An Essay: KEIGWIN + COMPANY

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Runaway; photo Christopher Duggan

Note: This is an excerpt of my pre-show talk before KEIGWIN + COMPANY at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, while I was a scholar-in-residence this summer.

Will nightclubs in the future have a retro spin? Are birds performing for us when we go bird watching? Why is love so complicated and tender all at the same time? What in the world makes runway models so angry?

These are some of the questions swirling around my mind as I watched the program by KEIGWIN + COMPANY, now in their third appearance at the Pillow. The company first performed at the Pillow in 2003, the very year of the company’s founding, and more recently again in 2008.

The son of post-modermism and pop culture, Larry Keigwin picks and chooses the ideas that serve his purpose, switching between aesthetic streams with an ease rare to the dance world. He’s unapologetic about being entertaining, it need not intrude on artfulness. Following the lead of his generation in other art forms, Keigwin seems less concerned with holding true to any one convention of art making. It’s all for the taking, borrowing, invading and exploring on Planet Keigwin.

A native New Yorker, Keigwin seems as influenced by life on the street as life in the studio. He possesses a particular urban sensibility. These are dances made by a lived life, where the familiar outer world not only has a place, but flourishes. In looking at Keigwin’s own dance history, I can’t help but notice he has lived both inside and outside of the traditional dance bubble. His career has enjoyed a remarkable fluidity between dance, theater and pop culture.

He’s been a backup dancer on Club MTV, he’s worked with a pop band and a comedian . He created the Keigwin Kabaret, merging dance, vaudeville and burlesque at the Public Theater at Joe’s Pub and Symphony Space. He served as an associate choreographer for The Radio City Rockettes and off Broadway’s The Wild Party. He just recently choreographed the new off Broadway version of RENT, opening later this summer and choreographed Tales of the City, which just opened at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Imagine 150 of the Fashion industry’s top models strutting in formation around the fountain and plaza at Lincoln Center. Well, he did that too, when he staged “Fashion’s Night Out: The Show,” which was Fashion Week’s opening event produced by Vogue. We need more choreographers in unlikely places, and the next time we see one, it’s likely to be Keigwin.

On the more traditional side, Keigwin has a dance degree from Hofstra University. He’s had commissions by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, The Juilliard School, The New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, and The Martha Graham Dance Company, among others. Last summer, he set work on four ballet stars as Vail International Dance Festival’s first artist-in-residence.

Keigwn also has an impressive resume as a dancer. He has danced at the Metropolitan Opera in Doug Varone’s Le Sacre Du Printemps and in Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute. He won a 1998 Bessie award for his performance in Mark Dendy’s Dream Analysis. The list of seminal choreographers he has worked with also includes Jane Comfort, John Jasperse, Doug Elkins, David Rousseve and others. Keigwin managed to glean from his predecessors and still emerge out with an original choreographic voice such that his dances are informed by his history but not limited or defined by it.

Dancing making is a co-creative process at K + C. Dancers workshop phrases, which will eventually be molded by Keigwin. The company culture is one of collaboration. The choreographer adds, “It’s like creating a suit or a dress, the dancers shape and develop material, then I sew it together.” The dancers have an enormous creative investment in the final product, each with their own distinct movement intelligence.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Megalopolis; photo Christopher Duggan

“Mega” is the operative syllable in Megalopolis, the first work on the program, which was commissioned by The Dance Division of The Juilliard School in 2009. The piece exudes a retro futuristic style, imagine Judy Jetson’s night out in outer space. I had the good fortune of being in the audience, or rather the mob, when the piece premiered at Juilliard. I say “mob” because it seemed nearly impossible to stay still or quiet. Juxtaposition is a key element in many of Keigwin’s works; Megalopolis uses music from minimalist Steve Reich along with electronic master MIA.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Love Songs; photo Christopher Duggan

Love is a “many-splendored” thing, until it’s in Keigwin’s hands in Love Songs, and then the plot thickens. Add in Roy Obrison’s gut-wrenching anthems, Blue Bayou and Crying, Aretha Franklin’s bluesy Baby I Love You, and I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, and finally Nina Simone’s haunting songs, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood and I Put a Spell on You, and you will see that love can indeed a many splendored and splintered thing.

