Artists Reach Out: Yvonne Montoya

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Yvonne Montoya

Yvonne Montoya
(photo: Dominic AZ Bonuccelli)

Yvonne Montoya is a mother, dancemaker, bi-national artist, thought leader, writer, speaker, and the founding director of Safos Dance Theatre. Based in Tucson, AZ and originally from Albuquerque, NM, her work is grounded in and inspired by the landscapes, languages, cultures, and aesthetics of the U.S. Southwest.

Montoya is a process-based dancemaker who creates low-tech, site-specific and site-adaptive pieces for nontraditional dance spaces. Though most well-known in the U.S. Southwest, her choreography has been staged across the United States and in Guatemala and her dance films screened at Queens University of Charlotte, NC and the University of Exeter (UK). In addition to being the founding director, Montoya is the lead choreographer for Safos Dance Theatre; under her direction, the company won the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Lumie Award for Emerging Organization (2015).

She is currently working on Stories from Home, a series of dances based on her family’s oral histories, set to premiere in Fall 2020. From 2017-2018, Montoya was a Post-Graduate Fellow in Dance at Arizona State University, where she founded and organized the inaugural Dance in the Desert: A Gathering of Latinx Dancemakers. Montoya is a 2019-2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, a 2019-2020 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, and a recipient of the 2019 NALAC POD grant. She continues to work as a thought leader and collaborator on Dance in the Desert.

Yvonne Montoya with Buddy.
The Motherhood and Performings (MPA) Project
Photo of mother and son doing cartwheels
on the back porch outside their home.
(photo: Dominic AZ Bonuccelli)

Yvonne Montoya in Dancing the Mural,
courtesy of Safos Dance Theatre
Photo of dancer jumping in back of a light blue truck
in front of an outdoor mural.
(photo: Dominic AZ Bonuccelli)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

Yes. I am working on Stories from Home, a series of dances embodying the oral traditions of Latinx communities in the American Southwest. Stories from Home is set to have a soft premiere at Kennedy Center Millenium Stage in early September, but that performance is now up in the air. I have already experienced two development residency cancellations and face possible cancellations for July and August as well.

The cast of Stories From Home originates from communities throughout Arizona and New Mexico. This intentional geographic spread addresses the isolation of Southwest-based dance artists, instituting a community of Latinx dancers. The far-flung group of artists also allows for an embodied sense of the array of landscapes that are integral to the work.

Site-specific creation residencies play a key role in developing Stories From Home, providing spatial and historical context for the performers. Coming together in person for rehearsal is very important to our practice. The cancellation of these residencies is a deep loss for me and the cast. It is a loss of income, yes, but also a loss of community and the opportunity to do what we love, with people we love and in places we love.

That being said, I am grateful for the flexibility of our art form and the Stories from Home cast as I re-envision what’s possible over the next few months (details below).

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

Dance has always been a part of me; it is my first love. I have been making dances for as long as I can remember. One of my very first memories is choreographing to Strawberry Shortcake and Tina Turner on vinyl.

I performed with several Tucson-based companies before starting Safos Dance Theatre in 2009. In 2015, I transitioned my company away from a full-time operation with a set season into a model that is more sustainable for the funding realities of the Southwest region. Since then, I have been balancing a solo practice with work as a member of Las Fronterizas ensemble and as an artivist founding and co-leading Dance in the Desert: A Gathering of Latinx Dancemakers. I am grateful to have two fellowships this year--the Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists and the Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellowship--that have sustained me and my work at this time.

I am a process-based dancemaker interested in the transformative places and spaces movement creates for dialogues and discoveries. I really enjoy creating low-tech, site-specific pieces that can be staged in non-traditional dance spaces. I am influenced by the Southwest deserts in which I was born and raised. The warmer weather and endless blue skies inspire endless possibilities for outdoor performance.

My work has been staged in many places including on the back of a 1965 Chevy CT pickup truck. I intentionally created Stories From Home to be flexible; it can be performed as a full-length dance work for the traditional stage; as single, brief solos; paired with a keynote address for conferences or educational events; and outdoors, on proscenium stages, in blackbox spaces, digitally, or in classrooms. I love creating dance beyond the stage.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

I am currently in the process of re-imagining, shifting my artistic practice, and moving towards a virtual version of Stories from Home that will center my experiences as a working artist mom. I am enfolding previous work,  Motherhood and the Performing Arts (MPA) Project, into Stories from Home. The pandemic opened up unanticipated connections between the two projects. This virtual offering will premiere July 15, 2020. More information will be available on my website shortly: yvonnemontoya.co

I am also gearing up for my very first remote rehearsal with the cast. I am approaching the online rehearsal process as an experiment, and I look forward to the many lessons that I will learn. I am envisioning new ways dance artists can come together to build and sustain communities of practice across geographies.

I am also practicing patience as I am currently working from home and homeschooling, which is nearly impossible to do! I look forward to the end of the school year and envision an easier work day at that time.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

The thing I care about most is my son and raising him with a deep understanding of our cultura nuevomexicana. Stories from Home came about after my father’s passing in 2015. My father was the family’s storykeeper, and I am compelled to continue his storytelling tradition for my son in the language I know best, dance.

