Branch Out With Elizabeth Helene Roy- dancer, pilates instructor and creative thinker

Elizabeth-Helene and I met a couple of years ago on the dance floor, literally. We were at a salsa club and she came up and asked me if I wanted to dance. I said yes, but was unsure what to expect. I quickly found out that not only could that girl move, but her skills as a lead on the dance floor were pretty impressive! Since then, I’ve gotten to know Elizabeth-Helene not only as a fellow dancer but as a good friend. She is a great source of inspiration and possesses a positive, insightful and soulful outlook on life. I couldn’t help but to smile when I realized recently that this interview began and ended, unplanned, with the image of a tree. The way the interview just organically came around to create a beautiful, fluid whole from beginning to end is just so fitting for Elizabeth-Helene in many ways. Her free spirit and courage to allow things to just happen as they should is admirable.

Tasleem: Many salsa dancers see each other regularly at various dance venues, and we may know a little about each other’s dance styles. But we don’t always get to know each other off of the dance floor. I have had the pleasure of finding out more about you over the past couple of years, and you are one of the most creative people I know. I hope that through this interview, I can share a little of you with others, because those who haven't gotten to know you don't know what they're missing!

Elizabeth-Helene: Thank you. That’s a beautiful comment.

Even just rereading your blog today gave me goose bumps. I love the title of it- Tap into the Sap. You’ve described it so mysteriously as “ nothing and everything.” And I’m so intrigued by the word “sap” because you’ve commented that “you have to know what the sap is in order to tap into it”. Can you give us at least a little hint of what that means?

So you want to know how to tap into it without even getting to know it? (laughs)

Yes. I know, I know (laughs). But after telling you what the word “sap” conjures up for me, I didn’t get a chance to ask you what it means to you, why you chose “sap” in particular.

I was looking for a word that would include the idea of energy, that would include Kundalini, as it’s called in yoga , or the power source. In Pilates, we refer to it as the core, or being centered. I wanted a word that would summarize the belief of connecting to your source- your source of power-physically, or source of energy-spiritually, or the spirit itself.

And I thought sap what would be a good word that would be so Canadian. (laughs).

(Laughs)- Oh, that’s brilliant.

Well, I’m not Indian, so I couldn’t go with Kundalini. And I wasn’t born with Sanskrit. And some of the other words come from other heritages as well. So I thought what is a word I really understand or fits my Canadian background? And I thought of the maple leaf on our flag and the maple tree. And the sap that flows through the maple tree.

So I went with that. And it worked because I could really see the body in this image- from our feet- the root, all the way to the top of the head, the crown- leaves. And then our torso, our spine, is like the trunk- it’s all connected with the sap going through IT. So it kind of brought the center spine image forth, which is important in Pilates. It brought the center liquid of energy, of the Kundalini, into the image.

So the Tap into the Sap class that I’m teaching is everything that I feel helped me and will hopefully help you (or the client), to connect to that. It involves a lot of spinal movement, a lot of fluid movement, a lot of centering movement in order to have a better flow of that energy. And only when you have done these movements and you KNOW what that sap really means will you be able to tap into it.

I later went online and saw the title used by an event at a Maple Syrup Shack. And I thought, “Oh, it’s taken. I like to be unique.” But it was used in a different context. So I went ahead and said, “That sounds good. That’s EXACTLY what I mean.”

So you mentioned movement and the spine. You were dancing and doing a lot of physical activity from a very young age. Was there some influence in your life that allowed you to feel the importance of that movement and have that passion for it?

I guess the passion for movement came very early because my dad loved to dance. And he was a good dancer. And the story goes that he was winning a lot of contests in cha cha dancing, and rock and roll, when he was about eighteen or twenty. It was in a small town, we’re not talking internationally. But I guess that’s where I got that interest. And my parents met dancing.

I didn’t know that.

Yes. I think that might have been their first date. And still to this day, they’ll go dancing. But even at a young age, I wanted to put dance together. I remember at eight years old, I had this little routine with umbrellas. It was put together with two other girls. And probably around a year later, we had a little gymnastics fitness dance routine. And I did gymnastics and I did dance classes in high school. And I guess I just loved to move. I couldn’t stand still. I needed to move. And I felt dancing was just the freest expression. And those were the days where there were no inhibitions too.

And how did Pilates help you with movement and dancing?

I was not aware of my body when I was younger. I was all over the place. I don’t like rules, so I’ve never been good at doing a type of dance like ballet or ballroom that is very strict. And I didn’t have body awareness. I just wanted to be free.

But the spine and body awareness came about when I started Pilates. I was in university studying dance, and in my second year, I had a body awareness, or anatomy class. It used Pilates to teach anatomy. And one of Joseph Pilates’ (the founder of Pilates) catch lines was “You are as old as your spine.”

