#bebemiller

[dancemotionusa]

2017-2018 DanceMotion USA Residencies in Review

DanceMotion USA’s seventh season sent Ohio’s Bebe Miller Company and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company as well as Utah’s Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company on a string of dance residencies, including movement and management workshops, performances, and cultural conversations. Our 2018 DMUSA Follow-on Professional Development Program in turn welcomed 6 international artists and arts management professionals from Colombia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Russia and South Korea as well as 6 NYC based artists and arts management professionals to engage in cultural exchange with many artistic communities at BAM and beyond.

SEASON 7 BY THE NUMBERS

•        3 Dance Companies

•        1 Brooklyn-Based Professional Development Program (PDP)

•        7 Countries

•        8 US Embassies and Consulates

•        36 American Artists

•        92 Workshops

•        2,374 Workshop Participants

•        16 Performances

•        8,371 Audience Members

•        13,969 International Participants

•        577,498 Miles Traveled

SEASON 7 BY THE DIGITAL STORIES …

The dancers were our eyes and ears on tour, sharing videos, photos, and blog posts as they traveled.  Were you following along?  We put together a little guide to our favorite moments and digital stories from the 7 countries:

» South America (Bebe Miller Company)

Bebe Miller Company in collaboration with International Writing Program during a workshop in creative writing and dance for Afro-Colombian students of Colegio del Cuerpo in Cartagena, Colombia

Rooted in Bebe Miller’s decades of visionary collaborative leadership, this latest iteration of her company traveled first to Colombia, where in collaboration with International Writing Program led a workshop in creative writing and dance for Afro-Colombian students of Colegio del Cuerpo. In addition, the company led many workshops to students of dance and professional dancers. The company also led a movement workshop to people with intellectual disabilities at CEDER in Manizales, Colombia, a center focused on contributing to the transformation of people with disabilities through promoting social inclusion. The company took time on their day off to try the amazing coffee of the Colombian coffee region. In Peru, the company led a lecture-demonstration and performed original repertoire in Arequipa, Lima and Trujillo. The company led many workshops and also learned traditional Peruvian dance such as that of the Arequipa region and Afro-Peruvian. While in Lima, Peru Bebe Miller Company collaborated with differently abled dancers from Kinesfera Company to present an informal showing of their collaborative work.

» Kazakhstan and Russia (Dayton Contemporary Dance Company)

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company with the young students of Children’s Academy of Musical in Moscow, Russia. 

This All-American contemporary dance troupe stepped outside its comfort zone, traveling to Kazakhstan and Russia for a true cultural exchange in Spring 2018. Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC), led by artistic director Debbie Blunden-Diggs, started their journey off with a wildly successful collaboration with traditional Kazakh dance company, Kayzna Dance Ensemble. Dancer Countess V. Winfrey reflects on the process of choreographing the collaboration between DCDC and Kazyna. Elsewhere in Kazakhstan, they played to eager audiences to an original performance by dance club members at the Umit Orphanage, as well as leading master classes with local dance students and companies. In Russia, the company performed original repertory in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Kurgan; you can read about dancer Michael Green’s experience performing on the legendary Bolshoi stage and “Emerging Victorious”. The company had a moving experience leading master classes and being treated to a presentation with two different all-ability dance company, “Drugiye” (Those Different) Inclusive Dance Theater and “Stereo” Inclusive Dance Group. After a final set of workshops with the Children’s Academy of Musical in Moscow the company began its journey back to Dayton, OH.

» East Asia (Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company)

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company leading a workshop with K-Wheel Dance Project in Seoul, South Korea

Utah’s premier company fulfilled its motto of “Dance is for Everyone,” leading workshops and performing across Mongolia and South Korea in Spring 2018. Ready to learn as much as they taught, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company embarked on the first leg of their journey in Mongolia, where they participated in the country’s first ever international dance festival, Motion Mongolia. Throughout some of the workshops led, the company realized that the trust you create in space as dancers is similar to the trust on the roads in Ulaanbaatar. The company also held creative movement workshops for seniors, disadvantaged children, and differently abled movers. In Korea, the company worked with students and teacher defectors from North Korea, and became the first contemporary dance company ever to perform at the centuries-old Deoksugung Palace. Additionally, the company expanded its palates by trying many new foods including taking a class on how to make bibimbap and the tastes of Korean 7-11.

» Follow-on Program

PDP participants following an open rehearsal and discussion with alumni company Seán Curran Company.