Stories from Home shares personal and cultural histories, including stories from my great-grandmother, grandmother, great-aunts, and father. Given the shift in my artistic practice as a result of the pandemic, Stories from Home will now also center my relationship with my son and our collective pandemic experiences. Through dance, many generations will come together across time and space.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

I am not sure how my practice functions within the current world, because the world seems to be changing on a minute-to-minute, day-to-day basis. In the pre-pandemic world, I think that my practice largely functioned on margins. As things shift and spaces open up, I think my practice may shift more towards the center as digital dance spaces may offer more visibility for dancemakers who live and work outside of major dance centers.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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The sign reads: Danspace Project at Times Square!

Laurie Berg (front, right) and dancers
perform -scape- in Times Square
(photo: Nicky Paraiso)

Inspired by Times Square’s history as the home of Broadway musicals, vaudeville, dance halls, and vernacular dance forms that emerged throughout the 20th century, Danspace Project has partnered with Times Square Arts to commission three new, site-specific dance works by esteemed New York City artists. -- from publicity for Danspace Project in Times Square

Congratulations to the folks at Danspace Project!

As directed by Prof. Google, I got off the R train at 49th Street and exited at 47th, not quite sure where I'd find this "Duffy Square" and you. But then--wow!--a mainstage with big sign:

Danspace Project at Times Square

You all really have come a long way. Well, let's see. That would be nearly forty blocks, six subway stations?

Front: Ana "Rokafella" Garcia
Back, from left: luciana achugar,
Gabriel "Kwiikstep" Garcia and Laurie Berg
at the crossroads of the world
(photo: Ian Douglas)

And what a great night for outdoor performance. Refreshingly cool. A happy swirl of tourists speaking a multitude of languages (all variations on Uh...what? What are they doing?) and lifting phones to capture the unexpected moment. Starting around 6pm, Laurie Berg's dancers snaked through the gathered crowd, occasionally dropping out of view, their genial dancing accompanied by the rumble of trains beneath the grates.

Berg's -scape- has an easy-breezy feel that, at the same time, feels defiant of the towering advertisements that color and dazzle and overpower and absolutely define the area. In the middle of all of this, the ensemble seems to say, are us. Notice us. Notice yourselves. Turn your captured gaze away from the ads for a minute, and see us dancing.

The piece concludes with the troupe climbing the square's big staircase to the top where they sit, neatly spaced across the top step, and run a long, long, arcane string of semaphoric gestures and rhythmic, synchronized movements. They know they can't rise as high as the bright lights of Broadway and the corporate messages those lights train down on helpless humanity, but they can seize their own moment and send their own "message" that doesn't have to mean any one particular thing because, after all, this is Danspace Project.

-scape- performers: Jodi Bender, Laurie Berg, Melanie Greene, Madison Krekel, Kyle Marshall, Tonya Sisco, Anna Adams Stark

Costume Design/Concept: Liliana Dirks-Goodman, Jaime Shearn Coan, Laurie Berg
Costume Printing: Print All Over Me
Sound Design: Rena Anakwe
Glasses: Everything Branded
Gloves: Tyler James Designs

Along the way from -scape- and luciana achugar's 7pm performance of New Mass Dance, some of us stopped to watch some non-Danspace dancers work their own street dancing project, the kind you're more likely to see everyday. Then it was on to Broadway Plaza (at 44th Street), where I only knew I was in the right place when I noticed a woman steadying herself as she mounted one of those short, thick steel posts that act as a security barrier. Sure enough, it was achugar, assisted by a pair of those "barefoot" running shoes molded around each toe. And then I noticed several other people, a few of them also perched on posts, dressed like her in denim and the running shoes.

New Mass Dance came off as a ritual at the crossroads--the crossroads of the world, that is, as Times Square has long been called. The ensemble eventually drew a rapt crowd, but it was amazing to see how oblivious most passersby remained at the outset, never breaking stride, even those who bothered to snap a picture.

achugar built things up from a simple group circle with clasped hands pumping up and down to raise energy to a Busby Berkeley-style star pattern of synchronized (though markedly diverse) bodies to a writhing tangle of hedonists. At one point, after gazing around at the Ernst & Young ad and the Hard Rock Cafe facade and the like, I suddenly remembered how the dancer Eiko Otake's body has intervened in all kinds of places. achugar's piece, though lacking Otake's gravity and poignancy, did feel like an intervention. But I doubt last evening's strollers and watchers got achugar's intended, embedded connections to 1930s labor demonstrations, left-wing dance agitprop and resistance.

New Mass Dance performers: luciana achugar, Oren Barnoy, Rachel Berman, Malcolm-x Betts, Michael Mahalchick, Rebecca Wender, Sarah White

I regret I missed Full Circle Souljahs, the street dancing/club dancing troupe directed by Ana "Rokafella" Garcia and Gabriel "Kwikstep" Dionisio, back at Danspace Project's mainstage where they performed Behind the Groove: Times Square Edition. It had been a long evening for me, most of it spent on my feet. Close to the souljah's 8pm start time, I wound through Times Square's public space enticements--wow!--heading back to the subway.

Full Circle Souljahs: Odylle “Mantis” Beder, John “Flonetik” Vinuya, Nasir “Kid Break” Malave, Mark “Styleski” Mack, Raymond “Spex” Abbiw, Richard James
FC Hardrocks: Deana Richline, Jennifer “Beasty” Acosta, Janice Tomlinson, Sharmaine Sheppard
Lite feet by Noahlot: KR3Ts
Krumping: TJ Rocka and the Nu Knynnes
Logo design: Shiro
T-shirts: Eric Michael
Kuduro choreography: Manuel Kanza

Danspace Project at Times Square, presented in partnership with Times Square Arts, continues tonight and Sunday evening, beginning at 6pm. For information and directions, click here.

