Out of the Vault

Next week the Emory Dance Company performs their fall concert, Vault. The concert focuses on the idea of the choreographers taking old pieces and ideas "out of the vault" to revamp them and propel us forward. Greg Catellier, senior lecturer, answers a few questions about the original version of his piece "Of Kiltering" and the process of modifying the work for the concert. 

Tell us a little bit about the idea behind the original version of your piece "Of Kiltering".

The original idea for "Of Kiltering" encompassed several notions of balance. One could watch "Of Kiltering" and think only of the balance of space, that is, where and how the dancers are distributed throughout the stage space. However, I was also contemplating the balance of relationships, the balance of power, and the homeostasis of power that groups fall into. I was so fascinated by balance at the time (2006), that I asked each dancer how much they weighed hoping that I could somehow figure out how to balance the stage mathematically by adding the different weights together. That didn't go over so well with the dancers.

At the time, I was also reacting to my somewhat new environment: the cast is matched in number and in gender to that of the Emory Dance Program full time faculty. I'm not making any direct statements about my colleagues with this work, but like all groups the balance of power shifts between us. 

Why did you choose to take this particular piece "out of the vault" and not another one of your works?

I considered bringing back several pieces but I was able to cobble together a great cast of student dancers that matched the number and gender of dancers needed for "Of Kiltering". Furthermore, it is one of the pieces that I really like, which is unusual. I find most of my works abhorrent a year after making them.

Looking at it with fresh eyes I see that it started me down the path of the work I'm doing now. The evening length works I create take a subject and approach it from many different angles. "Of Kiltering" is a mini version of that formula.

What about this new version is different from the old one? How do you think these changes affect the work?

In the old version there was a section where Lori Teague and I were attached to ropes that went through a pulley system above the stage and attached to the two chairs that are used in this piece. As we moved through the space the chairs would fly up and down. I was really trying to get at the visual balance of vertical space. The mechanism was also a kind of upside down scale. The section worked in and of itself but stood out as something foreign within the work as a whole. We ended up cutting it for a version at the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival.

In this new version I added to a trio section that focused more directly on the balance of power. The trio is kind of comical and I always felt that it got short shrift in the original piece. I also feel that this change has allowed me to tailor the work to the talents of these particular dancers. I'm pleased with the new "Of Kiltering".

The Emory Dance Company Fall Concert Vault shows November 15-17 at 8pm and November 17 at 2pm; tickets are available for purchase here.  Please see our Facebook page for more details. For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website. 

Ending a Series With New Inspirations: George Staib and Gaga Technique

As our last Opening the Space event arrives, we ask George Staib, Senior Lecturer, to delve into his experience with Gaga technique after journeying to Tel Aviv for a Gaga intensive. Staib shares with us how Gaga has influenced his technique classes and helped shape his upcoming evening length piece, Versus. Staib will be teaching a technique class next Tuesday, November 6 at 7:30 pm in the Schwartz Center Dance Studio.

When most people hear the word “Gaga” we think of a crazy pop star.  For those who don’t know, what is Gaga technique?

Gaga is an improvisational technique developed by Ohad Naharin, the current artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, Israel. The technique is founded upon vivid imagery, used to provoke specific movement qualities and assist in developing a keen awareness of the entire body while moving. Participants are asked to work internally, always using sensations as a source for movement, rather than psychological triggers. This allows for greater individual exploration and helps the mover become acutely aware of his/her habits, offers keys to new movement inventions, and strengthens the performer's ability to communicate physically. 

 

When did you first come across Gaga? What was your initial reaction?

My first experience was in New York while watching the Cedar Lake dancers perform Naharin's work Deca Dance. I was transfixed; moved by their physicality, intrigued by their ferociousness, and in awe of their command over their bodies. Since that experience, I stalked Batsheva on-line and became obsessed.  Never having been an improviser myself, I was skeptical; but having had the experience in Tel Aviv, I must admit that I am a believer.