In August 2018, 6 international artists participated in a one-week Professional Development Program (PDP) in conjunction with the BAM Education department and Creative Capital.  Participants (nominated by Artistic Directors of Bebe Miller Company, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company) were artists and arts managers from the Colombia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Russia and South Korea. The group took part in five half-days of intensive, hands-on, professional development workshops, beginning with strategic planning, continuing with business management and negotiations, marketing, and public speaking. The group also attended a performance of DMUSA alumni Mark Morris Dance Group at Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, Open Rehearsal and Conversation with DMUSA Alumni Seán Curran Company, master classes taught by DMUSA alumni Seán Curran and Michelle Boulé. The program concluded with a final showing in which the artists shared their individual and collaborative work. The group included the following participants from the following countries of origin:

Maria Baryshnikova, Creative Director of NEW YORK dance studio and Move Forward Association in Moscow, Russia

Sabina Battal, Dancer with Kazyna Dance Ensemble in Shymkent, Kazakhstan

Adrián Chuquipiondo Celestino, Dancer/Managing Director of KinesferaDanza in Lima, Peru

Yong Woo Kim, Wheelchair Dancer and Founder of K-Wheel Dance Project in Seoul, South Korea

Luis Miguel Martínez Guarnizo, Dancer/Choreographer in Manizales, Colombia

Anna Pasmor, Dancer/Dance Teacher/Choreographer at the Academy of Children’s Musical in Moscow, Russia

The 6 international artists were paired with local artists as partners in learning throughout the week-long program. The local artists included the following participants:

Sheena Annalise, Founder/Artistic Director/Choreographer of Arch Ballet in New York, NY

Cain Alfonza Coleman, Jr., Dancer/Choreographer/Founder and Artistic Director of ColemanCollective in Brooklyn, NY

Kayla Hamilton, Artist/Producer/Educator and Founder of K. Hamilton Projects in Bronx, NY

Kyle Marshall, Director/Dancer/Choreographer and Founder of Kyle Marshall Choreography, NY

Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba, Dancer/Dance Teacher and Co-Founding Director of The Higher Ground Festival in New York, NY

Preeti Vasudevan, Choreographer/Performer and Artistic Director of Thresh based in New York, NY

[dancemotionusa]

Meet the Follow-On Professional Development Program Artists: Sheena Annalise & Adrián Chuquipiondo Celestino

Sheena Annalise

Hometown: San Jose, CA

Hobbies or interests: My interests outside of ballet and choreography are constantly evolving and are significantly influenced by the many interesting things I see and people I meet while out and about exploring New York’s vibrant cultural scene. My current obsessions include brain anatomy and architecture blue prints. I’m also an avid sailor and love spending time in Central Park.

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world:  My role as a choreographer and Artistic Director/Founder for Arch Ballet requires me to wear many hats. On one hand, I am responsible for ensuring that Arch Ballet’s creative contributions have an impact on the community and help ballet to progress and evolve with the times. On the other hand, I run the business, operational and administrative side of Arch Ballet, including fundraising, accounting, marketing, and press, all of which are vital in ensuring we have sufficient resources to continue to grow, sustaining the creation of new art and allowing us to reach a wider audience.

Major influences: The community is my biggest influence in creating new work.

Please provide a brief artistic mission or artist statement about your work: My mission is to keep ballet evolving by presenting new ballet, new music, and new ideas for an inclusive 21st century audience. Every concept is distinctly relevant to contemporary society often leveraging technology, science, visual art, fashion, and current cultural ideas to bring each ballet’s message to life on stage.

List current project(s) you are working on, if any:

1)     Premieres Aug 14-15 at The Davenport Theatre

“REM” is a sleek, curious, and avant-garde ballet with perplexing body lines that are paired with an unconventional music choice of using the dancers’ breathe in an amplified percussive tone.

2)     In Creation Process

“Physical Thinking” is a thought-provoking and cutting edge partnership with neuroscientists. fMRI mobile technology record the evolution of a dancer’s mind through the creation process and video results are projected onto the floor  to light up the stage. My hope is to bring the audience closer to dance through simulation of what the dancer is thinking during the movement the members of the audience are seeing on stage, and the flux of their thoughts through the process.

Your definition of dance: Dance is an artist’s tangible thoughts using their body as their tool of choice.

What do you think of using dance as a form of diplomacy? Dance is the perfect way to create cross-cultural understanding either through movement workshops or performances. Dance opens up the ability to learn and grow by sharing a global human connection unique to each artist’s surroundings, without barriers of language, cultural differences or background.

Why is participating in the DanceMotion USA Follow-On Program important to you at this point in your artistic career? I’ve taken my career and Arch Ballet as far as I can with my own knowledge and surrounding help. The DanceMotion USA Follow-On Program would provide me with the tools I need in order to be able to grow as a creative director and expand Arch Ballet toward our goal of creating a lasting institution for innovative ideas through movement.

What do you hope to gain from your participation in this program? The resources, expertise, and training provided  by the program will allow Arch Ballet and I to succeed as cultural entrepreneurs. With government funding being increasingly scarcer and harder to obtain, these tools are essential to the success of my strategic planning and would help open an array of door that are crucial to our mission.

What are your goals for your future involvement in dance/the performing arts? To influence the evolution of ballet and continue to introduce new audiences to the art form.

Adrián Chuquipiondo Celestino

Hometown: I was born in Lima and am currently living there. My family are migrants; they came from different parts of Perú. My mother and her family came from Pasco, from a rural place called Huariaca and my father came from Iquitos, the capital city of Loreto, which is mostly jungle. But the family of my father (from the side of his mother) came from Japan. We are all inmigrants in Lima, ourselves or our families. Mixed-raced, too. So I’m rooted in the tropical and Andean side of Perú, but raised in Lima as a sansei child.

