Making the Dance I’ve Not Made Before

As an artist it is easy to explore and re-explore a structure, topic, theme, motif, etc.  And, there is tremendous value to this deepening of the creative experience surrounding a single concept.  When we dive again and again into the waters of a single idea, we see new light, new shade, new nooks and crannies of potential. It is a beautiful practice.  The challenge in the dance world is that our field has been consistently fascinated with that which is new.  Dance makers are often seeking something new and different from their work.  There is a common striving for continual reinvention of aesthetic.  And, yet, it is hard to escape ourselves.

And, we often end up making the same dance over and over. Maybe different costumes or music or lighting, but essentially the same thing over and over. 

Tough.

So, as I reflect on my newest creative endeavor, I am wondering do I try to create something new? Do I deepen something I have explored before?  And, more importantly, how do I know if I am doing what I set out to do?  Either approach is fine, but what I don’t want is to create the same dance again thinking that I am being innovative when I’m not. 

So what do I do? Where do I start?  I know some of my favorite choreographic devices. I know them well.  In fact choreographic structure, use of theme and form are strengths of mine as a choreographer. I like looking at the arc of a piece, the sense of wholeness, and the overall effect of the structure for a narrative or aesthetic purpose.  I notice that I like introducing dancers in the same way. I like grouping them on the stage in certain ways. I like balancing unison with counterpoint.  And, I love front facing and diagonal front facing (mostly for the narrative or human component of the work—after all, comedy doesn’t work quite the same when turned away from the audience).   

Now, what do I do with this information?  I want to make a new dance.  I don’t want to see myself pull out the old tricks again. At least, not this time.  So, I am dedicating myself to avoid these patterns at all costs.  I force myself to do something else. Anything else!

The dance I want to make next has the working title of Dances to Heal the Soul. Each section addressing a different style and aesthetic to serve a goal that touches the spirit, heals the soul, soothes the heart. 

Maybe, I will resort to my old ways. The comfortable habits of creation.  But, maybe I will find something new in the process.  Maybe the dance will root itself in a new value, in a new structure, or in a new aesthetic.  I can only hope. 

In the meantime, as I allow all of this to incubate in my brain, before I get into the studio, I will dream the new dream. 

Review: ADaPT Festival 2013, Program Jules

For a review of Saturday Night's performance, Program Arthur: Click Here.

The ADaPT Fesitval 2013 was a tri-city dance performance that started in Brooklyn and made it's way all the way over the Southern California for another week of shows.  Coordinated by Misa and Stephen Kelly of ArtBark International. This festival was one characterized by support, respect, community investment and artistic excellence.  The following is a brief overview and review of Friday night performance at Center Stage Theater in downtown Santa Barbara. 

Got Country? is a fun-loving group of young women who love to Country Line Dance. This group offers real-world dance performed by the real "girls next door." These ladies were flirty and fun as they swayed their hips side to side and sashayed across the stage. They performed the pre-show for the evening, and as such served as an effective way to get the audience involved and invested before the formal concert started. This pre-show format served as a mediator between social dance and performance work. Got Country ended with an invitation for the audience to join in and learn a dance right then and there. After a successful lesson and performance of the dance, the audience finished with a bow and returned to their seats fully invested and exhilarated for the show to come.

Entering into a world of light, color, curiosity and imagination, Anri Nakano charmed the audience in her sweet solo, Just Be Imaginative. The umbrellas transported the audience to a new world, one filled with possibility and potential, a place created half from the French film Amelie and half from an anime world. Nakano swept through the space with a childlike freedom that was refreshingly pure and innocent. She explored her world with a delicate care and playful abandon.  Nakano's movement oscillates between design driven phrases and formless swirls of circles and spirals.  One thing is for sure, at the heart of the piece is the treasure that is Anri Nakano. 

