This suite of nine dances was created in celebration of my daughter Vera on the occasion of her ninth birthday. Dancing is a veracious activity: it is honest and truthful, and it also requires accuracy and precision. Dancing is also a Veracious activity: Vera is so authentically herself as she expresses herself through dance. I connect the several meanings of “Vera-like” words in different languages—meanings such as “truth,” “faith,” or “belief”—to other concepts, including inspiration (duende or spirit in the Flamenco tradition), dreams (goals) (Aletheia’s true dreams in Greek mythology), and even the mastery of movement that cats have (how fitting there’s a ballet step named for them!).

 

NO CAP: STEP BY STEP

“The truest expression is in dance and music. Bodies never lie.”

Agnes de Mille

These words of Agnes de Mille, the original choreographer of the American Ballet Theatre in New York, got me thinking about how a choreography is created and mastered. Expression can be very spontaneous and in-the-moment. Being true to the music and choreography also means being dedicated to process that moves literally step by step, leading to the expressive beauty of synchronized excellence.

 

DE VERAS: FLAMENCO

“All that has dark sounds has duende. And there is no deeper truth than that.”

Federico Garcia Lorca

Lorca, a Spanish writer who studied the flamenco folk music style of southern Spain, talks about duende, the spirit that inspires flamenco performers. He writes, “the duende works on the dancer’s body like wind on sand.” In this dance I try to capture some of the intensity and spontaneity of an inspired flamenco guitar performance. In Spanish de veras means “truly.”

 

NO FILTER: PAS DE CHAT

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty.”

 Ernest Hemingway

Apart from his fame as a writer, Hemingway was an animal lover who owned dozens of cats. How would Hemingway’s cats express themselves if they could talk (forgive my pun on “chat”)? This dance also pays homage to cats as the animal world’s most outstanding dancers, with their complete self-assurance, graceful motions, and incredible balance.

 

TRUTH BOMB: URBAN DANCE

“I love to be honest, but I have to tell the truth.”

Jay-Z

Jay-Z’s statement on honesty and truth is a little confusing to me. It reads like a puzzle that he wants us to solve: What, if any, is the difference between “being honest” and “telling the truth”? In this dance I went for a more aggressive, percussive sound, to mirror the raw honesty and street-savvy social justice of rap.

 

FACTS: TANGO

“To thine own self be true.”

William Shakespeare

I relate Shakespeare’s statement (a line from Hamlet) to the Delphic maxim from ancient Greece, “Know thyself.” Socrates said that self-knowledge is achieved by thinking for yourself, and Aristotle added that knowing yourself “is the beginning of all wisdom.” I envision this tango as a “truth only” dance with an imaginary partner who observes and completes your every move, giving you space to be authentically true to yourself.

 

CALLED IT: BARN DANCE

“When in doubt, dance it out.”

Barn Dance Call

Barn dancing is a wonderful example of how dancing brings people, young and old, together. A leader calls out instructions, like, “grab your partner, do-si-do.” The music is what I think of as “old time fiddling” in the bluegrass or Appalachian styles. In this dance I suggest the festive atmosphere of a barn dance, also known as a hoedown—literally when farmers put down their hoes and other farm tools and start dancing!

 

DARE TO DREAM: HORO 

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

Henry David Thoreau

The other half of “dare to dream” is “dare to do”—imagination and effort go together to make dreams come true. In Greek mythology true dreams passed through the gate of Aletheia, the embodiment of truth as “unconcealedness.” The Horo is a traditional circle dance from Greece and Bulgaria. My version circles back to the main melody in a miniature rondo form.

 

LEAP OF FAITH: SAUTÉ ARABESQUE

“No glance is as sharp-sighted as that of faith.”

Sören Kierkegaard

Because some things, such as the existence of God, cannot be proven scientifically, a “leap of faith” is necessary to believe in them. Truth, belief, and faith can all go hand-in-hand, as the closeness of the words for these concepts in several languages suggests. In this dance the left hand leaps (sauté), while the higher melody moves in delicate curling arabesques.

 

JUST BEING YOU: BOOGIE WOOGIE

“When you dance, you can enjoy the luxury of being you.”

Paulo Coelho

While you may think you already know yourself, dance and music—and creativity generally—are all about discovering yourself. “Who you are” is something you are learning about every day, and something that changes over time. It’s also something we celebrate every day, not only on your birthday! Boogie-Woogie is a piano style that evolved from the blues about 100 years ago. It may have been influenced by the rhythms that steam-engine trains created as they traveled down the tracks.

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