choreographer – Page 7

The Art Of Choreography–In Layers

April 20, 2012 by Ashley David

If you’ve been following this series, you know that we have been interviewing different company members from The Dance COLEctive who are choreographing pieces for “COLEctive Notions 2012” – a Chicago-area show coming up in May. Today we’ll hear from Molly Grimm-Leasure–

(If you haven’t read the other posts in this series, here is the first, and then the second.)

Molly’s idea had to do with the thought that people may see the same piece of art differently. She comments, “Does it change your original thought to hear someone else’s idea? Or does it add another layer of understanding?” As she creates her work, she is having dancers view, write and move using her personal, abstract paintings to guide them through their own interpretations of what she originally saw before the brush touched the paint.

Here are some of her thoughts on the process…

What gave you the idea for this piece?

Recently I needed a new outlet to control some aggression I was feeling. I had always wanted to learn how to paint so I went to Michaels and bought a bunch of supplies. It became more of a passion and love–with the bonus side of being an outlet. I would put music on and make a mess with my paints! I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. Painting made me feel so free and open to anything. This is how I feel when I dance, so why not make a dance from some of my paintings!

What was the process like of creating this work?

Once I was able to pick out the paintings I wanted to use; five of them, I had the dancers write what they saw without me giving them any information. Then I told them the titles of the paintings and had them write if it changed what they saw. From there they created phrases for each painting; needless to say we ended up with a lot of material!

How did the dancers help inform the piece?

Hearing their interpretations of the paintings was really neat and informative of how to proceed. All the material you will see is all their own! If I got stuck at any point, or if I saw something not working out, I would ask the dancers. They are the ones performing, so I want them to feel as comfortable as possible, even if that means changing a few things around to make that happen.

Were there any surprises as you worked on the choreography?

I was surprised at how I pieced together the material. I started piecing movement and phrases together as if I was painting. It was hard because I would find myself working and re-working a certain section until I saw what I wanted. Even then I may go back and add something else. What I enjoyed was that I had the ability to erase a part I didn’t like instead of finding a color to cover it.

In the end, did you learn anything about your own paintings?

I saw them differently based on the ideas and images the dancers had. It opened my mind to see not only what I was painting but other images too.

If you were to do this again, would you go about it the same way, or would you change something?

I wouldn’t use five paintings!! Having so much material I had to cut out some, as it became overwhelming! The piece probably could’ve been closer to 20 mins if I used everything that I had!

BIO: Molly Grimm-Leasure is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where she obtained a BFA in Dance Choreography. While at Columbia, she was a featured dancer in Dance Spirit Magazine, which tracked her professional and scholastic achievements and reported what life was like to be a dance major. Molly was one of three dancers in the United States chosen for this opportunity. Molly has been with The Dance COLEctive since 2002 and has also worked with Breakbone Dance Co. under the direction of Atalee Judy. In2006, Molly performed in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Chicago Gay Games under the choreographic direction of Joel Hall and Kevin Iega Jeff. More recently, Molly has choreographed for Stagg High School’s Orchesis program and was involved in choreographing and helping to produce a series of videos for International Women’s Day. These videos were shown on Accenture’s website. For the past two years her choreography has also been featured in The Dance COLEctive’s, COLEctive Notions. On occasion, she will teach modern classes during The Dance COLEctive’s Open Company Class. Molly also works as a full-time massage therapist in the Chicago area. Molly would like to give special thanks to her husband, Zak, and her parents for their love and support as she continues to follow her dreams.

Margi Cole — On Choreography

April 6, 2012 by Ashley David

This month on 4dancers you’ll notice posts on choreography. Today we have Margi Cole, Artistic Director and Founder of The Dance COLEctive, a Chicago-based company that has been around for over 16 years…

When did you first take an interest in choreography and what drew you to it?

Believe it or not my interest in choreography started young. I organized neighborhood kids and actually produced performances in the garage at a neighbors house. Funny to think about now. I think I really enjoyed gathering and organizing groups of people.

How do you see the role of the choreographer in the dance world?

This is a hard question. I guess the privilege of being a choreographer is creating the opportunity for others to see something new. The power to create an image or explore an idea that resonates with someone long after the live performance.

What is your own choreographic process?

I work very collaboratively. Usually I come in with an idea and some plans around how I want to explore that idea whether it be through the development of movement vocabulary, research, personal writing exercises and conversations about our own experiences. I share this with the group and then we go on from there. The process is informed by everyone’s participation and my role inevitably as the editor.