 

How do you incorporate Gaga into your technique classes? 

I found that since studying, my eye is now more focused upon subtlety. I believe that I am gaining more insight where finding "glitches" might be concerned, and I feel better suited to offer advice. Certainly, I do not wish to turn everybody into a Gaga inspired dancer, I simply wish to provide a different perspective from the things I am able to understand more fully now. I do use imagery I obtained in Israel, and use the freedom I felt as a point of departure. When something is especially wonderful to you, you want to share it. And although I am by no means a certified Gaga teacher, I can offer a little of what I learned while studying in Israel. I must admit, that becoming certified is on the horizon for me, and I will be returning to Tel Aviv this summer for the Gaga Intensive.

Has Gaga inspired any of the movement in your upcoming work, Versus?

Gaga, or rather the study of Gaga, I guess you could say, has certainly opened my body to new movement and that freedom has brought new vocabulary. I would say that, yes, I do feel as though "Versus" will look and feel different, not only because of the subject matter, but because my dancers are moving differently and we are all feeling ideas differently. It is an exciting time. I believe we will always like what reminds us of home, but sometimes, it is nice to redecorate - for me that's what Gaga has done - like fresh paint on familiar walls.

 

All Opening the Space events are free.  Please see our Facebook page for more details. For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website. 

Dance and Yoga Connected

Next Tuesday, October 30, is the penultimate installment of the Opening the Space series.  Anna Leo, Associate Professor, will be teaching a Yoga Class open to all levels. Below, Leo tells us how she has connected Yoga to dance and how it has been implemented in the Emory Dance Program.

What are a few of the many ways in which Yoga can be beneficial to the dancer?

I have begun creating what I call "modules" of yoga poses for specific dance classes.  For example, George Staib came to me seeking a way to help students access the arch in the upper back, I put together a series of yoga poses (a module) that address this area of the body, and provided a new way for students to observe that area of the body.  A singular pose may enable students to gain insight into a specific dance concept that they couldn't find through regular dance technique channels. I have worked on various dance concepts through modules including leg rotation, pelvic placement, specific ballet positions (such as passe, arabesque, and attitude, and general alignment.  For Greg Catellier's Fitness for Dancers course I prepared a module that works on strength, and then another for flexibility, especially of the hamstrings.  

 

Yoga focuses a lot on breathing, something that can often be overlooked in dance.  How do you think the breath work in Yoga can positively assist the dancer?

Although I include attention to breath in yoga poses and in dance classes, I actually teach about breath in separate sessions. The practice of pranayama (refinement of the breath) is a class in itself.

Any other words on the relationship between Yoga and dance?

It is my belief that a sense of well being is often the result of self awareness attained through activities  that connect the mind and body - like yoga. Great for dancers and everyone!

All Opening the Space events are free.  Please see our Facebook page for more details. For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website. 

Touching Base with Contact Improvisation

On Tuesday, October 23, Lori Teague, Director of Dance,  will be leading a Contact Improvisation Jam as part of the Opening the Space series.  Teague touches base with us with her perspective on contact improvisation in preparation for this event. 

1. How do you think contact improvisation best helps us as movers?
Contact Improvisation (C.I.) is mostly about exploring weight and flow in the body in three-dimensional space.  The timing and pacing of the movement is determined by the two, or more, bodies that have connected.  Concepts we explore in technique class, such as being grounded, transferring weight in any direction, or leading with various body parts are utilized while the mover is in the act of improvising with someone who is doing the same.  C.I. develops a sensitivity to someone else's timing while simultaneously deepening how they are moving from the inside out.  You are sensing through the skin; you are understanding leverage; you are following your own impulses and listening to someone else.

2. What do you think is most difficult for beginners to grasp when first trying contact improvisation?

Probably touch itself, and that is directly related to giving weight to your partner and the trust involved in that process.  Because C.I. is inherently intimate there has to be immediate abstraction— a way of discovering movement choices without a personal way of identifying with the source. I am not saying that you are detached. I am saying that you move your body and feel their body as an element, a mass of weight leveraging, skimming, following.  Our inhibition with touch is attached to social and psychological components of our lives. We can simply move and be moved by someone else by responding to an environment of tone and landscape.

