Cover Letter

I saw ACDC dancers perform Intimacy of the Skin in May 2023 in Cape Town and felt drawn to the way it explored story telling through dance. I connected with the idea of engaging with dialogues of collective and individual importance by expressing our experiences and feelings on stage and seek to do that in my own work. I have tried to express my journey into dance with a solo performance I co-created with Leilah Kirsten entitled "Finding my Feet". It was both a rewarding and challenging experience and brought me closer to the conclusion that I would love to connect to ACDC to explore what could come of a deeper commitment to dance.

I come from a martial arts background, having done five years of shotokan karate, and dance feels like an extension of the skills I learned there. Dance pushes my discipline, tests and builds my confidence, conditions my body, and works my coordination. However, it adds the element of self expression, which has been incredibly empowering for me.

I have been training with a professional dancer and choreographer, Leilah Kirsten, for two years in which time I have rapidly built up my technical skills. I am still laying the foundation of my movement-based art and am very open to learning and collaborating. At the moment, I am absorbing as much as I can from those I am working with and have dedicated a vast amount of time to dance. I have performed in multiple colloborative group pieces with amateurs and professionals. These groups have explored different styles of dancem my favourite so far being interpretative.

Joining ACDC would be an amazing opportunity for me to go deeper into building my connection with dance and self expression. I know that it would bring me a lot of joy. It will also feel like diving into the cold ocean and emerging altered.

While, I am still developing my artistic approach, here is one way I approach creating. First I find music that I connect with. Something that makes me feel deep emotions or makes my body want to move. Listening to it, I write some words that stand out in the lyrics or that come up inside me. I take those words and create short phrases for them that convey how those words feel to me. I connect those phrases to tell a larger story. I do some introspection to decide what story I want to tell with this piece. Finally, I use that story to influence the finer artistic touches - the rhythm and expression.

Thank you very much for looking at my application. Please contact me at elanvanbiljon@gmail.com if you want to know more.

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About

Who am I?

I'm a curious and silly yet thoughtful person that loves to learn and connect with others. I try to communicate with others, knowing that we perceive the world differently and can still come together because of the discussion instead of pulling apart. I try to imagine the world and people in it complexly, and as a consequence, I try to meet people where they are. I would much rather learn than be perfect. I know the individual things I do to tackle the world's big problems are entirely insufficient. Still, I do them anyway, and I try to find others to do them with because the only way we get anywhere is how we got here: together.

Resume

My movement path

I have moved in many ways and learned many things from this. Here is a timeline to briefly summarise my broad experience:

Experience

Dance

2022 - present

Expression and passion

I fell in love with dance and in a short time have explored so many parts of the dance space. I have learned to express my inner self through movement. While dancing, I feel a deep state of flow and satisfaction.

Rock climbing

2020 - present

Confidence

The most powerful things I have learned from rock climbing is that I can do far more than I realised and that failure is part of the process.

Pilates

2020 - present

Strength

I started doing pilates to recover from a trail running injury and found that it brought strength into all my other movement practises.

Yoga

2016 - present

Mobility

Yoga has helped me extend the range of positions my body is strong in. It also gave me more confidence in my ability to use my hands as a base.

Slacklining

2013 - present

Softness

Slacklining has taught me that we are often best able to move when our body is soft. When we can absorb momentum and redirect it in a benefical way.

Parkour

2009

Using momentum

While I didn't do parkour for very long, I developed some foundational skills. I learned to use my momentum to move me towards my goal and to protect myself from injury (rolling after a vertival drop, for instance).

Tumbling

2004 - 2005

Commitment and propreoception

I learned to commit to doing technically difficult and scary movmenets. I also developed a sense of where my body is in space.

Karate

Brown Belt

2002 - 2007

Shotokan

I learned a lot about controlling my body and mind doing karate as a child. I also developed a good strength and mobility baseline.

Gymnastics

2001 - 2004

Basic movement

The first movement practise I remember doing was some gymnastics as a child. We explored different ways to move: tumbling, cartweels, handstands, balance beams, bars, etc.

Welcome ACDC,

I am Elan van Biljon.