Keigwin captures the way couples communicate with each other, or fail to do so, the way they can be in the same room, but a million miles away from each other, or saying the same thing over and over and not being heard. Look for the synergy between song, step and emotion. Through Orbison’s soaring tenor, the urgency in Franklin’s commands, and the velvety tone of Simone, we witness three couples navigate through the minefield of love. I’d like to think that every love song started with a story, in Love Songs, we get glimpse of these stories.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Bird Watching; photo Christopher Duggan

I find a formalist lurking just under the surface in his 2010 piece Bird Watching, which pokes playful fun at balletic pantomime, along with gestures of flocking, flapping, fluttering and flying. Keigwin describes the movement as “superficial super retro Sears catalog posing.” Really, our feathered friends do seem rather self obsessed, and at times, outrageously showy. There’s a voyeuristic quality to Keigwin’s avian antics, which are set to Hayden’s Symphony #6 in D Major. I also see a parallel between the exotic nature of birds and dancers, surely there’s no shortage of birds in the ballet canon. It’s formal alright, but at no sacrifice to the fun factor. Even the men wear tiny black tutus. Sparkles are included.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Runaway; photo Christopher Duggan

Fashion has always seemed to straddle the edge of art. Sure, there’s a long history of influence between fashion and dance, from ripped T-shirts, to oversized bags, along with a slew of famous designers creating costumes. Fashion is inherently theatrical. Keigwin gets that. Runaway straddles homage and critique of this insular culture of high end consumerism.Yet again, we find Keigwin boldly invading this hybrid world with his own particular stamp, and it’s a menacing one at that. The pun in the title makes me wonder what models are running from.

Narcissism, the amplification of glamor, the extreme exaggeration of our “look at me” culture, the body as display object, all play out to Jonathan Melville Pratt’s pounding score. Runaway, the penultimate Keigwin piece, is simply a feast of excess.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Runaway; photo Christopher Duggan

I imagine Keigwin to be in love with the stage space His finesse with moving bodies through space, on and off the stage, and complex groupings of dancers forming and dissolving is evidenced in each of these pieces. In Megalopolis, we find train-like diagonal parades that come and go instantly, in Love Songs, it’s the charged space between the dancers and the wildly expressive partnering, which just oozes sensual tension. In Bird Watching, it’s the ruffled edges in the airspace and crisp unison, and finally, in Runaway, it’s a fierce use of the catwalk strut. Never underestimate the power of the straight line, or that frisky way models just turn their backs on us and walk away. Underlying all this attitude though, is the piece’s solid spatial geometry. Keigwin possesses such a rich locomotive vocabulary. Often, I get the feeling that the stage space is just a portal of a larger space. One wonders what’s happening in the backstage space.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY in Love Songs; photo Christopher Duggan

Much as said about Keigwin’s use of pedestrian movement. I’d like to meet these pedestrians. Certainly, he’s not the first or last to employ everyday movement in his dances, there’s a long tradition of pedestrian movement in modern dance. Yet there’s a twist, a sharp edge between technical flair and human gesture.

There’s a generosity here, in the subject matter, in the expansive use of space, the mouth watering juiciness of his movement vocabulary and the full throttle commitment of the dancers. We want to lean in, maybe even fall in to these dances. Keigwin’s kinetic curiosity entices us into his world, and in doing so, into our world.

Your Body: Tension

Doug Varone and Dancers in Chapters from a Broken Novel (2011)” Credit: Photo by Bill Hebert

 

Update: I remain deeply interested in how dancers modulate what we call “tension” and how that does or does not draw our eye.  There’s seems to be a magic proportion of tension to movement.  Of course,  choreography matters.  Watching Trisha Brown Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow, I  found a perfect example of the absolute minimum amount of tension needed to hold shape.

Reprinted from Dance Magazine.

When Ryan Corriston catapults across the stage for his dramatic entrance in Doug Varone’s Lux, the audience responds to his sheer abandon. Varone’s work demands flowing movement, so if a dancer has excess tension, the dance can lose its luster. “I tend to tense my shoulders and arms when a piece is new to me,” says Corriston, who is in his sixth season with Doug Varone and Dancers. “I need to move from my core, making use of my whole body, not just my arms.”

 

Tension often gathers first in the shoulders and neck. Even a dancer in top condition with strong technique cannot disguise the tension that builds up from overworking and imbalances. The solution does not lie simply in trying to “relax.” There are some quick remedies, however, as well as long-term ones. Armed with increased body awareness, somatic modalities, and on-the-spot fixes like a roller, ball, or massage, dancers can deal with tension in a way that does not interfere with their ability to learn and perform.

 

Tension refers to the action of muscles contracting. Dancing would be impossible without a certain amount of it. “We would be a puddle on the floor,” says Tom Welch, a professor of dance kinesiology at Florida State University. Peggy Gould, an associate professor at Sarah Lawrence College who teaches dance conditioning and kinesiology, defines it further. “Tension is muscle work that does not produce motion, but rather helps to maintain a stable or static situation. There is no change in muscle length, no change in relationship between the bones the muscle attaches to, no joint motion, no movement.”

