When I found out that I got into the University of South Florida’s Dance in Paris program, Karen Silverstein, my childhood dance studio owner and ballet teacher, mentioned to me that she knew someone named Cheryl Therrien teaching dance in Paris. One of my Hofstra dance professors, Dyane Harvey-Salaam, also mentioned that she had a friend named Rick Odums in Paris who owned a dance center.
Fast forward a few months, I arrive in Paris, and I keep hearing about two specific places for dance. These centers seemed to be brought up quite a lot in discussions with the dance faculty and the rest of my program: the Conservatoire de Paris (Paris Conservatory) and le Centre International de Danse (International Center of Dance).
What were the chances that the two people I was supposed to meet while in Paris worked at/ owned these two places? While 3,000 miles from home, the world never felt smaller.
Cheryl Therrien, who knows my childhood studio owner, amongst several other accreditations, is a former Cunningham dancer. She has remounted numerous works since then, and continues to teach across Europe and the United States. Her bio can be found on this page: https://dancingopportunities.com/workshop-cunningham-technique-with-cheryl-therrien/.
While in Paris, she works at the Conservatoire de Paris, something I did not realize until reaching out to Cheryl. Unfortunately, we did not have the chance to meet, and I was not able to squeeze in an observation at the conservatory, but I hope one day I will meet Cheryl in-person. At the Conservatoire, she works beside Nathalie Pubellier, who I was able to take choreography from in Paris before being sent home. In January, I also saw Nathalie Pubellier’s “Non, pas toi” performance. Not only does Cheryl know Nathalie, but she also knows Anna Chirescu, who was one of my ballet teachers abroad. Anna was in the new Cunningham film that recently came out, which Cheryl worked on, as well. As a program, we had the opportunity to go and see the film in the movie theater, and we saw Anna in it! The connections between Nathalie and Cheryl, Anna and Cheryl, and Cheryl and Karen truly made my circles all seem to intertwine.
Rick Odums, who has danced alongside my Hofstra professor Dyane Harvey-Salaam, owns the Centre International de Danse. His bio: http://www.centre-rick-odums.com/en/rick-odums/. Thanks to Dyane, I was put in contact with Rick, who offered for me to come to his center. So before class one day, I took the trip to what Dyane called “Rick’s palace”.
From the street, you walk down a very long hallway before entering through the doors. Dyane was right, it really was huge! When walking in, there are several tables to the left that made it feel like a cafeteria. On the right, there were papers hanging on the wall, detailing schedules, classes, and other information. I walked up to a counter, where a girl pointed me to Rick, who was sitting at a table.
He told me I could walk around and explore, so of course I took the opportunity to do so. On the ground floor where I was, a large window looked into a studio where a class was going on. I walked up and saw floors 2 and 3, each having multiple studios. Apparently, the top floor has classrooms, and in the basement is a recording studio. After my exploration of the studios, I came back downstairs and began asking Rick some questions. He told me about the history of the center and everything it has to offer.
A long time ago, the location was a women’s prison. Eventually, people took it over and changed it into a dance studio. They brought in Rick a couple of times to teach there, but eventually they were kicked out for not regularly paying the rent. Eventually, Rick took over the space and little by little began renovations. He added a recording studio in the basement for additional training. The classrooms were added for dance history and kinesiology courses.
Most of the students come right after high school. Three auditions are held at the end of the year. Prospective students must pass one of the auditions and then once accepted, share proof of their diploma with the center’s faculty. The center is like an American dance conservatory, yet some students decide to make it more liberal-arts similar, spending half of the day doing non-dance related school work. These students have an individual level for them.
There are about 250 students my age at the center, and over 350 little kids, or “half-portions” as Rick called them. Students stay at the center as many years as they want, before usually attempting to join a professional company. During your first year there, you are placed for all of the dance courses. At the end of each year, you must pass exams in all courses in order to move to the next levels. The school year begins in September and ends in late June. During July and August, the off-months, Rick goes to the south of France, completely dividing himself from his dance life.
The center has an international faculty and student body, although largely French. Classes are taught in French, and at night, the center has open courses for the public, of which Rick said he is not involved in.
At the end of my visit, Rick said I could take his jazz class. Normally, this center is not open for outside dancers, except for the open classes at night. Therefore, I was overjoyed to have this opportunity. I took his Monday jazz class, which was extremely fun and challenging. Because they do not use air conditioning in France and it was a fairly hot day, I sweat more than I ever have. To Americans, the room would most compare to the feeling of being in a sauna. It was challenging both physically and having to follow along with some unfamiliar French vocabulary. But, I am beyond grateful to have had this experience.
Lastly in this post, I wanted to clarify the French meanings of different dance genres, something I found very interesting as Rick told me:
In Paris, modern is used to describe Graham, Horton, Taylor, or the more codified modern vocabularies. Contemporary reflects abstract post-modern work. The French refer to our American contemporary dance (more commercial) as neo-classical ballet. Yet, at his center, contemporary is used as American contemporary, not post-modern work.
From my own personal experience at Studio Harmonic, which may compare to a Broadway Dance Center of the U.S., the French also have a dance genre “Modern Jazz”, which in the classes I took ranged from very jazz-based, modern-based, or contemporary, dependent on the teacher.
Maybe you find that to be interesting as I did. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know!
Julia's Journey in Paris 