Dancing a Dream
KerryLyn Kercher’s dance career is a study in passion and perseverance.
Kercher ’14 knew she wanted to be part of LehrerDance as soon as she took a masterclass with company founder Jon Lehrer as a freshman. In March 2015, Kercher, 23, returned to Shenandoah to perform as part of LehrerDance and help conduct masterclasses like the one that changed her life.
“I fell in love with his style of movement,” at that fateful freshman masterclass, she said. “I love his work. I think it’s exactly what my body likes.” Hooked on LehrerDance and its clever style combining the fluidity of modern dance and the excitement of jazz dance, she won a scholarship for a summer intensive held in the company’s Buffalo, New York, home between her freshman and sophomore years. After that, she stayed in regular contact with Lehrer, keeping him apprised of her activities as a dancer. When his company held Chicago auditions her senior year, she flew to the Midwestern city alone after some fellow Shenandoah dancers’ travel plans fell through, bunked with a friend from high school, and danced to fulfill a dream.
She made it to the final audition round and Lehrer asked her, at one point, how she would feel if she was offered an apprenticeship. With her dream within reach, Kercher, now understood she was likely on a short list to join the company. Soon, she was asked to be a full member of the small modern company featuring only three other female dancers and four male dancers.
With so few people on stage at any given time, LehrerDance performers often feel like soloists, Kercher said. There’s no one to hide behind, ever. They always need to bring their “A” game.
Kercher’s interest in LehrerDance was noted by Lehrer from the moment of its inception at the conservatory. “I have been watching KerryLyn since she was a freshman at Shenandoah,” Lehrer said. “Even at that young age, I saw a spark in her that is not common. Her energy and vitality shows through in her dancing in an incredibly unique way. She is a little spitfire who dances much bigger than her small stature. Since being hired, KerryLyn has also shown me great character and acting chops especially in our more comedic work–this was a trait that pleasantly surprised me. Also, I did not know she had a gymnastics background which always adds to the pantheon of movement choices I can give her.” (Kercher began her life in creative movement as a gymnast in her hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania. She only switched to dance at the age of 12.)
Lehrer also notes that masterclasses are how his internationally touring company LehrerDance, which isn’t a school or studio, teaches its technique. “Since we are developing a unique style and way of teaching dance, the students in our masterclasses get a one-of-a-kind experience that they can apply to their other dance forms. Plus, having a masterclass that is followed by a performance is so beneficial because the students can actually see everything we taught them,” Lehrer said. LehrerDance performed in March as part of the conservatory’s Performing Arts Live series.
At a masterclass for a mostly freshman group, Lehrer also noted Kercher’s history. “I met KerryLyn in a situation much like this,” he said in the Ewing Dance Studio in Shingleton Hall, adding that he first saw her dance in that very same room. Then, he and Kercher and a fellow LehrerDance performer introduced the young dancers to the LehrerDance technique, first learning that for Lehrer, it’s all about “Physics first, technique second.” Lehrer’s technique relates to the curves and arcs of the body, along with something else: momentum. “We roll, we jump, we flip, we turn . . . using momentum, not muscle,” he said as he pushed the students to trust the power of momentum and took them through a roller coaster of movements.
The full LehrerDance style was on display at the company’s March 20 performance as part of the conservatory’s Performing Arts Live series. Conservatory Dance Division Chair Ting-Yu Chen called Kercher’s dancing daring, sensitive, passionate and engaging. “I know that I was not the only who one got emotional watching her breathe life into her dancing. What a gift for all of us to see one of our alumni following her bliss and maturing as an artist in front of our eyes! It was heartwarming and inspiring.”
Kercher said her Shenandoah education prepared her for the kind of pressure she feels as a professional dancer (her first performance with LehrerDance was at the legendary Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, by the way). The dance program pushed her mentally, physically and emotionally and made her ready for a life that can call on her to wake up, travel, rehearse and perform — again and again, and again.
She also had opportunities to perform both at and outside of Shenandoah, courtesy of faculty members like Assistant Professor of Dance Maurice Fraga, M.F.A., and said she always felt the strong backing of dance instructors like Assistant Professor of Jazz Dance Tiffanie Carson, M.F.A., who taught Kercher for a year as a part-time dance faculty member.
“I knew right away that KerryLyn was going to work professionally as a dancer, even though like many, she had some doubts,” Carson said. “She is a true performer and artist, and I was not surprised at all when she was accepted into LehrerDance. In fact, I had hoped that she would stick around locally so that she and I could dance together professionally. However, I knew someone would snatch her up. I know one day we will get to dance together. It has been a pleasure to have her as a student, and now as a colleague and friend. I know that she has much more in store for her career and that this is only the beginning.”
The conservatory’s dance program also conferred Kercher with not only technical training, but also confidence and strength. Through it, she said she learned that you can’t tell yourself “‘No, I can’t do this,’ or ‘No, that’s not possible.’”
In returning to her alma mater, she said she hoped to show students that everything they learn in the conservatory’s dance division is meaningful in creating a career as a professional dancer. “If you give it your all at Shenandoah, it does transfer. I just graduated. You can do it.”