This past Sunday, Ballet in Cinema projected dance on film screens around the world.
In case you missed it, here is a clip from the broadcast of the Bolshoi Ballet‘s Sleeping Beauty. Svetlana Zakharova and David Hallberg perform the Act II pas.
MCDC dancers Rashaun Mitchell & Andrea Webber in "Antic Meet". Photo by Yi-Chun Wu.
This weekend, Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) comes to Chicago. The two shows, co-presented by the Dance Center at Columbia College and the Harris Theater, mark the second to last stop on the company’s two-year Legacy Tour performing works from Cunningham’s 70-year career. Bonnie Brooks, former chair and current faculty member (on sabbatical) at Columbia College’s Dance Department, has been traveling with the company and will be documenting the company’s experience for the Legacy Plan. Her background and extensive knowledge of his work make her the perfect person for the job. I spoke with Brooks via phone last week about the tour, his legacy and the upcoming performances.
How did you get involved with the Legacy Tour?
I have a long history with Merce and the company. I first met Merce in the 1980s when I was working with the National Endowment for the Arts. I’ve kept up with the company in various ways over the years. When I came to Chicago and we began to present them, that sort of furthered the relationship and I started writing and lecturing on Merce’s work and they started inviting me to go to different engagements with them and do pre-performance talks, interview Merce, help out with various things. After Merce died (2009) and they determined they were going to go on the Legacy Tour, they realized part of what they needed to do was document it, document the whole story of the Legacy Plan. They felt that because of my history with the company, my friendship with Merce and something of the distance that I had because I wasn’t immediately employed by the company, that I would be a good choice to do that. So they invited me to join.
Is this directly related to why you took a sabbatical? Did you take time off so you could be on the tour?
No. Actually, that was another piece of the story that was one of those marvelous coincidences in life. I made the decision in 2008 when I renewed my contract to chair the dept at the Dance Center, that was going to be my final three years as chair. At that time Merce was still living and there was no influence at all between my decision and what has happened. Since then, the college decided to give me a year-long sabbatical when I stepped down and that very neatly coincided with when the company wanted me to start traveling with them on a regular basis. It’s one of those wonderful accidents.
What exactly are you doing on the tour?
It varies from engagement to engagement. Sometimes they ask me to pre or post-performance talks or introduce open rehearsals, things like that. Sometimes I’m just there to observe what’s happening. I’ve taken pictures. It really depends on what the presenter has asked, what residency activities have been put together. One of the things that has happened as a result of me traveling with them, which I think was an intention on their part, it has given me a chance to get the perspective of many, many people on the Legacy Tour, the Legacy Plan, the kind of radical decision the company has made to close its doors…that’s given me a lot to work with in terms of what I’ll be writing after the tour.
Were you instrumental in getting them here?
Yes. When I was chair of the department, I was very actively involved with the program. We had negotiated that they would come two years ago. We negotiated it before Merce died that they would come and do events at our theater, previous to that we’d always presented them at the Harris Theater…and then Merce died. They began to book the Legacy Tour and I said we have to bring them back one more time. We were going to have them in November, but decided to have them in the second part of the tour, which is wonderful because they’re very near the end of the almost 40-city, two-year tour.
Now that it’s so close the end of the tour, are people getting more emotional?
Yes. It’s becoming much more real to everyone now that we’re close to the end. I think the place that hit us the most vividly was in London. We were in London about a month ago and the final night, I think everybody in the entire theater – in the audience and on stage – was in tears. We realized this was the last appearance in a city that historically has been very hospitable to Merce’s work. The audience was on its feet shouting “thank you!” It just really hit us that we wouldn’t be back again, at least not as the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The thing that’s been so profound about this is realizing that this is the final generation of dancers that Merce trained and chose himself. These are the people, in my opinion, that are finishing his long, artistic project. There’s such a poignancy and a beauty to that and I think in London we realized, we’re beyond seeing the work, this is now really the goodbyes.
Since you’re so familiar with his work, can you tell me about the pieces that are going to be presented here in Chicago?