I like that, very interesting.

His whole work is about flexibility of your spine through body awareness; moving it but also knowing HOW to move it. And so that was a key moment when I realized how to move my spine. It moved before, but I did not move it well. It’s easy to just dance limbs, not spine.

When Joseph Pilates opened his studio in New York, I think it was just above or below a dance studio. So every injured dancer would just go up to his studio because it was right there, so accessible. And Joseph Pilates knew about anatomy, so they felt safe with him. He knew body movement, how it works, and he knew how to modify his work to each student’s injuries. And dancers became not only more flexible because of his work, but also stronger. They were able to strengthen their cores through Pilates. And Pilates also had a lot of the eastern philosophy associated with it. And artists like that. They usually like to explore different ways to know their body, to know the world. So I think a dance connection was there right from the start. And a lot of dancers do Pilates now. It helps them to strengthen their bodies, but also to be safe, to move safely, and to prevent injuries.

Pilates helped me to be more grounded. It helped me to know my space, to know anatomy at a deeper level. And that was just the beginning of it for me. Because now, fifteen years later, it has led me to just be completely fascinated by the body itself, the mechanics of the body, and the importance of being aware of my body. It helps with the dancing, for sure.

That idea of being fascinated by the workings of the body reminds me of some of the quotes you have on your blog. In particular, the idea that your body has its own intuition and ability to heal is so interesting to me. The lines that stand out to me are the ones you quoted from the book The Pregnant Virgin: “Your body has a wisdom of its own,” and “dropping the mind into the body” is important. Can you explain this further?

I should mention that the book Angel Tech also talks about the wisdom of the body. It says that the body will literally just make itself heard, will bend over backwards, will scream loud to when it is in pain or discomfort. But if the mind is too busy, and just running around, and not sure what to do, so focused on worry and fear, it does not listen to the body.

But yes, as the quote you mentioned says, your body has wisdom, and usually, when we feel pain, it’s the body communicating something. This is our body, but it has its own identity, in a way. So if it’s just being dragged around like a pet, and never been heard, it’s going to start screaming. You have to listen to it. Pilates helped me gain knowledge of my body, the breath helped me calm down, and the DEEP breath, that I’m trying to share now with those interested, helped me get access to that sap, to be in touch with that body of wisdom and to learn how to listen to my body.

I remember the first time that I read your bio. And I was so inspired or maybe even envious that you did a BFA in dance. What were the classes like? Can you describe how the program was set up?

The program that was at Concordia in Montreal was to generate students that would become contemporary choreographers. Every morning, we’d have two- hour ballet and modern technique classes. That was for the three years. It was just like when a business student goes to an accounting class, or management class, except we went to technique class. And we did that for credits towards the diploma (laughs).

I would have loved that (laughs).

One class called Creative Process involved creative thinking, or creative choreographing. It taught us how to see movement, seeing different levels in dance- down low, or high. And it also taught us how to play with movement- being sure that a piece is balanced, making sure there’s speed and stillness in it. We learned how costumes and music affect dance pieces, and the different effects that using popular music versus jazz, versus sound effects would have.

And that was a gift to all the choreographies that I’ve done since then. Because then I wanted to be sure they all had all those components.

Another class was about the history of dance, and we also went to see shows and were expected to report back on them in class. That was to ensure we were getting creative ideas from other sources and exploring. Because when you’re able to critique another person’s dance, then you’re able to critique your OWN dance. If you’re able to see the aspects you like and don’t like then you can incorporate that in your own dances.

Another part of the program was theater management or dance management- how to own a dance company, as well as business management skills. Some of this was added with other arts, because it was a Fine Arts program, so we did some theater, we did some music, some drawing.

And I did a minor in Education.

How much did the minor in Education contribute to your skills as a teacher?

Well, it was only a minor so it didn’t have a practical part to it. But it did give me a better understanding of people and psychology. So that was helpful.

But I think teaching is almost a personality. You have to be able to observe. I have to be able to just look at the students, instead of focusing on me, me, me. And that’s the difference between performance – which is about me, and showing me to the world, compared to teaching. When you teach, it’s about them (the students), and the world coming to them. You find and learn ways to bring the art and skills to them.
And maybe I got some teaching skills from my mother. She was a teacher. And then when I started teaching Pilates, I had to go through a teacher training program- five hundred hours of just practical teaching. That helped a lot.

You’ve been teaching some breath work classes recently. Why is breathing and learning HOW to breath effectively so important?

Breath seems to be the keyword of 2010, or at least that’s my prediction.

It has been important to me, especially in the last year. When I was taught a certain breath technique, it helped me to really reach a level of calmness, of centering, of grounding, of being; being in myself. And that’s what I’m trying to reproduce with my classes.