Information on the individual works can be found at these links:

-scape- (6pm at Duffy Square)

New Mass Dance (7pm at Broadway Plaza)

Behind the Groove: Times Square Edition (8pm at Duffy Square)

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In memoriam: The tragedy of Fukushima

Eiko Otake introduces her commemorative program,
Remembering Fukushima: Art and Conversations in the Cathedral,
at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine
all photos ©2017, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

During yesterday's anniversary remembrance of Japan's 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster--a deeply moving event organized at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine by artist-in-residence Eiko Otake--Katja Kolcio, choreographer and Wesleyan professor, spoke of the political upheaval wrought in the wake of Ukraine's 1986 crisis at Chernobyl. Photographer William Johnston, Otake's longtime collaborator, noted the growing environmental activism in Japan following the Fukushima crisis. And we were frequently reminded that, just about fifty miles north of here, in Buchanan, New York, the Indian Point nuclear power plant poses a similar threat. A few months ago, state officials announced an agreement that, by 2021, would lead to the complete shutdown of Indian Point--long touted as "Safe. Secure. Vital." and "Right For New York" by its operating Entergy Corporation.

Massive visual documentation, provided by Johnson and others, alerts the world to the devastating, enduring consequences of nuclear accidents--whole towns emptied of people, toxic and uninhabitable except by irradiated animals and plant life. Otake's program drew together numerous educators, activists and visual, literary, music and movement artists to illustrate how creative communication can help us begin the process of grasping the massive scale of the tragedy and the details of lives destroyed or upended.

And Otake, the inimitable, danced her latest iteration of A Body in a Cathedral, cloaked this time in black, thrusting through holy space like a crow in flight, in alarm, disorientation, displacement, grief...and warning.

"This is what I do as an artist," said Otake.
"I hang around. Thanks to the Cathedral for allowing me to hang around."

Remembering Fukushima: Art and Conversations in the Cathedral was presented in partnership with Asia Society and Danspace Project.

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Play the floor: Dorrance and Young at the Guggenheim

Michelle Dorrance
(photo: Works & Process at the Guggenheim/Jacklyn Meduga)

Audience waiting for the opening
Works & Process: Rotunda Project performance
at the Guggenheim Museum rotunda
(photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Despite what you might have read, tap dance is not on its last legs. Nor is it at death's door. Not while gifted makers like Michelle Dorrance and Nicholas Van Young still craft new ways to put its legacy and possibilities, its fun and glories in front of ever-expanding audiences like the ones that packed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum last night for three back-to-back performances for Works & Process: Rotunda Project, the museum's new residency and commissioning initiative.

The opening crowd, for the 6:30 show, was an eager and, it should be noted, overwhelmingly white audience--fairly easy to notice as people climbed and lined the museum's famous helical ramps, single-file, to view the museum's ground floor, the primary area for performance. Seeing the show required standing at the ramp's balconies for about 30 minutes plus the wait time before the show started.

According to a New York Times report, when Dorrance, Young and the troupe got their first go-round at the rotunda, they were shocked to discover its tap-unfriendly acoustics. Ooops.

Above: Claudia Rahardjanoto
Below: Dorrance and Young
(photos: Matthew Murphy)

Well, being smart people, they set to work on this formidable beast and, while perhaps not quite besting it, they created a playful sonic dialogue with it. From the opening boom, boom, boom of Dorrance's straddled drum, to angelic voices spiraling towards the skylight, to Young's body percussion and whistling, to the clack and rumble of batons on the floor, wooden boxes or balustrades, music was made by determined performers, and the audience got a lesson in music as a phenomenon of bodies in motion in space, any space. The charming Young even served as conductor, wordlessly training the audience in a complex score and drawing delighted laughter from us. Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie, the Bessie-nominated b-girl, paired with Matthew "Mega Watts" West to contribute hypnotic breakdance segments like jewels nestled inside settings offered by their colleagues and the gleaming white floor.

Gazing down on that floor for most of the performance gave watchers a view of dancers who resembled worker ants or a crisp marching corps as they executed elaborate geometry and braids of formations. Towards the end, the sixteen dancers strapped on tap shoes, bringing the thunder to platforms and planks of wood: We shall have tap!

And so, they shall. And so shall we.

Performers:

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie
Elizabeth Burke
Warren Craft
Donovan Dorrance
Michelle Dorrance
Michael Landis
Aaron Marcellus
Carson Murphy
Gabe Winns Ortiz
Claudia Rahardjanoto
Gregory Richardson
Leonardo Sandoval
Byron Tittle
Penelope Wendtlandt
Matthew "Mega Watts" West
Nicholas Van Young

Lighting: Kathy Kaufmann

Works & Process Rotunda Project: Michelle Dorrance with Nicholas Van Young has concluded. For updates on future events in the Guggenheim Works & Process series, click here.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Update on Eiko Otake at Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Eiko Otake at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine
November 2016
(photos: William Johnston)

Ask master dancer Eiko Otake about her experience of being an artist-in-residence for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine's Dignity Initiative and, among other things, she will speak of keen feelings of outsider identity. Not US born, not white, not Christian. And yet this grand, historic institution on New York's Upper West Side--with its well-known commitment to the arts, the environment and social justice--has become a space for her to connect with people from all over the world and all walks of life, most by happenstance.