 
Excess tension, which can make you look stiff, derives from the relationship between muscles and bones. “When we don’t make good use of our bony support structures, it’s often our muscles that wind up playing key roles in holding us up against gravity,” Gould says. “Treating a muscle like a bone generally leads to that muscle behaving more like bone, becoming stiffer and more resistant.”

 
Here’s the good news: There are numerous ways to relieve excess tension. Moving, stretching, massage, rest, or heat can help, suggests Gould. For Welch, the way you prepare your body for the job of dance can help. “Muscles have to be strong and long,” he says. He teaches a special Pilates class devoted to reducing tension. “It’s a two-stage process involving activation and strengthening, then releasing and stretching,” he says.

 
There are other ways to achieve similar results. Jennifer Williams, of Chaddick Dance Company in Austin, Texas, has struggled with excess tension all her dancing life due to structural imbalances from scoliosis. Technique class alone does not help. “I’m a firm believer in rolling out muscles, whether it’s a tennis ball or a foam roller,” says Williams. These provide feedback to the neuromuscular system—a dancer can sense her body against it, and become more aware of where she is holding extra tension. Massage can also play a vital role in releasing tightness. “I see a massage therapist every other week,” Williams says.

 
Though all of these methods can relieve tension, somatics training helps dancers get to the bottom of the tension cycle. “We must understand the origins of a tension pattern in order to let go of it,” says Gould. “I encourage students to think of this work as refinement in order to advance their technical capabilities.”

 
Many somatic systems aim at freer movement. Methods like Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and Ideokinesis allow students to slow down, make small changes, and dis­cover the difference these somatic practices can make in their posture apart from the demands of dancing. Feldenkrais focuses on skeletal balance; Alexander, on the position of the skull; Ideokinesis enlists visualization and imagery to foster physical change. The ease, length, balance, and efficiency that these systems help dancers develop all lead to a reduction of unnecessary tension. Welch finds a multifaceted approach works best, one where a dancer can spend time exploring tension in a separate class. Then it can be useful to have the concepts reinforced in dance class through the verbal cues explored in somatic classes.

 
Dancing with the ideal amount of tension may be a career changer. “What we see when we watch a spectacular performer is the precise application of effort,” says Gould. “Not too much, not too little, but just the right amount to fulfill the technical and aesthetic requirements of the performance.”

Your Body: Too Loud

The Houston Met; Photo by Ben Doyle, Runaway Productions LLC

Update: What did you say? Turn it down people.  Chances are you are listening to music at too high a volume or too close to the speakers.  Since it’s really hard get a new set of ears it’s best to take care of those babies.  Sure, we want dance to have a buzz, but not in our ears.

Should you find yourself in Portland, Oregon, you can walk though a giant ear at Oregon Museum of  Science & Industry’s Dangerous Decibels exhibit or learn everything you need to know at the Dangerous Decibels web site.

You can watch The Houston MET, who inspired this article,  perform at Dance Source Houston’s Weekend of  Texas Contemporary Dance on Sept. 23 & 24 at Miller Outdoor Theatre.  The dancing may be loud but the music will be just right. And remember, never leave home without a pair of ear plugs.  You never know when loudness will strike.

Reprinted from Dance Magazine.

A rehearsal of Braham Logan Crane’s History, set to Angela Ai’s pulsing music, makes an impact. The sheer intensity of the dancing at Houston Metropolitan Dance seems to reflect Crane’s high-octane choreography and the music’s blasting volume. “We wanted it loud so we could feel Ai’s emotions,” says Marlana Walsh, the company’s managing director. The volume helps the dancers mirror the music’s vitality. Few realize that prolonged exposure to high decibels may jeopardize their hearing.

Unlike knees and hips, ears are not replaceable. Exposure to high volumes over time will cause hearing loss, something dancers need to think about before turning up their iPods or rehearsal volume. Recent research at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary suggests that damage to hearing continues long after the noise has stopped. The sooner you protect your ears, the better chance you have of avoiding cumulative damage.

William Hal Martin, Ph.D., a professor of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) at Oregon Health & Science University, isn’t surprised that dancers like to pump up the volume during rehearsal. “The vibrations caused by sound creates a tremendously sensual experience,” he says. “Our bodies are covered with touch receptors that let the brain know when something is in contact with our skin. Sound waves from high decibel levels stimulate those same sensors all over our bodies. We not only hear loud music, we feel it all over. That’s why it’s so hard to sit still when the music is blasting—it drives us all to dance.”

