choreographic process

10 Questions With Alice Klock

April 28, 2018 by Rachel Hellwig

1. How did you first become involved in dance?

I’ve been dancing as long as I can remember.

After having seen me improv my way through the living room for years, my mother asked if I’d like to try a ballet class. I was eleven and I’ve been at it ever since.

2. When/how did you realize you wanted to become a professional dancer?

I attended the San Francisco Ballet’s summer program at 13 and would watch the company work and rehearse whenever I could find a moment to sneak to their studio door. It was thrilling.

There was something so beautiful about the way the dancers interacted, the sense of company life, and I decided it was something I wanted to experience.

3. Was there ever a time when you thought of quitting dance or second-guessed your decision to pursue a professional career? If so, what helped you through that time?

Honestly, no. My commitment to this field has been pretty unwavering.

My path was tumultuous at times, but through set backs, injuries, and disappointments, I’ve never felt like quitting. I’ve felt the need to shift my environment, or my role within the profession, but that to me is an exciting evolution.

I would recommend to any struggling dancer who is wondering if they should quit to ask themselves if perhaps they are just in the wrong place, or if they are trying to be something they are not. The dance world is vast! There are more options than we sometimes suppose.

I am now at a point where I am transitioning out of dancing full-time so that I can choreograph more, but even that feels like an evolution rather than a departure.

https://vimeo.com/218059438

4. When/how did you realize you wanted to pursue choreography?

It is hard to say when/how, I’ve always loved choreographing!

I have been super lucky to have the support of my choreographic work that I have received at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and from my amazing boss Glenn Edgerton. I believe that Glenn has been instrumental in my journey to becoming a choreographer as he gave me the space, encouragement, and opportunities to truly nurture and find my voice. I’m incredibly grateful for that.

5. What inspires you as a choreographer?

Everything.

6. How would you describe your choreographic process?

My process is quite random, but always focuses on really using the dancers in the room.

I always strive to find the individualism in each artist, and unlock as much of their “personal genius” (something I believe each of us has) as I can. This means I seldom come in with too many preconceived notions about the piece I will make.

That being said, my movement is highly conceptual at its source, and is often directly derived from words or ideas. For example, I might ask a dancer “what is your favorite word?” or “what is the most amazing thing you have ever seen?” and then I shall construct a movement phrase out of their answer.

7. What’s the best advice you’ve received about choreography?

“Don’t hold anything back”

https://vimeo.com/218062887

8. What are some things you’d like to explore in your choreography career and dance career in the future?

I would like to work with a vast array of dancers, artists, and institutions. I love the unexpected and being put into contact with the unusual.

I would like to work with huge groups, with ballet dancers, with competition dancers, with non-dancers. I’d like to experiment with it all and to push the boundaries of what we think dance is.

I believe that as a creator it is paramount to create work that is inclusive and socially conscious and that breaks out of the often inappropriate antique norms that still exist in the art form.

As a dancer, I would like to continue to explore performing new and different work. Last year, Florian Lochner (a fellow Hubbard Street dancer and Choreographic Fellow) and I formed “Flock” which is a project in which we co-choreograph pieces that we then perform.

I am interested to grow this further and to see what that can open up for me as a performer. Dancing in our work is a particularly wild and satisfying experience and very different from the years I have spent in a rep company.

I also look forward to expanding “Flock” out further into the world and to see what that leads to.

9. You’re headed to Utah in May for SALT Contemporary Dance’s inaugural LINK dance festival. How did you first become connected with SALT?

SALT has been on my radar for some time as a place where I would love to create work. Their dancers are beautiful and varied and their mission is strong and inspiring. I was honored and excited to be asked to participate in their LINK festival.

10. What are you most looking forward about LINK?

The dancers! Like I said, I love being thrown into a studio with new dancers and this will be a particularly exciting process as our creation time is only a week! I am looking forward to see what we concoct!

https://vimeo.com/226251438

Disclosure: Rachel Hellwig serves as marketing director for SALT

The Bliss & Pitfalls Of Making The Ultimate Solo: A Group Therapy Session For Choreographers

February 23, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

by Jamie Benson

Lights come up on a lone figure, the one burdened with putting a trance over a packed house of smart phones. It’s a tall order to be sure. You don’t just have to dazzle, you have to captivate, ooze an indisputable it-factor that dares an audience of TV brains to look away, as if they could. The best/worst part is that you probably put yourself in the position to be this dance mystic. It’s your fault.

