\n\tLast September, outdoor barre became the new normal for Sarah Longoria <\/strong>during her monthlong stint at Utah\u2019s Zion National Park. She lived onsite as an artist in residence, the park\u2019s first-ever dancer to be selected for the position. We caught up with Longoria about her time dancing in the shadows of the canyon.\n<\/p>\n <\/small><\/p>\n Courtesy Longoria\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe director of the Salt Lake City\u2013based Municipal Ballet Co.<\/a>, Longoria heard about Zion\u2019s residency program several years before she decided to apply. She was originally unsure if they\u2019d be open to hosting a dancer, but she was a lover of the Utah desert and several works she\u2019d choreographed for her company had been inspired by nature\u2014including Wilder<\/em>, which featured performances in the mountains and near a river.\n<\/p>\n \n\tLongoria was one of 104 artists from various disciplines to apply for a 2019 residency. Only four were chosen.\n<\/p>\n \n\tAs an artist in residence, she lived alone at a cabin that dates back to 1925. \u201cSince I\u2019m a mom and a wife, I\u2019m not alone very often,\u201d says Longoria. At first, she was homesick, but \u201ceventually I got to like having this alone time. In the morning, I would grind the beans, make my coffee. Do it all nice and slow and open the windows, taking my time because I only had myself to get ready.\u201d After donning her volunteer uniform of khaki shorts and a button-up shirt, she\u2019d head to the nearby Zion National Park Lodge.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/small><\/p>\n Jenna Pullen\/Flint and Feather Photography, Courtesy Longoria\n<\/p>\n \n\tLongoria was free to explore her art however she wished, but she had to spend 20 hours a week interacting with the public. Whereas visual artists could easily host an open studio, allowing visitors to browse their paintings, Longoria chose to create her own open studio of sorts: Each day, she retrieved her portable barre from the lodge, set it up near a cottonwood tree on the expansive front lawn and gave herself class outdoors.\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\u201cA lot of people would stop and talk to me or ask what I was doing,\u201d she says. Some asked, \u201cAre you doing yoga?\u201d Others told her about their grandchildren who dance, or reminisced about taking ballet themselves when they were younger.\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tDespite the varied reactions, it was an opportunity to dialogue about the arts. \u201cI tried to not worry about getting through class at a certain pace,\u201d says Longoria. One element was particularly illuminating: Longoria found herself explaining what a ballet barre was and how it was used for daily exercises. \u201cI didn\u2019t think a ton about that before: Most people don\u2019t see ballet class, actually.\u201d Whereas they might see a ballet performance, she explain, class might be totally foreign.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/small><\/p>\n Courtesy Longoria\n<\/p>\n \n\tLongoria admits that, at first, taking barre in such an open environment was a bit uncomfortable. \u201cClass is where we\u2019re working on ourselves, so I had to remind myself that I\u2019m a work in progress always and that this is just me practicing my art, and it\u2019s okay to do it in front of people.\u201d Presenting dance outside of a theater in a different context yielded some unexpected feedback from visitors. \u201cPeople told me that they felt like they could see the shapes of what I was doing in the landscape, which was cool, because I was just doing a normal barre.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tIn the afternoons, Longoria would often hike the trails in uniform. \u201cI got to learn a lot about Zion because people would ask me questions,\u201d she says. Aside from typical chores like laundry and cooking, Longoria filled the rest of her time with letter writing (as a way to keep in touch with family and friends without cell service), journaling about the experience and sewing a prototype of a costume for an upcoming ballet.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\tIn exchange for the residency, all artists have to donate a work of art to the park. Longoria chose to choreograph an evening-length ballet, set to premiere in 2020 both in Salt Lake City and in or near Zion National Park. She\u2019s collaborating with four local music groups on the projects and says, \u201cI probably will send them excerpts from my journals, so they can see what it was like for me there.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tWhile Longoria was lucky to spend a month at a national park, she believes that all dancers can benefit from time outside of the studio. \u201cThe connection with nature is really important for humans, in general. I think that in our day-to-day lives we are pretty disconnected from our land because we have a lot of comforts\u2014we have houses with air conditioning and heating and we drive from place to place and we are looking at our screens a lot. I think it\u2019s really important for us to remember that we, too, are also natural. We\u2019re a part of this earth.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/small><\/p>\n Jenna Pullen\/Flint and Feather Photography, Courtesy Longoria\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI feel like during my formative years,\u201d she says, \u201cwithout realizing it, I was trying to be some other dancer or the picture of a dancer or thinking I needed to be a certain way. But I think that the art, and maybe also the technique, loses something when the artist isn\u2019t fully himself or herself. Being in nature, you realize that you are part of nature. Nature, it\u2019s not trying to be anything else. Realizing that can really help a dancer understand that being themself is the truest they can be.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tLongoria believes that authenticity translates to audiences, too. \u201cI think audiences can be impressed with feats of technique and precision, but it isn\u2019t going to bring meaning to their lives unless there\u2019s humanity and generosity behind it. Nature doesn\u2019t care what people think about it\u2014it just is, and it\u2019s beautiful. That\u2019s what we human dancers can learn from it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post This Dancer Spent a Month in Zion National Park as an Artist in Residence<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For ballet dancers, taking daily class is one of the most natural things they can do. But taking class in nature is an entirely different story. Last September, outdoor barre became the new normal for Sarah Longoria during her monthlong stint at Utah\u2019s Zion National Park. She lived onsite as an artist in residence, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Longoria](\"https:\/\/supplychainstrategynow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/this-dancer-spent-a-month-in-zion-national-park-as.jpg\")
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