3. What is your best piece of advice for all contact improvisers out there?

C.I. is incredibly fun.  The range of ideas and possibilities are magnified through touch, trust, community, and self-knowledge.

All Opening the Space events are free.  Please see our Facebook page for more details. For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website. 

Preview: Blake Beckham's Artist Talk on Threshold

Blake Beckham ('01C) gives us a sneak peak at what she will be discussing in next week's Opening the Space: Artist Talk about her latest work, Threshold. Beckham and her Lucky Penny design team built a life-sized two-story house made entirely out of cardboard and created an acclaimed dance within it. Don't miss this event on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 7:30pm.

How exactly did you come across such a unique idea as performing in a life size house made of cardboard?

The initial idea was to create a performance piece addressing the fragile nature of home. In the course of my research, I started dreaming of a house of cards - an image that eventually transformed into a house of cardboard. The concept and material, I realized, evoked the tension at the heart of the work. Most of us associate houses with permanence, security, and stability. The cardboard box suggests transiency, packing, moving, even homelessness. To see a fully designed house made out of cardboard is a compelling contradiction. For me, its both provocative and evocative.

How does the theme of crossing thresholds into environments that are normally kept private and out of public eye come across in your choreography?

In the piece, we destabilize home by building it out of paper and fragmenting its architecture. We also call into question the fluid nature of its thresholds - spaces of transition where we might lose ourselves. From the very beginning of our creative process, I was interested in the dialectic of interior and exterior. Thresholds are icons of boundary that call our attention to this tug: inside/outside; public/private; the sacred/profane. Home is a refuge, but because we feel protected there, its also where we unleash something of ourselves usually kept hidden from the outside world. I wanted the audience to have a bit of a voyeuristic experience - to feel that they had gotten a little too close to the intimate relationships played out by the dancers inside this house. As such, the dancers expose themselves through an intimate physical language that's both tender and terrifying, dreamlike but familiar.

What were the challenges of choreographing a piece while simultaneously building the set in a limited amount of time?  Did these challenges influence your choreography in any way?  How did the structure of the set in general influence your choreography?

DramaTech Theater was incredibly gracious to offer us a five-week residency in their space, during which time we built the house, conducted all the technical rehearsals, and performed the piece. The short timeline for construction meant that our efforts had to be heroic. Thankfully, we had a devoted crew of 30, plus over 70 volunteers who made the extraordinary commitment. It took over 2,000 hours in 28 days to build the house, through a complicated process of gluing, cutting, assembling, hoisting, hauling, and problem-solving. We were physically exhausted, stretched to the limits of our endurance and imaginations. The dancers demonstrated incredible resolve, learning in a very short time to work with the set and its moving parts. In most of our rehearsals, we had to rely upon just drawings, models, and renderings to envision how the choreography would fit into the space. That was a fun but complicated challenge for me - to develop the work for the set, but without the set. And to create something that used the space without destroying it. Despite its hefty appearance, the house itself was actually fragile. With use, it would easily sag, dent, and rip. 

What do you think you will take away most from this experience?

Threshold generated an amazing and diverse community - people who came together to participate in the work, volunteer on our behalf, and assist with financial and production support. These were professional artists representing a host of disciplines, local arts patrons, architecture aficionados, all kinds of students from the Georgia Tech campus, moms, friends, members of the stage hand's union, and others who recognized that this was a very substantial effort for Atlanta's performance scene. The ambition of the project was magnetic. Those who helped build the house were empowered by the process. It was truly a remarkable sight: to start on day one with nothing but a giant pile of cardboard, and end several weeks later with a monumental structure. I think the artists at the center of the work (myself included) were all challenged in meaningful ways. I think we grew as creative thinkers and expanded our vision of what's possible. 

