeitlin is a deliberate self-spruiker. It’s surely one of the reasons why her company More Zap Productions is going international.

“Being a professional dancer who chooses to subsist by living and working as a dancer, you must think of yourself as a product – a brand,” she begins bluntly. “Who are you? What do you have to say? What type are you? How do you stand out? This means the way you present yourself is really branding who you are. Dancers, actors, models and singers need to have a sense of who they are as products in a marketplace, not just as artists.”

For all of that, though, Zeitlin remains adamant about one thing. “If you want to dance, dance! Don’t do it because it’s trendy or because you want to back up Britney. Do it because you have something to say.”

So, is this what puts the ‘zap’ in More Zap Productions? “I think more zap is what I’m about,” she says. “People say ‘put the wow into it’ but that’s become a cliché, so I always thought that putting more zap into it was fresher. It’s an energy and a vitality. Motion.”

And Michelle Zeitlin certainly has energy. Her company has been involved in more than two thousand events since its inception; and it could easily have been more. “Before More Zap my company was called Triple Threat, which dancers and entertainers understand … but I once got a phone call asking for Triple Treat. They thought we were strippers!”

This is perhaps an apt metaphor for a woman who works from a space of refreshing honesty and ‘upfrontness’. Zeitlin’s modus operandi is to strip away much of the narrow thinking that can creep into dance practise. “I’m really excited about my masterclass tour and exposing people to some new ideas that could broaden and enhance their tool kit for success in the performing arts and in the entertainment industry,” she adds.

With her consciously broad horizon approach, Michelle Zeitlin has turned a lifelong passion not simply into a source of income but a source of continued inspiration. “I guess I was destined to be either an actor or a spy,” she starts off joking. “Dance for me was an umbrella and an anchor. What I mean is that dance gave me a safe haven to develop, be a little different and have my creative safe place, even in grade school. It made me special and kept me happy. Dance was my anchor; in that I felt planted, disciplined and structured.”

Thus beginneth the lesson.

Photos: Michael Higgins