Between 1940 and 1975 Audrey de Vos was among the most efficient teachers and above all the most innovative in the world of art. We know little of her youth except that she was a student of Laurent Novikov, Anna Pavlova's partner and was a member of the troupe. She pursued studies in sculpture, a profession that was her destiny. We find traces of her in the 1920s, where according to Dorset, she opened a studio in London. In the 1930s she moved to Linden Gardens (Notting Hill Gate). In despite of her non orthodox methods her studio was frequented by professionals such as Beryl Grey, Doreen Wells, Anna-Maria Homes, Yvonne Cartier or later David Vaughan of the Cunningham troupe. De Vos never gave formal corrections but led the student to “reflect on their action (…) and permit the new idea to direct movement” Dina (you!)
Positions
All the teaching of Audrey de Vos are resumed in one word movement. It has never been a question or not of positions taken alone but how one's body passes from a dance step or a position to another, a process marked here by a pause, there by arallentando before opening in a new position. But there is always the whole body which tells us the possibility of how to make a movement as well as its speed, its style and character.
If the action can effectively begin or finish in the 5th position, this aspect is purely accessory ; one must not either underline nor wait for the public to notice it.
As the whole body in its communication with the intellect, the soul and the music must be the principal consideration for the teacher as the dancer, the body's weight in its movement and this towards the ground is fundamental (to be grounded) as the feeling of verticality, the position of the skeleton, a sharp conscience of isolation of a movement and the the engagement of the top of the back in the shoulder area.
The musculature must be used in a conscient manner, without tension and that the dancer doesn't apply unnecessary force. Audrey de Vos aimed at the maximum of being efficient in every movement to avoid that the intellect finds itself fighting against the body.
Once the dancer has learned to work in this manner, the positions and the steps follow without obstacles and one will know how to hold or pass by a cinquième that is stable and correct – being that the outside degree is guided by the natural potential of the rotation of the femur bone. Audre de Vos gave no corrections for the level of the feet alone but always from the center. She invented many exercises with parallel legs, mostly on the bar and this more often during her career. The work with parallel leg movement helped place ones weight correctly and find ones center, this in developing a un dehors that was correct : going from a parallel position to the en dehors one refined the perception of the rotation of the femur. Thanks to this work the dancer would find a cinquième that was more efficient.
By Anya Grinsted