Friday night, we’re doing a repertory evening…a piece called “Squaregame”, “Quartet”, which has five people in it, and then “Antic Meet”, which is a piece from 1958 that Merce made. “Squaregame” is a very playful piece. There are beautiful sections, but it’s almost like you’re on a playground with mischievous children in terms of the fun that occurs and there are big duffel bags on the stage that they throw around and hide behind. It’s really a delightful piece. Then you go to a completely different end of the spectrum with “Quartet”, which is kind of dark and moody. There’s a male part in it that Merce danced originally and two other males and two females. You’re watching the interaction between this group of dancers and this individual character. It’s very lyrical, but in a very dark way, but it’s beautiful. It’s easy, because of the complexities of Merce’s work, its easy to lose the fact that there is enormous beauty in it. And this is one of his more beautiful pieces, in my opinion. The last piece on the rep is “Antic Meet”, sort of a spoof. In it’s eight different sections. There’s a central character. It’s an anomaly in Merce’s body of work in some ways because there is some acting involved. There are references to Vaudeville, to every day life, to tap, to ballet…there are fairly clear references to his period with Martha Graham.
The second evening is one of my very favorites of Merce’s piece. It’s called Roaratorio. It’s an hour-long work that was originally envisioned by John Cage. Cage created a soundscape that was an homage to James Joyce and his final works…Finnigan’s Wake. One of the things Cage did was go to Ireland and sample sounds from places that were referenced in Finnigan’s Wake. So this was a rare occasion where the sound information pre-dated everything else. John had hoped Merce would eventually make some kind of dance using the score. For several years, Merce didn’t think that was possible. He has built in a number of what appear to be Irish jigs. There are a lot of relational information in it, couples and groups relating to one another. He described one as a group or family traveling from one place to another, which is what they do if you watch the full arc of the piece. I think it’s the best example of Merce’s sheer love for dancing. It ‘s a joy to watch from start to finish.
In your mind, what is it or was it about Merce and his work that made him such an icon?
I think that Merce represents and, in fact, literally is the single most turning point in 20th century modern dance. Merce took a lot of the existing conventions that were handed to him in both the modern and ballet world…and because of the combination of existing things that he did, he stayed in modern dance, he stayed in a concert dance format, he put together an ensemble of dancers, he trained them and he worked with them consistently for many decades…those are all sort of conventions. In terms of the content of the work itself, he just broke so many rules. He advanced narratives, he separated the dance from the music, he choreographed in silence, he and John (Cage) created this whole new approach to put dance, music and visual information together in a performance context. He just did so much that was inconoclastic. He turned the use of space on its head. He created an egalitarian circumstance for dancers instead of a hierarchy of some kind where there were special people and less special people and the back up people. The list goes on and on. The bottom line is that Merce set a whole new direction of what was possible. It was through him and the gateway of his work that the whole postmodern movement came through. If there hadn’t been a Merce, I don’t know what postmoderism in dance would’ve been. He opened a whole new direction for dance.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company – The Legacy Tour
November 18 & 19, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312.334.7777
Tickets start at $25
Birthday gal!
Broadway legend, dancer, singer, actress and choreographer Ann Reinking turns 62 today. Reinking is in town helping Thodos Dance Chicago (TDC) rehearse for the return of last season’s premiere The White City: Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which they are performing this Saturday at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of Du Page (tickets: 630.942.4000).
Last night I had the unbelievable luck and privilege of being invited (thinks to Jay Kelly of LC Williams and Assoc who handles PR for TDC) to a private gathering at Artistic Director Melissa Thodos and her husband Rick Johnston’s home in the Gold Coast in honor of Ms. Reinking. The small gathering of twenty or so people included a few TDC board members, Emmy-winning filmaker Chris Olsen and an array of Chicago dance legends: Ron De Jesús, Cheryl Mann, Michael Anderson, Stephanie Martinez Bennit and Broadway and Chicago theater veteran Mitzi Hamilton. I especially enjoyed having a fun, “off the record” conversation over wine with Hubbard Street director Glenn Edgerton and was honored to sing Happy Birthday to Ms. Reinking (we joked that she was cringing inside at the group being so off key).