Volume and duration make the greatest impact on hearing loss; the type of earphone you use makes no difference. The higher the decibels, the less safely you can listen. Be wary of sounds over 85 decibels. Sure, you can go to RadioShack and get yourself a decibel meter to check the safety of your rehearsal volume, but you don’t have to. There’s a simple way of telling if the music is too loud: if you have to raise your voice to be heard. To get a sense of the decibels around you, normal speech is about 65. Rock concerts run at about 110 to 120 decibels, and a gunshot is 160 decibels. “Sounds above 130 decibels cause immediate and permanent damage, typically starting in the high-frequency area of the ear,” says Martin.

With personal listening devices like iPods and cell phones, people don’t realize how far up they have turned the volume. Ackland Jones, an audiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, points to research suggesting that prolonged use of these devices poses a hearing risk. “Your iPod is capable of 110 decibels,” says Jones. “Use common sense.  If the sound is shaking the whole car, it’s too loud. Keep in mind that sounds don’t have to be painful to do damage.” If you have to remove your earbud to hear someone, you are over the line.

Audiologists recommend that if you can’t turn it down, move away from the sound source or use hearing protection. Dancer and percussionist Stephanie Marshall can’t escape the booming percussion when she’s onstage in the off-Broadway hit Stomp. After Marshall noticed a sensitivity in her ears with high frequencies, she had her hearing tested. “The audiologist suggested earplugs, which I now wear during the second half of the show, especially during the number when we are smashing metallic trash cans,” says Marshall.

Foam and flange earplugs are readily available at drugstores. They come in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges. “The best earplug is the one that is comfortable and easy to use so you will actually use it,” says Martin. “Size is important.  If they don’t fit, they will work as well as a screen door on a submarine.”

Most ears experience some temporary hearing loss periodically. That’s why after a rock concert, sounds may seem dull, like you are underwater. Permanent hearing loss tends to be gradual. Martin describes the permanent damage to the ear cell hairs as akin to a lawn. “If a crowd walks across the lawn once, it may flatten the grass, but much of it will recover. But if a person walks back and forth on the same stretch day after day, the grass will die and not grow back.  An extra layer of safety like earplugs is worth the investment.”

Review: iMee at Houston Dance Festival

 

iMEE Artists, Britt Juleen, Lindsey McGill, Andrea Dawn Shelley & Jessica Collado in Spencer Gavin Hering's & Andrea Dawn Shelley's, "Superfluous." Photo by Simon Gentry.   Reprinted from Dance Source Houston. Don’t let iMEE‘s weird name throw you off, this is a company on the move on Houston’s dance-scape. iMEE stands for “Infinite Movement Ever Evolving;” I can’t vouch for the infinite, but it’s a “hell yeah” on the “movement” and “evolving,” which were in full evidence for their recent Houston Dance Festival show at Barnevelder. The program opened with Superfluous, a light romp set to 1950s tunes, jointly choreographed by iMEE co-founders Spencer Gavin Hering and Andrea Dawn Shelley. The pair are well known to Houston audiences for their work with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater and more recently, Hope Stone Dance. But here, they are standing on their own as relatively new choreographers. Hering and Shelley showed off a theatrical bent in their first outing, creating a sense of community, while the dancers enacted a collection of soulful songs evoking the spirited tenor of the 1950s. Oliver Halkowich and Shelley possessed a luscious quality in the sensuous opening passage, capturing the wistful nature of nostalgia. Jessica Collado stood out for her finely honed attack alternating with a silken quality. I could have stood for a bit less drunk dancing, yet the choreographers showed a knack for narrative, musicality, and bringing out the best qualities of their dancers. Maurice Causey changed the mood completely with Grim Eye, his raw edged apocalyptic opus, set to an electronic score by Gabriel Prokofiev. Causey’s heavy metal ballet begins and ends with the volume cranked up to full. I guess that’s the point, but it does get a bit heavy-handed and monotonic. Although I never quite understood why or how we got to this bitter place, Grim Eye did indeed keep my eyes busy with plenty of dynamic movement sharply executed by this fantastic group of dancers. Clad in white pants and black war paint, Causey conjures a tribal essence, sinister in its relentlessness. Jeremy Choate’s lighting design added to the piece’s harsh landscape. The dancing proved to be the most impressive element to the evening. Shelley, Hering, Lindsey McGill, Britt Juleen, Cristian Laverde Koenig, Halkowich, Collado, Edgar Anido—terrific dancers all—made up for any discrepancies in the choreography. What a pleasure to see such distinguished guest artists, Houston Ballet dancers, and local dancers sharing the stage. Good move iMEE. One thing is perfectly clear, iMEE has arrived on a solid note. Your next chance to see them is during Dance Source Houston’s annual Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance at Miller Outdoor Theatre on September 23 & 24. That’s not a plug, it’s a strong suggestion.

