Limon Dance Company’s Next 100 Years - Fresh work by a former member has home alongside the classics

Encore Magazine

http://www.encoremag.com
by Mary Staub December 2008

For some reason modern dance, unlike theater, classical music or literature, is often thought of as fleeting, ephemeral, disposable. But just like any art form, modern dance has a heritage that can, and should, be kept alive.

The Limon Dance Company, celebrating the centennial of Jose Limon’s birth this year, does just that. During their two-week season at the Joyce Theater this December, their program weaves together past, present and future.

“We have a history and classics in dance,” says Carla Maxwell, the artistic director of the company. “Yes, we need to keep stretching the limits, but we also need to recognize that we have living documents. If it’s a good work, it needs to be seen. People don’t think we should throw Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Debussy away. We listen to a piece of music many times. We need to treasure the works we’ve made in dance just the same.”

In this vain, the company will perform Limon’s classic “The Moor’s Pavane” and excerpts from his “A Choreographic Offering,” an homage to his mentor, Doris Humphrey. His lesser-known, but equally powerful and pertinent “The Traitor,” from the 1950s, has also been re-created. Like so many of Limon’s works, “The Traitor,” which Limon wrote in response to the McCarthy hearings, looks to literature, history and religion for inspiration. Here, it is the Christ-Judas tale of betrayal.

But the Limon Company was always about more than Limon himself, and from the start worked under a repertory concept that presented works by company members and contemporaries such as Anna Sokolow. Sokolow’s 1955 piece, “Rooms,” was re-created under the direction of Sokolow disciple Jim May for the company’s current season.

As for the present and future, former company member Clay Tallaferro’s new work, his first for the company, “Into My Heart’s House,” will have its New York premiere in December. It’s based on Tallaferro’s own ties to Limon, which began when he, as a young man in Virginia, saw Limon perform on television. Tallaferro was stirred to his soul and inspired to dance. He met Jose Limon and joined his company many years later. “Into My Heart’s House” is work that, like so much of Limon’s own, may deserve to be seen again in years to come.

“It’s a journey of different events that keep unfolding, take you places and leave you saying, ‘What’s next?’” Maxwell commented. “[After attending its world premiere in Los Angeles this fall,] Donald McKayle said, ‘Beautiful, I want to see more.’”

On the Record with Alyson Stoner (Dancer Magazine)

by Mary Staub — Nov 10, 2008

Alyson Stoner is just 15 years old, but already she’s danced for Missy Elliott and Eminem, done voice-overs for “Lilo & Stitch,” “W.I.T.C.H.” and “Pompoko,” co-hosted on the Disney Channel, acted in commercials, and appeared alongside Steve Martin in “Cheaper by the Dozen,” among a slew of other appearances. She teaches hip-hop in L.A. and is singing in her own first music video, to be released early next year on the Disney Channel. Here’s how she got where she is today, without losing sight of who she’s always been.

Do you remember when you took your first dance steps? I was the pipsqueak who constantly danced around the house. I transformed any fireplace or back porch into a stage. Really, I've been dancing since the day I could walk.

And when did any “formal” training start? When I was three, I enrolled at the O'Connell Dance Studio in Toledo, Ohio, under the direction of Betty, Julie and Joanie O'Connell. Julie had an extensive background in Broadway performances so in addition to developing proper technique, I was also taught to truly perform and learned stage presence. Obviously, that proved to be extremely valuable because my current career depends on those skills. I took jazz, tap, ballet—the standard foundational styles.

The O'Connell's allowed their advanced teen members to instruct certain classes of mine. Immediately, we 3-5 years olds listened to them, because they were "older kids" and "cooler than cool." Every instructor came to class smiling, so I linked dancing and music with joy and happiness—that feeling hasn't left since.

What is one of your most memorable moments from back then? Being backstage during a 30-second costume change. It was exhilarating and completely nerve-wracking, but it all paid off once I hit the stage.

And what made you start taking modeling classes, also in Toledo, at such a young age? Modeling had become another after-school activity to add to the list. I had already played on many sports' teams, and took dance and gymnastics classes; modeling was no different. I simply got to class on time, trained my hardest, practiced at home and reached for the stars. Always being on the go helped prepare me for life in L.A.

So, when did you relocate to L.A. and was that a big change? I was seven. Margaret O'Brien, of the Toledo modeling school I went to, took a group of students, including myself, to the IMTA convention. After various events, a couple of agents noticed my potential. Luckily, my family was able to manage a temporary trip to L.A., where I could try out the biz for awhile.

Alyson Stoner and Roshon Fegan of Disney Channel's "Camp Rock" host "Freestyle Jam" to teach viewers rockin' dance steps from the Disney Channel Original Movie.

Photo by Richard Cartwright

Then I found Millennium Dance Complex in L.A., which had classes open to the public. My first dance class was a master class by Wade Robson. Soon thereafter, I found a hip-hop class taught by 10-year-old Lindsay Taylor. I started as a student, but now I actually help teach the class. Lindsay and I have grown to be really close, especially because we share the same interests and abilities.

How have you managed to keep up with school and family life with all of this? I enrolled in a home-schooling program that allowed me to complete curriculum at my own pace, so I actually graduated high school at fourteen. Before then, I was accepted into a junior college at thirteen, and I plan to get my general education there, and move on to an Ivy League. As for my family, they're the reason for my being, and their support is where I draw my strength from, so I definitely make time to spend with them.

When did you realize you wanted to make performance your career? Up until “Camp Rock,” I considered performing to be a hobby. After booking a Disney Channel Original Movie, I realized that I had a special opportunity to use my gift and share it with people all around the world. At that moment, I knew this was something I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life.

One of your first major jobs was to co-host the Disney Channel. How did you get this position? I auditioned of course! We definitely didn't "know" people in L.A. In fact, we kept to ourselves for the first six months in L.A. My agent submitted my resume, the casting office made an audition appointment, and I booked the job fair and square. If you know my family, everything we do is well-worked for and earned. We don't expect anything to come easy.

Were you nervous? I never considered hosting to be an unusual job for an 8-year-old. I was doing what I loved and having fun. I wasn't nervous, because I'd always learned to step up to the plate and challenge myself.

How have you managed to stay grounded with all the glitz and glamour that surround you? I keep my relationships with family and friends as strong as possible, because they got me where I am. My parents encouraged me to try new things, and if I was ever disappointed, envious or negative, they'd show me why it's important to work hard, be happy for others and always see the glass as half-full.

What might you say to other dancers who hope to get to where you are some day? Keep your focus on the craft—don’t get caught up in glory of success that comes along with it. Be focused on doing your best, and don’t be worried about success. Success isn’t measured by how many people know your name, but by how many lives you touch. It’s important that kids, teens, adults understand that depending on the work that you put in, that’s where you will go. What you sow is what you will reap.

Do you have role models? Natalie Portman is hard-working and well-educated, which is what I aspire to be.

And how do you balance out your busy life of performing? My busy life of performing—haha. I don't know any other way of living. I'm a firm believer of making the most out of every day. I rest when I need to, but only to refuel my body for the upcoming tasks and challenges.

Is there anything else you could imagine yourself doing? I could imagine myself doing anything. I don't want to limit myself to this culture's expectations or ideas of what occupations are good and bad. I plan to stay in the industry. However, if I'm supposed to be in a cubicle, then I'll happily work at a desk for a living.

