- ContributedPatsy Ricketts, left, with a friend.
This is the final part of an interview series with dancer Patsy Ricketts, done by Tanya Batson. During last week, we have been through Rastafari, child-bearing, the highs and lows of her life and took a break as she was speaking about the difference between dancers.
TB: How do you define the difference?
Patsy: The difference is in the spirit. Because when you go on that stage, that spirit must come out. The spirit has to come out to the audience.
TB: Is that what you see when there are probably 10 people on the stage, but two or three of them hold your attention?
Patsy: It's their spirit, yes - coming out at you. You see, in choreography you have set movements. Now, somebody can give you a piece of choreography based on analysis, or based on something that is abstract. That choreography can stay on stage and stay in the background no matter how fantastic the choreography, unless the dancer has that spirit to bring it across to the public.
So, the dancer then is like a piece of clay. You have some people who will make something and you say 'Oh, that's a man', and you will have somebody who does a piece of sculpture and that sculpture almost comes to life. That is the difference. It's the spirit. Every artist, whether it be a musician, dramatist or dancer, has to have that spirit within them.
Otherwise, you don't last. No matter how much technique you can amass for years and years and years, if you don't have that spirit in you that comes across to the audience, then you will not last. You will fail... fade into oblivion. It is the spirit of the person that is remembered. So, it's not the Patsy Ricketts that they remember. It is my spirit.
TB: As a woman and a dancer, have you ever found it difficult to define yourself?
Patsy: No, not really. Well, I can't say I've had that, you know. As I say, you see, it has something to do with the dance being born in the dancer. Because I never really felt pressured about having to change my... what's the word I'm looking for... Okay then, maybe if I had been Rastafarian from I was much younger, I would have been a more fantastic dancer.
Because that spirit, that consciousness, would have been in me from then. But as I say, there is was a spirit there. Maybe it was the Rasta in me from long time, but there was a spirit there, even when I was young. And now that I am Rastafarian, if I were to be performing now I know that I would be 20 times a better dancer. Even now, with what I know consciously and what I know physically, in terms of techniques, I would be 20 times better than I had ever been. But it was not to be that way. Right? You slowly grow and you learn. One thing I can say is that I'm glad that I'm a Rastafarian. I am glad. I feel very glad, that I'm a Rastafarian.
TB: Are you where you thought you would be at this stage? I mean, when you were imagining your future.
Patsy: Well no, you know. Because when I was a child I always thought that I would be dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing, not having any children, dancing, dancing, as a child. So, in terms of looking at it from that point of view, I would say no. But, as I say, now that I'm Rasta and now that I have a different consciousness I think that yeah, it's all right.
Even though I'm not running up on the stage and performing now, at least there are people that I'm teaching. And I keep looking for that spirit. I have found it in one or two dancers, but I still keep looking for type of spirit where you have to sit back and say, 'wow!'. I'm still looking for that.
TB: So, are you happy with where you are?
Patsy: I'm happy. The only problem is sometimes, because you're in the system and you have to live in the system, sometimes finances. But I'll say that I'm better than most people. There are a lot of people who have been artistes and have gone not making any money. So I would say that I'm pretty good, 'cause I'm making money out of my art. So with the system set up the way that it is, you don't get the amount of money that you would really be able to survive. But I could be much worse.