Education: I studied Architecture at UNI, but during that time I started to get interested in physical practices. I trained in capoeira at the campus, then took classical dance for a couple of years. In my last year at UNI, I began yoga classes as a great teacher talked so much about it and how it improved his life and dance technique. I started to practice, then received aid to attend a teacher training in Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga. I taught for a couple of years after the training. At that moment I started to take contemporary dance workshops, related to physical theater, contact improvisation, and somatics. Currently I’m studying senso-experience theater which is a form of theater that involves the use of senses to create experiences for people. It involves a lot of physical contact, self-exploration of our own tales and listening to the other.

Hobbies or interests: I enjoy moving, exploring, and creating through movement. It allows me to deeply explore myself in relation to other people. I love physical practices of movement. I also love urbanism. I work as an urban researcher. It’s an opportunity to think about how cities work, the relationship of people (in a broad sense) in and to a physical place. Somehow I think it’s the same as dancing but on a different scale: a room or black box, a park, a neighborhood, a district or a city. It’s all human relationships.

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Well, I’m a dancer at first and the rest comes after that. I love dancing and I love doing it at Kinesfera given the ideas and values that are the heart of this organization. I chose to support the project and became its director and manager simultaneously. Because the core group is so small, we have multiple roles in the company.

I discover my concerns through my body, and then share my experiences with my fellow dancers in order to be involved in their learning processes as well. I facilitate dialogues in which everyone involved opens their hearts.

Can you describe the art (performing, visual, etc.) scene in your country? I’m not totally aware of the arts scene in Perú. But here in Lima, there are two parallel movements related to what is the mainstream and what is in independent movements, which is more interesting. We have galleries and some arts museums that avoid making controversy for political or economic stakeholders. In terms of plastic arts there is a lot of censorship around issues like terrorism, memory, and political violence. At the same time museums subordinate non-academic production like Peruvian crafts as crafts but not art.

In terms of performing arts in the mainstream side there are a lot of productions related to entertainment, and lighter content. It is not bad in itself but in our context it seems to be a denial of what is happening within our society. On the other hand there are a lot of independent movements and groups that have been creating arts for decades. For example, Maguey Teatro is rooted in physical theater and its contents are related to our history, but humanized. There are some dancers who are working as cultural managers because there is not a lot of aid for the performing arts. There are spaces such as Tremenda – Espacio Cultural which exposes people to contemporary dance and builds a network of creators with hopes of future collaborations. There are independent educational projects like Teatro del Vinagre, which train people in theater, focusing on human issues close to everybody. Hopefully, there are institutions that trust creators like the Institutto Italiano di Cultura, who gave Kinesfera Danza a space to work and perform. Some people who are artists but also work as cultural agents like José Aviles. He is a contemporary dancer who contributes grants artists with space at ICPNA auditoriums to train and present their work.

We struggle to build a network of creators because many of us tend to work individually. We don’t always recognize that there are other creators. Especially between professional and non-professional trained performers. We do have a national ballet company, which is absurd for a country who has roots in other forms of dancing. We also have a national theater which shows its performances and other guest performances, but doesn’t help other creators to keep pursuing their work. The situation in Lima is fragmented. The city is large, and folk dancing and break dancing are popular. It is difficult to get a full view on the arts scene in Lima, but it’s so interesting and has the potential to have a special meaning to the people of the city and the city itself.

What was the most memorable thing about working with Bebe Miller Company in Peru? I worked with Bebe Miller Company. The most memorable thing was how open-minded they were towards the definition of dancing. It was such a pleasure to spend time with them, to experience what they wanted to share, and the way they transmitted it. There was not a vertical relationship between teachers and students nor professional dancers and us. It was more like a room full of people with different experiences of dancing with an approach that involved everyone’s uniqueness. It wasn’t just words or their speeches; they have this way of transmitting these ideas into movements, all that knowledge of how to build choreography rooted in each person individually and everyone collectively. I felt connected with their ideas which were not restricted to a specific way of moving, and with their work which involves themselves and their scenery.

Also, I remember their presences. They were such nice people. I had a great time with them. They have different backgrounds and all of them are lovely.

Please provide a brief artistic mission or artist statement about your work: As an artist I just want to bring light to human histories to stimulate empathy. I love when diverse people are together for no apparent reason and things start to happen.

List current project(s) you are working on, if any: Currently I am researching funds for an educational project that will provide educators with tools on how to teach people with disabilities in a respectful and encouraging way. I’m also in conversations to develop a project between Kinesfera Danza and Teatro del Vinagre.

Your definition of dance: That thing that happens when people encounter movement

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) I realized that dance means a lot to me when I finished dancing my first season with Kinesfera Danza. That night just before going to sleep, I started to cry like never before. Many things opened up inside of me. That was when I began accepting that I love to move and began pulling thing out of myself in creative ways.

What is your most memorable moment in the dance industry, thus far?

One of the most memorable moments was dancing in Bremen (Alemania), in the EigenARtig Festival 2018. The whole experience was amazing. I never had the chance to share with people working in mixed-abilities companies outside of Kinesfera or ConCuerpos (a mixed abilities company rooted in Bogotá, and close friends of ours). Despite the different contexts in terms of cultural and health policies, all of the companies that participated in this festival had similar experiences. Working in this field stimulates a lot of thoughts about health, dance, arts, and policies. Many people I met there were thinking the same thoughts as me.

