Jacklyn Elder ‘00
How has being a student at the School of the Arts transformed who you into who you are and the artist that you are today?
Studying at Dreyfoos and (...) being able to work with teachers that were coming from a classical ballet background, and then [with] other teachers that had a stronger modern and contemporary dance background was very helpful because I had a very strong foundation that I could depart from and use. (...) I went on to dance with the Martha Graham Dance Company and other contemporary choreographers. (...) At Dreyfoos you had to do seasonal dance concerts, and you're putting together a show, so you're understanding how that works, and what it feels like to get on stage in front of people. And it sounds very simple, but that is, like, a huge part of what we do. It's kind of like building muscle memory (...).
Were there any key moments that you recall from Dreyfoos that have impacted you, in your experience?
In the dance department at that time, they were bringing in guest teachers from major dance companies in New York City, or from Miami, from Los Angeles, and it wasn't all the time, but when those people came in, it was such a gift. I remember learning so much from those experiences, and at Dreyfoos, we were encouraged to work on solo material that we would use in auditions or for audition videos, and that was very helpful to feel our faculty just so supportive of us and also helping to facilitate that (...) rigor for us.
When you were a student at Dreyfoos, did you ever imagine that you would be moving to Paris to work with a dance company?
No, I had dreamt about being in New York City. Felt kind of like the first iteration of a dream that came true. I was living there in West Palm, and I was going to Dreyfoos, looking at New York with these very big eyes. And I was like, that's where I want to be. And then that happened, and then through traveling and growing inside of that one company a few years later, I said, Oh, actually, (...) working in the Martha Graham Company—because she's no longer alive—felt very stagnant for me. I want to work with choreographers that are living today, and are making work today on my body, on these contemporary bodies. I don't want to watch a video anymore and learn and try to do something the way it has been done. And so then, that turned a page, and I started looking at contemporary choreographers (...) and I felt a very big pull to some of the contemporary European work. I had decided, when I left the Martha Graham Dance Company, to pursue some auditions and head to Europe on a tourist visa first, and try to do some auditions. And then I just got very lucky in getting work through those auditions, and then that secured me a visa. I have no family there, and I have no deeper roots in Europe. I really was a local West Palm child growing up there with all of my roots in the US, pretty much with all of my extended family. And I was the first person to move abroad. I have no French language speaking skills either. (...) It was a very big adjustment, moving to Europe, coming from West Palm (...) because I was coming from a different dance history and a different relationship to my training in dance. But, in some ways, that was a strength for me, at an audition.
What inspired you to make the short film “No longer/Not yet”? Were you inspired by anything specific in your own experience?
Yeah, my parents had given me (during my) time (in Dreyfoos) mini DVDs, mini digital video camcorders (...) and I was often filming my friends. But what got me really interested in film, I think, was observation. I feel like observation is kind of a part of my own artistic practice, in a way. I mean, I'm observing all the time when I'm learning dance, or I'm observing the dancers that I'm working with, or the choreographers, or even just the people in the street. And so, observation, I think, is really kind of how I participate in the world. So, this has played a huge part in this kind of fly-on-the-wall, observational and documentary film interest that I have, and I don't have a big interest in narrative or fictional filmmaking. Over the years, I've acquired a lot of footage, and then have just noticed that when it's up to me, if I am able to make something, do I want to use the body? And do I want to dance? Or do I want to use other material? And do I want to work with a camera? And I have decided to go to work with the camera now, although it's still very closely related to dance because this short film is talking about the very crucial and critical moments right before a performer steps on stage. And so, I'm looking at how we confront ourselves to the unknown. I'm looking at how we step into being seen, how we step into being vulnerable, how we step into performance, essentially. And, of course, there's rehearsal process and there's this and that, but that moment, when you're standing in the wings, or when you get out of the dressing room and you really put your water bottle down and you do your last little breath, and you step on stage, that's a really, it's a very unique and intimate moment. And how each person handles that I find so precious and beautiful. I had never studied film. I'm not trying to appear like I went to NYU film school for four years. I like that when I speak about myself as a filmmaker, I say that I am a dancer making films as opposed to I am a filmmaker making a film. So, how I hold the camera is already different, how I can move, how I can get down on the ground, how I stand up, how I see is informed by my choreographic practices, by my fatigue, by my excitement, [and] by my curiosity, that's all driving me.
What about being an artist out in the world has been challenging to you?
There have been numerous times (where) I have made big technical mistakes. (...)And, you know, when you have no budget and you've just spent some small amount on buying a nice camera, you're just like, I'm gonna learn this. I'm gonna do this myself. And, for sure, there were just times where I had recorded the sound in a very distorted way, or the image was too pixelated because I had the wrong lighting kind of setting on the camera, and then you're just like, I've lost those hours of footage because some of it's just unusable (...) and that has been challenging. I have not confronted that kind of thing in my dance career, just because I've had so much training, I've had so much schooling, between Dreyfoos and between going to dance studios in West Palm Beach. Also after school, I was studying at Dreyfoos, and then I would go for hours almost every day to a dance studio in West Palm, and you're studying and studying, so (...) I didn't make similar mistakes in that way. You know, you're just up against failure in dance, you know? Because sometimes you're not chosen in an audition. But these things that I've been confronted with because of (me being a) self taught filmmaker. There are just many things to learn as you go. And (...) as I mentioned previously, I think it's also kind of beautiful to show the deep default, the mistakes to show the roughness, the rawness of ‘this is who I am, also as a filmmaker.’ It's defining me as a filmmaker and an artist at the same time (...). There's some very clear things that I want to work on, but I'm also ‘this is me’, and that's the singularity in it. And so, it is going to be a bit rough.
What were some challenges you faced, making your way into the professional field?
Challenges (...) do not really have to do with a kind of talent, but more about sometimes, in our field, a kind of complicity between the group or a specific type casting. In other words, if they're casting a certain person in this way, (...) it doesn't necessarily have to do with how good I am as a dancer. And sometimes, you don't know that at the audition, but it's tricky because you just hear no thank you, and you're not called back. And then, of course, like I said, with a company, sometimes they need to replace a certain person that is going to fulfill a certain role. Or in the Broadway world, that just gets even more challenging. I think in general, (being an artist is) one of the most rewarding and also extremely challenging and vulnerable things (...) because on the flip side of it, when things do come through, or you've gone through 10 auditions and you've gotten a no, and then you still have the courage to walk into one more (time), and you get that one, there's also something really powerful and beautiful in that.
What would you like to share with students at the School of the Arts today?
I would just say to keep encouraging, learning technique, getting a very strong foundation of learning what are those things in your major and then also knowing that that is not the end-all-be-all. You can also transform things and redefine those definitions of what makes something successful or good, or even finding a place for yourself as an artist. And that's the beauty of this art world, I think. And we all, especially for students at Dreyfoos, each one of you are to yourself. You are an artist, you know that (...) hone in on that.
A short clip from No Longer/Not Yet
Courtesy of Jacklyn Elder