Pascal Benichou's Classes

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Study Dance with Pascal Benichou

Mr.Benichou was awarded a teaching degree from the French Ministry of culture for his accomplishments in the field of dance
Mr . Benichou teaching experience:

Broadway Dance Center.................on staff

Perry Dance....................................on staff

Malboro College ............................on staff

New York Conservatory........guest teacher

Harford University................guest Teacher

Huntington ballet Academy ...........on staff

Brattleboro School of Dance .........on staff

Mark Morris Dance School....guest teacher

Sarah lawrence College..........guest teacher

 Ballet Training:

Vladimir Dokoudovsky........New York Conservatory

Madame Darvash.................Broadway Dance Center

Maria Tallchief............................Chicago City Ballet

Helgi Tomasson ........................San Francisco Ballet

Maggie Black............................................New York

Stanley williams..............School of American Ballet

Studied Theater with Herbert Berghof

Choreography with Lucia Dlugoszewski

Thoughts and Ideas on Dance

Getting to Know Your Instrument That Is Your Body

Being consious and aware of the pull of gravity is a starting point in discovering your instument as a dancer. Utter vulnerability allows the dancer to sense how much or how little force is needed in any given movement. The trick here is to free the body of tension in order to realize the environment in which the body is to perform.
Only in attempting to understand the effects of gravity can the dancer learn to defy it.

The Body is a Place Full of Sensations Waiting to be Felt.

Awarness of gravity is achieved through complete relaxation and surrendering: fine tuning your senses, listening, being an observer so you notice your breathing, your heartbeat, the sensations in your body. From this place the challenge is for the arist to communicate not with a made up,superficial and ego-driven expression but with a deeply felt experience of being alive.
Tension in the body hinders the ability to feel and if you, the performer does not feel, the audience will not. Further, a relaxed body allows for your instinct to come through and serve you well. This is very evident when you start to observe animal movements; a cat seems aware of every move it makes and we can only be in awe witnessing their effortless jumps, the concentration and release of energy without tension. Energy can be characterized as a state of physical excitement, a release of a force.You can be completely relaxed and have a tremendous amount of energy. This has less to do with sheer muscular power and more to do with a release from the electrically charged nervous system - your life force.

The goal is to be present with a sublime highten awarness of all your senses....in other words "just dance".

 

 

 Pascal Biography

Pascal Benichou was born in Provence. He studied ballet with Vladimir Dokoudovsky and Madame Darvash, theater with Herbert Berghof and choreography with Lucia Dlugoszewski.

As a company member he performed lead dances with The Chicago City Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet and The Joffrey Ballet and as a guest artist he danced with The Metropolitan Opera, The Chicago Lyric Opera, The New York City Opera, Donald Bird / The Group, Erick Hawkins and The Saint Louis Ballet.

In 1998, Mr. Benichou was the only male dancer to participate in the Opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and later that year, Mr. Benichou’s collaboration with Lucia Dlugoszewski on a hour long solo called “Taking Time To Be Vulnerable “ was selected by Ballet Review as one of the best work of 1998.

Pascal Benichou has created works for his own dance company as well as established ballet companies such as The Saint Louis Ballet, The Omaha Dance Theater, Dance Connecticut , Dance Galaxy and Hofstra University dance ensemble which on several occasions has been critically acclaimed by the New York Times.

Mr. Benichou teaching vocabulary includes Classical ballet, modern dance and choreography.He has taught at The New York Conservatory, Broadway Dance Center, Perry Dance, Marlboro College, Sarah Lawrence College, Brattleboro School of Dance and Huntington Ballet Academy.