What are you currently working on? “The Alyson Stoner Project” is a dance-instructional, hybrid music video melding many forms of entertainment into one. I've designed my own dance shoe with Bloch Dance Apparel Corporation. “Phineas and Ferb,” “Kung Fu Magoo” and “Kingdom Hearts” are three animated projects I'm a part of. My first music video, where I’m the singer, will air on Disney Channel around the beginning of the year. I'm training vocally, working with songwriters and producers and continuing to teach dance on Friday nights.

And what would you like to work on, or who would you like to work with, in the future? As long as I feel comfortable watching my scenes next to my grandma, I'll know the jobs are age-appropriate and beneficial to my career. I'd love to tap with Savion Glover, perform with Mia Michaels or record a song with Phil Wickham.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? The possibilities are endless. In ten years, I see myself doing whatever I'm supposed to be doing. The future is not in my hands. All I can do is make the most of each moment—each day.

Work Performance: Jill Johnson’s “The Copier” for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (Dancer Magazine)

by Mary Staub — Oct 14, 2008 (Dancer Magazine) 

Humanity is brought center stage in Jill Johnson’s dance installation “The Copier” performed by Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York this August. During the 40-minute event, Cedar Lake dancers gently glide from preparatory warm-up into full-out performance, and in so doing, blur the boundaries between intuition and intention, individuality and conformity.

When you first walk into Cedar Lake’s warehouse-style theatre, it is unclear whether “The Copier” has already begun. Exposed brick walls, visible lighting structures overhead and an absence of spectator seating give the event a no-frills feel. The sense of storeroom starkness is further enhanced by the constant electronic whirr of a computer, copier or maybe a shredder. This industrial drone subtly switches to birdsong and city sounds throughout David Poe’s richly varied musical score.

Fifteen dancers distractedly stretch, roll their shoulders and mark simple steps on a t-shaped, curb-high platform in the center of the room. Dressed in fancified training gear – women in short shorts and lacy tops, men in colorfully clashing shirt-pant-and-sock combos – they might be rehearsing and making sure they remember their moves; or, this may be part of the show.

But within minutes, 15 individual stories begin to captivate and intrigue, and whether it’s preparation or performance ceases to matter. One man sits on the ground, legs stretched nimbly before him, and gently massages his calves and purple-socked feet. With increasing vigor, as arms, torso, shoulders and head become part of the story, this preliminary rubdown gives way to full-bodied narrative.

Cedar Lake dancers, Nickemil Conception, Acacia Schachte and Oscar Ramos
Photo by Julieta Cervantes

Throughout the room, individuals tentatively tell movement tales that build into life stories. In the opposite corner, a pedestrian woman extends a leg, reaching farther and farther, as though trying to overstep a gigantic puddle of water. Eventually she jumps, turns, and jumps again, her body coiling as though trying to circumvent a pillar.

Like people on a busy market square, sometimes these stories intersect. When one woman glances up from her own absorbed day, she catches the eye of a passerby. Tentatively a conversation develops wherein movements are mimicked and experiences are mirrored.

“By choice, force, or design, we copy others every day;” Johnson comments in program notes. “We stand in lines, forward e-mail, repeat overheard slang and opinions and follow trends. But of course we are all individuals and as such are inherently different from each other even when we do the same thing.”

On Johnson’s market square, or city sidewalk, occasionally everyone falls into step. Like a military regiment, they march forward, backward, halt and start again. But when two women start to break rank, others slowly follow suit, and again separate stories subtly ensue.

Throughout “The Copier” dancers repeatedly break the boundary between performance space and audience. They dash through the crowd to rest against walls, leaving just single stories as the central focus. Although we’re told – again in program notes – that dancers and audience will share the same sphere, and that the audience is encouraged to move through the room, this rarely occurs. The set-up, with all movement center stage, creates little incentive to change one’s perspective, and only outside the boundaries of the platform stage in our sphere could any sharing of stories truly take place.

Cedar Lake’s dancers transform contorted twists, body ripples, distant gazes and quiet stances into human stories. They alternate between individual absorption and interaction with others. If spectators truly became part of their sphere, they might experience the dance within everyday life, and the force to fit in, more acutely. But perhaps that’s not needed, because as it stands, Johnson’s “The Copier” already presses us to recognize the rhythm and ritual of our own daily lives.

Jazz Outside the Box with Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal

Dancer Magazine
http://www.danceruniverse.com
by Mary Staub — Oct 10, 2008

When Louis Robitaille, the artistic director of Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal in Canada, starts selecting a new dancer to have join his company, the care he conveys makes it seem as though he’s searching for a new member of his family, not ‘just’ his company. The task is trying, and it’s not for want of well-trained dancers. Robitaille sees plenty of dancers, both male and female, who can technically perform the company’s repertoire with ease. But what Robitaille needs is more than technique. Character, competence, and company compatibility must come in concert for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.

For young dancers striving towards a career with a company such as [bjm_danse], Robitaille emphasizes the need to gain versatility and variety. “I believe a lot in ballet technique as a foundation, but then it’s important to be exposed to as many experiences as you can – hip-hop, street dance, folklore, jazz, modern and especially also improvisation are very important,” said Robitaille. “Choreographers today are using all these skills and the more you know, the more you are familiar with, the better. You have to be a complete artist.”

The other piece is more personal. “I’m not just trying to find a good dancer, but also a good human being,” Robitaille told me this past August in New York. “It’s difficult. And the problem is also that I’m difficult. I’m very careful when choosing new dancers because our group is so small and I have to be careful the chemistry is good. I’m always attracted to personality in a dancer.”
With a company that consists of just twelve to fourteen dancers, and a commitment to extroverted, accessible works, the dynamic between dancers onstage greatly flavors every performance. The energy between dancers, combined with the enthusiasm of the individuals, infuses each work with a defining dash of spice or sweetness, joy or happiness.

“I am now looking for a male dancer and I have a very difficult time,” Robitaille said. He had come down to New York from Montreal for a few days two meet with two dancers he was considering. He had seen them in Montreal more than once and had liked their approach and appearance. But Robitaille always needs multiple meetings to truly determine whether a dancer fits in with the rest of the company.

“When people audition, they may be good aesthetically for the company, but Louis [Robitaille] always has them come back several times also to give them a chance to talk with the current dancers and see how they interact,” said Katherine Cowie, a dancer presently embarking on her fourth season with [bjm_danse] (as Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal has been re-branded). “We spend so much time together, so it’s really not good if you get off on the wrong foot. We’re very social with each other and loose during rehearsals. We talk a little bit, we chitchat, we hang out outside the studio.”

Cowie had just returned from [bjm_danse]’s tour to Brazil and was relaxing with company-member Christina Bodie at her home when we spoke. A perfect example of her point.
It is not just the small size of the company that makes character crucial, but also its spirit. Since its inception, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal has propounded a style of dance that is vibrant, joyful and accessible. The dancers convey exuberance and can create it in their audience. It is this enthusiasm that no doubt today gets them booked onto stages across the country and also internationally. What today serves as selling point, though, was at first a hurdle.

In 1972, three individuals of varying background - Eva Von Gencsy, Eddy Toussant and Geneviève Salbaing - founded Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal with a core group of dancers from a local studio that excelled in jazz. Its origin, as its name suggests, is thus in jazz and its repertory used to be mainly to jazz music. But not everybody was happy when jazz dance came to the Canadian concert dance stage and the company struggled for numerous years. It had difficulties claiming a spot alongside jazz’s more solemn sisters of ballet and modern.