Eiko's residency at the Cathedral from Eiko and Koma on Vimeo.

Last November, I wrote of Otake's engagement there in The Christa Project, a visual arts exhibition centered on images of female divinity (see post). Her unique residency continues through early March when she will join with anthropologist Marilyn Ivy (Columbia University), photographer-historian William Johnston, videographer Alexis Moh, performance artist John Kelly and other speakers and participants to commemorate the six-year anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the most severe nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Remembering Fukushima: Art and Conversations, presented in partnership with Asia Society and Danspace Project, will explore the relationship of body, place and history. Participating artists and speakers include:

Eiko Otake

William Johnston

Marilyn Ivy

Thomas Looser

Mark McCloughan

Alexis Moh

Nora Thompson

Megu Tagami

John Kelly

Carol Lipnik

DonChristian Jones

Geo Wyeth

Ronald Ebrecht

Ralph Samuelson

Elizabeth Brown

Jake Price

Nona Faustine Simmons

NYC iSCHOOL

Remembering Fukushima: Art and Conversations

Saturday, March 11, 1pm-5pm

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine

1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street), Manhattan

(directions)

All are welcome. A donation of $10 is suggested but not required.

For information and updates, click here.

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Process and Performance: a talk with dance artist Eiko Otake

Site dance artist Eiko Otake
Above: Kifune Shrine, 4 August 2016
Below: Yaburemachi 5 August 2016
(photos: William Johnston)

Lauren Grant
(photo: Amber Star Merkens)

For my Montclair State University course, Performance Perspectives, Dance MFA student Lauren Grant spoke with Eiko Otake about her site-specific residency at New York's Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.

Process and Performance:

A talk with dance artist
Eiko Otake

by guest contributor
Lauren Grant

Contemporary artist and choreographer Eiko Otake is in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan from October 2016-March 2017. Her collaborative work with historian-photographer William Johnston, A Body in Fukushima, is on display as part of the cathedral’s art exhibition, The Christa Project. During her residency, she will explore movement and space, welcome discussions with visitors, design a new video installation, expand her photo exhibit within the cathedral, offer solo performances and curate a culminating event on March 4 and 11, commemorating the sixth anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

I spoke with Ms. Otake about her residency at the cathedral, as well as her process and experiences as a site choreographer.


Lauren Grant: Although your research of movement and space at the cathedral is currently exploratory, it is conducted in front of others. So, in a sense, you are performing. When does the workshop phase become the performance?

Eiko Otake: Yesterday, I was workshopping, but at the same time I was also performing because I was aware there were people already starting to look. I was the same performer that I always am, but I did not know exactly what I was doing; I was more in the process. Although I am in professional performance mode, there is no ticketed audience, nor do I have material with a beginning, middle and end. If I look performative, the people who are watching are kind of happy, but there’s no more story than that; no big crescendo. I am merging process and product.

LG: Do you improvise in performance?

EO: Yes, but in a different way than how dancers go in the studio and improvise. My improvisatory research period gives me the material for a score I will use in the performance. Choreography in a space like this is very contextualized; I may crawl in the center of the cathedral, or become one of its gargoyles. These will be my prompts, and what I do between these prompts may be more improvised. I rehearse the prompts so as I improvise in performance I won’t have to question, “Where is my foot? Where am I standing? Is it dangerous?” I will have already explored that place. It allows me to be more improvisatory in performance because I don’t always have to figure out what’s going on. If I don’t know where I am going, I don’t know what I am doing. If I know I am going to a specific spot, I can decide in the moment how it is I will get there. Once I start going there, I may pretend I’m not, because if I’m too clear, there’s no sense of conflict. The score tells me where to start, maybe where to end, and three or four other things to do; but within those markers, I can do anything. I will never decide how many steps I take to go to a certain place. But I know I will go to that place. I will, however, also reserve the right not to go. My intention will be to go, but if there is something more interesting happening elsewhere, I may skip that part of the score. I own the score, but I am not a servant to it.

LG: What else is involved in this development stage of your residency in the cathedral?

EO: I have this empty space (which is not empty—it’s a very historical, amazing place) and I’m wondering, “What do I do? What do I want from here?” The residency gives me resources. Last week, a videographer or photographer was always with me as we tried to get five or six amazing pictures. My exploration in the space serves to get to those moments. Once I have that raw footage, I can then edit it, which is not too different from choreographing. I’m interested in learning how I can make more of the installation. I’m creating a media work. Perhaps the footage I shoot can end up somewhere on a monitor so people can see another part of me and the church as they move through the cathedral, recognizing that the woman they are seeing here is the woman they saw over there and that this is the front of a church, but they are now inside it. These additions will add layers to my installation.

Filming and photographing my explorations in the space also serve as tools to help me in my creative process. Alexis Moh, my videographer, helps capture what it is I’ve done here because, after a day of workshopping material, I forget what happened. Filmic ways also help me make sense of what I am doing. I find it quite strange that, as an immigrant, and a non-Christian, I have been given a chance to be an artist in residency at this cathedral. Watching the footage helps me materialize what all this means and also serves to point out when my explorations are just me fooling around. Since I am my own director, I need a tool to help me look and think. I don’t believe that video can accurately show me what I do, but it is a helpful little tool.

LG: Do you prefer working in a site versus a theater?

