The Harper Joy Theatre welcomed three superb guest artists into the Freimann Black Box this past week for the Studio Series, our final production of the semester. Each artist brought their own unique pieces to share with the community, and offered a movement workshop that students could participate in. We asked each of these artists some questions about their process as we reflect on the amazing work they produced.
How do you first approach the intimacy and eroticism often present in your pieces when you begin working on something new?
When I am working on a piece I begin by writing a poem about the emotions I am wanting to express. Intimacy for me is a lot about emotion, and so I begin with understanding why I even feel the need to express this emotion. Sometimes it’s an intimacy with a person, sometimes it’s with an idea, sometimes it’s with the movement itself. For example, I will sometimes play a song that evokes a happy or sad emotion and then just begin to move my body to see what happens. I often dance through the sadness into joy and other times I start dancing for joy and discover it is surface level and dig into the truth of what I am trying to cover up. Our bodies hold so much we try to push away, so movement is therapeutic for many many reasons.
How did you get into dance making/performance making?
I never had to get into dance, I have always danced. I was an extremely hyperactive child, and dance gave me an avenue to get out much of that energy. Though I was not shy, I did have terrible posture and often walked with my head down and shuffled my feet, so my mother decided to place me in a local ballet class so that I could learn to stand up straight and look out in front of me. Not only did I stick to ballet for many years after that, but I fell in love with tap, jazz, modern, and West African dance techniques, all which I utilize in my performance practice today. At the core of all of my performance is storytelling. Through the poetry I write, through the movements, through the site specific configurations, it’s all about telling a story. Often my audience gets to help me write the story, and that’s when the performance really gets interesting.
With your work consistently using the concept of time and other worldly imagery, what does your process look like when you’re making something new?
At first, something unknown emerges. Something I would call impulse? desire?… but in a form as some sort of foggy unknown landscape. Then I start moving my body, making some drawing or writing; whatever comes to me in the foggy forest. Little by little, I create landmarks in the unknown journey, and eventually, I will have…sort of a map—a larger picture. Strangely, I also tend to come up with a title of the work first, then it also becomes a guide in figuring out where I should be heading toward. The energy, feeling, and residing spirit of a space I perform is another important inspiration. They often inform me of many things and make me create certain things.
How did you get into dance making/performance making?
I was not sure what I was interested in most for a long time. I was a sort of curious about everything like philosophy, architecture, design, religion, literature, biology..but at the same time, I couldn’t commit to studying any one field. Then I realized that dance and body-based art could be the universe of all things. Like a black hole, a body absorbs everything equally. In dance, I can be anyone and no one, at the same time. Or everything and nothing at the same time. Otherwise, I didn’t know what to do in my life!
What inspires the elaborate costuming that you often use? How do you begin thinking about a brand new piece?
The costume designs for each of my new works are usually highly character driven. I have a longstanding interest in researching mythology and folklore that explores the realm of the supernatural, and my dances are often populated with non-human characters. I like to ask myself things like: “What would an oread (mountain nymph) really look like if it were a living, breathing being, and how would it differ from a naiad (water nymph)?” As there is a great biodiversity out there in our terrestrial natural world, so there should be in the otherworld! Species groups here on earth have evolved wondrous attributes adapted for everything from their daily needs to their curious courtship rituals, so I often simply look to the natural world for inspiration and make associations between beings inhabiting real ecological niches and imaginary ones.
Working with longterm design collaborators is wonderful because I’ll give my collaborator a provocation such as: “the dancers in this piece have to be sprouting bird wings” and the collaborator will come back with something like: “we’ve learned that many dinosaurs were feathered and had more than one set of wing-like structures” and we ultimately arrive at a visual image that neither of us could have dreamed up on our own.
How did you get into dance making/performance making?
Lately I have begun dreaming up most of my new pieces inspired initially by their musical scores. With music being the evocative, yet wordless and imageless form it is, I cannot help but see dancing, imagery, and narrative when I hear it.
I think my impulse to make dance stems from a very early desire to embody non-human creatures both around us here on earth and in our imaginations. I couldn’t simply draw the centaurs or faeries I was fascinated with as a child. I had to sculpt them, animate them, and ultimately get up and act out their movements and qualities myself.
I saw classical dances early on in which the dancers embodied sylphs on stage. I wanted to be one too. Eventually, after study of ballet, modern, and contemporary dance in the US and abroad, I felt that it was my calling to craft queer-inclusive, magic-inclusive, performance worlds in which others could embody a range of beings also.
Coming up next at the Harper Joy Theatre is Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue, directed by Professor of Theatre and Theatre and Dance Department Head Dr. Laura Hope. The show will run March 2-5, and tickets will be released to the general public on February 15 on our ticketing website.