HIGH GEAR/FEBRUARY 1977

something," because you don't look graceful, and you still should be strong doing it. On the other hand, if you camp it up, then you better get off the stage too. But there is a definite look for a male dancer, and a definite look for a female dancer, and you can distinguish it right off the bat. You can tell a person's being when they're dancing on the stage. They're in plain leotards and tights and you know exactly what's in their head. They can't lie. Whether you're frustrated, inhibited, free, whether you like or hate yourself.

is

lan: Anything that especially revealing, not highly costumed.

Dennis: Even if it's highly costumed, the audience always knows something about that performer. If something was not felt by the audience, it was because something was not being given. You just got to go out on stage and slit yourself right down the middle, and let your guts pour out on stage. You can't hold anything back, because if you do, it's noticed that nothing is coming out. You've got to go out there like gangbusters.

lan: In reality, I don't think that's an uptightness. I think it's a fear with the stereotyped impressions of the profession that when some heterosexuals get involved with it, they're so afraid of being tagged homosexual.

Dennis: You can't even think about that when you're on stage, even when you're playing a sex role. If you're thinking sex, I'm man or woman, it's disaster. You have to think of it as dance, as a body moving in space, and if you're honest with that, it'll come across to the audience.

High Gear: When you were younger did you have difficulty

dealing with the stereotypes oftem imposed on male dancers?

Dennis: Yeah, I did. I did. I went along with it. All the guys were doing it. But I thought to myself, 'Well, you're not in the studio. You don't know what it's all about," so I didn't argue with them. I just took it and laughed along with them, but when they came and saw a performance, they changed their attitude, if it was a good performance.

lan: At Chanel, when I was studying I got a certain amount of flack; but not really, because I was pretty athletic and could hold my own in track and things like that, and came showtime, we were the only ones to perform, and they flipped out and I never got any flack after that. It's just a matter of not knowing. Everybody's going to say something about things they don't know about whether it's about ballet, sports, or homosexuality.

High Gear: It has been said that gay ballet dancers move largely in their own circles, rarely having contact with other gay people. Do you agree?

lan: I don't think so, but I will say this. Dance is an extremely all-consuming, absorbing profession. When you're dancing, there's nothing else you can do but eat and sleep. In the profession you become incestuous with your own company because that's all the contact you have. That's true for gays and straights. You are in training all of your life basically.

Dennis: Yes, and we're snobbish about it. I don't hang out with people who are not talented. I won't even go to their house, because I can't get anything from them. We're not growing together. That might be selfish or foolish, whatever. When you're working really

hard, there's only limited time.

lan: Well, the friends I've had through my life are those people who've I respected for the things that they did, as well as who they were, and it's not possible for me to have a friend I can't respect, whether an actor, musician, writer, or whatever. In Cleveland, it's different. We are the only dancers that are making money here, actually living off of it. We have Akron, that's the closest ballet company there is, but that's 35 miles away. In New York, there's a whole community of artists. There you become a little sheltered, because there's so many of you, you don't even know you're sheltered. In fact, the area between 42nd street and 57th Street is called "The Dance Belt," you know, on the west side of Broadway.

High Gear: Is there an ultimate goal for a dancer in terms of mastering his/her body or expressing his/herself through the human form?

Dennis: There's no goal, really. The goal is to keep on going, to keep on trying for something that's impossible. The goal is a line you have in your mind that you would like to see in your body... If you go after a role, as many fantasize, you won't improve. You have to go after yourself and work on yourself as a performer. When those roles come, you'll be hopefully ready for them. The only goal of a dancer is to be a good dancer.

lan: I think for me I've realized that the art form itself is practically impossible. It's not possible to achieve a "10" in classical ballet, and it never will be. It's a constant evolving process and the only goal you have is to be better than you were yesterday. The nemesis of the whole situation is not that you're as good as you are. It's terribly ephemeral. You're only as good as the last performance, and if you were rotten, forget it. And, also that you know it will. be all over at 40 or 45. When everyone else in the world is achieving maturity in whatever they've been doing, you're already washed up, so you have to do it fast.

High Gear: Could you comment on male-to-male or female-to-female dancing as far as homosexual themes go.

Dennis: I don't think it's any more prevelant now. You've always had such contact-always. I do not, unfortunately, know of one instance that has become artistically successful with homosexuality as its predominant theme. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm only saying that it has not been done yet.

lan: Well, there is "The Maids" which appeared around the late forties or early fifties which deals with frustrated homosexuality, the inability to deal with or confront homosexuality. It's a famous production, though I can't think of the author's name.

High Gear: Do you think "gay ballet" will develop in the future?.

Dennis: I don't think there's a place for any specific kind of theatre or ballet. If someone is

motivated to do a piece like that and they're extraordinarily talented, it's going to happen. The most dangerous thing one can do with channeling any creative force is to go out and do something specific. What you should do is go out and do what you have to do. Things like, 'I'm going to go out and create a new kind of theatre' or "I'm going to make a homosexual statement" are really bull.

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lan: I have to create a ballet, and at this time of my life, this is what I'm creating. Now if you're motivated by a gay theme, you're talented and you have the craft, you should pursue it, so long as you're honest and not exploiting "a now thing."

High Gear: Do either of you have any last comments?

Dennis: Just one. No segregation.

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