EO: I give up control when I perform in a space other than a theater—I can’t design the light and sound. But I’ve successfully done that kind of theater work for 40 years and am not interested in that anymore. I’m interested in conflict now; a kind of weirdness where people ask, “What is she doing here? Why?” and I don’t have an answer for them.

LG: What is the difference in how you connect with the audience in a site versus a theater?

EO: In a site performance I can see the audience. That’s a huge difference. And they can move around. In a theater they cannot move; they’re usually stuck. And I can’t see them.

LG: How do the different responses from people as they watch (or ignore) you affect you as a performer?

EO: It affects me if they watch; it doesn’t affect me so much if they don’t watch. They ignore me and I ignore them, it’s not really a big deal. I have other things to think about, like “How much did I move forward? Is this video working? Am I going in the right direction?”

LG: In your exploration, I saw a very interesting interaction at the doorway. You caught someone off guard. A woman held the door open for you (for a very long time). I don’t think she knew you were performing.

EO: She said, “Are you ok?” because I looked pretty broken. And I whispered, “Yes, thank you.”

LG: It was beautiful—a human-to-human connection. When you perform, do you seek out moments or opportunities like that with the audience?

EO: When it happens, I recognize it. I don’t seek it out. But when an opportunity arises, I acknowledge it, and may even linger on it. I like lingering on those moments.

LG: How would you feel if somebody was drawn to physically interact with you?

EO: It’s happened a few times. People have called an ambulance or have tried to help me. In a performance in Hong Kong, I started very far from the audience who were watching me from up high. I was eventually to go to them, but I began by lying by the highway. One man stopped and said, “Are you ok?” Since I was in the middle of a performance I only whispered, “I am ok,” but he couldn’t really hear me because I didn’t shout. So he started to call “Help!” That’s when the organizer ran in and told him, “she’s actually performing,” and he was like, “What? But there’s nobody around.” He looked up and saw tons of people watching and he was like, “sorry, sorry!” This is what happens. I kind of enjoyed it. I like that place where I’m really feeble as a performer.

Beauty is contextualized with something hurt. Real beauty is kind of dull because it doesn’t have a pain. I think we find it beautiful, even without that knowledge, but with that knowledge, we find it even more beautiful. If a little Buddha statue has some broken parts, you actually feel more empathic towards it. A little wound makes us feel more deeply.


Eiko at the Cathedral for video installation from Eiko and Koma on Vimeo.


EIKO OTAKE

Born and raised in Japan, and based in New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement based multidisciplinary performing artist. After working as Eiko & Koma for over forty years, Eiko began her solo project, A Body in Places, with A Body in a Station, a twelve-hour performance at Philadelphia’s Amtrak station in October 2014. In the spring of 2016, Eiko was the subject of Danspace Project’s Platform, a month-long curated program of daily solos, installations, workshops and exhibitions. In the fall of 2016, the Bessie Committee awarded a special citation to Eiko for her Platform for “making herself ‘radically available’ in public and private spaces.” Eiko is currently an artist in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where her photo exhibition in collaboration with William Johnston is on view, and Eiko shares her dance practice with visitors. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, the Dance Magazine Award, and an inaugural USA Fellowship, the Duke Performing Artist Award, and “Anonymous Was a Woman Award,” Eiko regularly teaches at Wesleyan University, NYU and Colorado College.

LAUREN GRANT

Lauren Grant has danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group since 1996, appearing in 60 of Morris’ works. She teaches technique around the globe, including classes for the company and The School at The Mark Morris Dance Center, sets Morris’ work at universities, and is currently Morris’ rehearsal assistant on his newest creation. Grant received a 2015 New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") for her sustained achievement in performance with Mark Morris and in recognition of her "invigorating spontaneity, expansive phrasing, and robust musicality.” Grant has been featured in Time Out New York, Dance Magazine, the book Meet the Dancers, appeared in PBS's Great Performances, Live From Lincoln Center, and ITV's The South Bank Show, and was a subject for the photographer Annie Leibovitz. Before joining MMDG, Grant moved to New York City from her hometown of Highland Park, Illinois, and earned a B.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. at Montclair State University where she is also an adjunct professor.

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Kate Thomas makes space for neo-classical choreography

Kate Thomas
Artistic Director of Ballet Neo
(photo courtesy of the artist)

For my Montclair State University course, Performance Perspectives, Dance MFA student Lisa Harvie interviewed Kate Thomas, Artistic Director of Ballet Neo

Making Space 

for Neo-Classical Choreography

by guest contributor 
Lisa Harvie

Dance artist Lisa Harvie
(photo courtesy of the artist)

Lisa Harvie: Take me on your journey as the Artistic Director of Ballet Neo. How have you worked to gain recognition as a choreographer? What challenges have you faced with regards to space?

Kate Thomas: I was very naïve when I ventured into the world of pointe work. I didn’t realize that it is a closed club in New York City. It has been a challenge to gain traction as a neo-classical choreographer and over the past eight years I have worked hard to acquire recognition. I always look for opportunities. I started with ballet showcases such as “To the Pointe” and “Ballet Builders.” Those were wonderful experiences, but unfortunately neither is around anymore. General dance showcases are more difficult because you never know anything about the program or the other choreographers, and it doesn’t always mesh.

I have done my own showcases but finding space is always a challenge.

