Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | Dance Magazine

Lassoing the moon: choreographers' candid answers to where they get their ideas and how they like to collaborate.

Article Excerpt
LASSOING THE MOON

QUESTIONS FOR CHOREOGRAPHERS Some choreographers have their own companies; some work on a freelance basis. Some are resident choreographers with a ballet company; others do some combination of the above. DANCE MAGAZINE sent a team of interviewers to pose THREE QUESTIONS to 15 choreographers: How do you begin making a dance? How do you use your dancers and what do they contribute to your choreography? How does your work connect to the larger world? These edited interviews represent a sampling of the wide array of the styles and approaches in contemporary choreography. However, one trend seems to emerge: Choreographers are depending on their dancers not only to interpret their ideas and visions, but also to collaborate in the creative process.

MOSES PENDLETON

Artistic director, MOMIX

Interviewed by Cynthia Hedstrom

I TAKE AN ATHLETIC APPROACH TO CREATIVITY. A swim in an icy lake or a brisk morning walk through Oak Wood with a micro-cassette to record an impression or daydream. I draw a great deal from the natural world. It's probably my agrarian past; I never lost that farmer aspect of being.

Dancers express their essence through their bodies. There's an intelligence and a mystery there, a vestigial tale that needs to be told. I go into [the studio] with a kind of force field to help release the natural creative process. It's wildly chaotic here, but we get results. When you're having fun, work doesn't seem so difficult.

The larger world is nature for me, including human nature. There's form to nature that mirrors other forms. It's a kind of meditation, for example, making contact with a line of an apple tree branch. Those connections give us a feeling that we're not alone.

NEW WORK: Lunar Sea, based on all things lunar, tours Italy through early May and will be at The Joyce Theater, May 10-29.

SARA PEARSON

Co-director, PearsonWidrig DanceTheater

Interviewed by Cynthia Hedstrom

WHERE DO I START? In the bathtub. In that place where the mind lets go. Hearing the snip of a song that short-circuits my brain. Like a moment of grace. Like R. Crumb's meatball falling from the sky.

Sometimes I see something internally, a phrase or a complete solo. Then a dancer tries it and they fall over, and it's the falling over that is the entry into the piece. Sometimes I have the sense of something waiting to be discovered, and [we] are like bloodhounds going after a scent.

In the early stages, we often improvise together to hone into each present moment. It's about creating an atmosphere...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!