“At the beginning, in the 70s, the people who are from the milieu of dance, the dance professionals from ballet and modern, had a certain reaction, a bad reaction about the company,” said Louis Robitaille. “The company had a rough time to settle itself in Canada. It was hard to get financial backing through the government. What the company did was almost pure jazz, and for them jazz was commercial. But then in time the company took its place in Canada – mainly because it gained recognition outside of Canada. So, slowly, the opinion changed, but I mean slowly.”

Since then a lot more has changed.

When Robitaille took over as artistic director of [bjm_danse] ten years ago, he began branching out. Having studied at the company’s school a quarter-century earlier, Robitaille is well aware of the company’s roots. After his initial studies at the school, though, he himself went on to a more classical career dancing professionally with Grands Ballets Canadiens. He also founded his own company, Bande à Part, which emphasized bringing the works of young choreographers to the stage. When he took on leadership of [bjm_danse], the company had just rotated through several artistic directors within less than ten years. The company was thus slightly out of focus. Robitaille refocused. He slowly began breaking the boundaries of working purely in jazz and starting striving towards a more expanded notion of what jazz can be.

“I started dancing myself with jazz lessons and I like jazz a lot,” Robitaille commented. “I love Bob Fosse and am a big fan of that style. But that was thirty years ago and doesn’t reflect what dance is today. It was very important to me to express something that was very actual, contemporary, today.”

So Robitaille stuck with the spirit, but expanded in style. The company now works mostly with what Robitaille calls ‘a new generation of choreographers,’ artists in their 30s who have already gained a certain reputation. Recently these artists have come to include Rodgrigo Pederneiras of Grupo Corpo in Brazil, the Canadian-born Crystal Pite, and Aszure Barton, artist-in-residence at New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center and also Canadian-born. Although each of these artists brings in his or her own style, the underpinnings of jazz still speak strongly.

“Louis [Robitaille] is very aware of the company being the Ballets Jazz,” emphasized Barton, who has worked as choreographer-in-residence at [bjm_danse] for over two years. “He’s trying to broaden that and break away from being just a jazz company. He’s bringing in contemporary choreographers. He understands that the company is there to entertain the audience, but also has integrity and wants the work to exist on an artistic level: ‘yes we’re the Ballets Jazz and we entertain, but I want you to have your own vision.’ He’s very aware of both sides and makes you, as a choreographer, very aware of both sides when working with the dancers. It’s a good balance.”

Throughout its evolution jazz dance has undergone multiple incarnations and has a rich history. Jazz dance’s oldest roots reach deep into African soil. Its seeds were first imported to the United States, across the Atlantic, on slave ships. During the first half of the 20th century, jazz dance came to encompass anything from tap dance, to the Charleston, the jitterbug, boogie-woogie and lindy hop. Katherine Dunham brought a fusion of African, Caribbean and jazz to the concert dance stage in the 1930s and 40s. And ultimately modern jazz dance as we know it today, and as taught in dance studios across the country, was popularized by the likes of Bob Fosse with Broadway shows such as Chicago. Allowing jazz to change and evolve is part of its very nature, and [bjm_danse] has just taken this development one step further. Bringing in young blood was one way of ensuring that its soul would live on.

“The artists I work with are very influenced by everything that’s going on in all art forms, not only in dance,” said Robitaille. “Barton, for example, uses a lot of theatricality. She likes to work with each personality in the company and go deep into the soul of a person and get at a character. That brings a theatrical aspect to creation. This means the [dancers], have to be very flexible and very diverse. They have to be open-minded. I would say this is an evolution of the company, but not a drastic change.”

“He’s interested in contemporary work, but keeping the essence of jazz and the energy to bring it to an audience,” Barton summed it up from a creator’s perspective when speaking to me from Australia in August. “He loves rhythm and spirit, which exist in jazz music, but the repertory itself of the company [has broadened].”

For the [bjm_danse] dancers, it’s the energy that marks the company.
“We love just to burst onstage and often our directors tell us to be a little more calm and cool,” said Cowie. “We’ll try to find moments where we look at each other and give each other energy when it’s not choreographed. It’s like a little game we play and every evening it’s a little different.”

The overall works brought into the [bjm_danse] repertory today range from ballet, to modern, to street dance, ethnic dance forms, hip-hop, and back to the company’s original jazz. During his own career as a dancer with Grands Ballets Canadiens, Robitaille used classical technique to work in a range of styles. With that company he danced everything from classical masterpieces, to traditional modern by artists such as José Limón, to works by contemporary choreographers including William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato and James Kudelka.

“I liked the challenge of mixing classical technique with a more contemporary approach to movement and aesthetic,” said Robitaille.

It was only natural for Robitaille to branch out into more contemporary aesthetics when he took over at [bjm_danse]. The technical foundations of the company are classical, like his own, and all dancers are thoroughly classically trained. Most, too, have a solid background in jazz. What they all also share, though, regardless of training, is an exuberance and energy that rubs off onto anyone who watches. Their technique and precision allow them to be fully free.

“What I like about this company is that the choreography doesn’t feel technical,” said Cowie. “We’re not thinking about technique, but are instead thinking about the energy – where it’s soft, where it’s hard. We’re as precise as possible so that we can also add our own voice. It’s easy to just emulate moves, but we’re all a little bit different because of where we decide to put emphasis.”

But it’s not just technique that allows these dancers to be free, stressed Barton who, herself, has created two major works on them. It’s also their familiarity, ease, and acceptance of one another.

“The dancers are so comfortable with each other that they can play around, try things out, make fools of themselves and don’t have to worry,” said Barton. “That’s often how some of the best material can develop. Their humble, open, and there’s not much ego in the company. It’s not the scary ballet mentality where everyone’s out to get each other. They’re a really awesome, open group of people. How they interact and work together is super supportive. The Men and women are very tight and there’s no negative energy in the studio.”

Today, [bjm_danse] is one of Canada’s best-known dance companies and well-known throughout the world. Their last season took them from Germany to South Korea, Italy to Brazil. And although it’s no longer pure jazz that they bring to the concert dance stage, the spirit of jazz is clearly still there.

“Jazz is expressive, very free, and allows the dancer to be more natural, where classical ballet is more rigid,” Robitaille said. “Still today, the company is nothing dark, it’s everything but dark and cerebral. We’re very physical, joyful, expressive, very bright, very accessible, but it still reaches a beautiful quality. Where we are now has been an evolution from the beginning. Dance evolves so fast that it was only normal to go ahead and make what we do [fresh] while trying to respect the heritage of the company.” While nodding to the past, [bjdm_dance] lets jazz dance evolve into the future. But this is not to say that a purer form of jazz dance is no longer relevant. On the contrary.

“I think all disciplines nourish each other and have an important place,” said Robitaille. “For example, not everybody has a body to do pure classical ballet. So what are you going to do? Stop dancing? No. You just find what works for you, whether jazz, hip-hop, modern, or whatever. All disciplines are important for their own reasons.”