Many thanks to Melissa, Rick and Jay – and a happy birthday to Ann!
It’s seems our beloved Mayor Emanuel has been busy showing his love for dance. On the heels of declaring this past Monday Bill Kurtis & Donna La Pietra Day for their contributions to the city’s arts and non-profit scene, he comes out with another proclamation making Friday, November 18, 2011 MERCE CUNNINGHAM DAY in Chicago!
This is to coincide with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company who will be in town November 18 and 19 performing at the Harris Theater (co-presented by the Dance Center at Columbia College) on the second to last stop on their Legacy Tour which kicked off two years ago.
River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) performed their fall engagement at the Harris Theater over the weekend with a rep of seven diverse dances. The company opened with what has become its signature piece, Sherry Zunker’s Evolution of a Dream. Strong and consistent, it was the perfect opener for the show. If you’re familiar with RNDC, you noticed quite a few unfamiliar faces. Four new company dancers took the stage on Friday night with another one out due to a broken foot. Dream and the ball piece (Charles Moulton’s Nine Person Precision Ball Passing), which since they don’t move from the waste down borderlines on dance for me, were the cleanest pieces in the show. A lovely trio in Al Sur Del Sur featuring Jessica Wolfrum, Tucker Knox and Ahmad Simmons and the ever-stunning Train solo by Hanna Brictson were other stand outs. Spotty unison, stumbles, wobbles and a handful of missed lifts had me witnessing an extreme rarity: RNDC had an off night.
I’ve been watching RNDC deliver strong, solid seemingly perfect performances for almost 15 years, so the small flubs took me by surprise. This is no condemnation of their talents – they are multitude – but this wasn’t their best showing. The much-anticipated company premiere of Daniel Ezralow’s SUPER STRAIGHT is coming down opened the second half of the show (the perfect spot for it). For those of us in the audience that had seen the original, and there were many, just hearing the opening note and seeing the hanging bags with the dancers inside brought back a flood of memories. Fair or not, the RNDC dancers were dancing with the ghosts of the original cast with them on the stage. A dapper Michael Gross in his suit brought Ron De Jesús (who was in the audience) rolling across the stage. Wolfrum in her black dress had Sandi Cooksey defying gravity, hovering inches above the floor. Twenty two years after the premiere, these five dancers were bringing back a beloved (by many, especially me) piece and I wanted them to BRING IT! On Friday, it seemed they brought a little and saved some for later. Perhaps the excitement of seeing it for the very first time back in ’89 helped to create the illusion that vaulted the original cast to rock star status in the dance scene? Maybe it was the difference between learning it fresh and resetting it? It could any number of reasons that it didn’t hold the same sway with me this time. I have no doubt that RNDC will continue to grow and evolve with this work, but this time out, it didn’t live up to the hype. Especially my own.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has officially declared today – November 7, 2011 – to be Bill Kurtis and Donna La Pietra Day in Chicago! The couple receive this honor, along with the JUBA! Award at Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Jubalee Gala tonight for their long careers and leadership in the non-profit and arts communities. Chicago Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Michelle T. Boone, will be on site this evening to read the full proclamation.
Congratulations!
Jessica Wolfrum & Michael Gross in "Al Sur del Sur". Photo by Sandro.
This weekend at the Harris Theater, River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) opens it’s fall season. Just off a successful international tour (US, Korea, Germany, Switzerland), RNDC is warmed up, employing five new dancers and ready to take the stage with a mixed rep that is sure to dazzle. Signature group piece by Sherry Zunker, Evolution of a Dream (2009), is joined by last season hits Al Sur Del Sur choreographed by Sabrina and Rubin Veliz and Artistic Director Frank Chavez’s jazz tribute Simply Miles, Simply Us. Charles Moulton’s postmodern Nine Person Precision Ball Passing (1980), which the company performed over the summer during the Chicago Dancing Festival (and shall heretofore be known as “the ball piece”), makes it’s Harris stage debut. Add in an intense solo by Robert Battle from his work Train (2008) and the first duet Chavez every choreographed in 1994, Fixé, and you have the makings for a fantastic and entertaining evening of dance. But it is the company premiere of Daniel Ezralow’s SUPER STRAIGHT is coming down that is getting all the buzz – and rightly so.