Members of Nancy Evans Dance Theater performed next in a duet called Le Gemmelle/The Twins, choreographed by company director Nancy Evans.  Seldom does a choreographer have a chance to work with two beautiful dancers who are so physically and technically matched.  Beginning in the womb, the audience witnessed the two entities emerging into separate beings, struggling with their individual identities and finally arriving at the joy that is twinship.  The unison of this piece is what made it so remarkable.  The fact that many of the movements are extremely challenging technically makes it even more impressive. These dancers were challenged with performing very demanding extensions and balances with complete equanimity and ease, and they succeeded. They were so nicely unified in their movement that I almost forgot they were not even siblings.  

Barbara Mahler's solo, entitled When She Stumbles, was a remarkable study in patience, stability, support and freedom.  There is a sense when Mahler is dancing that she performs exclusively at her own pace, in a way that is only present and only honest. She doesn't hurry to prove herself to the moment. Rather, she takes her time, easing her body into exquisite moments. She grows her body into beautiful backbends and arabesques, taking the audience on a journey of discovering space and the edges of knowing.

Noelle Andressen, director of Rubans Rouge Dance Company, performed a solo of personal transformation entitled Storm.  Andressen is a passionate performer whose continual growth has impressed me again and again.  Like the woman in her story, she seems to face adversity and overcome it with a resilience that few possess. 

4 Steps, choreographed by Robert Salas, is a deeply emotional, female trio, in which the lead dancer is separated by death and the others are forced to navigate their internal landscape of grief. Salas uses a balance between powerful athletic movement and quiet pedestrian movements to tell this story. I have seen variations of this piece before, however the modifications made for this version took this piece to a new level of storytelling.  The devastating story, now distilled, acted as a powerful adhesive, cementing the piece into a well balanced composition that moved the audience.

One World is Never Enough, created and performed by ArtBark International, is a dance theater piece  involving suitcases, newspapers, paper planes, and dachshunds (one real, one fake). The disparate nature of this piece is strung together by the environment the performers create through the placement of their props and their commitment to each moment. Of course, once the little dachshund runs across the stage and the paper planes are thrown from the audience, the audience is prepared to travel with ArtBark on any adventure. 

Pony Box Dance Theatre, presented a refined duet choreographed by director Jamie Carbetta Hammond entitled with(in).  The first and only dance work of the festival what was performed on pointe, this piece was a modern ballet performed by beautifully trained dancers.  The male resurrected the female from her cave of flowing organza fabric and lifted her up, carrying her effortless through the space until she was able to rise and fly on her own. The audience soaked in the dance with its familiar roots in ballet vocabulary. 

Festival Co-director, Misa Kelly bridged the concert dance stage with "outsider art" in her solo, Patchwork Chameleon, set to music by wheelchair bound Isa Topete. Isa's disabilities (due to chromosome deletion 1Q) keep her from communicating with words, but her love of music is clear and her piano compositions are a testament to the artist that lives in all people. The solo was aptly titled in that the design and  movement vocabulary seemed like a sampling of diverse gesture and actions patched together into a palette of images and dynamics. The final evocation of Isa in a primal screech by Kelly bridged these disparate worlds of ability and disability with a raw effort that hits the guts.

Cybil Gilbertson of NECTAR Collaborative performed a stunning solo, xYz, about loneliness and self acceptance. Gilbertson is a seasoned Santa Barbara performer who uses her height and length to her full advantage while inviting the audience into her world of personal liberation. As usual her goddess-like beauty and total down-to-earth sensibility charmed the SB audience into love once again.

It's a fact. The Raving Jaynes are officially my new favorite dance and improvisational comedy duo. Ok, so they are the first performers I have seen perform in this unique format, but, they are so good, that I am now (quite possibly) their biggest fan. They begin by taking a word suggestion from the audience. Tonight it was: blasphemy. What transpired after that involved co-creator Jamie Graham becoming broccoli, her partner in crime, Amy Larimer, wanting to taste her with butter, the two arguing about the future of vegetables and finally with Larimer choosing the life of a carrot. What is most exciting about this duo is seeing how the music and "dance" portions intersect with the more traditional improv-comedy format. These fine performers easily transition between the two practices and fuse them in such a way that it seems totally probably for broccoli to dance or a carrot to take root on stage.

