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A group of cyclists swoop around Aotea Square. Watching with bated breath as they go through their paces is choreographer Susan Jordan.
SeniorsDANCE Company are performing Jordan’s original creation, Bike Ballet.
Jordan is a quietly authoritative figure standing by the stage area in a navy-blue t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. She is a seasoned dance teacher; when she’s in the zone, she’s a formidable presence. At the Bike Ballet performance Jordan is on a mission, a guardian over the performers. She stands in silence observing every sequence, every move, every nuance on the square.
Not a moment to spare for casual conversation. It’s show-time.
Six dancers on bikes perform loops, scoops, figure eights and pirouettes in front of Auckland’s Town Hall.
“I’ve done works involving cars, push chairs, and motor mowers,” says Jordan.
“I have a saying that I will choreograph anything that moves except animals.”
Performer Michael Adams forgets a loop. Instead of cycling around the outside of the performance area like the rest of the company, Adams circles straight into the middle of the square.
Jordan can only watch, it’s not her choreography at all.
Adams rejoins the group smoothly, back to where he is supposed to be for the next sequence.
It is a heart-stopping moment, but no one in the watching crowd seems to have noticed.
“I have a saying that I will choreograph anything that moves except animals.”
Jordan spent five years establishing the Graduate Dance Programme at Auckland University. She also did a 10-year stint as regional manager for Dance Aotearoa New Zealand (DANZ).
Jordan says her most successful piece was choreographed 20 years ago. Car Ballet was performed with eight professional dancers and eight brand new Ford cars. It was a statement on the place cars have in our society.
These days Jordan instructs for the sheer love of dance, and Bike Ballet isn’t a project taken on for money.
“I was looking for a work for SeniorsDANCE Company that could be performed outside and possibly for World Masters Games and the idea of a work using bikes popped into my mind.”
After the seniors finish their third and final performance of the day, the company store their bikes safely through the narrow corridors under the Aotea Centre.
The bikes are locked away, and a more relaxed Jordan emerges from a stage door on the side of the centre, ready to discuss her work at a nearby café.
Jordan has choreographed four short performances for SeniorsDANCE, which have been performed in a variety of locations.
Last year the seniors performed Poppy Dance on Anzac Day in collaboration with the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Book Ends in collaboration with Auckland Libraries to celebrate the International Day of the Older Person on 1 October.
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SeniorsDANCE classes focus on creating new performances for a demographic of adults aged 65-years plus.
The class aims to teach non-dancers the art form of dance, with an emphasis on mobilising the body through stretching and strengthening, particularly in the legs.
Jordan, who has researched “dance memory”, looks at how dancers remember physical movements.
It is the memory side of dance which challenges the seniors.
“For Bike Ballet I have named every sequence into a traditional ballet move.”
Bike Ballet performer Liz Nicholson tapes the sequences to her bike, a figure 8, a loop, etc, to remember the order.
“It’s easier for seniors to remember names of moves, than an entire performance from start to finish,” said Jordan.
Jordan said she often teaches her participants in a circle and introduces “brain-gym exercises for their neural pathways to create new patterns”.
“Walking is a big thing using change of direction and peripheral vision,” says Jordan.
Jordan tells me to put my pen down and we practise one of her basic brain gym memory exercises.
“Bike Ballet was a very challenging work for me as a choreographer and for the dancing riders, so we are all pleased with how well it came off.”
She sits facing me and says, follow me.
Tap hands on thighs.
Clap hands together.
Left hand on nose, right hand to left ear.
Okay, I have got that.
“Let’s try the other side,” says Jordan.
Tap hands on thighs.
Clap hands together.
Right hand on nose, left hand to left ear.
I end up slapping myself in the face.
We try it again.
Tap hands on thighs.
Clap hands together.
Left hand on nose, right hand to left ear.
I slap myself in the face again.
Tap hands on thighs.
Clap hands together.
Right hand on nose, left hand to left ear.
Good grief. I’m embarrassed I can’t get this. I’m being outdone by seniors and my background is a trained dancer!
Each of the Seniors Dance classes use these simple brain gym exercises to help with co-ordination.
Jordan says difficulties she faced choreographing the Bike Ballet performance included the varying abilities of the riders and the different styles of bikes they used.
Some bikes had thin tyres and were easily manoeuvrable and fast, while others had wide tyres and were slower.
Dancers also often remember movements with “muscle memory” and riding a bike negates this. The seniors found it very challenging to remember the formations.
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“It helped when we named each formation,” says Jordan.
Jordan says it is possible to learn new pathways as we get older.
“Most of the seniors had great difficulty with spatial orientation.”
“We rehearsed in two different carparks then in Aotea Square and some kept on being challenged as to where front was even if it could be viewed from any side,” says Jordan.
“The surface of Aotea Square meant the bikes could go faster than on the tarmac of the carpark so this threw the music and timing out.”
“Also, being outside, the seniors found it hard to hear the music at the square,” said Jordan.
Bike Ballet performer Michael Adams says he used to find synchronised swimming “rather quaint” but now has a new respect for their ability.
“In the third and final performance at the Aotea Square I forgot about my loops.
“I have a short concentration span. I lost focus in the last performance and made a few errors.”
The Dance Company usually rehearse each week, but increase the number of rehearsals as they get closer to performance time.
“Bike Ballet was a very challenging work for me as a choreographer and for the dancing riders, so we are all pleased with how well it came off,” Jordan says.
“It will be used again in Pedal Power, a 20-minute work I’ve been commissioned to choreograph for Tempo Dance Festival using community bikers.
“It will be inter-generational and promote biking as a mode of transport.”
Pedal Power will be performed again at Aotea Square on 7 October.
Jordan now retired takes these projects on for love and not material gain.
“My pockets may be empty but my heart is juicy,” she says.