Community Movement: Marking An Anniversary Through Dance

New York Sun
By MARY STAUB September 8, 2008

Dripping with sweat in the sweltering sun and 90-degree heat last Thursday afternoon, a man and two women crept across one another on the steps of Brooklyn Bridge Park, in DUMBO, froze in emotional tableaus, then silently fell to the ground. The three, dancers of the Silver-Brown Dance Company, were polishing a work to remember the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, "Oasis 5," which they will perform in the park Thursday evening. As in every year for the past seven years, individuals and institutions throughout the five boroughs are finding personal ways to memorialize September 11. The Brooklyn-based dance company's artistic director, Eva Silverstein, has found hers through love.

"Because it's been seven years now I thought I could try to address how people miss their loved ones," Ms. Silverstein said. "I, too, lost friends in 9/11 and feel it's part of our city's fabric and it's important to make work that addresses that. I don't just want to make something that's beautiful and inspiring, or daredevil and physical, but something that speaks to people on that particular day."

"Oasis 5" is set to a rich layering of love songs: Patsy Cline's "Anytime," Judy Garland's "Life Is
Just a Bowl of Cherries," and Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine," among others. Over the past several weeks, Ms. Silverstein and her dancers have together developed movement material that conjures images and emotions from that day in September — a solitary soul crawls through a sea of bodies; another disappears behind the concrete slabs that lead down to the water's edge, only disembodied limbs remaining; one figure obliviously strides through the beautiful day, while elsewhere a march funebre creeps by. Interspersed throughout these more solemn episodes on Thursday will be little vignettes of love and longing, wherein individuals reach out and gain strength from loved ones lost.

"It's not only about honoring those we love," Ms. Silverstein said. "It's also about dance, because dance is such a physical and human thing. That's the best way to represent common humanity, not divisive, but a physical way to represent the hope that we can go on and must go on."
"Oasis 5" is a valentine to the city, Ms. Silverstein said. In some sense, though, it's not just for the city, it's also by it. It's been shaped by passersby in many ways.

"It's interactive in the creation process because this park is frequented by so many people," Ms. Silverstein said. "Tourists sometimes comment. Our rehearsal was captured on Belgian TV one day. Japanese photographers were taking pictures. When we're rehearsing, a FedEx employee changes his schedule so he can be in the park one hour and he gives feedback on what I can improve. Kids from the Farragut projects come down and watch."

Additionally, a tableau of everyday people, less acquainted with performance, will set the scene for Ms. Silverstein's stories of love, loss, and life. More than 30 employees of Goldman Sachs will take on the role of tableau vivant. Every year the company's workers receive one day off to volunteer in nonprofit work, and a handful of them will make their way to Brooklyn Bridge Park on Thursday morning to be sculpted into shapes and cast as characters.

"It's important for me to put the community itself onstage," Ms. Silverstein said. "The way I see it is that a lot of people are searching for something meaningful on that day. This way it's not just about a Silver-Brown Dance modern-dance company. It really is also about the community. We'll get an extremely diverse cast in terms of age, ethnicity, size, nationality."

In 2004, Ms. Silverstein created the company's first "Oasis" performance to celebrate the opening of Brooklyn Bridge Park — DUMBO's "oasis" of green. While working at the water's edge, where sweeping views across the East River almost command contemplation, Ms.
Silverstein was inspired to use the site for something that bore greater weight, and "Oasis" became a memorial project soon thereafter. Ms. Silverstein now commemorates the day through a different prism every year. Last year she linked tragedies, September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, in two disparate cities where she has roots, New York and New Orleans.

"9/11 is a huge moment in history and there's no formalized way of how we're supposed to live that day," Ms. Silverstein said. "There's no holiday, we can't look up names of friends who died anywhere, there's no cemetery. You go down to ground zero and it's like a news conference. There's really no place to go to memorialize. I want to evoke a communal feeling through art and make something that's an experience we can all share."

September 11, 7 p.m., Brooklyn Bridge Park, DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Larry Keigwin’s “Elements” (Dancer Magazine)

by Mary Staub — Aug 29, 2008

In Larry Keigwin’s newest work, “Elements,” inspired by the elements of nature, cabaret and concert dance coexist. Keigwin + Company performed this four-suite work – comprising “Fire,” “Water,” “Earth” and “Air” – in their Joyce Theater debut this July. In numerous short vaudevillian vignettes, Keigwin brings comedic lightness to the proscenium stage and sets seemingly frivolous, entertaining acts to a broad range of music: from Mozart, to Cole Porter, to Philip Glass, to Patsy Cline singing “Crazy.”

Throughout “Water” – encompassing “Shower,” “Sea,” “Spa” and “Splash” – carefree characters strut or dance around in white towel cover-ups as they alternate between camp comedy skits and synchronized, demanding, lyrical movement sequences more typical of the theatre dance stage.

In a spoof on spas, a male spa-goer (Alexander Gish), his hair wrapped high in a turban-shaped towel, repeatedly shoots his arm out to demand a bottle of water from the spa attendant offstage. Gish poses effeminately, throws his head back with revelry and guzzles with glee. The scenario repeats itself again and again to the syrupy voice of Marcela Cortes Galvan singing “Que Será de Mí.” After emptying his last bottle, Gish eventually prances off stage in high-heeled shoes.

At the Joyce, a man in high heels is still enough to keep many spectators entertained and elicits audible laughter. But Keigwin is not completely clear in what he’s trying to convey. Is this buffoonery a mockery of our indulgent cultural habits (spas) or criticism of our culture’s consumption (bottled water) or even a protestation against the seriousness that modern dance often sets forth.

Is Keigwin just playing with props, or making a point?

“Fire” and “Earth” are less direct in their interpretation of the elements. “Fire” takes the quality of burning into the human realm. Egos burn for attention as three dancers inspect themselves in an invisible mirror. Or, a diva desperately runs to display herself in an ever-shifting spotlight. Or as Samuel Roberts gives a comical, yet impressive, rendition of a dainty hip-hop dance to “Walk It Out,” he becomes a heartthrob flame.

“Earth” is also trod upon lightly by varying forms of lizards as they creep across Astroturf in “Gecko,” “Chameleon,” “Dragon” and “Iguana.” Keigwin is known for creating entertaining and engaging dances that often mix the highbrow and the lowbrow, the intellectual and the popular, the professional and the amateur, and “Elements” leans strongly on the side of levity.

During the “Fly” section of “Air,” pilots and stewardesses with carry-on suitcases hurry to catch their planes, jovially wave one another good-bye, give a harmonized version the life vest routine (well-known to any air-traveler), and frequently break into more abstract choreography of triple turns to arabesque extensions. The company dances exceptionally, both technically and theatrically. Set to Jim Webb’s “Up, Up and Away,” “Fly” has to be performed with convincing cheeriness, and Keigwin’s dancers, which include Keigwin, manage to do so without neglecting skill.

“Wind,” the final vignette of the final suite, at first seems to leave humor behind, not an unwelcome move after a night filled with frivolity. The dancers ebb and flow through space with a texture that effectively mirrors Philip Glass’s “Channels and Winds.” They hypnotize through sound and movement. As the pitch and intensity of the music increase, the multitude grows; as they decrease, space gets more room. The movement creates an invisible wind that can nearly be seen. Keigwin almost bursts his own bubble, though, when he finishes with yet another bit of playfulness and drops about 40 bright pink balloons from the sky.

Keigwin clearly knows how to entertain. He also knows how to create visually and musically hypnotizing worlds. When combined with care, these two facets effectively enhance one another.