What are your goals for your future involvement in dance/the performing arts? I want to keep doing it but gain balance between dancing, managing, and researching. I also want to get deeper into studying different dance techniques.

I would love to start a new creative process with KinesferaDanza and other companies that I admire. Wherever I’ll be, I want to keep dancing as a way of seeing the world, but taking the lead on how I do it.

[dancemotionusa]

Final Reflection

By Bebe Miller, Artistic Director of Bebe Miller Company

Our DMUSA excursion was completed two weeks ago. We have all returned home, stepped back into summer projects, work, cooking meals, sleeping in our own beds. I went looking for photos from the earlier days of the project and found – and remembered – this moment. It was from our second day at the Colegio del Cuerpo in Cartagena, Colombia, and we had separated into groups, each devising their own way of responding to the circumstances they had created. I look at the aliveness captured in these bodies. They are in the middle of something that clearly resonates, looking for the next moment to take form. There’s another group at the edge of the photo; the room was filled with groups of dancers becoming their own tribe. I can’t quite remember what may have come before and after this moment. The details have faded; the impact of that day has not.

The fundamental proposition of DanceMotion USA is a belief in the potential of dance as a catalyst for social inclusion and cultural exchange. We practiced this daily, person to person, body to body, rhythm to rhythm. In every workshop, master class, shared meal, rehearsal and discussion we offered our perspective on dance and partnership. In return we received and shared a deep understanding of the humanity implicit in a mutually creative act. Dancing together means thinking together, experimenting together, the surprise of connection and the intuitive meaning making that flows between people and beyond cultures. I think we were surprised – joyfully so – because we’re so often as artists primed to expect distrust of the unfamiliar, a distancing in the face of a new idea or a “different” dance. We repeatedly found an open curiosity about our work and our lives, and the invitation to freely exchange and learn from each other was humbling and powerful.

This was my first trip to South America, as it was for many of us. I ran into the limits of my imagination every day, but by truly apprehending the moment, meeting the potential of each new situation I was drawn forward. It came down to the people. We met dancers, artists, shopkeepers, children, parents, friends, translators, emissaries, a couple of alpacas, lots of dogs and one older tortoise. We were embraced, we hugged back, we cried and laughed, we danced, we tried new foods and new steps, we found quiet places, we drove through cities and barrios that functioned perfectly well, we danced some more, we woke up too early and stayed up too late, we loved it all.

It comes down to the people, always. It was exhausting, it was regenerating, and I’m taking it all with me.

[dancemotionusa]

Cultivating the Radical Unknown

By Sarah Lass, Bebe Miller Company, Dancer

The conversation arose over dinner towards the end of the trip as a group of us reflected on the various meetings and exchanges we had experienced during our time in Colombia and Peru. It was one of those conversations that ambles along on many different legs, new ideas kicking themselves forward to lead, mobilizing previous questions and proclamations, but carrying them forward with fresh intention and curiosity. Attempts to relay such discussions prove slippery—they are as unwieldy in retrospect as they are thrilling in the moment. It is nearly impossible to trace the thread of one idea back to its origin, planted, as always, somewhere between the many separate voices that fertilize it.

We were discussing partnerships in dance making and performance, specifically the interpersonal dynamics and generative potential between two individuals who come together in the spirit of collaboration, experimentation, and creation. The question arose: what is our expectation or our desire for that meeting place? Is it a place of cohesion or harmony—the discovery of some previously shrouded synchronicity and similarity—that we seek when we meet one another? Is our “common ground,” in other words, a landscape of pleasantly rolling hills, and our discovery of such ground incumbent upon the elimination of any impediment or obstacle?

Harmony can be alluring and appealing, we agreed, but not always artistically interesting nor, to take it a step forward, is it necessarily conducive to illuminating interpersonal (or intercultural) exchanges. At its most insidious, an unexamined desire for harmony—for ease, for agreement—could result in the annihilation of the differences that distinguish one person (or one culture) from another.

I suppose there is something personally revealing in these assertions, a certain perspective on communication and coexistence. I am curious about what happens when parties do not abandon their differences in search of a middle ground, but instead maintain them, emphatically so. I am curious about what happens when they do this with an awareness of the other parties involved—and a curiosity and care for them—recognizing the involvement of each in an ecosystem larger than any one party.

I’ve heard people in the company talk about all this—it is the idea of perpendicularity. What arises in the intersection between perpendicular attentions, intentions, and priorities? What happens in the meeting place between entities that, even in their convergence, work to maintain their individuality and distinction, their singular (spectacular) specificity? In this kind of interaction, might there be an opportunity for exchange that is not contingent upon consensus, but instead maintains (strengthens, even) specificity and individuality while still illuminating something larger than any one part on its own?

When improvising in dance, especially with someone one knows very well, the pull to harmony can be strong, subconscious even. The shared history between dancing bodies asserts itself into the present moment and reaches into the future. There can be an unintentional element of collective predetermination to the unfolding movement and moment.

