Two Great Tastes

This week we'll post some reflections from Emory Dance faculty members Gregory Catellier and George Staib. In January, they presented a collaborative concert at 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta. Greg shares his thoughts on the collaboration below; look for George's blog post later the week.

Recently my colleague and friend George Staib and I presented our fourth collaboration, I, at 7 Stages in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. We each premiered three pieces. Simultaneously we produced I.C.E.: Independent Choreographers Exchange, a showcase of works by emerging and recently transplanted Atlanta choreographers. All in all, it was a successful endeavor.

The collaboration George and I enjoy is happily multifaceted. It does not center on our dance making processes, although we ask and give each other advice on choreographic predicaments. I also design the lighting for his work, another traditional collaboration.

I would claim that we collaborate more profoundly through the structure of our process leading to the performance. We share space (the theater), resources, and some dancers. We plan the show order, select stage settings, and choose the postcard and program design. We divide some of these tasks and trust each other to make the appropriate decisions. While they may seem mundane, it is these decisions and hundreds of others that craft the show.

I would also contend that the choosing of each other as partners constitutes a critical component of the collaboration. By sharing a performance with George, I assert that I admire his choreography and want my work to be seen with his. It is also significant that by placing our pieces next to each others, the dances change. This is the peanut butter and chocolate effect of our collaboration—two great tastes!

-Gregory Catellier

The Coconut and the Peach: Choreographic Inspiration

Each week for the next couple of months, Emory dance students choreographing work for the Emory Dance Company spring concert (April 22-24) will blog about their choreographic process and inspiration. First up is Sandra Chan, a junior in the Business School, who is also completing the requirements for a dance minor.

Coming from Hong Kong, I have experienced how different two cultures can be at Emory.

I got my inspiration for my choreography during the international panel at the Goizueta Business School last semester. Dominic Wang, a current MBA student from China, has an interesting and insightful observation: Americans are like peach, while Chinese are like coconut. Americans are very friendly to you, they will say hi whenever they see you, but it is very hard to penetrate their life in a deeper level, like the middle of a peach. Chinese always seem to be in closed groups that are hard to penetrate, as it is very hard to break the shell of a coconut to get the juice. But once you are in the group, you are extremely close to everyone else in the group.

Although this observation is a generalization of the two cultures that Dominic and I are familiar with, and people act so differently within the same culture, it is astonishing to find out how accurate this observation is. At the same time, I find a lot of similarities between a peach and a coconut. They are both fruits that are round in shape and juicy. I believe that we can apply the same logic looking at these two cultures. It really depends on the perspective(s) you have when you look into cultural issues. Through my choreography, I wish that my audience could have the experience to look at cultural issues from these two extremely dissimilar perspectives, and hopefully this experience will have an impact on their life.

-Sandra Chan

Future of Arts Criticism Symposium at Emory, March 19-20

Registration is now open for an arts criticism symposium to be held at Emory on March 19-20, 2010. Details follow.

The Future of Arts Criticism and the Role of the Academy

Location: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Dates: March 19-20, 2010

Friday, March 19, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Keynote address by A.O. Scott, national film critic.

Saturday, March 20, 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
Morning: Panel featuring metro-Atlanta arts administrators, artists, journalists, and representatives of the academy

Afternoon: Lunch, table discussions, reporting from the tables, and determination of next steps

Registration:
Friday - free reservations for Friday are required
Saturday - paid $15 registration required for Saturday (at door if space is available, $20)

To reserve for Friday or register for Saturday or for more information, go to:
http://creativity.emory.edu/arts-criticism.shtml

To be a part of the conversation before and after the conference, please join our Lens on Atlanta Future of Arts Criticism Group at http://www.lensonatlanta.org/grp.php?action=group&ID=84

We hope to see you in mid-March! Please write to creativity@emory.edu if you have any questions about registration.

This event is presented by the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts in partnership with Public Broadcasting Atlanta's AtlantaPlanit and Lens on Atlanta with additional support from Emory's Hightower Fund and the Michael C. Carlos Museum.

Cedar Lake Tickets Going Fast!

Photo by Paul B. Goode

The world-renowned Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet will have its Atlanta debut at Emory's Schwartz Center for Performing Arts later this month. They will be performing Ohad Naharin's Decadance 2007. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now! Performance dates are February 24-26 at 8:00 p.m. For tickets, please call the Arts at Emory Box Office at 404-727-5050 or click here.

The Friends of Dance Lecture Series will present a pre-performance lecture on American and Israeli Dance February 24 at 7:00 p.m. (free; tickets to performance not necessary). For more information, click here.

The Dance Project

Emory dance faculty Gregory Catellier and George Staib are showcasing their choreography this weekend with a concert called The Dance Project, presented at 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta. Here's the lowdown:

The Dance Project
7 Stages Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave., Atlanta 30307
404-523-7647

January 21-23, 8:00 p.m.
January 24, 3:00 p.m.

$20 general admission
$9 students

Gregory Catellier and George Staib celebrate their fourth choreographic collaboration with The Dance Project, Jan 21-24. In keeping with their collaborative history, The Dance Project is intensely physical, tenaciously musical, and potently emotional. Both choreographers will premiere three new works that purposefully break from their previous methodologies of choreography. Staib's new work is marked by sensitive theatricality, juxtaposed with a movement vocabulary that is original and riveting. Catellier has chosen to work with a predominantly male cast and has taken on the challenge of J.S. Bach's Chaconne. This concert will not be what you expect from these two choreographers. This project is sponsored in part by grants from the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts and the University Research Committee of Emory University.

For tickets call the 7 stages Box Office 404-523-7647

Seven Little Dances for Three

Dance Program Director and Associate Professor Anna Leo's piece "Seven Little Dances for Three" was recently published in the online Journal of Family Life. You can watch the piece and learn more about her motivation in creating it by clicking here.
The piece originally appeared in Professor Leo's concert ...me so much nearer home, which celebrated the nature of family and community, and was performed at Emory in September 2009.  

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Emory Dance Program! Students will be back on campus next week, and we are looking forward to a spring semester full of exciting events. Check out our website at http://www.dance.emory.edu/, and click on "Events" for the full schedule.

We will be mailing our spring events postcard within the next week or two. If you are not on our mailing list and would like to join, fill out this form. You can choose to receive mailings via email, snail mail, or both.

If you are already on our mailing list, watch your mailbox for the spring event card (preview below). And remember, if you join the Emory Friends of Dance, you'll receive ticket discounts and other benefits.

We hope to see you at some of our upcoming events and concerts!