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Ashley Robicheaux
This week’s artist profile features magnificent dancer and choreographer Ashley Robicheaux. One of my favorite things about her work is the way she experiments with different genres (whether within dance or expanding out into other art forms) to create intricate, thoughtful layers of art and performance. Subtle movement gives way to deep-set emotion gives way to conceptual idea, which in turn inspires another movement, and on and on—often playing off of additional art forms that also flood the space—until a full, multi-faceted artistic landscape emerges. If you want to see what I’m talking about, check out the beautiful Spaces Part I: “Interior” for starters. And to learn more about the wonderful work and world of Ashley Robicheaux (and her new dance company!), check out the interview below.
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When did you first start dancing? What drew you to the art form?
Technically, I was making dances on the neighborhood kids since the age of 7. I forced them to learn the steps to the routines I made to the ‘90s pop songs of Britney, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, and the Cheetah Girls and then we invited all the parents over to watch in my living room, which we had transformed into a stage. I played just about every sport from swim team to softball, but eventually dropped everything when I found my love for dancing at the age of 12. I think it happened when I went to watch a dance competition in my hometown. I remember seeing girls in long black skirts dancing to “You Are Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera and being mesmerized by their movements. I had never felt that kind of passion during any of the sports I played. I quickly fell in love with dance, learning it was more than just physical activity, but an art form that I could connect to more emotively. I dropped everything else as soon as I enrolled in dance classes, and have been dancing ever since.
Tell us about your dance company, Ashley Robicheaux & Artists. What’s your mission with the company?
Founded in April of 2015, Ashley Robicheaux & Artists is an emerging project-based dance company focused on exploration of movement in contemporary forms and collaboration with other artistic mediums. We aim to make work that is socially relevant, and bring together members of all areas of the artist community of New York City to make work and to place that work in its best possible environment.
The underlying factor of the work I make, thus far within the company, is that every piece of work must include at least one other art form. We have worked a bit with dance, film, and live music, and hope to continue expanding the scope of our collaborations while building upon the relationships we have already developed.
A moment from Hellerton, a piece created under the pseudonym “Seventh Project.”
You collaborate often with other artistic mediums (short film and music video, for example). What do you think dance brings to these art forms and vice versa?
This is something I am still figuring out. I like to think of each collaboration as a new way of examining an idea, as a factor that can be fluid and changing. If another art form does not offer new insight into an exploration, then it is not as valuable. Film seems to offer a closer look at the dance, through a more permanent lens; the product of film is concrete. I like to place the two side by side as I think it provides a beautiful juxtaposition between something lasting and timeless and something fleeting and momentary. In this way, the connection between the dance and film become conversational.
Music is a whole different game! I am usually inspired by a song or an artist before making a piece, and will use that sound during a rehearsal process. When bringing a musician into rehearsal, everything changes because the dancers and the musicians completely play off of each other. We can forget our ideas of whatever we have been working with and be more improvisational with a musician until we find our own score. Music shapes the texture, speed, and dynamic of the dance, as well as the shape and density of the room (I know this sounds a bit airy, but it’s how I like to think of music’s role in shaping a space). On the reverse, the dancers influence the choices the musician makes during rehearsal based on their relationship and the mood/texture of the piece.
Film still from Spaces Part I: “Interior.”
Your short film collaboration with Jake Saner, Spaces Part I: “Interior,” is so gorgeous and emotive. What were some of the inspirations behind the piece?
We set out with Jake’s Black Magic camera and each other. We knew we wanted to make a film but frankly had no concept developed prior to shooting. We found ourselves drawn to different home spaces during our trip down south to visit my family. It began to feel important when we came across a burnt down house, still partially intact. We knew this was a special place, and when we walked in we could feel the intensity of the space. A family had lived here, not so long ago, and their belongings were shattered, burnt to a crisp. Flowered curtains and a sign that said “love” in red white and blue remained intact, breathing life into the space. Next we visited my grandmother’s new house, which was empty and under construction. There was an unfamiliarity, a [vacancy] about this space. It was the void between the burnt house and our final location, the house where I grew up.
After seeing some footage we shot in the burned down house (a space we came across by chance while driving) my mom told us that she still had the keys to our old house. Some years ago she had filed for bankruptcy and the bank seized the house. This was my childhood home and no one had set foot in it since we moved out. The final scene of this short documents my journey as I explore a space that was intimately familiar to me for many years.
Familiar childhood objects littered the floor, remnants of a rushed move. The walls were a bit dusty but the space was generally clean. It was inviting. We spent the afternoon exploring the old dining room, kitchen, hallways, and at last ended up in my childhood bedroom. Our path led us so naturally to my old house. We were revisiting the past, collecting pieces of my childhood. We learned quickly that these pieces were what we would share with the world, what we would base the piece around.
New York has such an incredible range of spaces — from tiny cramped apartments to huge abandoned warehouses, or loud crowded streets to wide open parks. Has living and working in the city influenced Spaces or any of your other pieces?
Definitely. In some way, it influences all of my work. In a past work, In My Wildest, I collected a variety of city sounds that inspired the ability to change the environment on stage quickly. The sound influenced the piece greatly.
In Spaces Part II: “We, two,” the way that we open and close the space in the room and between our bodies mirrors the ability to be alone and then seconds later pressed against someone else in a subway car. I don’t think we were necessarily thinking about this during our process but the fact that we experience these changes in space every day must have made its way into the patterns we created in the performance. The opening and closing of spaces between within the room and between our bodies became an integral part of this piece.
Film still from Spaces Part II: “We, two.”
In an upcoming work, I am working with one actor and one dancer. Not to give too much away, but the actor speaks of his experience in the city, in some words, which is then interrupted by a dancer. This one is more influenced by time, I think, but is also representative of how we share space, sometimes unsuccessfully in an overpopulated city. Everyone wants to tell their story, make their work, be successful, and the overlap of these things can be a good topic for investigation.
What else will you explore with the Spaces series? Spaces Part II: “We, two” will have a live component as well, right?
Thus far, we have performed Spaces Part II: “We, two” twice, in two different spaces in the city. One was in a white box at the Center for Performance Research and consisted of dance and film. The other was in The Green Building at Gowanus Arts, with dance, film, and live music. The latter space completely changed the architecture of the piece as far as where the film was projected and how the new sound completely opened up the room. The piece felt less insular and more expansive in the second run. One space was more closed in, corner, and the other almost completely open. We will perform it again in the fall, at the Gelsey Kirkland Center for Performing Arts, which I’m sure will alter the construction of the piece once again!
Film still from Spaces Part II: “We, two.”
Will there be a Spaces Part III, and beyond? (If you can say!)
Without saying too much, YES. We are hoping to create a third part to Spaces and are slowly piecing together our ideas. Dance film, more dancers involved, with maybe a second part being more immersive/live performance? Currently, working on gathering the dream team, and figuring out logistics to hopefully shoot in the later summer.
Any other projects and/or collaborations coming up?
Some smaller, sparky gigs over the summer around the town in Brooklyn... The Triptych series at Muchmore’s in Williamsburg. The third part to Spaces. Continued performances and revisions of Spaces Part II: “We, two” as we continue to learn more! The dream of a larger immersive performance in 2016. Shall I go on?
(We could certainly listen and watch forever!)
Ashley Robicheaux is a performer and choreographer based in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her online at Ashley Robicheaux & Artists and on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ashleyrobicheauxandartists.
The true Milo & Otis
dodger under sidekick by boopers rescued cats on Flickr.
Cats don't like having their butts sniffed.