I asked company member Darrell Jones, an artist with a longstanding creative partnership with fellow company member Angie Hauser, if he feels he is able to overcome this potential for unintentional predetermination in his work with Angie and, if so, how. His answer addressed the role of artistic director and choreographer Bebe Miller and the role of the performers, pointing to the importance of encouraging, nurturing, and/or inserting confounding elements (physical or spatial directives, theoretical frameworks, or differing attentions, for example) into the relationship, much like throwing a bit of gravel into an otherwise well-oiled, smoothly functioning machine. Unable to rely (and rest) on predictability, individuals must show up to each moment of what is happening, rediscovering it and resolving it even as they come to know something deeper about it.

Perpendicularity can nudge us (or, sometimes, catapult us) into the unknown, out of habitual or unexamined ways of moving, thinking, and being and into a place of wonder and possibility where we can become intimately reacquainted with things we thought we knew or freshly acquainted with things we never knew. The more fully we abandon ourselves to the unknown the more radical that place can become—undetermined, undefined, full of vibrant, undirected potential. The radical unknown is a place where extreme change is possible.

Cultivating the radical unknown requires the seemingly impossible and contradictory act of fully showing up with specificity and certainty while also becoming immediately porous to that which one encounters, not to become one with it, but to enter into a relationship with it, a relationship that one has not yet discovered and defined, but that is being revealed, moment-by-moment. To cultivate the radical unknown is to actively, rigorously question what is happening and to embrace how very little we know about it and about what is possible.

I feel some sweeping conclusion beckoning me towards it, but I’m not going to indulge.

Sarah Lass with a workshop participant in Manizales, Colombia                    Photo: Lila Hurwitz

[dancemotionusa]

Listening to Move

By Bronwen MacArthur, Bebe Miller Company, Dancer

I danced in a trio today with dancers Roger and Viviana of the Kinesfera group based in Lima, Peru. The score for the dance was grounded in the work of initiating movement in your partner(s) with varying degrees of force with different parts of the body. A swipe along your partner’s arm, for example, might send them following the arm into space in the trajectory of the swiping action. Roger uses a wheelchair and dances with his chest, shoulders, neck, head and arms. And his eyes, voice, energy, wit, breath, smile and spirit. Viviana and Roger have worked together on past projects. As the three of us rotated roles—initiating, responding, keeping track of all three at once—the profound listening and intense focus and attention on each other made for a deeply felt connection and creative space. Our trio left me feeling vividly awake and emotionally/creatively overflowing. At the end of the day, we shared thoughts as a larger group and I was contemplating the idea of “exchange” that has been the backdrop of our trip. Looking around the room and feeling the work of all of us resonating in my body, I was struck by how much everyone was giving to the moment: Bebe was sharing the wealth of her observations, revealing her gift of seeing each person and relationship. The translator, Vanessa, was translating Spanish to English and back again with clarity and force. Viviana was sitting directly in front of another Kinesfera dancer, Otto, who is deaf and partly sighted, so that he could read her lips. All the dancers sat listening, reflecting on and processing their own duets and trios. The word “exchange” somehow didn’t seem adequate, didn’t seem complex and big enough to encompass all the offerings, sharing and generosity in the room that day. The experience made me reflect on the nature of exchange over the course of our time in Colombia and Peru working with so many different groups. There have been so many moments for each of us, and collectively as a company, that we take home with us. Moments of real, human connection through movement, through sharing little parts of ourselves across language and experience and circumstance. By my perception, not one group approached our time together with an energy of waiting for us to deliver a particular outcome. Again and again we were given a true openness to receiving whatever it was that we and the experience offered. And in exchange, we learned everyday what it is to be human, problem-solving and laughing and crying and moving with other humans.

Photo: Lila Hurwitz

[dancemotionusa]

Dancing through Time and Space

By Sarah Gamblin, Bebe Miller Company, Dancer

We spent Friday and Saturday in Northampton, Massachusetts at Smith College learning and re-learning Bebe Miller’s 1989 tour de force, “The Blues Project”. I first saw this work in New York City and was totally floored by the dancers–Bebe among them. Even now, revisiting the piece, I am blown away by the musicality, rhythmic complexity, and virtuosic phrase work. In 1993 I first joined Bebe Miller Company, and in 1995 I learned and performed parts of The Blues Project alongside Darrell Jones. This work is iconic! And fun! And hard! Ouch! 

What a treat to travel back and forward in time, and through bodies, by studying the original cast via a video taken in 1991, remembering my own time doing this work on stage in the mid 1990s, and learning new parts today from the most recent performers of the 2017 Smith College cast (Sarah Lass and Shayla Vie).

And serendipity! While we were rehearsing on Friday, Smith alumna Jennifer Chien strolled in and said to Bebe, “You taught us this dance in 1996... I had the solo!” It is such a pleasure to grow and age in this company, seeing how the work–the learning, creating, rehearsing, and dancing–has touched so many people!

So after traveling back in time–teaching, learning, and re-creating–anticipation is building for me as I think about sharing this work and other repertory excerpts of “In a Rhythm” and “A History”. For many of us in the company, our favorite thing is this time together in the studio. I am so excited to now “travel space” to teach, learn, and create with the folks we will meet in Colombia and Peru!