Originally commissioned by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) founder Lou Conte in 1989, SUPER STRAIGHT was a cutting-edge, athletic, dynamic piece that helped change the trajectory of the company from a strong, stellar troupe with a jazz/Broadway-based rep to one of the pioneers of contemporary dance. Ezralow, an emerging choreographer at the time, took inspiration from a book of black and white photographs by Robert Longo titled Men in the Cities and set it to an original score by Dutch composer Thom Willems. What came out was a quirky, desperate, intriguing, hyper-physical, 15-minute dance that was like nothing the audience had seen before. Revolutionary seems trite, but it was. Five dancers dressed in black and white appear in what look like plastic garment bags hanging from the ceiling. That image, along with the darkly eerie, industrial score, set the mood for a wonderful and strange adventure. The original cast of Chavez, Sandi Cooksey, Ron De Jesús, Alberto Arias and Lynn Shepard brought a fierce energy to their talented technical skills and took the stage by storm. I saw it on tour that season and it blew me away! (It was one of the reasons I wanted to move to Chicago and why I’m a huge HSDC fan.) I am so completely STOKED that RNDC is reviving it this weekend. I spoke with Chavez by phone earlier this week about their upcoming program.
You’ve set quite an eclectic program…Miles, Balls, Tango…
This is our “Tour de Force” program (also the title of the Thursday night gala). To be able to go from an authentic Argentinian tango to “SUPER STRAIGHT” with a contemporary edge and then go to Miles Davis, as jazzy as you can get…it shows so many different facets of the company and that we can do all of those things really well.
Jessica Wolfrum in Ezralow's "SUPER STRAIGHT is coming down". Photo by Jenifer Girard.
I’m going to cut to the chase. I really want to focus on SUPER STRAIGHT because it is my favorite piece ever! I love it, I love it, I love it! I always wondered when/if Hubbard would bring it back.
(Laughing) We feel the same way. It’s my favorite Daniel Ezralow piece. Not just because I had the great opportunity to perform it, but I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while. I’m always concerned with something that was related to HSDC, that enough time has gone by…we’re careful with all that. We thought it was such a good fit and it’s such a good piece that it just made sense. As you say, it’s my favorite piece of Danny’s and it’s been sitting on a shelf for a long time. It’s so perfect for us. I honestly didn’t think I’d see HSDC do it again. It just isn’t them any more. I felt truly it was more appropriate for us these days, so I went for it.
Are there things he told you, that maybe the audience doesn’t know, that you get to pass down now that you’re resetting it?
As I did it, I brought Sandi and Berto in to help with rehearsal and some tidbits here and there. It was really based on a book of photographs by Robert Longo. The costumes, the look of the piece…everything came from this book. It was very interesting. He took a bunch of pictures of men and women in cityscapes. The idea behind it was that they were having things thrown at them and they were dodging. They were all sort of action/motion shots, but very quirky. They were pedestrians. There were a lot of images that ended up being translated off the page and into the piece. That was the initial jist of it. I’ve described it as sort of an urban meltdown. It’s like these people have been dropped down from some other space. The bags…do you remember? These big huge ice cubes that they melt out of. I remember Danny saying things like, “Your first step out of that bag is like you’re stepping on to black ice.” You can’t see it. You don’t know if it’s going to hold you. There’s so much uncertainty in the piece, which created a great deal of tension. There was a lot of tension in the creative process too. Danny likes to stir the pit a little bit. He does a lot of improv and then puts the piece together. That’s his process. He feeds off of whatever is happening. If somebody is pissed off and walking around a corner, he’ll use that in the piece. He really wanted to shock the audience. I remember this original composition, he wanted that first note to come in really strong and jolt the audience. You’d hear a collective “ah” – it scared them. It transcends you to another place and you’re not sure what’s going on. He said that it was very abstract for him. There was no real meaning behind it for him. There was no story behind it. He wanted to create this tense atmosphere that kept people on the edge of their seats and uncertain. It does that well. So many people wrote it was about AIDS, disease, a takeover, aliens…it had a million different interpretations of what it was. Danny likes to do that. He likes to leave it up to the audience, however they see it, whatever they’re feeling…that was a big part of it.