New Buildings for Dance

Kansas City Ballet’s Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity. Photo by Lisa Lipovac.

Reprinted from Culturemap.

Update:  The story may have posted a while back but my interest in new buildings for dance continues.  The Kansas City Ballet’s Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity  in the renovated 1914 Power House building on the Union Station campus, opens on August 22, 2011. With seven studios, including the main studio floor of the Ginger and Michael Frost Studio Theatre, the Bolender Center will serve as the destination for dance for the company, the school and the community as well.  I had the good fortune to spend some time with Kansas City Ballet’s Music Director Ramona Pansegrau at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival this summer, who told me about their new dance digs. The building opened on Aug. 22, 2011.  I finally did get to write a story on Ballet Austin’s downtown choice in Dance Teacher.  I am also happy to report that I have not gotten lost in Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance in at least a week. The building is breaking in nicely and I still get a thrill when I drive by.

“When I get my career off the ground, I’m going to perform in this alley,” I told my brother some three decades ago. The pathetic part is that I wasn’t kidding.

That alley was eventually officially named “Dance Alley,” even though the venue was forced into an even more marginal area. During my dancing life, I performed in all manner of hovels, ramshackle spaces and places that the fire marshal deemed not fit for the public (fine for dancers though).

So you can just imagine my joy when I returned from summer vacation two years ago to find Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance already on its way to becoming Houston’s temple of dance.

Artists Jordan Reed and Katlyn Addison rehearse in the new Houston Ballet Center for Dance. Photo by Amitava Sarkar

New buildings and arts organizations make a touchy subject. Putting money into bricks and mortar has bankrupted many a theater company in this nation. But I was the one getting defensive if anyone gave me grief about Houston Ballet’s new digs. I would ask, “Have you ever been in C.C. Conner’s office when the men are jumping? Houston Ballet needed a new building to match the level of their national stature. Let’s get on it with.” And they did.

As a card carrying-citizen of Planet Houston dance, I take pride in that shiny new structure. My name is scribbled on the last steel beam, along with those of the staff, the company and members of the entire Houston Ballet community. I walked into the building with the company for the first time, and watched their very first plie. Company class may have been business as usual, yet I imagine the day stirred many a dancer to wonder, “I work here?”

Here’s a question: How do you know how society values you based on the buildings you work in? I set off on a pilgrimage to find out.

New York

I nearly fell over crossing 55th Street, when I first laid eyes on the Joan A. Weill Center for Dance, home of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II and The Ailey School in New York City. It’s that impressive. Large windows allow you to gaze on all kinds of dancing. Light and airy, if buildings could breath, this one does.

The in-house theater has perfect sight lines for dance, too. I like to pop in every time I’m in New York and feel in a “dance is in the dumps” mood. I perk right up as I imagine the some 5,000 students do who train yearly in the 77,000-square-foot facility. It’s a dance monument, if I have ever seen one.

Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, New York Photo by Michael Hart

I ventured over to Center For Performance Research, Brooklyn’s first L.E.E.D. Certified green building of its kind. The award-winning lab offers affordable space for performance and rehearsal along with innovative programing. Developed by Jonah Bokaer and John Jasperse, the 4,000-square-foot space is a mixed-use residential and commercial condominium that also houses a non-profit community arts facility on the ground floor. It’s one smart way of having a place to develop your work.

Bokaer and Jasperse, two seminal American dance makers, built the studio’s floor themselves. I had to think about that for a minute. You should too.

Ballet Austin's Butler Dance Education Center in downtown Austin Photo by Andrew Yates

Austin

I promised I would drive by Ballet Austin for a brief chat with their artistic director Stephen Mills last year when Dominic Walsh was featured in the troupe’s New American Talent program Two hours later, I was still there, entranced by the tale of how executive director Cookie Ruiz  granted Mills’ wish of finding a downtown location.

Today, the Butler Dance Education Center houses two schools, Ballet Austin’s Academy, The Butler Community School, along with the professional company and Ballet Austin II, who just happen to be performing Thang Dao’s Quiet Imprint  in Houston on Saturday at the Hobby Center. The building is glamorous, a total looker, just teaming with motion and so welcoming.

If a building could say, “Hey, come on in,” this one does. No wonder I didn’t want to leave — that and everyone’s warm Texas hospitality.

