by Viva Wittman
Dancing always came naturally to Maggie Boogaart, perhaps having something to do with the fact that her mother was a dancer as well. Following her mother’s footsteps as a ballerina age 4, Maggie found dancing as natural as breathing. At thirteen she discovered modern dance and fell passionately in love with the Martha Graham technique. After graduating from high school, she left her home in Amsterdam, studying at the London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS), daily practicing Graham technique, ballet and more.
“As a young teenager, studying at the conservatory in Rotterdam, I always felt like a weirdo and was placed in the back of the class,” she tells me outside of the CDM Ravel dance studio, “and at LCDS I felt at home.”
After graduating from LCDS at 21, Maggie performed with different companies, joined Leine & Roebana in Amsterdam as a trainee with Dansstersstudio and created her first professional choreography at DansWerkplaats Amsterdam (DWA). Amidst this bounty of opportunity, Maggie was granted a scholarship to study in the Martha Graham School NYC. |
After continuing her studies in Graham technique and choreography as well as performing for different choreographers, she returned to Amsterdam to further develop her company Dragon Productions that she maintained from 1994-2009, after which she moved to Paris to teach at CDM and choreograph independently.
Today, Maggie co-runs the Paris Marais Dance School (PMDS) with Ghislain de Compreignac, a ballet teacher and her husband of six years. PMDS offers a professional training program based on Classical and Neo-Classical Ballet, Graham and contemporary dance, as well as open classes to all levels.
When I see Maggie’s latest production Breathe, the evocative movements and goose-bump raising vocals stun me. The production examines the hidden life of the trees, their ancient beauty and their pollution-procured blight.
Maggie tells me that although this is her first time creating something about nature, she has always felt drawn to spread knowledge about how to respect the planet. “I’m waking up,” she says “and I can’t keep quiet anymore… life wants to live; it makes no sense to ruin what we have.” Maggie describes Breathe as, in part, the “forest revolting,” and will continue exploring the use of art as a means to wake people up to the reality of the danger our world faces. “The more I live, the more I include life in my art,” she adds. Over the years, one thing certainly has not changed, which is that, for Maggie, “to breathe is to dance.” And what could be more refreshing?
Find Maggie at www.paris-marais-dance-school.org & www.maggieboogaart.com
or to find information about her company: www.dragonproductions.nl/video/compilatie.php
or to find information about her company: www.dragonproductions.nl/video/compilatie.php