I definitely got an alien vibe and just kept wonder what was up with the bags?
He likes to make people question a lot. Are they aliens? Are they just arriving here? Were they quarantined? All these speculations came about where these bags came from and then they just float off the stage. These five people are just dropped off somewhere. They have no idea where they are. You can say they’re from a different planet. They don’t even know why they’re there, but they need to go explore. If they are to go on in any way, they need to get out of those bags and find out where they are. It’s a bit of a discovery. The silent section in the middle was very interesting. There are two musical cues in the musical section and other than that it was timing and breath and feeling each other, commanding and finding the silence and doing something with it and translating that into a very tense atmosphere. Again, the uncertainty is what creates this tension. Initially the piece wasn’t counted at all. We just followed each other. For dancers…everybody wants to know what they’re doing at every moment. That was a really interesting part about the piece. I think it keeps it really interesting and relevant. There’s nothing to me that’s dated to me about the piece. It’s still so relevant in so many ways.
The silent section, the improv and keeping it real on stage…was that a new way of working for you guys back then? Or had you already been through that type of process before?
No. I think it was new for a lot of us. Danny was just starting out as a choreographer at that time, aside from what he did for his own company. I think for us, and for that time at HSDC, it was pretty new. It was fantastic. What came out of that process was pretty special. Sometimes it all just works. I think “SUPER STRAIGHT” is a great example of when everything really comes together.
River North Dance Chicago, Nov 4&5 at 8pm
Tickets: $30-$75, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312.334.7777
RB as the Evil Queen in "Snow White".
Dance this weekend: Check out Lucky Plush Productions at the MCA tonight or Saturday, Could Gate Dance Theatre at the Harris this weekend, Synapse Arts tonight at Holstein Park or Ailey II tonight at Governors State University. I’m going to Cloud Gate tonight and the Zombie Revolution at House of Blues tomorrow. Merde to my zombie dancers! Have a fun and safe weekend!
The cast of "The Better Half". Photo by Cheryl Mann.
Tonight at the MCA Stage, Lucky Plush Productions (LPP) opens a two weekend run of its new production The Better Half. A 75-minute collaboration between LLP Artistic Director Julia Rhoads and physical theater troupe 500 Clown Co-Founder Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, this new work puts a modern, interactive twist on the psychological thriller Gaslight (1944 movie based on the Patrick Hamilton play Angel Street) where a husband tries to make his wife believe she’s losing her mind. The Better Half incorporates characters, text, lighting (Heather Gilbert) and sound (Mikhail Fiksel) cues and a heave dose of reality to keep the story evolving in real time on stage. Add in costumes by Jeff Hancock and you have the setting for a fun, creative collaboration living inside a live, artistic whodunit?
I spoke with Rhoads earlier this week about her process and the new work.
I’m embarrassed to say, I think the last thing I saw Lucky Plush perform was Lulu Sleeps (2005). (*Side note: After viewing the repertoire on LPP’s website, I’m happy to say I have seen most of the recent work, although I did miss last year’s hit Punk Yankees.) Back then, you were incorporating theatrical elements, but recently you seem to be adding even more theatrics and humor. Is that a different direction you’ve taken over the years, or is it just because I’ve missed some of your work?