One Love:Tabitha and Napoleon Take on Life, Love, and Hip-Hop Together (Dancer Magazine)

by Mary Staub — Aug 29, 2008, originally published in Dancer Magazine

The hip hop choreographers, teachers and directors Tabitha and Napoleon D’Umo, are in love – both with their work and with each other. Their steps and style are well-known to any commercial dance enthusiast. The two, a happy husband-and-wife team, have judged on television shows including “So You Think You Can Dance,” choreographed for “America’s Best Dance Crew,” hosted Rock the Reception, and worked on the tours of recording artists such as Celine Dion, Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera.

But their path to hip-hop prominence was far from planned. Tabitha first dabbled in dance in small studios in her hometown in New Jersey, where she learned her initial steps of ballet, jazz and tap. But hip-hop – especially in the form of a career – was still far from site.

“You couldn’t take hip-hop in any old dance studio at the time, so I only started doing hip-hop in college,” Tabitha, said during a few minutes in between rehearsals in a phone interview from California. “I always thought dance was something you did recreationally, as a hobby. Little did I know that opportunities would present themselves.”

She encountered hip-hop on the college dance team at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas where she was a communications major. It was there, too, that she met her future husband and partner, Napoleon D’Umo, pre-med at the time studying cellular and molecular biology. Napoleon, a California native who grew up in B-boy culture in the early 80s, had pretty much left dance behind until he saw what Tabitha had been learning in dance class – hip-hop.

“I said ‘I can do that’ and started taking class too,” Napoleon told me on the phone while driving to his next rehearsal in L.A.

Soon thereafter they made the cut for a hip-hop company, Culture Shock, and slowly began choreographing, teaching and team-teaching workshops for the company too. They taught classes at the local gym – at first for just $10 an hour – and choreographed industrials – at first for free. By graduation, though, they’d become the authority in all things hip-hop in Las Vegas, and it was then that they realized hip-hop might become a career.

Photo by Peter Randolph

“We both loved what we did, and when we graduated we said, ‘Why don’t we give it a shot?’” Tabitha said. “We rolled the dice, took a gamble and have been very blessed.”

They loved what they did, and each other, so they got married and moved to L.A. about 10 years ago to stake their claim in the more competitive world of West-Coast dance.

“It was like being a little fish in a big pond again,” Tabitha said. “We had to network all over again and learn how to swim in the big pond.”

They’ve been swimming – yes, sailing – along together ever since. With their influences reaching far beyond West-Coast venues to nationwide endeavors and more, what was a pond has since become an ocean. To observe the duo in action, you can watch any one of numerous networks and shows this fall. On TLC’s “Rock the Reception” they’ll be teaching husbands and wives to be (often with no previous dance training) to pull of some elaborate moves at their own wedding festivities. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, catch their craft with professionals and travel to any one of Celine Dion’s stops on her current U.S. tour, co-choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon – from New York to Cleveland and beyond in September; from Sacramento to Vancouver and beyond in October; Chicago, St. Louis, Omaha, Denver, and elsewhere in November; Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe in 2009.

One might wonder how two people could be partners, both in work and life, 24/7, with endless high-caliber commitments and choreographies traveling across the globe, and still be entirely enamored. But Tabitha and Napoleon seem to have made it work.

“We work together so much; it’s weird doing even an interview separately,” Napoleon said with a tone of admiration. “And when we teach we vibe off each other. I’ll start a joke, and Tabitha will finish it. I’ll start choreographing, and she’ll continue. We don’t plan it like that; it just happens.”

For a more immediate experience with the couple in action, they’ll be touring to a range of cities with "Shock the Intensive" and "Monster’s of Hip Hop." You might catch them in Atlanta, New York, Mobile, Pittsburgh, and beyond (for more details tours and events, go to the links below). In October and November, they should be headed to Canada (Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver). There, they will be on faculty at "Coastal Dance Rage," where there will be a variety of offerings for both dance students and teachers. If you’d like to organize a more personalized encounter with Tabitha and Napoleon in your own studio, and get a feel for their working passion, you can contact them directly (bookings@nappytabs.com). In all likelihood, their enthusiasm will rub off. Even by phone, it’s easy to tell that the two of them are elated and enthusiastic about what they do and the people they do it with.

“We’ve been working hard for 10 years in this field. You can’t look for quick fix,” Napoleon said. “You can’t do this because you want to be famous or make money. You’ll have bad times and good times, and you have to do it because you’re passionate about it.”

Move In And Around Manhattan

New York Sun
By MARY STAUB August 18, 2008

Frequenters of the financial district may encounter a sidewalk surprise in Lower Manhattan this week. Starting today, members of MoveOpolis! the two-year-old dance company of Richard Move, who is otherwise well known for his impersonations of Martha Graham, will colonize corners of this district as they strut their way through six events that are part of Sitelines, the site-specific performance series organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Mr. Move's hour-long Sitelines performances, called "Hostile Takeover," are part play on the gender imbalance of the financial district perceived by Mr. Move and part play on the financial world's usage of manipulative terminology to name — and often gloss over — events within it.

"The financial district is definitely a male-dominated world, with very few women in it," Mr. Move said. "I wanted to have a very strong and sensual female energy take over and become the center of attention, with the women as the smartest persons in the room."

"Hostile takeover," "golden parachute," and "golden handcuffs" are just a few of the expressions Mr. Move was thinking of when he developed his extravagantly costumed characters. "There are such interesting, vivid terms in finance," Mr. Move said. "And I wanted to do something outside the proscenium theater this summer because there are so many amazing places around Manhattan."

Although Mr. Move is no newcomer to site-specific works — he has crafted many in France — this is his first such piece in Manhattan. "I started walking around, discovering some great places around Lower Manhattan," Mr. Move said. "And these spaces informed the creation of characters with a vocabulary and prop design growing out of each space." Mr. Move's characters include a take on the futurist Japanese installation and video artist Mariko Mori, a revived prehistoric flightless bird, and the embodiment of the Italian porn star La Cicciolina (Ilona Staller), who is also known for having advocated sex for prisoners while serving as Italian MP.

Today, a dancer will become an extinct aquatic bird that comes to life in "Hesperornis Regalis," performed on the third floor of South Street Seaport's Pier 17, with seagulls, sailboats, and the Brooklyn Bridge as a backdrop. Tomorrow, in "Mariko Mori Musings," a version of Japanese anime will take over the site of William Tarr's "Rejected Skin" sculpture on Water Street. On Wednesday, the former Graham dancer Blakely White-McGuire, as La Cicciolina, will perform in front of the "Red Flower" sculpture — by La Cicciolina's ex-husband, Jeff Koons — overlooking ground zero.

"The women are very isolated in their context," Mr. Move said. "It's interactive in terms that there are observers who are not just interested in theater and dance, but people who just happen upon the sites — tourists, locals, construction workers, blue collar, white collar. I love that. It makes dance seem less rarefied."

Later in the week a fantastical princess will reflect on the Stock Exchange from the Hermès window on Wall Street, and the Fulton Fish Market will become the home of a large human mackerel in "Cavalla Bianca." With movement stemming from the traditions of Japanese Butoh, these characters will culminate their takeover on August 25 in "Dances at a Gathering," an early-evening party at South Street Seaport with DJs, visuals, projections, and a cash bar.