James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center at Sam Houston State University

Sam Houston State & Others

There are buildings I have written about but have yet to visit, like ODC’s The Dance Commons in San Francisco, Mark Morris Dance Group’s Brooklyn-based The Dance Center, Joffrey Ballet’s Joffrey Tower in Chicago and Booker T. Washington’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas’ sleek new arts district. I’d like to see Atlanta Ballet’s snazzy new place as well.

My most recent visit was to Sam Houston State University‘s new James & Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center, which opened this past fall. I was there to visit classes, catch up with the faculty and review their inaugural concert in The Dance Gallery, built especially for dance. The building is graceful, there is no other way to explain it. A dramatic James Surls sculpture fills the atrium of this spacious facility, which encourages students of various disciplines to mix and mingle.

Dana E. Nicolay, associate dean and professor of dance, treated me to an in-depth tour. As a key person in the planning process, Nicolay could explain the thought behind every decision in elaborate detail. The pride he exuded was palpable. We lingered for a long while, watching classes through the expansive windows.

The experience of a new space is considerably different for those who endured the difficulties of the dance department’s former quarters than for freshmen, who have only known this elegant place.

Even though I already knew the answer to my question, I couldn’t resist asking. “Do you think it affects dancers’ self esteem to learn in a building like this?” The look in Nicolay’s eyes told me everything I needed to know.

His comments made me think about the Summer Intensive students who will enter Houston Ballet’s building soon and never know anything different. This will be their first impression of Houston Ballet.

If buildings could talk, this one is whispering, “You are valued.”

Your Body: Power ZZZZs

Paul Taylor Dance Company; Michael Apuzzo in Brief Encounters; Photo by Paul B. Goode

Reprinted from Dance Magazine.

Update: This piece was originally inspired by my time with Houston-based artist Emily Sloan,  originator of Napping Affects Performance.  After her first successful Southern Napstist Convention,  she opens  ShadeCloud at Art League Houston this week.  Expect some napping under the ShadeCloud. ” Bring on the Napture”  is my favorite  Sloan-ism.  Amy Ell and her company Vault perform at DiverseWorks in Houston on Sept. 29-Oct. 1.  Apuzzo has a busy season with PTDC as well.  I continue to marvel at the benefits of the 20-minute nap. I wish all my fellow nappers some quality shuteye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Apuzzo manages the leaps, jumps, and lightning-quick changes of direction in Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs without a hitch, thanks to his extraordinary abilities—and, according to him, to the 20-minute snooze he takes between tech run-through and the performance. “It’s such a bonus to get a nap in because this piece is so intense. I really need to get to my power,” says Apuzzo, now in his third season with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. “A nap re-centers my body and mind so I feel completely refreshed for the show.”

Sleep may have more to do with your performance than you realize. Without enough of it, just about every human function is compromised: memory, concentration, learning, coordination, immune system, metabolism, and more. While not a replacement for a good night’s sleep, a nap can refuel your energy battery, buff up your mental faculties, and even boost creativity. There is considerable evidence that short naps improve mental ability in certain areas. Some dancers feel napping indicates weakness or seems childish, but many find a brief snooze makes a marked difference in their energy and focus.

The term “power nap” was coined by social psychologist and leading sleep scientist Dr. James B. Maas, author of Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance. His research brought new validity to adult napping, tying a brief period of sleep into improved perfor­mance. Sleep happens in stages throughout the night, with REM (rapid eye movement) occurring in the later, deeper stages. In contrast, a power nap averages between 15 and 30 minutes, stopping before the cycle completes itself.

“In a nap, we go into non-REM sleep stages I or II,” says Dr. Makoto Kawai, a sleep neurologist at Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston “A nap can help us catch up on mild sleep deprivation. Most people working in the modern world are somewhat sleep deprived. We still don’t know why this short period of time gives us refreshment. But we do know that a shallower stage of sleep makes it easier to return to an awake state, giving us a boost.”

Amy Ell of Vault in Torn; Photo by Lynn Lane

Amy Ell, an aerial dancer and artistic director of Vault Dance Company, manages a busy schedule of teaching at her Houston studio as well as performing and dance making. Aerial dance doesn’t go well with sleeplessness. There are just too many life-or-death details when it comes to rigging and apparatus. “The power nap is my lifeline to the second half of my very long day,” says Ell. She has a handy room in her studio where she will not be disturbed. “My body wakes me up on its own,” she says.
Although there is no ideal power nap duration, most agree that shorter is better. If you sleep longer than 30 minutes, you may wake up feeling lethargic. This is because your body has entered a normal sleep cycle, and ending it abruptly causes a condition called sleep inertia, where the napper can feel even groggier than before. “You enter REM sleep where you actually lose muscle tone,” says Kawai.