All Opening the Space events are free.  Please see our Facebook page for more details. For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website. 

GYROKINESIS® Q & A with Sally Radell

Sally Radell answers a few questions about the somatic practice of GYROKINESIS® to shed some light on her upcoming Opening the Space class on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 7:30pm. 

What is GYROKINESIS® and what are its benefits?

GYROKINESIS® movement training involves circular movements of the spine, rhythmic breathing, and continuous flow to develop improved body awareness, core strength, flexibility, and movement integration. It was developed about twenty years ago by injured dancer Juliu Horvath as a way to bring movement back into and strengthen his injured body. The form was originally referred to as yoga for dancers and is suitable for movers of all experience levels. To me it feels like a form of Pilates for dancers because of the continuous flow that focuses on building core strength. It is now being taught in university dance programs across the country as a somatic form that strengthens dancers' technique.

When did you first come across GYROKINESIS®?

I first encountered GYROKINESIS® movement training about three or four years ago. As a dancer who has moved my whole life I kept getting injuries, primarily due to the fact that I spent most of my recent movement life teaching and not enough time training my body. A few dance colleagues told me about the work, I took a few classes and I was hooked. I was able to complete the teacher training process primarily in Atlanta and became certified to teach the form last April. 

What is your favorite aspect of this technique and why?

As a somatic form I particularly like it because it really strengthens ones core, which for me was the key to reducing my injuries and it definitely has. Also, it feels like dancing as opposed to just doing exercises. This interested me. One thing I have definitely learned in my movement life is that if you don't really enjoy it you won't do it. Additionally, in the Emory Dance Program we are working to increase our somatic offerings, so I am currently teaching our first class in it this semester. Next spring I will be teaching the material in a freshman seminar format and am really looking forward to it. I am also presently offering community classes in the form as well.  

All Opening the Space classes are free.  Please see the facebook page for more details. 

Alumna Elizabeth Cooke's Narrative Tango Tours in Buenos Aires

In 2010, Emory dance alumna Elizabeth Cooke ('09C) co-founded Narrative Tango Tours in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an organization that allows visitors to explore the world of tango. Tourists can immerse themselves in the tango culture and sub-culture by combining dancing, listening, watching, and learning to personalize their experience. While at Emory, Elizabeth majored in Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture and Society and minored in Dance. She studied abroad in Argentina where she fell in love with the culture and tango. After graduation, her love for tango brought her back to Argentina, where she remains an active participant in the tango lifestyle. For more information about Narrtive Tango Tours, visit its website. For a Q&A with Elizabeth, read on.

How did you first become interested in tango?

I was first introduced to the tango in July of 2007 shortly after I arrived in Buenos Aires. My study abroad program organized an optional outing to a milonga, a traditional Argentine dance hall where people gather to socialize and dance tango. Although I’ve been a dancer all my life it was oddly not the dance itself that first attracted me to the tango. I saw the tango as a whole, with all of its facets, as a community and a sub-culture of its own. I was fascinated not just by the dance but also by the history, the music, the clothes and the shoes, the companies and performances, and the role that each aspect played in the tango industry in its entirety. I came to appreciate tango’s importance not just as something culturally significant for Argentina, but also as an internationally celebrated and practiced dance form, and began to recognize the implications that had on the industry at large.

How did your experience at Emory (in dance or elsewhere) influence your decision to move to Argentina?

During my junior year (between July 2007 and July 2008) I completed a yearlong study abroad program in Buenos Aires through Emory. Often referred to as “the Paris of Latin America.” Buenos Aires possesses a magical gritty charm, and I was totally hooked after the first few weeks. Thanks to my areas of study (Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture with a concentration in Dance in the Media, and Dance and Movement Studies) I was able to complete an independent research project on the national and international tango industry. Running around the city interviewing tango masters – from dancers to musicians to academics – served as the perfect backdrop for me to absolutely fall in love with the city, its art scene and its tango scene. I knew early on that I wanted to move back after graduation, and fortunately I was able to make it happen. It’s hard to say whether or not I would have gotten the same undergrad opportunities at an institution other than Emory.