"This setting is more intimate, more communal — the women who were alienated before will become part of this festive lounge and nightclub feel," Mr. Move said of the final event. "It's exciting because there's no telling who's watching or what their reactions will be. There are a lot of variables that we have no control over."

Although Mr. Move is still well known for his "Martha @ ..." performances and continues to bring them to the stage, he is clearly moving on. He escapes being pinned down to any one of his past incarnations as runway model, nightclub dancer, actor, or film choreographer. He's now also working on his own documentary: the story of another strong female figure, the Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta, who met her death when she fell from her Greenwich Village apartment window in 1988.

"I feel like everything needs to be like an experiment or exploration to some degree," Mr. Move said. "It's strange to me when you can watch a video of certain choreographers' work and recognize immediately who it is. That's nothing I strive for. I like to keep pushing myself, challenging myself, and site-specific works definitely do that."

Starting today. For further information, visit the Sitelines website.

Downtown Dance Festival Brings Global Dance Closer To Home

New York Sun
By MARY STAUB August 11, 2008

Manhattan's Battery Dance Company will bridge waters for the first time this year with its multiday Downtown Dance Festival, presenting performances on the greens of Governors Island. During the course of nine days, 30 companies with styles including flamenco, hip-hop, Indian, and Chinese traditional dance will tackle the stage on the island and also, as in previous years, at Chase Plaza and Battery Park in Lower Manhattan.

"New Yorkers are very open-minded and look for new opportunities to get out of the heat and explore new places," the artistic director of Battery Dance, Jonathan Hollander, said of his decision to add Governors Island to the performance venues.

During nine months every year, Mr. Hollander's Battery Dance is more than just a performing dance company; it takes on the role of presenter, seeking sponsorship, culling companies, and searching for sites in preparation for the annual festival, which begins its 27th incarnation this Saturday. Mr. Hollander takes it upon himself to bring dance to the people with post-performance opportunities for audiences to learn excerpts from the choreographies they've just seen.

"I have traveled all over the world and I still think that the amount of dance here is more than anywhere else," Mr. Hollander, whose own company has performed in countries including India, Turkey, South Korea, Mongolia, and China, said. "Yet general people on the street don't have anything to do with the dance world. We need to demystify dance."

The Downtown Dance Festival is one way Mr. Hollander has tried to do so for more than two decades. These daily, free, outdoor performances take place during daylight hours — over lunch or on weekend afternoons — thus reaching audiences who don't frequent the typical concert-dance theater, such as families with children who are too fidgety for prolonged seating, professionals who think dance is not for them, or downtown senior citizens who appreciate events within walking distance.

"The dance community aggressively needs to pursue new audiences," Mr. Hollander said. "There's a lot of great dance out there and we want people to know about it. We think it's our obligation."

Dance and movement exhibit a shared humanity, across borders, cultures, and ethnicities, Mr. Hollander said. "I am constantly inspired by what I see overseas," Mr. Hollander, who is traveling to 10 countries this year, said. "There are moments of serendipity when I see something maybe in South Korean dance, something that looks like waves on the shore, and it looks like what's in one of my own modern dance pieces that we're performing."

New York audiences can have a similar experience in Lower Manhattan, where, in a single day, they may see traditional Chinese dance by Dance China NY, followed by classical from Ballet Noir, traditional Kabuki by the Japanese Sachiyo Ito & Company, Isadora Duncan's more than century-old repertoire, and finally some flamenco moves by Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. New York audiences, Mr. Hollander hopes, may start seeing connections themselves and thus open themselves to more unfamiliar cultural forms, whether in dance or elsewhere.

"We all have the same anatomy and people have explored this anatomy throughout history in folk dances," Mr. Hollander said. "It's sort of like beadwork. When you see Mexican and Indian and Native American beadwork, it makes you realize that they're all coming from the same place. I love the opportunity to break the matrix, so that audiences realize they can access other forms."

With people tightening their belts throughout the arts world, the Downtown Dance Festival is increasingly collaborating with other arts organizations to make the festival happen. Two festival days will focus fully on classical Indian dance and contemporary choreographies by South Asian dancers in a first-time collaboration with the Indo-American Arts Council. The Center for Traditional Music and Dance has also extended a hand and helped bring traditional dance from Japan and the Ivory Coast to the outdoor stage.

"Once you see how people respond and what effect the festival has, it's impossible to stop," Mr. Hollander said. "We get lots of letters and e-mails, and I recognize people year after year even though I don't know their names. I know for example there's a large senior center following, older people, retirees. For them it's great to have free events that they can walk to."

Saturday through August 24. For complete schedule, see batterydanceco.com.

Hubbard Street's Up-and-Comer

New York Sun
By MARY STAUB August 4, 2008

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, which begins its two-week engagement at the Joyce Theater today, nurtures and cultivates young choreographers from within its own ranks to add company-exclusive works to the repertory. Hubbard Street's artistic director, Jim Vincent, is intrigued by the subtlety and uniqueness that arise when dancers work with their peers.

An annual choreographic workshop introduced by Mr. Vincent, "Inside/Out," lets Hubbard Street dancers create choreography for fellow company members, complete with sound, lighting design, and costumes. It was in a 2005 workshop that Alejandro Cerrudo's "Lickety-Split" began as a simple duet, set to music by indiefolk singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart. Mr. Vincent was so impressed with the duet that two of Mr. Cerrudo's works have since become company repertory and will have their New York premieres during Hubbard Street's stint at the Joyce. "There was a humanity and humor that drew us into the space between the couple," Mr. Vincent said. "Alejandro was tapping into something that brought out the personality of the dancers, something that somebody from outside was not going to be able to do right away." So, Mr. Vincent asked for an expansion. Although reluctant at first because he saw the duet as done with, Mr. Cerrudo found more Banhart music that created the same aura, and turned the duet into a work for three couples — "Lickety-Split."

"Banhart is a nonsense-singer, where words don't always make sense, but at the same time the music gives you a specific sense, like poetry, that you don't necessarily understand, but love," Mr. Cerrudo said. "I think using a collage of music is always iffy, but Jim wanted me to expand so I looked more into Banhart and found some songs that worked."

Mr. Cerrudo, 28, is both flattered and daunted that his own creations — "Lickety-Split" and "Extremely Close" — now appear alongside the artists he so admires. "It is an honor and also pushes you to always want more and more and more," Mr. Cerrudo explained from Reno, Nev., during a break in performances two weeks ago. "When you have respect for other works in the repertoire you put your own standards very high and want your works also to be up there."

When the Spanish-born Mr. Cerrudo first saw Hubbard Street Dance Chicago perform at a Houston gala six years ago, he knew he wanted in. The dancers were fantastic, he thought, and the repertory, including works by Nacho Duato, Jirí Kylián, and William Forsythe, were impressive. He moved to Chicago and joined the company just a few years later.

"When working with your colleagues it's a great support structure to find your own voice as choreographer in, and not just to create movement, but to bring out individuality," Mr. Vincent said. "This gives the audience the opportunity to meet the dancers as people, and not just see them as dancers. They are exhibited, celebrated, and shared with the viewer." When Mr. Cerrudo creates a new work he envisions an atmosphere, and this guides the steps, scenery, and music he selects. To create the aura he wanted for his newest work, "Extremely Close," set to piano solos by Philip Glass and Dustin O'Halloran, he began by altering the studio space and changing lighting and design. "I turned off the lights and brought in stage lighting so that it was lit from the floor," Mr. Cerrudo explained. "I wanted to take the dancer out of the studio where we work every day so that when you enter it's a little bit different. I wanted to avoid the feeling of 'this is a studio and just another rehearsal.'"