There are a few caveats to consider. According to Dr. Aparajitha Verma, medical director at Sleep Disorders Center at Methodist Neurological Institute, what happens during a nap depends on who is doing the napping. “A sleep-deprived person can have REM sleep in a power nap,” she says. This can lull nappers into thinking that they have cured a serious sleep deficit in a brief break. “Adults require seven or eight hours per night to process information, for immune responses, memory consolidation, tissue repair, and to maintain hormonal balance,” warns Verma.

Timing makes as much difference to the benefits as length. “If the naps are especially close to a person’s normal bed time, they may interfere with a good night’s sleep,” Verma says. She also draws a distinction between an intentional rest like a nap and falling asleep frequently during the day. If you are chronically tired, you should consult a doctor.

And while a nap can indeed give a short-term energy boost, it does not carry the full benefits of deep sleep. “Consolidation of both long- and short-term memory happens in sleep, and our reaction time, concentration, and attention span are affected if we are sleep deprived,” says Verma. “All the new information that is learned is not processed well.”

Apuzzo says he notices a direct connection to his performing power, especially in Taylor’s challenging The Word. “The piece requires such a high level of focus,” he says. “I am always glad I got a nap in before I do those back flips.”

 

A Day of Dance: 24 at Jacob’s Pillow

Jodi Melnick and David Neumann in July; photo Cherylynn Tsushima

If a tree could take a bow,  it would most likely happen at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.  Perhaps it did.  Read on.

My summer travels began and ended at Jacob’s Pillow, the best place I know to dance binge while enjoying the great outdoors. The day began with the natural high I get from seeing Pillow dance banners lining Route 20. This thrills me every time. Why don’t we do this more?

Trisha Brown Dance Company in Set and Reset; photo Julieta Cervantes

Trisha Brown Dance Company celebrated its 40^th anniversary with a program spanning several decades, from the freshly minted les Yeux et l’ame to the 1973 witty classic Spanish Dance. It was Brown’s 1993 Set and Reset, with sets and costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and music by Laurie Anderson, that reminded me how deeply Brown’s vocabulary is engrained in my postmodern generation. Forming and un-forming, taking shape and letting it dissipate, sculpting space with a profound nuance, these are the characteristics of Brown’s wonderfully idiosyncratic style, all of which were in full evidence in this set of works. Yet, embedded in this sea of flow is a compelling palette of exquisite detail. It’s truly extraordinary that such richly textured movement can have such a fleeting feel.  Shape sans permanence, that’s Brown’s gift to us.

Jodi Melnick in Fanfare; photo Cherylynn Tsushima

What a set of dreamy movers in the pairing of David Neumann and Jodi Melnick , who teamed up at the suggestion of Pillow artistic and executive director Ella Baff.  (Neumann was last seen in Houston dancing the bittersweet A Day of It , his collaboration with Jane Weiner.)  I could watch these two move all day long, they’re that interesting.  Neumann possesses a slippery quality, looking as if a prat fall might occur at any minute, while Melnick’s calculated delicacy evokes a quiet authority.  Her breathtakingly subtle Fanfare combined an intricate gestural language with Burt Barr’s visuals of an electric metal fan.

David Neumann in Tough the Tough (redux); photo Cherylynn Tsushima

Neumann plays mankind, or “Steve,” with a droll wit in Tough the Tough (Redux), which featured an oddly upbeat existentialist text by Will Eno. The magnificent bowing tree comes in during Melnick and Neumann’s gorgeous duet July, where their understated grace seemed to stand in perfect balance to the nobility of the pine tree on full splendid view through the open back doors of the Doris Duke Theater.  In an “only at the Pillow” move,  Melnick and Neumann motioned to the tree at the end.

Maura Keefe, Lisa Neidermeyer, Debra Levine, Jennifer Edwards, Nancy Wozny; Photo by Cherylynn Tsushima

In between performances,  I hopped on a Pillow Talk  “Dancing Online” panel moderated by Scholar Maura Keefe,  sharing the stage with Virtual Pillow project manager Lisa Niedermeyer, and Huffington Post writers Debra Levine and Jennifer Edwards . The consensus is that people are watching and reading dance online, but we need more evidence of it to make a stronger case that we have a solid audience.  So hit those share buttons people, but don’t forget to actually read the piece first. Be less passive, and comment, should you feel the need. Writers alone can’t up the value of web based dance writing,  or dance writing in general.  We need engaged readers, and lots of them.

zoe | juniper in A Crack in Everything; photo Christopher Duggan

Catching up on most of what I missed in the archives took up the in between hours. I caught Jonah Bokaer, Zoe|Juniper, and Big Dance Theater, all of whom have Houston connections in the upcoming season. Zoe | Juniper will be at DiverseWorks on Jan. 19-21, Bokaer will be an artist-in-residence at University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and Big Dance Theater’s Paul Lazar directs Suzanne Bocanegra in When a Priest Marries a Witch on Nov. 1, also at the Mitchell Center.