All photos by Shayla Jenkins

[dancemotionusa]

Orientation Takeaways

By Michelle Boulé, Bebe Miller Company, Dancer

At dinner, BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo spoke passionately about his experience with DanceMotion USA over the last 7 seasons. He mentioned his personal philosophy that with knowledge comes responsibility, in his knowing that the years of the program have brought about significant change for the communities involved, and in his commitment to continue these exchanges beyond DanceMotion USA’s residencies.

It’s also good to remember that with knowledge comes the humility of knowing that there is always more to learn. My own personal interests in international cultural exchange have always been geared towards mutuality. We’re simply the ones with the resources available to travel these distances; however, we are really being invited into the “cultural homes” of these countries. As their guest, I look forward to learning more about my hosts, being a student to their life experiences, and sharing with gratitude what I’ve spent the past 35 years of my life doing.

¡Colombia y Perú, nos veremos pronto!

[dancemotionusa]

Meet the Artists: Bebe Miller Company (BMC)

Bebe Miller Company embraces the task of international diplomacy through dance and cultural exchange in Colombia and Peru.

Meet the Artist: Lila Hurwitz

Hometown: Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; lived on the west coast of the US (Portland, OR; Seattle, WA) for 30 years, now back on the east coast on Rhode Island.

Education: 

BA, dance choreography & criticism, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Certified Feldenkrais practitioner

Hobbies or interests: Gardening; graphic design

Favorite representation of dance in a music video/web video:

http://www.trishabrowncompany.org/index.php?nr=711&page=view 

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Dancer; choreographer; project manager; producer

Major influences: Trisha Brown; Twyla Tharp; Mark Morris; Bebe Miller

What is most challenging to you about American dance? I'm not sure this is specific to American dance, but so many dances to me don't live up to the potential of dance as an art form. When I see the one or two per year that are really incredible, it restores my faith.

What are the largest rewards of managing a dance company and/or tour?  What are the largest difficulties?

Largest rewards: Ensuring that artists share their work out in the world.

Largest difficulties: Ensuring enough resources so everyone is paid fairly.

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) I entered college intending to study visual art. After 6 months, I realized that I wanted to focus on making dance. My mother was a dancer, so I starting dancing at a young age and was exposed to lots of seminal modern dance works. 

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? My superpower would be used to convince wealthy people and corporations that supporting the arts is vital to the health of our world and an important way to use their money.  

What are you looking forward to experiencing during the upcoming residencies? Connecting with local dancers and others curious about dance. Seeing historic architecture and sites, eating great food!

What’s one thing you’re nervous about with these international residencies? Communicating in my terrible Spanish. 

What do you want people to know about you and your relationship to America? Or what do you want people to know about you, what you do, and where you come from? That I didn't vote for our current president. That part of my job is to give artists the support they don't receive from our government. 

What do you feel is your responsibility as a DMUSA participant? What do you think of using dance as a form of diplomacy? I feel responsible for facilitating that our company, our hosts and our colleagues feel comfortable interacting together (even when challenged). I think that dancers make great diplomats, at home and abroad!

Meet the Artist: Stan Pressner

Hometown: Born in Chicago, but after 28 years in New York City, I hope I qualify as an honorary native New Yorker. My family is originally from Eastern Europe.

Education: World Campus Afloat, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hobbies or interests: Literature, sculpture, art in Light

Favorite representation of dance in a music video/web video: Stop Making Sense

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Scenic designer, lighting designer, projection designer, theatre consultant

Major influences: Craig Miller, Tom Skelton, Gertrude Stein, Rembrandt, Virginia Woolf, Twyla Tharp, Pina Bausch, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and many others!

What is most compelling about American dance to you? Or what is most challenging to you about American dance? There is an awful lot of bad modern dance in the world which is balanced by the very few sublime works. In other words, when it is good, it is great!

What are the largest rewards of working on a performance? The reward for me is in collaborating with choreographers in trying to achieve the sublime. I try to help them articulate their work in movement in other visual forms. 

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) Age 20, I got a phone call to design for the Chicago Moving Company, which had a large and varied repertoire of many wonderful choreographers. They called upon me to collaborate with Anna Sokolow and Dan Wagoner, at which point I was hooked. Their artistic director, Nana Sheinpflug, taught me to look at dance.

How would you explain your work to a 10-year-old? What would your 10-year-old self think if you explained your work to him/her today? I try to reveal movement in 4 dimensions. My 10-year-old self was fascinated by light, and so, would fully understand.

When you were told you’d be traveling to Colombia and Peru, what was the first thing you researched or wanted to know? I began to research the indigenous populations. I am fascinated by large number of distinct cultures and saddened by the number lost.

What are you looking forward to experiencing during the upcoming residencies? I always enjoy being introduced to new forms of dance and other art forms, but if I am honest, I most look forward to eating new foods and meeting new people.

What’s one thing you’re nervous about with these international residencies? I always wish that I was fluent in the language of anywhere I travel. Sadly, I am not fluent in Spanish.

Meet the Artist: Angie Hauser

Hometown: Born and raised in the American South including South Carolina and Louisiana. After many years in New York City I now make my home in the small town of Northampton Massachusetts.  