As in most of his works, Mr. Cerrudo prefers to avoid specifying the subject matter of "Extremely Close" and "Lickety-Split."

"The understanding of different works is so much up to the individual," Mr. Cerrudo said. "I have my own interpretation but that doesn't mean that everybody else has to see it that way. Sometimes I hear a different interpretation and feel it works very well. This can change the way I feel about my own work. There's no right or wrong on how you feel about art." Although Mr. Cerrudo's work has toured extensively already, this will be its first appearance in New York. "I am very excited," Mr. Cerrudo said. "I see New York as the center of many arts and dance; it's culturally a very rich city and it's an honor to perform in New York."

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Joyce engagement will also include New York premieres by Mr. Vincent, Hubbard Street associate artistic director Lucas Crandall, and the Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki. Further on the bill are works by Ohad Naharin, Doug Varone, and Nacho Duato.

Where Are The Female Ballet Choreographers?

Dancer Magazine
Jul 31, 2008 – By Mary Staub

In all likelihood, if you have ever taken a ballet class, about 85 percent of your fellow dancers were female. This tends to be true whether you are an eager 6-year-old conscientiously stretching your leg forth in tendu at the bar, a BFA student at the Ailey Studios in New York practicing a triple tour en l’air, or anywhere in between. Across all ages and state borders, in today’s field, the beauty of ballet still speaks more strongly to girls.

However, fast forward a few years, and look at who has gone on to choreograph, present on major stages, and run major companies, and the landscape looks dramatically different. Of 59 major ballet companies – those with budgets of more than $1 million – just 20 percent are run by women, according to data compiled by Dance/USA, a 26-year-old organization that serves as a national dance hub. The other 80 percent of our nation’s big ballet companies are run by men –look at San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet throughout its history, to name a few.

“There is a definite difference between different communities and different genres of how gender breaks down,” says John Munger, director of Research and Information at Dance/USA. “But looked at overall there is definitely a degree of gender bias, and it is clearest in ballet.”

Furthermore, of the twelve women who do run big-budget ballet companies, eleven were company founders, according to Munger. This means that just one woman, Victoria Morgan at Cincinnati Ballet, has been appointed. By comparison, of the 47 men at the helm of these major companies, 41 have been appointed.

“My hypothesis is that these large ballet companies are past their founding generation,” says Munger. “They are driven by a hiring process at the top, not by the dance field, but by a board of directors who are highly corporate and highly conservative.”

Down on the ground in Philadelphia, Christine Cox, a former dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet, now co-runs and choreographs for her own small-budget contemporary ballet company, BalletX. Like many other former professional ballerinas, she has taken note of the imbalance on larger stages and has found her own way to respond – actively, engagingly, creatively.

“I’ve worked with lots of choreographers as a dancer and it stands out that throughout 20 years I can count on one hand the women,” Cox says with a tone of slight astonishment. “How is it that 90 percent in the studio are women and later you find so few women running companies? I’ve discussed this with others in the dance industry and it’s true on Broadway, everywhere. I thought it would be a compelling story to have an all-female choreographers program – and I’m not a woman activist trying to make a point here. This is just an observation.”

The female choreographers project also includes panel discussions with dancers, choreographers, researchers and audience members, who together will look for their own explanations for the imbalance. Similarly, Deborah Lohse in New York - who danced for Sacramento Ballet – has taken a proactive approach.

“I think I felt my observations gave me permission to be more aggressive,” Lohse said. “Creating my own company was the best way to address the imbalance.”

Lohse started choreographing and created her own contemporary ballet company, ad hoc Ballet, partly because she saw limited opportunities for ‘real women’ in most ballet companies. At 5’10,” she knew first-hand how difficult it could be to get jobs in ballet if you did not fit the physical ideal.

“I wanted to create works for women like those I know - not just those who can be cute, innocent, dainty - and give a female perspective on the female ballerina body,” Lohse says. “A lot of ballerinas still believe they need to be physically beautiful to get the job. I’m not interested in that, but want to tell stories about women who do not live up to the ideal, and show things that are seemingly ugly and show that they’re really quite beautiful.”

Lohse recently gained insight into certain discrepancies between how men and women seem to scout for students. On a recent arts exchange program at North Carolina School of the Arts, Lohse was the only female artistic director on a panel of directors and choreographers from across the country.

“Men and women do approach business differently,” Lohse says. “I watched how the others scouted for students and it was very different from how I was looking at students. They were looking more for technique and body type. I didn’t even know what I was looking for – I just knew I’d recognize it when I saw it.”

As much as people like to feign that in our 21st-century – supposedly progressive – society, gender equality is the norm, anyone with just a touch of truthfulness knows this is not so. Men and women are still met by different expectations and come upon different hurdles, this is as true in the wondrous world of ballet as amongst the corporate crowds of Wall Street.

“Our society is still more confident with men being in managerial positions – it’s our culture,” says Janis Brenner, a board member of the Gender Project, an eight-year study group that tried to get to the bottom of gender discrepancies in dance through interviews and surveys with dancers, choreographers, presenters and directors. “It’s a societal thing and the dance world is simply a micro-cosmos for the way the larger world works.”

The results of the Gender Project have brought no clear conclusions, but highlight multiple issues that factor into the overall equation. One is that men seem to ‘manage’ companies differently than women, and overall, their way of management is still seen as ‘better’ – more practical, less personal.

“Maybe men have more management skills and it is easier for them to manage 100 people as a choreographer,” says Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, one of the choreographers Cox is bringing to Philadelphia to create dances on BalletX for the all-female choreographers project. Ochoa, who danced with Rotterdam’s Scapino Ballet for seven years, is now a full-time freelance choreographer based in the Netherlands.

“What I notice as a choreographer when working with 100 people [is that] I am trying to make everyone happy. Men care that the business works well, not so much whether everyone is happy,” Ochoa said light-heartedly in a phone conversation from the Netherlands. “As long as the business is good and things look good, then for them things are good.”

Differential treatment of boys and girls in ballet starts at an early age and seems another reason men and women take on different roles later in life. BalletX’s Cox, like most women, realized this early on. She studied at the schools of the Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, and at all schools, as can be expected, most of her classmates were female.

“When I was training to be a dancer the men stood out because there were so few of them,” Cox says very matter-of-factly. “There’s so much competition with women that it requires perfection, intense focus and drive. With men you need maybe 50 percent of the talent that females have, and focus. This is just our culture.”

Unless thousands of little boys suddenly start yearning for ballet, the preconceptions and treatment are unlikely to change. Lay-people continue to view boys who lean towards ballet as un-manly, which continues to discourage interest. Within the ballet world, in contrast, men are relied upon greatly. They are continuously encouraged, pushed to develop bold stances and voices and move forward.

“In ballet classes young women are taught to be obedient, while men are taught to jump and be bold,” says JoAnna Mendl Shaw, a co-founder of the Gender Project and teacher in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in New York City. “The subterranean message we get is that men are expected to be bold and courageous, and certainly in American culture that’s what advances – and as a choreographer, surely a bold voice is more likely to get noticed. Women are not brought up to fight for what they want.”

