Dance if You MUST!

Lar Lubovitch is one of the nation's top choreographers. The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. After a recent performance he answered questions from audience members. Below are a few things he said that are instructive.


You might expect Lar Lubovitch to have a flamboyant personality. After all, for over 40 years he has pursued a profession which emphasizes artistic body movements and athleticism. In his early years he trained with the likes of Martha Graham. Yet he has a surprisingly low key style. He has the precision-oriented bearing of a mathematician for whom every word counts. When he took questions from audience members I was struck by the substance of his answers. He comes across as someone who really knows who he is and is comfortable with that.

Here are three things he talked about that you may find instructive:

1. Know thyself. Dancing is extremely challenging physically. Most dancers retire at a relatively young age. Mr. Lubovitch retired earlier than most. He came to realize that he did his best dancing in the studio rather than on stage. He was too self-conscious in front of audiences. Yet other dancers, he observed, thrived on stage and did their best work. "I realized that I should be a choreographer and not a dancer," he said. So he focused his energy on choreography and created one of the most renowned dance companies in the world.

2. Less is more, but start with more. For Mr. Lubovitch the purpose of dance is to put body motions to music. When he designs a new piece he begins by memorizing the music. In his mind he imagines all kinds of dance moves, more than could ever be performed within the confines of time and space. Then he distills all that to a small subset of ideas. The end product is an artistic work more modest in scale than his original creative output. It's focused and energized.

3. Do what you know you must. One audience member asked Mr. Lubovitch what to say to someone who is thinking of pursuing a career in dance. He responded that such a decision is highly personal. Dance as a career is a difficult choice because it is so highly demanding physically and offers low pay. "One doesn't really choose to dance," he said. "You dance because it is something you HAVE to do." Such passion and commitment can bring about tremendous results, as Mr. Lubovitch has demonstrated.

Quick Vue: Here is a look at the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company during a recent performance.


Sources for this post included Rocky Mountain News, article by Marc Shulgold.