“COLEctive Notions 2012” is coming up in May, and it’s a showcase for choreography from members of your company. Can you talk a bit about how you helped mentor the choreographers through the process of creating works for this program?

First, they had to submit a proposal where they put forward their ideas in writing. While this seems simple, it is often a great challenge to clarify ones ideas in writing. It is an important and necessary tool. From there they work on their own for an extended period of time. When they are ready they invite me in for feedback, ask me questions, look to me for direction and confirmation that their ideas are working. I encourage them through the process and help them see it to the final stages for performance.

What are the greatest challenges for new choreographers in terms of creating a work?

Having the resources they need to create work whether it be space or the knowledge of how to assemble a group and produce a performance or access to a “mentor” to help them explore their ideas and ask them questions throughout the process.

Is the relationship a reciprocal one? Do you learn anything from the choreographers?

Absolutely! It is so interesting to see what they value in terms of craft. Watching them helps me to further define my own aesthetic and watch them deepen their own. It is pretty awesome!

What is the most surprising thing you have learned since you have been choreographing dances?

The power of a strong visual image. How important it is to be honest in the process with yourself, your collaborators and your audience. That the options for creativity are endless and that fills me with fear and wonder!

BIO:

Margi Cole graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts, received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a teacher and guest lecturer, she has taught for numerous educational and professional organizations such as the Alabama Ballet, the American College Dance Festival, Ballet Tennessee, Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, and various other institutions throughout Illinois, the Midwest, and the Southeast. As a choreographer, Margi has been commissioned by The Alabama Ballet, Springfield Ballet Company, Sanspointe DanceCompany, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Girl’s Preparatory School of Tennessee, Beloit College and Columbia College Chicago.

As a performer, Margi has danced with well-known choreographers and companies, including Ralph Lemon, Joe Goode Performance Group, Liz Burritt, Stephen Koplowitz, Ann Boyd, David Rousseve, Bill Young, Douglas Nielsen, Timothy O’Slynne, Paula Frasz, Colleen Halloran, Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, Mordine & Company Dance Theatre, Renee Wadleigh, and Ellie Klopp. In August 2011, Cole traveled to Finhorn Scotland to join 19 international performers to participate in the Deborah Hay Solo Commissioning Project.

Awards and acknowledgements of Margi’s accomplishments include making the list of “Teachers Rated Excellent by their Students” four consecutive semesters while on faculty at the University of Illinois, receiving two Dance Center of Columbia College Choreographic Mentoring Scholarships, two Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships, a 2005 Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant, a American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, and winning a Panoply Festival Choreography Award for Contemporary Dance in Huntsville, AL.

Margi is active in the Chicago dance community, serving on grant panels and in public forums as an arts administrator, dancer and choreographer. In 2011, she was integral in organizing both the Dance/USA and Marshall Forum annual conferences in Chicago. Cole is currently a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Consortium Member and is part of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship Selection Committee. She is currently on faculty at Columbia College Chicago, where she has served as a Lecturer and Associate Chair. Most recently she was name on of The Players in New City’s “Fifty People Who Really Perform in Chicago” List.

10 Questions With…Bulareyaung Pagarlava

April 2, 2012 by 4dancers

Today we have 10 Questions With… choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava…

1. How did you become involved in dance?

When I was 12, I saw a performance by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, though I didn’t know it was Cloud Gate until some years later. It was so inspiring that I made up my mind to become a dancer.

2. What are you currently doing in dance?

Mainly choreographing.

3. Can you explain your approach to choreography?

I don’t create work for the sake of creation. I am not a movement-oriented choreographer interested in analyzing physical moment.

All my choreography reflects my thoughts and emotion. Choreography is a medium of expression. It is my way of connecting to the world.

4. What role does the music play in your choreography?

In my work, music plays a vital role. It offers a room for imagination. In my earlier works, choreography began after I found my music. So the works were often built upon the structure of the music.

In recent years, new choreographic ideas come first, followed by the body moments, then I match them with music. When music comes into place, it’s like there’s a spark.

For the audience who does not enjoy my choreography, they can at least enjoy good music with their eyes closed.