Artist faculty of The School at Jacob's Pillow created work on the dancers, who then performed for the public duringthe free Inside/Out series every Saturday throughout the Festival.

No Pillow experience is complete without a visit to the Inside/Out stage. Nestled between a cherubic four-year old and my brother, each of us enthralled by the mountain view setting and earnest performances from the Jazz /Musical Theater students from all over the globe, it occurred to me that dance is something you can learn to love at any age. What better place to do it than the Pillow?

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston.

Trisha Brown Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow

Face to Face with Jonah Bokaer

David Rafaël Botana, James McGinn in Jonak Bokaer's Filter. Photo by Anna Lee Campbell

In 2006, dance and media artist Jonah Bokaer was one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”—a title to which he has delivered. In the midst of a whirlwind career, he’s been named one of The New York Times ’“Nifty 50,” and Crain’s New York  selected him as a “40 under 40.” He’s become known as a fearless advocate of the arts and his name has become synonymous with technology.

Bokaer was first noticed at 18, when he joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and danced with them from 2000 to 2007. He’s worked with artists including John Jasperse, David Gordon and Deborah Hay, and he is a frequent choreographer for stage director Robert Wilson. Bokaer helped found two Brooklyn-based nonprofits: Chez Bushwick, a performance and rehearsal space, and the Center for Performance Research, a LEED-certified green building where he develops his work.

Over the course of the 2010–11 school year, he spent five weeks in residence at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he premiered his multimedia piece FILTER. There, in collaboration with grad student Stephen Garrett, he developed Mass Mobile, a mobile app that lets audience members alter FILTER’s lighting design elements before and during performances. At his Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival debut next month, Bokaer will present RECESS and Why Patterns—a collaboration with design firm Snarkitecture and 10,000 ping-pong balls.

 

Jonah Bokaer's Why Patterns; photo Robert Benschop

 

Dance Teacher: Can you tell us about the work that will be shown at Jacob’s Pillow? 
Jonah Bokaer: Why Patterns is set up like a ping-pong game, and there are three floods of balls from above, the side—everywhere that interrupts the dance. RECESS  is an event that I made with the artist Daniel Arsham. Like its title, the piece addresses a childhood game of playtime, but the title also refers to negative space: a recess or cavity. Although these works are very abstract, they represent a lighthearted approach to making new choreography.

DT: What are the seeds of  FILTER?
JB: I grew up as one of four brothers, and I decided to portray scenes of fraternal behavior that spoke about coming of age. I cast the production with four performers who look nearly identical to one another, to point toward a theme of visual duplication. This was inspired by the photography of Anthony Goicolea, whose portraiture involves multiple images of the same figure, altered digitally. The title of the piece refers to the parts of my work that are never seen by the public: changing and filtering movements on-screen through digital tools, like live-processing and animation programs.

DT: Can you walk us through Mass Mobile, the app used in FILTER? 
JB: The app functions as a tool for the public to change the look, color, occasion and angle of the lighting. The set had nine trees onstage, and the audience could choose trees 1–9 to light up the space around them, within about two seconds of touching their phones. They could also choose the color of lighting. The results yielded far more participation than we had estimated. In performance, the app was actually so popular that it crashed the server before Scene Three.

The set for "FILTER." (Photos by Anthony Goicolea)

DT: How did it change the piece? 
JB: The mood was impacted: I sensed a great deal more blue in the work, which might have led to a more melancholy or intense viewing experience. There was also a very rapid rhythm of the audience’s responses—which was a surprise.

DT: You have done so much in your career already. What are your goals?
JB: I’m currently working on my 30th work of choreography, which will be complete in the fall of 2012, near the time of my 30th birthday. Longer term, I hope to stabilize the activities of Center for Performance Research and establish the space as a permanent incubator for artists in NYC. Much longer term, I’d be fascinated to conduct more research in astronomy and other gravitational systems. Also, it’s a personal goal to own an apartment.

Reprinted from Dance Teacher Magazine.

An excerpt of Jonah Bokaer’s Why Patterns