Cox’s initial tentative turn to choreography is thus archetypal.

“I started choreographing hesitantly,” Cox said “It’s strange that although I’m a very confident performer, there’s a high level of doubt in my choreography. But I would hate to give into my fears and doubts. If I did that I would never have built my company.”

Although there are numerous women choreographing works of contemporary ballet and running their own companies, it continues to be true that these companies are smaller, with smaller budgets, performing on smaller stages, to smaller audiences. Just browse the seasonal brochures of Jacob’s Pillow, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, or any other venue and you will soon see who is presenting whom where (or go to www.dancenyc.org and look at research/studies for a more detailed analysis).

Cox in Philadelphia, Lohse in New York, and Ochoa in the Netherlands – like many others - speak of these issues very matter-of-factly: a curiosity, not a complaint. Brenner and Shaw of the Gender Project point out that there is no easy ‘solution’ for the situation and that nobody in particular is at fault. There are too many factors: societal expectations of boys versus girls, reliance on male management, the lack of little boys in ballet, the fact that giving birth – at least temporarily – takes women out of dance, and so much more.

Cox, herself, expects to give birth to her first child just around the time of the female choreographers project in July and her life in dance is becoming more difficult as the time approaches.

“I am trying to choreograph and I’m seven months pregnant,” says Cox. “It’s difficult. I’m not in my body like I am used to and can’t do movement as I’m used to, and sometimes I don’t have the energy to improve and build material. I’m going to see what happens once I do have a child.”We can only hope that all these women continue to creatively confront the current status quo in their contemporary creations. Perhaps being aware of the obstacles female ballet choreographers face is the first step in preparing ourselves and our students, both male and female, to help create a more even field for dancing in.

Finding Movement Across the Globe

New York Sun
By MARY STAUB July 7, 2008

DURHAM, N.C. — It may be called the American Dance Festival, but it is no longer strictly an American affair. In its first incarnation in 1934, more than 100 students flocked to the festival school to learn about a uniquely American art form known as modern dance from early icons such as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Since then, artists from countries including China, Egypt, Iraq, and Mozambique have become important building blocks.

"The challenge is how to keep the school present, growing, changing, open," the school's dean, Donna Faye Burchfield, said. "I want this to be a system that is flexible, that we can rethink, reimagine, redefine, and reinvent year after year."

Since 1984, the festival has hosted the International Choreographers Residency Program. Each year choreographers from diverse cultural backgrounds come to work on their own projects or, through an international commissioning program, create new works with ADF dancers. Many of these international artists take daily classes alongside younger students. Ms. Burchfield was one such young student more than 20 years ago and still remembers the impact of mingling with multiple cultures.

"After watching rehearsals or performances by people from 30 countries, you couldn't look at things the same way," Ms. Burchfield said. "Once you looked at those dances, you carried those experiences with you. The images became part of the conversation, and were in the visual, emotional, and kinesthetic landscape of the festival. They resonated into the evenings and back into the classrooms."

In addition to these activities in Durham, the ADF has taken its vision of dance abroad. International mini-ADFs and individual teaching engagements for ADF faculty have introduced young students in cities such as Moscow, Shanghai, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to a more American approach to movement. In these exchanges, cultures and customs inform one another.

"It was always very clear — and it was relief to know — that we were not going abroad with the idea that we had the truth and light and knowledge of what dance should be," a teacher at the ADF since 1981, Gerri Houlihan, said. Ms. Houlihan has taught in countries as diverse as Paraguay, Poland, Korea, and Mongolia. "We were interested in sharing. And we were also interested in their cultures, their dance, their music — and in maybe cross-pollinating."

Not surprisingly, these encounters are never delimited to dance alone, and teachers say they learn as much as they teach.

"Working in Korea with women in 1990 or '91, I felt their placement was slightly back and behind themselves," Ms. Houlihan said. "I kept trying to get them over their center. I'd get them up one day, and they'd fall back the next. I couldn't understand why, until I realized I was looking at hundreds of years of women walking behind their men, slightly subservient. I was trying to change the way these women thought about themselves in two weeks — it wasn't going to happen overnight."

An informal choreographers' showing this past Saturday displayed the diversity of this year's program. Three Argentinean women crossed paths in staccato steps to a nuevo tango by the Gotan Project. And Andrey Zakharov from Russia brought a seemingly detached, yet profoundly grounded sense of humor to the auditorium. He tweaked expectations, twisted spectators' heads, partnered the stage, feigned jumping rope through audience aisles, and marveled at the building's domed ceiling.

At ADF's Ark Dance Studio, Not Your Average Student Dance

At the end of a week of all-day dancing, the students at the American Dance Festival need to express themselves and socialize. To do so, they don't go for drinks at a bar, or milk shakes at a diner. No — they improvise and dance some more.
New York Sun
By MARY STAUB July 1, 2008

The social magnet of Saturday nights at ADF is the Ark Dance Studio, a gabled old house, boarded with white, wooden planks. Students start to gather on the steps of this small, one-room, century-old building just as the sun is setting. The jam-packed weekly improvisation sessions have become one of the most popular weekend stops for many students, despite the sweltering heat and lack of air-conditioning.

"It's kind of like a social dance," a first-year ADF student from Virginia Beach, Aaron Burr Johnson, said. "What we do here is not meant to be performed — it's just for the participants, kind of like going to a club."

To watch the dancers in this high-ceilinged room is like watching a room full of ants, scurrying this way and that, telling personal stories that occasionally intersect. Almost every square foot appears in motion. In one corner a pianist, percussionist, and xylophonist jam alongside the dancers in a continuous wordless conversation.

"We're all feeding off each other," a 25-year-old dance teacher and ADF student, Alison Hart, said. "There are moments when you are totally internal. And sometimes you are absorbed partnering in a duet. Then suddenly you start moving across the whole floor with great strides and it's like the whole room is breathing together, using the same beat, the same rhythm."
These improvisational jams include a lot of contact, which becomes the starting point of other movement. The physical barriers here are lower than in most other social settings, and the intimacy among strangers fluctuates with every heartbeat — touching is okay; speaking is not.

"If somebody tries to make contact with you, there is a given understanding that you can either give into it or move away, and nobody's feelings will be hurt," Ms. Hart said. "When you do start partnering, it becomes very private and you're very vulnerable. You're sweaty, you smell, someone's head may suddenly be in your armpit, you put your weight on someone, and may find they let you fall to the ground."

It is precisely this unpredictability and the constantly shifting dynamics that attract so many students week after week. And it's not just students. Duke University faculty and dancers from some of ADF's performing companies are regulars, too — dancers from Shen Wei Dance Arts, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company have all made appearances this year. The language here is truly universal and resonates as much in Durham as in Buenos Aires, Eastern Europe, or beyond.

"Sometimes people come catapulting at your head; people can be reckless," Mr. Johnson said with amusement. "I've gotten mad sometimes, but not really vocally or physically. I probably just stomp loudly off the floor and am sure the other person doesn't even notice."

Such encounters can help dancers find their own voice. They explore motion and meaning in tandem with others. "I have fallen in love with improvisation because it allows me to form my own technique," Ms. Hart said. "Every feeling is a new and immediate feeling, and I can make my own decisions in the here and now. This is about as free as you can be in your body."