The show closed with Megill & Company's cool and jazz tap dance, Stop. Listen. Dance, choreographed by yours truly, Beth Megill. While I was performing and cannot review my own performance, I do want to thank the audience for their warm reception of the dance. It seems once again that tap dance is brings people back to life driven by the sounds and rhythms.

Overall the ADaPT Festival was a huge success and a treat for the Southern California dance scene.

Did you see the show? Please post your thoughts in the comment box below. I write these review in hopes of sparking discussion, so please share your feedback with the community.  And, take a moment to follow this blog for more So Cal dance reviews.  

Review: ADaPT Festival 2013 (Program Arthur)

For a review of Friday night's performance entitled Program Jules: Click Here.

The ADaPT Festival is a treasure of the Southern California dance scene. Produced by ArtBark International under the direction of Misa and Stephan Kelly, ADaPT is a unique opportunity for artists to gather and share, support and celebrate.  This evening's program (Program Arthur), offered a distinctly diverse palette of dance and physical theater that was at times playful, shocking, intimate and powerful.  Here is a brief overview and review of the performance.

Harlem Renaissance was a pre-show social dance event in which four dancers from Santa Barbara Dance Center first demonstrated a swing dance routine before calling the audience on stage to learn the east coast swing basic and a few fun moves.  The stage was full of willing participants, smiling and dancing with strangers as if they were life long friends. This is the power of dance.

After the invigorated (and somewhat sweaty) audience members returned to their seats, the theater resonated with willing energy. The anticipation of the audience was virtually tangible.  Having broken the invisible line between audience and performer, this concert was no longer an experience of us vs them, but rather a celebration of all dancers and all humans.  The opening piece was one I have seen and reviewed before, a stunning duet by Jenn Logan entitled Coupling, Cycles 1-3.  This piece never gets boring or old. Scot Tupper and Katrina Amerine manage to keep this piece of choreography fresh and vibrant no matter how many times they have performed it. And, by the audible sighs and hums of the audience, it was evident that this performance swept away the audience as it always does.

Two Mythological Birds, by BodySensate Contemporary Dance of Santa Barbara was the first of the festival to be set to live music.  Clara Kim on viola (90% sure it was a viola), was a strong musician who gave flight to the imagery of the dancers.  Choreographed by Mathew Nelson, this piece had a nontraditional structure that read a little bit like a day in the life of these two birds.    The first bird (embodied by the choreographer himself) circled and floated through the space in cascading gestures and swooping circles, rising and falling with smooth effort.  The second bird was comprised of the other four female dancers who seemed more like one entity that multiple, confirmed by their exit in union.

Remembering was an emotionally heavy and earthbound solo choreographed and performed by Emily Berry of B3W Performance Group of New York City.  This female soloist, dressed in a simple purple dress, embodied powerful release technique, as she effortlessly dropped into the floor.  In general I was struck by the downward energy throughout the piece, emphasized by the weighted movement and downward gaze.  This piece was dark and heavy with images of back stabbing and the wringing out of one's soul. This woman's remembering was clearly one of suffering under complex circumstances.

Festival directors Misa and Stephen Kelly took the stage next in their quirky but sensitive duet, Recall is Never Replay. This dance theater piece combined nonsequitur text, with humorous gesture patterns and lots of love.  Most performed to silence and live spoken word, this piece was an authentic and loving rendition of their relationship that was a precious peek into their sweet romance and daily life.  The ending seated embrace, as Misa nestled into Stephen, was filled with all the joy, sensitivity, and honest love that exists in private behind closed doors.

Jessica Kondrath presented an a excerpt from a solo work, The Art of Breathing, performed by Julie Correia.  I have seen and reviewed this piece before as well, but as I stated for the last piece in which this was the case, this solo is one I could watch over and over.  It is crafted like a well-designed puzzle, with the body and the motifs scattered in front of you and then coming together into a well balanced visual account of line, shape, and color.