Performing in New York City is extraordinarily expensive and space of any kind is always an obstacle. I am very fortunate being the Director at the School at Steps that I get rehearsal space and that I can do showings here occasionally. In terms of more professional venues though, you have got to raise the money yourself and it’s a lot of work when you consider performing space, rehearsal pay, ticketing and marketing.

Fellini's Dream, a work by Kate Thomas,
at New York's Downtown Dance Festival, September 2015

LH: With site-specific work, do you always have a piece going in or do you ever see a space and then decide on the choreography?

KT: It’s rare to go back to a space and know what you’re getting into but it’s a great opportunity for a choreographer. The first time that I did the Downtown Festival in New York City, I only knew that it was outside. We performed Measurement and Caution by the river in Battery Park.  The piece created a nice contrast to the site, as the music was very aggressive. When I saw how beautifully it was lit with the lights reflecting up from the water, I had so many ideas for what I could do differently.

The second time we did that Festival, I created Fellini’s Dream, which was based on the Italian characters depicted in the work of film director, Federico Fellini. I went with black, white and grey for the costumes and it worked out beautifully against the backdrop of the blue of the sky and the water. The clouds too, that just seemed to appear, added another dimension. It was like a film set and the story of the piece evolved perfectly in that space.

LH: Do your dancers perform differently in a site-specific setting rather than in a proscenium theater? What about the audience response?

KT: I do think the dancers perform differently. I’m fortunate with the professionalism of the artists I have and the difference is minimal, but I can see it. You are somewhat less protected, especially in a more intimate space. It’s the same for the audience. If they are in the dark, they are honest, because they are protected. In a small studio space, when the lights are on and the dancers are in your face, you’re not going to get the same kind of reaction. It is also different when you are outside. You get streetwalkers, ambient noises and lots of distractions. The audience tends to not be as focused.

LH: How have you used traditional space in an innovative way?

KT: I did a piece called Dreaming Aldamar that was all set to the music of Chopin and was based on a recurring dream I used to have. In my mind, I go back to a childhood memory of this big old house in Princeton. I dream that I find a staircase, and it leads me to a gorgeous suite of rooms, and with every open door I encounter something different. Sometimes there is a party taking place, or the room is just covered in newspapers and leaves. I wanted to re-create this dream on stage and have each room be tied to a different Chopin piece. I had “the dreamer” come from the audience as though she was sleepwalking. It transformed the traditional space into a dream world.

I also play with the lighting. We did a performance once in Woodstock, and the space was basically a barn. It was not built for performances, but the lighting director was brilliant, and he made it work. He lit the dancers from above, and it created these shadows that were just beautiful. It created a space and an atmosphere that matched the energy of the piece.

The idea behind many of my pieces is sophistication. It’s to bring adult themes to ballet and move away from it always being about fairies. My goal is to make ballet relevant for another generation and to focus on significant issues. We need more current storylines. The first piece that I did with that in mind was Measurements and Caution. It’s about intimacy and the loneliness you feel in those relationships when you don’t connect. The piece includes six sections. I had one lighting director that lit all six sections differently. It effectively created six separate spaces and gave the piece a through line.

LH: Does site-specific work help to promote the ritual of a live performance?

KT: I worry about the future of the performing arts, mainly because everything now is so accessible through technology. Site-specific does help to promote what we do, because it captures an audience when they are perhaps not expecting to see something. It’s a thin line though. I think that it should still be formal enough to make it a performing arts experience and not just entertainment for someone as they eat their lunch in the park! For me there needs to be a formality to a performance so that there is at least some respect for the process and for the experience.

LH: Has site-specific work changed you as a choreographer?

KT: No, my work has changed more because of where I am and what I’ve experienced. I would change my choreography to suit a specific space, but I wouldn’t change my philosophy very much. I also have no interest in working off pointe, so that closes the door to some site-specific work. On the other hand, dancers now love to experiment with pointe shoes, which is exciting, and that changes what you can do with space, even in a traditional setting.

LH: What is your next site-specific project?

KT: The next site-specific thing I’m doing is with the Adelphi Orchestra. The music is Shahrazad, and we only have about four feet in front of the orchestra in which to dance, so I have to be very creative with the space. I want to bring the characters to life for the audience but without interrupting the orchestra. My idea is to have the dancers begin seated in the audience and to perform most of the piece in the house. It will be interesting to break down the fourth wall and create something that crosses over to the audience.

LH: Is there a space that you would imagine using to create a site-specific piece?

KT: Yes. There is a place in Princeton that has columns. It’s the memorial for the Revolutionary War Battle that took place there. It would be a perfect site for a ballet. I can see Isadora Duncan dancing there. It always comes down to the floor for pointe work though. It is always a challenge and adds an additional cost to set an adequate stage.

LH: So, life will continue in New York City, and you will move forward with your choreography?

KT: I am most myself when I am choreographing. Moving forward, I have thought about putting together my own showcase of female choreographers who work on pointe, because we are out there and we exist. There are a lot of us who are finding it difficult to gain traction. I would love to combine our talents in a joint showcase to get ourselves further recognized.  We need to make space for ourselves!

Watch Fellini's Dream here.

KATE THOMAS

Ms. Thomas founded B.Muse Inc, a not for profit corporation to support her choreography and approach to dance education. B. Muse, Inc. provided support for the creation and production of Thomas' choreography, dance programs, lecture demonstrations and performances to schools in Harlem, the South Bronx, and throughout Upper Manhattan. She introduced a specific program for children in Upper Manhattan called the Morningside Dance Development Program to bring dance to areas that often were overlooked. B.Muse, Inc. has received support from the New York State Council for the Arts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Newman’s Own Foundation, California First Foundation Citibank and others.

