Dance Empowers!

By Susan Weber, Director of BBT’s Dance for PD® program

In May of 2018, Robert Dekkers began rehearsals for his “One and All,” a work conceived to include dancers from BBT’s Youth, Adult Open, and Dance for PD® programs. It was performed three times over the following year. Many dancers, faculty members, and volunteer assistants performed in a movement chorus throughout the piece, and there were featured duets for dancers from our Studio Company, Adult Open Division, and Dance for PD®. Meris Emory, Shelly Forster, Sarah Hardesty, and Liz Shepherd made up our two Dance for PD® casts: four brave women who agreed to take on these soloist parts. None had much prior dance experience outside our weekly classes. Following is an edited version of our December 2020 interview.

Meris: When I was a Brownie in elementary school, we did skits onstage. But I was never wanting to be onstage. Too shy. I took modern dance in high school, and my Swiss sister and I used to laugh all the time because we were sooo bad. I’ve always had two left feet.

How did you feel about being cast as a soloist in “One and All?”

Shelly: At first, I was very hesitant. I’m not a dancer, I wasn’t a dancer, and performing in a field that I know nothing about basically…I was just really nervous about it.

Sarah: I was scared, because I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. But then I thought that if you and Robert thought that I could do it, maybe I could. And I thought, well, everybody there will know that I have PD and they’ll be sympathetic or understanding if I make a mistake, and so what did I have to lose?

Meris: I was scared, because...with two left feet am I going to be muckin’ it up? But then I thought, it’s a challenge- let’s do it. And if we practice and practice and practice we should be able to get it. And it wasn’t easy. We practiced a lot! And it finally came together, and I thought “All right, we’ve got it.” But, just like Sarah and Shelly, I was very scared to be performing in front of everybody.

Liz: Well, I was terrified at first, because it was performing and I hadn’t done it and I didn’t think I liked performing. But that’s why we practiced so much, because we figured if we were going to do it we didn’t want to make fools of ourselves. If we were going to do it we wanted to try to do it right. But at first I was kinda terrified.

What were rehearsals like?

Meris: Robert is so much fun. 

Liz: So much fun. Oh my God, he loves what he does!

Meris: He’s full of joy and enthusiasm. It’s contagious. So it makes you want to jump in there and do it.

Shelly: Your rehearsals and your instructions were just wonderful.

Meris: The both of you…it was wonderful. For me and probably for all of us it was so wonderful to watch professionals as you and Robert are, do the piece. This inspired me and gave me great joy to see you both.

Sarah: I agree.

Meris: And the adult and teen dancers were an inspiration. 

Liz: I loved them.

Meris: They were so wonderful. Marvelous dancers and just inspirational for us. And they were so friendly with us.

Liz: And so encouraging. They were always like “Oh, you guys did so good!”

Performances?

Shelly: I remember not really realizing that I was going to be the first up on stage and I was probably like the deer in the headlights kind of thing. 

Sarah: I really liked having the rest of the class in the back, behind us. 

Shelly: I loved being your partner [Sarah’s].

Liz: It was great that we finished the hard part early and then we got to kind of be a part of the rest of the thing. After you got the initial stagefright over with it was kinda easy.

Meris: I remember that night Liz was SO NERVOUS. She was just beside herself. I just kept saying “We’re just going to own it, it’s okay. Whatever we do is fine. Here we are, and we’re not going to worry about it at this point. We know it. Let’s do it.” And we did great.

Meris: And then it was so wonderful when we came off stage and Robert was right there just glowing to us. That was special.

Sarah: I remember asking him if he ever taught old ladies like us. 

Meris: It was just beautiful. The music, everything about it – it’s just a beautiful piece.

Liz: It was just fun to do. It was a great thing to be part of.

Sarah: It was very emotional. It was more than just moving our feet and our bodies and our hands. You told us how to show emotion in our hands… Robert saying “Reach longingly for someone.” I’m tearing up.

Meris: I know.

Sarah: It was like somebody thought I could do it. You know, even though I have Parkinson’s I could do it. 

Liz: Yes you can!

Meris: Right on. I’ve shown the video to friends and they’re just blown away. It was a milestone that we did, I think, for ourselves.

Sarah: You guys believed in us. And we believed in ourselves.

“One and All” is captured in the first 5 minutes and 50 seconds. Soloists: Shelly Forster, Sarah Hardesty, Monique Jonath, Elizabeth Inami, Rosie Ueng, and Cassidy Crawford.

Shelly Forster (L) and Sarah Hardesty (R) rehearsing with Robert Dekkers

Meris Emory (L) and Liz Shepherd (R) in performance