i looked up…

About a month ago, I was with a few colleagues for a lunch meeting that turned into a lot of catching-up and belly laughs. We took a group picture afterwards and because I’m 5’10” and they are considerably shorter than I am, I hunched down a bit during the photo. One of my colleagues whispered to me, “don’t make yourself small.” Of course, I thought I was just doing right by my crew, but that quick exchange stuck with me.

It's challenging to embody the concept of “taking up space” because of the unending ways we are told to do the opposite. In 2002(ish), I met Phyllis Lamhut, a petite woman with a strong Brooklyn accent, wry humor and experience that made her a giant. Phyllis was almost 70, and I was studying dance at NYU. Phyllis was our choreography professor – an absolute gem that I had no business training under at the time because I didn’t fully grasp her greatness. We met a few times a week with live accompaniment and were given an open studio in the East Village to move, experiment, play and make shapes based on prompts she provided. Once we developed a movement series, Phyllis would provide notes often in the form of questions.

In only a few words, Phyllis could capture both depth and spirit, and do it in a way that left an impression. I don’t recall having the privilege of seeing her dance in person, but she told us stories about her days as a performer with Alwin Nikolais, a pioneer in multi-media theatre / dance.

Phyllis told us a story about walking down the street in NYC and the moment she truly realized that there was so much happening around her, not just on the ground. “I looked up, and I saw… space!” she remarked with her trademark glee. A phrase I have repeated and thought about countless times. Phyllis was urging us, in her own way, to take up space both on the stage and out in the world.

Here is a restaging of the 1955 work, Tensile Involvement, choreographed by Alwin Nikolais, where you can see the choreography and multi-media elements using the full space.