How did the Emory Dance Program prepare you for this career?

I think the Emory Dance Program provided me with a fairly comprehensive base to dance as art form. "History of Dance" and "Contemporary Issues in Dance," two Dance Department courses, for example, give students an essential understanding of dance’s past, while acknowledging the present and encouraging future innovation. As with any art form, it’s important to educate yourself on where things come from and where they’re heading. If art (and dance being an art form) does not evolve it will die, and the tango is no exception to this. The Dance Program also showed me the importance of pushing your boundaries and being knowledgeable about various dance forms, not just your favorites – they all have a role in the larger scheme of things.

Tell me a little about your company, Narrative Tango Tours (NTT), and how it was formed.
As I mentioned earlier, I had the unique opportunity of completing a comprehensive research project in 2008 on the tango industry here. In early 2010 I was introduced to Cyrena Drusine, a professional tango dancer who is now my business partner. Shortly after we met she came to me with an idea for a historical tango walking tour, which is now the "NTT Historical Tango Tour – Tales of Tango through the Barrios of Buenos Aires." The rest of NTT’s services, as well as our business philosophy, stemmed from that first idea, and we now offer a wide array of tango services in Buenos Aires, all based on the way the client would like to access and experience the tango. Our services are broken up into four categories – dance, watch, listen, and learn – and all focus on getting a unique, insider perspective on the tango and how it has functioned and continues to function in the lives of Argentines and foreigners in Buenos Aires.

You are currently performing in a musical. Can you describe the show and the audition process or how you became a part of it?
After leaving Emory I doubted whether or not I would ever step foot on a stage again. I suppose it was foolish for me to underestimate the power of my relationship with dance and performance, because it didn’t take long before I was diving into the local dance scene here and determined to get up on stage in Argentina. Singing and acting are two art forms within the performance realm that I have long wanted to explore. After a ballet class one day at the Fundacion Julio Bocca (the dance and musical theater school formed by acclaimed Argentine dancer Julio Bocca) I saw a sign up for an open casting call the following week. I was the only North American among the 250 that auditioned. I was pretty nervous. The first day we had to dance a combination and sing a solo, both of which they had taught us that day. For callbacks we had to do a monologue and more singing and dancing. It was all pretty crazy, but it ended up being an amazing experience and I was constantly surrounded by extremely talented people. Those seven months of weekly shows reaffirmed my belief that there’s nothing quite like the rush you get from being on stage.

How has your relationship with dance evolved over the years?

I think within my post-grad years my relationship with dance has become more widespread and more stable. Being in Argentina has allowed me to explore other forms of dance, including tango and other Latin American styles like salsa. But I’ll always go back to the basics - I take jazz classes with a great teacher here from NYC, who used to teach at STEPS and is a fabulous pedagogue. Living in a big city with a thriving arts scene also has its benefits – seeing things often keeps me inspired and motivated. I know that dance is something that has an integral role in my mental and physical health and happiness, and it's clear that relationship isn’t going away.

What inspiration does the Narrative Tango Tour draw from "Tales of Tango Through the Barrios of Buenos Aires," the original historical walking tour?
Dance history, especially when it comes to cultural dance forms, is something that has always has really fascinated me. One of the most interesting things about the tango is its past, and this is a fact that both myself and many other tango lovers agree on. The Argentine tango, much like Argentina as a country, has had a very tumultuous history, and that has been largely reflected in its story. What’s cool is that so much of this history was created in confiterias, milongas and street corners that still exist today in Buenos Aires. During NTT’s Historical Tango Tour we try to relive this experience for our clients, bringing them to specific places in the city (like the “La Boca” neighborhood where tango was born, and the old house of tango music icon Carlos Gardel, which is now a museum in his honor) and telling them stories that correspond to the places they’re seeing.