Learning Early

Michelle and Roxanne Korpan studied with Elaine Hanson and Connie Moker-Wernikowski throughout their childhood:

“We couldn't simply learn through imitation like we did in ballet. Some corrections were so outside the aesthetic of ballet we just couldn't get them. I didn’t know that modern dance was that different - I mean, I thought that there were stools in every modern class! Being that young, and having never done modern, but having experienced ballet and jazz, we were very open and embraced the ideas with ease. 

It gave us a very different way of thinking about our dance technique, because the movement we were taught was stuff you could take outside your dance class. When I am just sitting on the ground, doing nothing, I have this little voice in my head!  

Elaine would say “If you’re in gym class and you’re on the ground you have to get up this way.” Thinking of your body when you are young and have not had injuries and stuff like that – to be exposed to that at a young age, with such a different relationship to tension and so on, was a real treat. 

Learning this helped us understand how to drop our weight, to open our joints, learning how to use a natural spiral, how to use our arms from our back - it was very helpful to our dancing, and our body awareness - that when you are doing a choreography, you are not just going through motions, but also are in touch with how that feels in your body.”