I think it’s both. One of our first works has been our longest standing work which we’ve done over and over is Endplay (2003). That work has a (Samuel) Beckett play inside of it and is very much about human relationships and about the performers on stage and how they’re interacting and negotiating with each other. I think that piece had a real liveliness to it that I’m interested in now in my work. One thing that was a big game-changer for me was Cinderbox 18 (2007). It just was kind of a magical process. That was a process in which I started to think more about the liveness, the immediacy of being in performance and having the performers be in a state of response to each other, so it’s less like every move and detail is set and choreographed…there was a real openness. I did this thing back then where I’d write a little note down for each of them some unknown element that they had to accomplish during the run. Some of them ended up being in the show in a fantastic way and some of them miserably failed, but the best thing is it wasn’t really meant to find new things to add to the show, it was just a bonus if something really landed. What it did was put the performers in a constant state of presence because they had no idea what the changes were going to be and what someone might do to change the game. Even though the sections and the structure and the movement was set, there were things that would happen that they would have to deal with and respond in a very real-time way. It was just such an exciting process for me. Since 2007, and really going back to Endplay, I really want the audience to feel like they are knowing the performer, that it was really about the people and not just the dancers being sort of a non-subjective entity.
This process in The Better Half is even going more in that direction. Accessibility is really important. I think it’s sometimes perceived as a dirty word. I think accessibility is great. You can be incredibly intelligent and accessible. It doesn’t mean you’re diluting the content, it just means you’re allowing the audience to enter into it and to maybe laugh or maybe feel like they’re included. This process has moved more into the dialogue…it’s more narrative. The dialogue is in service to character development. Narrative, at the same time, we’re doing something very familiar to LPP’s body of work. We’re also the performers that arrive at the MCA when we start. We all show up and we get a name of a character. We get character descriptions. We hear this vague synopsis of a play. My character, Mrs. Manningham hears that another person is called Mr. Manningham, so really all we know is presumably, we’re married, so we start to negotiate having a relationship in real time. Things start to happen. There’s kind of a loop structure, like reset button, but each time, the consequences change…grows more into the Gaslight story. The way we hope the work is going to land is kind of fun look at contemporary domestic relationships. It’s about the five of us being in the space together and negotiating roles that we’ve taken on or that have been imposed on us…how we grow into them. The loop structure is about routinization that happens in relationships, sometimes how we bring our habits and our role to a relationship and then it’s like that forever. You can recast yourself in a relationship, but it’s going to take a lot of work. The piece wants to speak to all of those things, how you want to jump script sometimes and how you find the resilience within a marriage or a domestic relationship. It’s fun and it’s funny and it has all of those elements, but it also lands with a real resonance about the question of can two people spend their lives together?
When the characters are getting the descriptions, is someone on stage telling them? How is that interacting happening?
In the beginning we’re sort of being directed by light. Light plays a really important role, light and sound, and we’re directed to a place on stage and one of the characters is directed to a place in the audience where there’s a podium with a binder that has the Gaslight synopsis. He’s privy to information that he’s one of us too. It says there’s another character and he gives himself the role of detective. He comes into the story and is in it for the remaining…being with us on stage as new narratives are proposed. There are about five or six scripts that we’re sort of navigating through. There are real time consequences for introducing those scripts and being inside of them and how it ultimately lands back in this central marriage.
How did the collaboration with Leslie come about? Have you worked together before?
We’ve known each other for a while. The thing that really drew us to each other is that she’s also interested in the immediacy of presence with the audience and having a real time experience. She’s also interested in humor. We’re a really good fit for each other. She came in during Cinderbox 18. I asked her to come in to give feedback to the process. I liked her language and I was really excited by her point of view. She had seen my work and I think she felt the same way. She’s really drawn to physicality. Her work is physical theater and she’s really drawn to dance and physical vocabulary as a way to move a story forward. We started talking about doing something together a couple of years ago. We’re both really excited about this work.
Lucky Plush Productions’ The Better Half, Oct 27-29 & Nov 3, 5, 6
MCA Stage, 220 E. Chicago, 312.397.4010
Autumn Eckman in the studio. Photo by Mike Canale.
I’m not talking about the turning leaves, chilly weather and shorter days, but dancer/choreographer Autumn Eckman. An artist that has danced with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago (GJDC), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Lucky Plush Productions, Ron De Jesús Dance, as well as choreographed for Instruments of Movement, Inaside Chicago Dance, Northwest Ballet Ensemble, Indiana Ballet Theatre, just to name a few. She’s also on faculty at Northern Illinois University, teaches at a number of area studios and serves as Artistic Associate and Rehearsal Director for GJDC and Director of Giordano II. To put it mildly – Autumn, 34, is everywhere these days.