5. Do you have other choreographers that you admire? If so, who and why? [Read more…]

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s World Premiere – Little mortal jump

March 11, 2012 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

AljeandroCerrudo — Alejandro Cerrudo, Photo by Todd Rosenberg

This week, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Spring Series will feature a world premiere from choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo—Little mortal jump.

Cerrudo has the distinction of being named Hubbard Street’s first Resident Choreographer—a title he has held since 2009. His works are performed in dance companies around the world and he was recently honored with an award from The Boomerang Fund for Artists.

The choreographer took the time to share some thoughts with us regarding his latest piece, which is his 10^th work for the company.

How would you describe your new work, Little mortal jump?

Little mortal jump consists of twelve very different pieces of music carefully put together and I have attempted to create a cohesive whole with them. This new work is a study on ever-changing moods and twists and finishes in a very different place than where it starts. This piece features some of the most complex partnering I have ever created.

Can you talk a little bit about your choreographic process? How did you go about creating this piece in particular?

My process is different each time I approach a new work, but I usually start by choosing the music and then imagining an atmosphere. For Little mortal jump I had an idea for each section that I then developed further. I have also used the dancers to bring in new ideas. I always adjust my concepts to each individual dancer that I work with rather than imposing my ideas regardless of the dancer and their abilities.

AljeandroCerrudo2 — Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Alejandro Cerrudo, Photo by Todd Rosenberg

How did you select the music, and what relationship does it have to the choreography?

I am always listening to music. It is my pastime. When I feel inspired by a specific piece, I start to imagine what I would do with it or how I would use it. Music is very important in all of my works. Only on very rare occasions do I actually only use music as a soundscape.

What did you enjoy most about choreographing this new piece?

For this piece I have used moments from my older works that are visually very different and have fused them together to create this new choreography. I have enjoyed allowing myself to be directly influenced by my past work and have created something very new – something that can coexist on stage together.

What do you think the greatest challenge is for you as a choreographer?

One of the greatest challenges is to make something that no one has ever seen before – and make it well.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Spring Series takes place March 15^th – 18^that the Harris Theater. In addition to Little mortal jump, the program also features Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal’s piece Too Beaucoup and LINES Ballet artistic director Alonzo King’s piece Following the Subtle Current Upstream.

HSD110310_581 — Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in Sharon Eyal’s Too Beaucoup, Photo by Todd Rosenberg

Success and Housewives: Making Modern Dance Make Sense

February 8, 2012 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke

GrindCalwm-3953 — Photo by Kelly Rose of Savage Rose Photography

Perhaps one of the biggest barriers that “normal people” express about going to see modern dance is that they don’t understand it. At nearly every post-show talk-back I’ve ever attended there are at least one or two people who start their comment with, “Now, I don’t know anything about modern dance, but…..” yada yada, you fill in the blank. The standard issue response that I tend to hear is “you don’t have to understand it,” or “whatever you FEEL it’s about, IS what it’s about.”

That is completely true, and something I’ve said myself on numerous occasions. But over the past few months I’ve been formulating a theory that it’s not a particularly useful response. In other words, I’m thinking that “come to this weird thing you don’t have to understand” isn’t as effective a tagline as we’d like to think it is to getting butts in seats. After all, we are all human. We crave compelling stories and generally tend to try to apply meaning to things. Dance, however, often lives in a world of abstraction where the layers of meaning are imbedded in movements and gestures that don’t obviously reveal their stories. That’s what program notes are for…

The problem is, sometimes we (the choreographers) are so lost in the tangled web of ideas and abstraction that we too can’t exactly articulate what our pieces are about. When I gaze into a set of program notes and read that the dance I’m about to see is about a girl’s fiancé breaking their engagement, or satanic cults, or gender identity, I get a little overwhelmed.* Seeing a dance concert should be a relaxing and enjoyable experience that is accessible to everyone, and satanic cults are something I don’t often feel like dealing with on a Friday night. It’s not that these topics aren’t important and can’t or shouldn’t be explored through dance; it’s just that maybe you can find another way to express your idea by pairing it with something a little easier to swallow. Either way, heavy topics often become so abstracted by the time they reach the stage that you might as well say that the piece is about puppies, because the untrained eye won’t really see the difference anyway. No matter the subject, we come up with quips and phrases for press releases and program notes that say sort of what we think our piece is about, but most program notes could really just say “this piece is about whatever you feel it’s about and you don’t have to understand it” (read: “I’m not so sure what it’s about either…”). [Read more…]

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