The Last Painting, choreographed by Lissa Resnick in collaboration with Michael Lightsey Fine Arts, literally made the stage a canvas for dance.  The piece began with an abstract painting projected onto the cyc. The lead male dancer set out his canvas on the floor, taping it down. Then the two muses entered with an air of serenity, carrying paint and brushes to him, then guiding him through his art making process.  The presentational element of this piece was a bit jarring for me at first.   The preceeding pieces had been so non-presentational that the painter's exaggerated gesture seemed out of place at first. But, as the female entered with a balletic walk that shared the same dramatic flare, I better understood this element as inherent to the style of the choreographer.  This piece was clearly influenced by contemporary jazz aesthetic, as highlighted in the upbeat unison sequence performed by the two muses.  The company is called No Strings Attached Dance Company, and yet I felt that this choreographer maintained very strong ties to many conventions of concert dance composition, which made me question the nature of how Resnick chooses to break the rules and how that resonates in her work.

The second half of the show began with the crowd pleasing duet Unzipped, co-created and performed by Misa Kelly and Joanna Nobbe.  Before the performers began, they invited two audience members up on stage for a special perspective on this dance. This alone was an interesting and unusual decision.  But, as the dancers whipped down their pants and undies, bare bottoms to the audience and bare fronts to the "specially seated" members, it all became clear.  What followed next was the most enjoyable and laugh out loud funny "naked dance" I have ever seen.  I am a very tough to please when it comes to nudity in dance and on stage in general. I have seen many examples of nudity onstage for the shock value alone.  And, in general I can't stand that treatment of the bare human form.  It doesn't shock me. It doesn't have to be precious.  And, most of all it doesn't have to be sexy.  This dance is the first dance in the nude that I felt truly warranted the nudity.  No apologies. No seduction.  No asexuality either.  Just the human form being it's normal butt squeezing, cheek slapping, shaking and jiggling NUDE self!

Ringing Rocks was a short dance film by Fred Hatt depicting a dancer weaving through a field of "lithophonic" rocks that literally rings like bells and chimes when struck by a hammer or other object.  The black and white film managed to blur the line between human form and rock in a way that was mesmerizing and hypnotic.

Valerie Huston, professor of Ballet at UC Santa Barbara, presented a solo, Black Earth, set on Megan Ragland, a UCSB student.  This young dancer was remarkable in her ability to turn, balance and release the momentum of her body through the performance space.  This contemporary ballet solo was physically and technically challenging, but Ragland danced with single focus and maturity, performing multiple pirouettes with seamless endings that conveyed both abandon and deep grounding.

The Union Project Dance Company, treated the audience to another live music composition in their piece Fearing the Unknown, by Mariana Oliveira.  This piece opened with a stunning solo by Raymond Ejiofor.  Ejiofor commanded the stage with his strength, control and agility in such a way that I wasn't ready to see other dancers enter quite yet. Compositionally, this piece lacked clarity for me, in that the dancers frequently changed relationships to each other, sometimes acting as the aggressor and other times the one's who feared. This switching back and forth made it difficult to decipher exactly who/what these entities were and the intent behind their movement.  Nevertheless, the piece resonated due to the virtuosity of the movement vocabulary and stunning execution on behalf of the dancers. The choreographer utilized the strengths of the dancers to such a degree that they at times seemed super human. 

The show closed with the Mini Rave by the Raving Jaynes from New York.  As they did the night before, these two dancers/improvisational actors took the stage with nothing more than an audience suggestion "Rose" and out of it emerged a fun story of Broadway bound performance, flowers, and discarded hats. This duo is fearless and fabulous. If you ever have the chance to see them, you should run. Don't walk.

For that matter, next time you even hear murmurs of the ADaPT Festival, you should be clearing your schedules and coordinating the baby sitter because this is not a show you want to miss.


Did you see the show? Please post your thoughts in the comment box below. I write these reviews in hopes of sparking discussion, so please share your feedback with the community.  And, take a moment to follow this blog for more So Cal dance reviews.