Education: Ohio State University, MFA in choreography;  University of South Carolina, BA in art history

Hobbies or interests: Arranging things

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Making dances, performing dances, teaching and training dancers, chairing the Department of Dance at Smith College (Northampton, MA, USA)

Major influences: Bebe Miller, Chris Aiken, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Vickie Blaine, Merce Cunningham/John Cage, Ralph Lemon, Darrell Jones 

Three words that describe my movement: Specific, weighted, poetic 

Your definition of dance in 140 characters or less: Dance and performance are connected for me. It is moving and being — in relationship to being seen (or not).

What is most compelling about American dance to you? American contemporary dance is constantly innovating, finding new places to inhabit and new ways to share ideas. American dance yearns to connect people, to make an impact, to catalyze the imagination and to make visible the human experience through individual points of view. 

When did you choose to work in dance? When I was 22 years old.      

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? Sharing the power of observation. Helping others use their full self to perceive the world around them including the most subtle details of people, places, objects, animals, and events. 

What are you looking forward to experiencing during the upcoming residencies? Meeting people who are curious about dance. Experience things I didn’t know existed.

Meet the Artist: Bronwen MacArthur

Photo: Julieta Cervantes

Hometown: Hanover, New Hampshire, a small town in a small state.

Education: Wellesley College (BA), Smith College (MFA)

Hobbies or interests: Hiking, swimming, cooking, reading

Favorite representation of dance in a music video/web video: Video for the song “Happy” 

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Teacher, maker, collaborator, performer 

Major influences: My first dance teachers Vicki and Pepe DeChiazza, my family, music, the outdoors

Your definition of dance in 140 characters or less:  Using the knowledge and stories of the body, dance is a way to live in the world and make connection.

What is most compelling about American dance to you? Compelling things are: considering what North American dance even is; U.S. contemporary dance has been innovative and scrappy at times, doing a lot with little resources; U.S. dance includes so many styles and histories and has the potential to be generous, celebratory, and transformative.

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) When I was 14 and made the decision to leave home to go to a school where I could train intensively. 

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? Get everybody dancing - convincing everyone that they already do/can.

What are you looking forward to experiencing during the upcoming residencies? Meeting all the new people we will meet; getting to know my collaborators and our work more deeply.

What do you feel is your responsibility as a DMUSA participant? What do you think of using dance as a form of diplomacy? I am excited to discover the languages, movement and otherwise, we have in common and learn unfamiliar approaches and practices. 

Meet the Artist: Darrell Jones

Hometown: Tallahassee, FL

Education: BS in psychology, University of FL and MFA in dance, Florida State University

Hobbies or interests: Cooking, loving

Favorite representation of dance in a music video/web video: Flashdance was one of the first VHS tapes we got in our house. Don’t judge me.

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Educator, movement researcher, performer, griot

Major influences: Mother, father, Steve, Bebe, Ralph, Min

Your definition of dance in 140 characters or less: Movement.

What is most compelling about American dance to you? There are forms of dance that are born and bred in this country.   

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) I made the decision in college and have kept saying yes to it.

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? I have the superpower and curse of extreme empathy. It works well on the stage but is not always the best option in life.

When you were told you’d be traveling to Colombia and Peru, what was the first thing you researched or wanted to know? The different types of food to eat. 

What is your most memorable moment as an artist, thus far? I don’t know if it’s happened yet.

Meet the Artist:  Michelle Boulé

Hometown: I’m from Illinois and have lived in NY for 19 years. 

Education: University of Illinois - BFA in performance, choreography, and teaching

Hobbies or interests: Healing arts, cooking, hiking, visual art

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Teacher, performer, choreographer, enthusiast

Major influences: Miguel Gutierrez, Deborah Hay, Anna Halprin, John Jasperse

Three words that describe your choreography or movement: Let it happen.

Your definition of dance in 140 characters or less: Dancing connects us to possibility and potential.

What is most compelling about American dance to you? American dance has an embodied spirit that resonates with my heart! 

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) I started dancing when I was 5 and quit when I was 16 because of injury. Dancing found me again in my sophomore year in college, where I had synchronistically and unknowingly landed at a school with an excellent dance program. I’ve been dancing ever since.

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? My superpowers would remind us that connection is the most important thing we can experience!

When you were told you’d be traveling to Colombia and Peru, what was the first thing you researched or wanted to know? How can we eat some great food!?

What do you feel is your responsibility as a DMUSA participant? What do you think of using dance as a form of diplomacy? I look forward to entering a shared creative space with the local artists, where we are learning mutually from one another. My responsibility is in being present, respectful, and enthusiastically inspired!

Meet the Artist: Sarah Gamblin

Hometown: Born in New York, now living in Texas.

Education: Master of Fine Arts in dance from University of Washington

Hobbies or interests: Running, political activism, anti-racism work

Favorite representation of dance in a music video/web video: 

Glacial Decoy duet by Trisha Brown, on Youtube

Your roles and Rresponsibilities in the dance world: Performer, improviser, professor at Texas Woman’s University

Major influences: Bebe Miller, contact improvisation, Nina Martin, Wonder Woman, Michael Jackson, Flashdance, Madonna, Tony Montana

Three words that describe your choreography or movement: Momentum, line, groundedness

Your definition of dance in 140 characters or less: Dance is when your attention cycles between and among the body, the environment, between people and between thoughts while moving in space and in time for fun and for purpose.