Ms. Thomas began teaching dance to children in 1993 and developed an approach that was utilized by many studios and pre-schools throughout the city.   Ms. Thomas introduced her toddler program to The School at Steps, under the title “Little Steps” in 2000.  In 2002, she became full-time at The School at Steps in the position of Registrar, became Co-Director in 2003 and in 2004 was named the Director.

Under Thomas' direction The School at Steps  enrollment florished, new and existing programs expanded into three separate divisions, addressing the needs of dance students  by age, ability and level of interest. Thomas has redefined and developed the academic year curriculum-based program in all three divisions (Young Dancers, Technique and Pre-Professional), has created new programs for the Young Dancers Program, and has enhanced the Summer Programs offered by the school.  Thomas teaches Advanced Contemporary Ballet Repertory in the Pre-Professional Program at the School at Steps.

An exciting new collaboration began in 2009 with Grammy Award winning violinist, composer, Mark O’ Connor.  A full-length ballet, The Appalachian Suites Project, Flowers of Darkness, The Women of Monongah, was inspired by the largest industrial disaster in the United States, the Monongah, West Virginia mining disaster of 1907. Ballet Neo performances of this work in progress include APAP at Peridance 2012, two New Choreographers on Pointe’s Previews at the 92nd Street Y and the Ailey Citigroup Theater, John Prinz and Friends at the Ailey CitigroupTheater.

The company has performed at the Downtown Dance Festival (August 2006, 2008 and 2015), Dancers Responding to AIDS (2005), International Dance Festival, The Brooklyn Dance Festival (2015), Choreography on the Edge (2011, 2013), An Evening with Chamber Ballet, Ballet Arts Showcase, Steps Faculty Showcase and Academy of Performing Arts in Hudson, NY. In 2008, Ballet Neo premiered Measurement and Caution, music by Nini Raviolette and Acoustica in the New Choreographers on Pointe’, Ballet Builders, at the Kaye Playhouse in New York City.


LISA HARVIE

Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Lisa Harvie has been working in the New York City dance community for over 15 years. As an accomplished performer, teacher and choreographer, her training encompasses a variety of dance disciplines. She holds her Advanced certificate in ballet through the Royal Academy of Dance and is fully qualified with the British Association (BATD) in jazz, tap and highland. She is a member of Actors Equity and a graduate of the University of Toronto. She studied at the Cumbrae Dance Center in Ottawa, Canada and received additional training from Randolph Dance Theater, Metro Movement, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Steps on Broadway.

As a dancer, credits include West Side Story (U.S. National Tour), My Fair Lady (Regional Tour - Theater of the Stars), Carousel (Stages St. Louis), Singin' in the Rain (Houston TUTS), My Fair Lady (Houston TUTS), West Side Story (Gateway Playhouse), Oklahoma (Gateway Playhouse), Footloose (Gateway Playhouse), and Scrooge (New York Stage Originals). Lisa performed at the Hudson Theater in a tribute to the late Broadway producer, David Merrick, with choreography set by Karin Baker. She worked with Patricia Wilcox in the 20th Anniversary Concert Performance of Rags at the Nokia Theater. She also appeared in the workshop production of The Great White Way, directed and choreographed by David Marquez. In addition to her work in musical theater, she has danced with the Ottawa Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens at Canada's National Arts Center.

Ms. Harvie has been on faculty at Steps on Broadway for over 15 years. She teaches for the School at Steps in their elite children’s division (jazz, tap and musical theater) and for the open professional program (jazz). She has taught at NYU's Strasberg Institute, the Connecticut Dance Conservatory, The School at Columbia and the Cumbrae Dance Center. She has been a guest teacher throughout the tri-state area as well as in Canada, and has given master classes for the Joffrey Ballet School, The Open Jar Institute, Verb Ballets (Cleveland), Destination Broadway (NYC), The Elan Awards (NYC), the B.A.T.D. Annual Conventions (ON, Canada), to name a few.

Lisa was the Associate Choreographer for Kiss Me Kate and Oklahoma at the Gateway Playhouse. She also choreographed Funny as a Crutch for the Foolish Theater Company in New York City. She has showcased numerous original pieces at Steps and has worked with high school theater programs in setting full-length musical productions.

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"Who's cutting the grass?" Karen Stokes on challenges of site-specific dance

For my Montclair State University course, Performance Perspectives, Dance MFA student Elisa De La Rosa interviewed Karen Stokes, Artistic Director of Houston-based Karen Stokes Dance.

