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Douglas Becker - a Choreographer - alternative content

Biography

Douglas Becker is a choreographer and teacher working in many idioms, including Ballet and improvisation throughout Europe and the United States. A founding member and principal dancer of the Frankfurt Ballet, where he performed with distinction under the direction of acclaimed choreographer William Forsythe he played a pivotal role in the creation of many of the choreographer's early signature works, and is one of a number of individuals around the world with the authority to remount Forsythe repertoire. During the past decade of making his own creations, Mr. Becker's choreography has been hailed as "innovative and energetic, very graphic and with purity of movement" (Swiss newspaper "24 Heures") and praised for its "delicate, intricate partnering and fleet movements" (The New York Times). Mr. Becker's collaborative process of choreographic development improvises upon and utilizes dancers' individual talents and characteristics. A native of Dallas, Texas, he makes his home in Brussels, Belgium. Spanning decades of choreographic investigation, various commissions include To Each His Own, made for Switzerland's Grand Theatre de Geneve. Mr Becker has worked numerous times for CCN Ballet de Lorraine and Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Danse, both in France. His improvisation workshop and on-site installation The Third Eye was created for the Musee de Grenoble. As a Flemish Government Arts Commission grant recipient, Mr. Becker directed and performed in a stage work, Brutal Elves in the Woods, for Brussels' live arts laboratory Nadine. In education, Mr. Becker has a broad resume teaching Ballet, Composition, Improvisation, and Forsythe Repertory for The University of the Arts Philadelphia, New York University, P.A.R.T.S. School Brussels, The University of California Irvine, and The National Conservatories of Paris and Lyon among others. Resident visiting guest artist in the Hollins University dance department between 2007 and 2011, Mr. Becker also developed, curated, and coordinated the Hollins University/American Dance Festival Masters of Fine Arts international extended study project with Donna Faye Burchfield. Douglas Becker is 2012/13 Artist in residemce/master lecturer at University of the Arts Philadelphia.. Ballet training for Mr. Becker began in Texas under Nathalia Krassovska and Stanley Hall, and continued in New York City with David Howard, Marjorie Mussman and Maggie Black. In 1978, he joined the Joffrey Ballet and worked with choreographic masters including Agnes de Mille, Choo San Goh and Jerome Robbins. Two years later he joined the National Ballet of Canada under the direction of Alexander Grant. He toured extensively with the company, performing with guest artists such as Rudolf Nureyev and Erik Bruhn. After three years at the Dallas Ballet under director Fleming Flindt, Mr. Becker was invited by William Forsythe to join the Frankfurt Ballet, where he also worked with Amanda Miller, Stephen Petronio, Susan Marshall and Jan Fabre. Mr. Becker began staging Forsythe ballets in 1992 with In the Middle Somewhat Elevated for Ballet British Columbia and continuing most recently with New Sleep for Belgium's Royal Ballet of Flanders and Steptext for France's CCN - Ballet de Lorraine.

Choreography

Links

Teaching

Ballet

My Ballet class has been developed for both classical and contemporary dancers. One strives for technique rendered invisible by artistry. The class begins slowly, putting an accent on attention to musical accuracy and detail. Line, counter point, and fluidity between the legs and the arms are accentuated in relationship to the classical vocabulary. Each exercise is designed to develop correct posture, placement, alignment, technical execution, and artistry. The dance combinations that are set, and arranged in the beginning of the week are then (de/re) constructed throughout the week. Demi-plie, supple and intelligently used, is emphasized. Articulation (a working through) of the feet is looked-for. Rotation/Turn out is worked from the pelvis and the back of the legs, and not the knees, ankles, or feet. Elegant port de bras is desired. The use of breath, full body focus, length of spine, relaxed neck, and effortless epaulement are deemed important elements for building and maintaining a healthy, economically used efficient technique. Self esteem is enhanced. Combinations are not complicated, but this can change depending on the level/desire of the group. Subtile changes in direction, speed, music and tempo are to be found.

Improvisation Technologies

It is through the workshops in Improvisation Technologies, inspired by the working processes of William Forsythe and the Frankfurt Ballet that have enabled me to transform a collaborative process of choreographic development into an educational tool for dancers, choreographers, teachers, and actors. In an endeavor to explore, analyze, and to develop the imaginative, investigative, and creative elements of each individual, one learns how to generate, inscribe, trace, deconstruct, and reconstruct movement. Built into this working process is the ability for the artists to learn from each other, encouraging both the freedom of experimentation and the discipline to stay within strict tasks over a determined period of time. This approach to work will offer the artist, or group of any age, a new way to re-imagine their work.

Forsythe Reconstruction

During my career as a performer/Principal Dancer in the Frankfurt Ballet, I either danced, acted, improvised, spoke, or sang in the following works created by William Forsythe: LDC, Artifact(I, II, III, IV), France/Dance, Steptext, Behind The China Dogs, Big White Baby Dog, Die Befragung des Robert Scott, Enemy in the Figure, Herman Schmerman, Impressing the Czar, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Isabelle's Dance, Limbs Theorem, Love Songs, New Sleep, Same Old Story, Say Bye Bye, Skinny, Slingerland, Steptext, The Loss of Small Detail, The Second Detail, The Vile Parody of Address. Of these and other works to date I have reconstructed: Steptext, Artifact II, New Sleep (full length) and (pas de deux), The Vile Parody of Address, Die Befragung des Robert Scott, and Hypothetical Stream