The breath is important, and has been in so many cultures. And that curiosity to know about the breath opened me to a whole new world. And yes, there’s the everyday breath. If we don’t breath, we die. And that’s the common knowledge.

But if you start looking at it further, it’s really fascinating. You breathe in- oxygen O2, and you breathe out CO2, and the plant does the reverse. If you have that knowledge, and really think about it, you start realizing oh, okay, we have this sharing thing going on now (smiles). It’s kind of like teamwork.

Is that why all my plants were dying, because I wasn’t breathing properly? (laughs)

(laughs) You weren’t giving them any food? See! CO2.

But that’s kind of interesting knowledge. The breath that I teach is a very complete breath (She breathes in deeply), really stretching the rib cage. And it takes an awareness of your body, of your ribs. It takes a mixture of work to do that. You cannot think about the groceries you have to get, or the errands you have to run. You have to be (takes a very deep breath in through her nose) thinking about it- the breath only. You have to be in the now. You have to be calm, you have to be centered. You have to just be body aware. And that changes your brain waves from beta brain waves running around you - cell phones ringing, traffic, and demands of society- to alpha brain waves. And then you just breathe.

And it’s important to match this practice with knowledge of how breath doesn’t just help you, but it helps the workings of the entire world. Think about this- the universe is made up of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen. And that makes up pretty much everything in the whole universe. Everything is built from four ingredients. So when you breathe in oxygen from the air, that same ingredient- oxygen- is in the water- H2O. It’s in the crust of the earth, in CO2. So basically, in that little breath (She takes another deep breath in) you’re breathing in the four ingredients of life. And that on its own is energizing. And it connects you to your sap. So you can tap into it just by (takes in another deep breath) breathing in, taking in the whole universe with that breath. And just the thought of it, well, you have food right there (smiles). That’s why after doing a breath session, you feel clear, you feel calm, you feel (takes in another deep breath) satisfied. The body has been FED with purest, of purest energy.

You cannot get better than that.

That's a beautiful way of looking at it and it gives each breath much more significance and purpose to the world.

I enjoyed watching the videos you showed me of your past performances. And I'm sorry I missed the recent performance of your contemporary piece. It incorporated quite a few different skills- dancing, stage directing, costumes, choreography. How did you feel about getting into it again after so long?

It was a great opportunity. At first, I said I’ll do a little salsa or something. But then I thought, maybe I’ll do what I trained in- contemporary dance, or something within those lines. I like originality, and being informative through movement and performance. So I started to study dance again, to prepare for this piece. I read about George Gurdjieff, because his ideas were of particular interest to me. He worked on dance movement and described dance like books. He presented dance pieces and each movement as a page of a book (smiles). Each movement, each page, had meaning to it. It was a nice way to share information.

How do you create a dance piece from scratch? Do you start with one movement and add to it? Or are you picturing the actual space you’re using for it?

I guess every person that creates has their own setup. For me, I look at the big picture. And I think globally, what the idea is from beginning to end, what is going to happen. Then depending on the text for that piece, I have sections. Each section has a meaning. So that’s how I went about creating this last performance. I think about what that particular part is about. And then I decide what would reflect that section. So I try to find mudras, shapes of the body, ways of moving, and details to fit that part. Even the direction I face has a meaning. But I work on how it flows and the depth in it too. And at the same time, I’m still working with the levels, and working with the space, and working with speed, energy and all those aspects of choreography that I studied in university.

It was very well put together. Your lines and expression and the range of movements were really captivating.

Thank you

As I said before, you are such a creativite person and you and your ideas inspire me a lot. But I’m wondering who inspires you. If you could interview or talk to anyone in the world, who would you choose and why?

You mean besides Keanu Reeves? (laughs) Actually, I’m sure he knows a lot. I would probably talk Buddhism with spirituality and energy with him.

But I’d love to talk to the author Paulo Coelho for sure. He seems like a fascinating person. I’ve read so many of his books and he writes in a way that I can completely relate to what he’s saying. He has such a great understanding of people.

Actually, if you look at his soft cover books, there’s an image of tree that he includes on the back pages. On each branch, he shows how each one of his books has a central theme for him. One might be about passion, another about patience. But when you see all of these themes put together on the tree, all the branches coming out of the same trunk, the same root, you see he has a plan. All of his books come together to create one total piece, a complete work. It’s fascinating.

(An afterthought- Coelho, with his wisdom and tree image- must be tapped into that sap that Helene was talking about. Perhaps that's why we connect so well to his writing)

For more information about Elizabeth Helene's classes as well as her current travels, check out http://www.tapintothesap.blogspot.com/