Dance artist and educator Karen Stokes
(photos: Les Campbell)

Elisa De La Rosa
Artistic Director of De La Rosa Dance Company
(photo: Jeanne S. Mam-Luft)

Karen Stokes Dance
(photo: Lynn Lane)

Video interview with Karen Stokes 
by guest contributor 
Elisa De La Rosa 
(21:45)

Karen Stokes is a choreographer and educator. As a choreographer, Stokes has premiered eight evening length projects, and over 40 repertory works that have performed in Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland, Toronto, and Sweden. Stokes is the Artistic Director of the non-profit company Karen Stokes Dance. In January 2013, Stokes’ company was the first dance company to receive a Masterminds award by Houston Press. In both 2014 and 2015 the Houston Press named Stokes “Best Choreographer in Houston.”  In 2011, Stokes received a commission from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts for her collaboration The Secondary Colors with composer Bill Ryan. More recently she received an Innovation Grant from the Mitchell Center for the Arts for her 2015 project Sunset at White Oak Bayou. Stokes is a ten-time recipient of Houston Arts Alliance grants, including a 2013-2016 capacity building grant for her company.  In 2008, she was co-recipient for the 2008 Buffy Award in Best Evening Length work category (Hometown) for 2003-2008. Stokes dance for camera project Gallery Construction 1 received “Editor’s Choice” for best video from Dance Magazine in March 2012.  Stokes’ choreography has been recognized by grants from the Houston Endowment, the Hamman Foundation, the Anchorage Foundation, the Clayton Fund, various corporate matching grants, and numerous individual donors.  As a dancer, she has performed with David Gordon, Larry Clark, and Stephan Koplowitz. As an educator, Stokes is a Professor at the University of Houston.  Stokes has won the Distance Education Teaching Award at University of Houston, the ACHE Teaching Award, and the Ross M. Lence Teaching Award. In 2016, her company premiered DEEP: Seaspace, at the Hobby Center for Performing Arts in Houston.

Go to www.karenstokesdance.org for more information.
Karen Stokes Dance on Facebook
Karen Stokes on Facebook

  

Elisa De La Rosa
(photo: Jeanne S. Mam-Luft)

Elisa De La Rosa is a dance artist, choreographer, and dance educator hailing from a small border town in the southern tip of Texas, currently she teaches full time at a thriving public high school fine arts dance program located in Houston Texas. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance with Secondary Teacher Certification from Texas Woman’s University, where she received the Excellence in Choreography Scholarship Award. Elisa is the artistic director of De La Rosa Dance Company, which recently premiered a new dance work titled improvisado and streamed live on Facebook. Elisa is currently pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts Dance at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

De La Rosa Dance Company on Facebook

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Eiko Otake at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Eiko Otake begins her dance in the Choir
at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
(all photos ©2016, Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

In the fall of 2016 and winter of 2017, Eiko is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Upper Manhattan. She is offering solo performances within the Cathedral, designing a video installation, hosting public conversations, and A Body in Fukushima, a mutable exhibition of dance photographs created in collaboration with historian-photographer William Johnston, is also a part of the larger art exhibition, The Christa Project. Throughout the residency, Eiko will explore the dignity and transcendence inherent in the ordinary and the disregarded.

 --from Eiko & Koma website

Black Friday. I have not spent a penny in stores. Just carfare to travel uptown to watch Eiko Otake at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine where the Japan-born master dancer is in residence through March 11 of next year.

So, how do you find Eiko in that massive space?

Please. Just walk around a few minutes, maybe have a look at William Johnston's portraits of her, and soon, as if from out of nowhere, she will spy you, swoop down and claim you.

When Eiko talks directly to you, she gets right up in your space. You have no time to work out how that happened. You're just swept up in her energy. There's always something somewhere else that she wants to show you, and when she moves off to do so, she's raptor-swift. You just hustle along at her single gesture of command.

She also loves to gather all of her people--friends, students, tourists from Greece and Korea who just happened by--and make a party of strangers. Everyone must first meet everyone else. In this way, Eiko makes the grandeur of the cathedral a little less daunting. She gives permission to everyone to tag along as she drifts here and there--from choir to crossing to congregation seats to art displays to imposing bronze doors--and you get the feeling she might secretly own the joint.

Photos ©2016, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Not quite, though. Not yet. The handsome cathedral provides a dramatic visual backdrop for this dancer. But I sense these two acclaimed works of art are still getting to know one another.

I have most recently seen Eiko's A Body in Places all over my place--the East Village--in her mesmerizing Spring 2016 platform for Danspace Project. I get and am deeply shaken by what she has done in Fukushima. But I am now trying to get a read on what Eiko's body means in the context of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. So far, I can only make connections between her woman's body and the body of The Christa Project art works displayed throughout this sacred space.

Eiko returns to the cathedral in late January and will continue work through early March, culminating in performances to commemorate the sixth anniversary of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Check back here as I have been invited to visit again next year and document what I'm seeing. In the meantime, please enjoy a few more photos from yesterday afternoon.

All photos ©2016, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

About The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies

During Holy Week of 1984, Edwina Sandys’ Christa was displayed in the Cathedral as part of a small exhibition on the feminine divine. The general reception was positive, but a particularly vocal minority condemned the piece and its placement in a house of worship through ecclesiastical denunciations and a plethora of hate mail that attacked the “blasphemy” of changing the symbol of Christ. These dissenters highlighted how the sculpture’s allegedly sexualized (i.e. female) figure brought attention to Christ’s human body, which was “blasphemous, shocking, and inappropriate.”

Conversations about the politics of identity have changed tremendously since the 1980s. Christa’s essential statement, however, remains vital to our world today: people are hungry to see themselves and each other fully represented in society, especially in its most powerful and iconic institutions. In turn, the Cathedral is thrilled to display Christa once again, alongside works by 21 other contemporary artists, all exploring the language, symbolism, art, and ritual associated with the historic concept of the Christ image and the divine as manifested in every person—across all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and abilities.

--from Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine website 

The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies will be on view at the cathedral through March 12, 2017. For information, click here.

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue, at 112th Street (Manhattan)
(directions)

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