What is most compelling about American dance to you? Or what is most challenging to you about American dance? 

Compelling: Irrepressibility

Challenging: Poverty

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) Dance chose me when I was about 19. I was in college, taking dance class and rehearsing, and I just could feel it that this is what I would be doing for my life.

How would you explain your work to a 10-year-old? What would your 10-year-old self think if you explained your work to him/her today? What I do is like Minecraft but with sweat and breath and weight. It’s like my nine years     old’s Aikido class but with different pants.

What are you looking forward to experiencing during the upcoming residencies? I’m really looking forward to sharing our work and interacting with other dance artists. I’m really looking forward to learning from the folks and     the places we encounter!

What do you feel is your responsibility as a DMUSA participant? I think my role is to be generous and to listen.

Meet the Artist: Sarah Lass

Hometown: I grew up in Denver, Colorado and I currently live in Northampton, Massachusetts. My family hails from Germany, Wales, England, and Norway.

Education: I received my BA in Russian area studies from Kenyon College in 2013. I minored in dance. In May of 2018 I will graduate with an MFA in Dance from Smith College.

Hobbies or interests: Writing—poems, essays, prose… I’m in love with words and what they can do. I like memorizing poems (especially in Russian) so that I can chew on them even when they’re not in front of me. I’m working on writing and compiling a series of personal essays right now. I’m also an avid reader.

Favorite representation of dance in a music video/web video: This isn’t a video, but it is web-based… Motion Bank! Everything on the site is fantastic. I think it’s an incredible platform and a rich representation of dance. That said, the dance film that is stuck in my head right now is Michéle Anne De Mey’s Love Sonnet. The other web-based dance resource I’m exploring right now is William Forsythe’s Improvisation Technologies.

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Performer, choreographer, teacher, writer, supporter/advocate

Major influences: All of the teachers and choreographers with whom I’ve been able to work have influenced me. Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Mike Vargas, Barbara Mahler, KJ Holmes, Christina Robson, Donnell Oakley, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Jennifer Nugent, and Chrysa Parkinson have all been particularly influential on my dancing (and person) through their teaching and/or mentorship and/or creative work. My Russian professor, Natalia Olshanskaya, while not in the dance field, had a tremendous impact on my life and outlook.

Your definition of dance in 140 characters or less: To dance is to interrogate, reimagine, and re-inhabit oneself and the world, again and again and again.

What is most compelling about American dance to you? I am consistently inspired by how resourceful American dancers and choreographers are. I see and feel this resourcefulness bubble up in the conceptual and structural content of works being made right now.

When did you choose to work in dance? (Or when did it choose you?) I was studying abroad in college and dancing very little. It was the most absent dance had been from my life since diving into ballet as a kid, and I felt what I’ve come to call “The Ache” more strongly than ever before: the need to do, to make, to engage with my world through physical research and expression. In the winter of that year abroad I met my grandmother in Paris and we went to an exhibit at the Centre Pampidou, where I (a former bunhead, now searching for something else) encountered the work of Pina Bausch and saw Trisha Brown’s Watermotor for the first time. The Ache grew stronger. When I returned to Kenyon for my senior year I took an Introduction to Dance History class with my professor Balinda Craig-Quijada and after the first lecture The Ache took over and has been driving ever since.

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? I’d like to have what I would call a “calming and clearing" superpower—the ability, in volatile or tense situations, to slow things down and create a feeling of spaciousness, ease, and possibility. I think people see and hear each other more clearly when they feel that way, so the possibility for understanding and meeting one another in a different way is greater.

What do you think of using dance as a form of diplomacy? I think dance offers an incredible opportunity for people to come together in new ways. Dance can be a meeting place. It is an opportunity to grow our understanding of one another, of how we are together, and of how we interact with our ecosystems in a way that encompasses and surpasses the verbal and the narrative-driven. It can invite and welcome us into places outside of what we know, outside of our comfort zones. I think it is only in pushing out into the unknown that growth and change are possible. I believe the possibilities for dance as a form of diplomacy are huge.

What is your most memorable moment as an artist, thus far? I recently got to perform with two of my most influential teachers/mentors. It was a very special experience and one that I will cherish.

Meet the Artist: Trebien Pollard

Hometown: Born in Warm Springs, GA, and now living in Buffalo, NY. 

Education: BS in mathematics education from Florida A & M University, MFA in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts

Hobbies or interests: Fashion

Your roles and responsibilities in the dance world: Performer, educator, creative director, advocate for social change

Major influences: James Baldwin, Alexander McQueen, Krzystof Kieslowski, Kara Walker

What is most compelling about American dance to you? Its varied perspectives and aesthetics.  

When did you choose to work in dance? I choose to commit to dance my sophomore year in college.

You have superpowers! How would some of your powers help make the world a better place? An empath. I’d get people to feel what others feel.

What’s one thing you’re nervous about with these international residencies? I’m nervous about being away from home for such a long time.

What is your most memorable moment as an artist, thus far? My most memorable moment as an artist is my trip to Brazil and Japan.