This weekend at the Harris Theater, Eckman will premiere a new work, Alloy, as GJDC takes the stage for its fall engagement. The first performance of the 2011-2012 season titled Passion and Fire will showcase seven numbers including two premiere, one of which is Eckman’s. Other pieces include Gus Giordano’s signature work Sing, Sing, Sing (1983), last season’s ballroom hit Sabroso (2010), former GJDC dancer Jon Lehrer’s Like 100 Men (2002), a restaging of Davis Robertson’s 2005 work Being One, a world premiere by Kiesha Lalama and Eckman’s Yes, and…! from 2010.
I talked with Eckman over the phone last week as she was walking to rehearsal about her process and her inspiration.
You’re a busy lady. What is a typical day for you?
A regular Giordano day? They start class at 9:30 and we rehearse until 4:00pm. Usually I’m off teaching class somewhere in the evenings. In addition to choreographing, rehearsal directing, mentoring and guiding the second company, I’ve also been rehearsal directing the first company in preparation for the upcoming shows and tours. For this concert, I’m helping get six pieces up and running, cleaned and polished and rehearsed. It’s a big task, but fun.
Who are your choreographic influences?
I take a lot of inspiration from books. I draw my influence off of the vocabulary of the dances that I’ve done with each different company. It’s so ingrained in my body that I try to make it my own and formulate my own style. I love all the choreographers from my time at Hubbard Street – Nacho (Duato), Ohad (Naharin), (William) Forsythe, but I also love jazz choreographers. Randy Duncan has been a big influence. I love Harrison McEldowney. I have been inspired by the work and working with Robert Battle. Other dancers include the great entertainers of our time: Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire. I grew up watching their films along with the works of Busby Berkley. I was obsessed with his pattern making for film and dance. In terms of the dance itself, I am often inspired by the way a writer would write or compose a song for start to finish: the verse, the chorus, the bridge, etc. I aspire to make dance the way a good song takes you on a journey.
When you choreograph something, what is your process or does it change?
I write everything down. I could own stock in Post-It notes. Everything is kind of disorganized, but if I have an idea, I grab a pen and write it down or if I see something, I’ll write down something…like a couple walking in the park. Then I’ll hear a piece of music that will, in my mind, fit the idea. It’s kind of like playing match up. I have these really diverse ranges of music that I know I want to eventually use and finding what matches it and trying to build a story to it. Sometimes it’s about the movement. I like moving for movement’s sake as well.
For your premiere, Alloy, what was the impetus for it?
KRESA (Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency) had asked me to choreograph a piece. They asked for a duet. I was really excited. I hadn’t pushed myself to see how strong my work was in that aspect. It’s a mixture. I researched the word alloy and then it took on this metallicy, liquid kind of tone. Two people that will do anything to be with each other, be one…a blend.
So the idea, the word and the concept came first and then you added music?
Yeah. I wanted to try classical piano…listened to a simple score and see how that worked. I knew I wanted to use soft, simple music. Sometimes I think less is more.
You reworked it for GJDC. How has it changed – or has it?
Nan (Giordano) had seen the dancers rehearsing. She approached me and said she wanted it for the fall concert. Can we add this to it? Can we have these two dancers (Devin Buchanan and Ashley Lauren Smith)? She loved the look of their body types together and thought they’d be a great partnering. Turns out, they are great together. They have great chemistry and it took on a sexier, really stripped down tone. It really came all about their sensuality, their body and their movement and how they…even one touch, how that reacts to each other. It took on a deeper, more personal tone when I worked on it the second time. I’m extremely happy with the results. It’s always my goal to see where jazz dance is going and how to push boundaries of what jazz dance is. I think this is just another direction – for the company as well. Another boundary being pushed.
Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Oct 21 & 22 at 8pm
Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312.334.7777