Island of Culture youth ambassador Lloyd Mayor, a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York, returned to the Island at the end of August to give a dance workshop and talk at his old high school, Ballakermeen.

Lloyd, a former Young Dancer of Mann who turns 21 this month, based his workshop on an introduction to the Graham technique of contemporary dance, named after its founder Martha Graham and known for its sharp, angular movements of contraction and release, considered revolutionary in the 1920s and 1930s, a time when audiences were more accustomed to the spectacle of classical ballet.

‘The Graham technique introduced a new architecture for the body and a new language of movement,’ explained Lloyd. ‘It’s raw and pared down. It’s about every emotion: joy, fear and everything in between. With Graham, you have to focus on your internal feelings; understand and bring in your personal emotions to your dancing. You’re exposed and have none of the decoration that classical ballet allows you to hide behind.

‘I really enjoy sharing what I’ve learned. What I try to do when I teach is to get dancers to understand that with the Graham technique, there’s no “outside stuff”…it’s simple and pure.’

Lloyd’s workshop was held in the dance studio he opened in November last year and where he was assisted by dancer Kasey Lachenicht. He first showed clips of Martha Graham who began teaching creative dance in 1926. He then began to tutor the young dancers, leading them through the process of discovering the expressive capacity of the human body through dance so beloved of Graham, before finishing with a routine danced to a Scott Joplin rag.

At the end of the two-hour session he said: ‘Whenever I look back at my time at Ballakermeen it makes me smile, so I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity to share a little of Martha Graham’s world with these young dance students.’

Later, in the school’s Studio Theatre, Lloyd showed his audience, which included Island of Culture patron Clare Christian, MLC and Isle of Man Arts Council chairman Geoff Corkish MBE MLC, another side of his talent, that of an inspirational speaker.

He spoke of his early life in Geneva, then coming to live in the Isle of Man with his grandparents, Pauline and Edward Edge, to pursue his education. He spoke fondly of his time at Ballakermeen High School and paid tribute to his ‘inspirational’ head teacher Adrienne Burnett and to dance teacher Pippa Salter for giving him an insight into dance and unlocking his passion for wanting to discover more.

After time spent in London studying at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance failed to connect with him, he became drawn to contemporary dance and the ground-breaking Martha Graham technique, which appealed to his emotions as much as to his gymnastic ability.

He became an apprentice with the Martha Graham School in 2011. ‘This normally means you spend two years or so perfecting your craft and only then might you be offered a place with Graham 2,’ explained Lloyd. But after a year spent working hard, including performing in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, he was spotted by a new choreographer who had joined the company and was looking to cast the Richard Move ballet, Achilles Heels.

At the time Lloyd was a just an apprentice but he was singled out and told he would be taking the lead role. A speechless Lloyd said: ‘I’ll try’, to which the reply was: ‘No. You won’t try…You will be Achilles.’ His performance attracted rave reviews and led to his winning the 2013 Clive Barnes dance award.

Since when Lloyd, hailed by one dance critic as ‘one of the newer gods in the Martha Graham Company’ has enjoyed continued success which has prompted the company’s artistic director Janet Eilber to comment: ‘It is a joy to watch Lloyd dance because you can see his passion in every step he takes.’

Asked in the question-and-answer session how and where he saw his future developing, he replied: ‘I dance for the moment…and who knows where that will take me.’

Island of Culture events director Michael Lees said: ‘Once again Lloyd has shown his outstanding talents as a dancer, teacher and accomplished raconteur. He has a wonderful story to tell - a story which is only just beginning, I’m sure. I am delighted that he was able to take time out from his packed international schedule to return to the Island and also extremely grateful to Pauline Edge, his grandmother, for her input into the arrangements. Today we were privileged to witness something very special: a supremely gifted young man with a stellar career ahead of him.  We wish him every success.’

 Photo courtesy of Steve Babb.