It’s your solo after all.

In an attempt to simplify my life as a choreographer (Ha!), I recently dove headfirst into the idea of making new solos. This was after previously doing a lot of ensemble pieces. It’s more freeing and more terrifying than ever. You’ve been there right? (Or will be.) Let’s have some group therapy real quick and see if we can come out the other end a little wiser, a little more capable of entrancing our next packed house. Game? Good.

Potential Pitfall: How Does It “Read” (a.k.a Do I look nuts?)

It can be tricky to clearly represent the source of whatever emotion one is exploring as a soloist and harder to suss out how it might “read” to an innocent audience-goer. There’s a more immediate response when working with other performers. They laugh when it’s funny, look at you cross-eyed when it’s too complicated or unintentionally awkward, and so on and so forth. As audience members, we’ve all experienced that performance where a soloist goes from poised dancer to insane person in seconds flat. As choreographers we think we know how something looks from the outside because we feel it so deeply. But as an audience member, one can become perplexed and feel alienated really fast if there’s no immediate access point, such as a topical reference, a common emotional gesture, something. Even if we deliberately create space for the audience to make their own choices about what we’re doing, our job is still ultimately to communicate something through movement.

[Read more…]

Closer To The Edge Of Dance – Zephyr’s Michelle Kranicke

December 11, 2014 by Rachel Hellwig

Michelle Kranicke. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

Assistant Editor Rachel Hellwig interviews Michelle Kranicke from Zephyr – a Chicago-area experimental dance company that has been around for over 20 years…

What inspired you to start Zephyr?

I was very young when I started Zephyr so the reasons behind why I founded the company don’t really resonate with Zephyr’s current aesthetic and mission. What is more important to me right now is what inspires me to continue. And that is my continued fascination with creating work, dance specifically, and trying to push beyond known ideas and preconceptions about what the art form can be.

What’s it like to be artistic director, choreographer, and performer all at once?

I have been all three for so long I guess I am not sure what it is like to not be artistic director, choreographer and performer all at once. I think the roles of director, choreographer, and performer are linked, each having their own specific requirements and priorities. For example, in my role as director I try to make sure that both Zephyr’s productions and its education work are an extension of the company’s mission. To that end I try to make sure company class is structured so that dancers are not only learning technique, but also developing an innate understanding of Zephyr’s aesthetic so that when I am working as a choreographer the performers I am working with have all the tools they need. Regarding Zephyr’s long history of arts integrated education programming, working with schools and students using movement and the creative process to access knowledge and understanding, Zephyr trains its teaching artists in the same clear detailed manner with which its aesthetic is presented. As far as my performer self, that is often the most straightforward role, and one where I am deeply connected.

[Read more…]

To Choreograph or Not to Choreograph….That is Always My Question…..

November 4, 2011 by 4dancers

by Lucy Vurusic Riner

Being a high school dance teacher I typically choreograph anywhere between three to five full length dances each year for my student companies. Back in the day, when I was super young and wet behind the ears I made dances about just about anything. I might really enjoy a song and that would be my jumping off point. Or I might have just gotten out of a bad relationship or had a family quarrel and that would be enough to conjure up a combination or two. I was never at a loss for some idea and I was never afraid to try just about anything. I followed the basic rule that most high school dances (and I guess commercial dances as well) were typically three to five minutes in length and they may or may not have some sort of story line or underlying theme but they were always entertaining. And let’s be honest, choreographing on high school students can be somewhat forgiving because they can appreciate where all the above ideas might come from. Although they may have a limited movement vocabulary at such a young age they have plenty to dance about in their lives. My early dances were fun but simple. I know they were entertaining but they definitely weren’t masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. And so why did I choreograph? Was it for me? The audience? Did I have a message or just some great moves I wanted people to see? [Read more…]

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