DAW Interviews, part 2

Another set of interviews I did for The Monitor. See part 1 from last week...more to come soon.

DAW INTERVIEWS
PART 2
FRIDAY 2PM

ELENA (E), HEATHER (H)

H-“Of the Earth,” 5 dancers, 2nd time DAW
E- “Conversely Tangled,” 9 dancers, 3rd time DAW

TAYLOR- What has the DAW process been like?

E- The process for me was a bit rocky at the beginning because I was actually injured, like the 3rd day of school. So I was on crutches for a while, so to choreograph was very super hard. I have really good dancers and they’re very perceptive and they’re very fast so it makes things a lot easier. But as far as working with the dancers it’s always a really good experience because everyone in the program is really on top of things. They’ll dance for you like they’ll dance for a faculty member. I really don’t have any problems with it.

H- You try and make it systematic so that dancers can pick things up well, but things choreographically don’t work that way. The creative process can’t be systematic. You can’t plan it sometimes. What you think in your head doesn’t always work in real life. Some of the best stuff comes through improve or having a simple idea and testing it out on the dancers and seeing the trials and errors. It’s a really fun, frustrating, and rewarding process.

E- All at the same time!

H- All at the same time.

TAYLOR- Is it hard to work with the dancers in the sense that they’re your peers?

E- In some ways yeah, because you’re automatically in a position of authority but at the same time they’re your peers, so it’s a little bit a conflict of interest sometimes. Overall there’s not any issues with respect or anything like that, so it’s pretty good.

H- For me it’s been really fun. It hasn’t been stressful at all to have my peers. Everyone respects each other very much.

E- Yeah.

H- Because..I don’t know, we just all do.

E- They understand what you’re trying to do. And a lot of them are like, ‘Well I wouldn’t want to do that anyway.’

H- It’s hard to stay focused sometimes because we have so much fun and we get into side conversations.

E- Yeah that is a downfall.

TAYLOR- How much collaboration is there with the dancers? Do they help you make up steps and stuff?

E- Yes. I usually come in with a set phrase I want to work on or a set minute or chunk of the piece I want to work on, and then once the movement is on the dancers I feel like it automatically just tweaks itself because it’s on a different body; it’s not on yourself. So if automatically shifts itself. In general I feel like working with your dancers is a very very valuable tool because you can come up with possibilities you didn’t think of on your own, or like your body doesn’t allow you to do. Especially when I was on crutches trying to choreograph, I’m like “Oh yeah, that can actually work because you can actually dance.”

TAYLOR- I bet that was hard.

E- Yeah it was crazy, but all better now!

H- The dancers definitely help me out. Especially for this piece I had them improvise a lot where they travel in space. Actually yesterday I gave them something very specific I wanted them to do, and somehow everyone started the same phrase at a different time, and it was awesome! So I told them to keep it. A mistake can be a blessing.

E- I love when stuff like that happens!

H- It’s awesome. They felt so bad and I’m like ‘Do it again! It was so good.’

TAYLOR- Can you talk a little bit about your faculty mentors? Who are they and how do they work with you?

E- Mine is Nancy. She’s very very perceptive. She actually hasn’t come too much to my rehearsals, but the ones that she does come to she definitely helps me out a lot. She always has something valuable to say. It’s not so much like, ‘Oh change this.’ It’s more like, ‘What do you think about this section,’ or ‘What are you trying to say with this.’ It’s in a very constructive way I think.

H- Mine is Pat. She’s actually great. I had her a year ago when I was choreographing and she saved me. This year has been harder because I know what I’m doing now. There are times when you want your piece to be your piece, and they want it to be what they think your piece is. It’s kind of like having someone coming in and you’re trying to paint a picture and you’re on a little corner. You know what the whole thing looks like but they only see that corner. They’re like, ‘No, that’s not what it is.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, yes it is! Leave me alone.’ So that can be frustrating.

E- It’s a little bit of a balance. But at the same time I always have to remember they’ve seen more dance than I have, they have way more experience than I have. So at the same time you have to just remember that I’m still new at this, so I do have to keep that in the back of my mind.

H- They do have good advice. It’s good to think about.

E- Take it in stride.

TAYLOR- Besides your mentors, are there any other choreographic influences you have? Any outside choreographers?

E- I would say, for me, this piece, I saw a choreographer last year named Susan Marshall. She does a lot of work at DTW. Just in the way that she uses gesture, I think that’s a very big part of my piece this year. And integrating that with dance and making dance and gesture one in the same. So she was a very big influence to me this year.

H- This year I’ve tried not to think about technique at all, about other people’s choreography, about my own typical choreography. I’ve tried to create from a place of what everything feels like. In that I haven’t thought of anyone else, of any technique, of any choreographer. Just seeing what comes out.

TAYLOR- Has that been difficult to totally ignore everything?

H- It’s actually been very rewarding. It’s been difficult because every time I have to create I have to come from that place. To get there sometimes I have to always forget what happened that day, that week, if there’s anything bothering me. I have to feel completely centered and remember what it is that I’m creating about. So I have to come from that physical and emotional place, which is hard to get to sometimes, but the end result is great.

TAYLOR- Is there anything else that inspires you creatively, like music?

E- Just because the music this semester was created specifically created for me, that in itself I think really inspired me because I had to – before I even started creating movement I had to think of a structure of what this music is going to sound like. That really drove my piece forward and definitely shifted the way that I worked. Normally I would go ABCD, but since I knew the structure of the music already I kind of knew the structure of the piece, so I could go ADB, I can kind of pick and choose sections because I knew in the end how it would all fit together. Definitely the music inspired me.

H- I was very inspired by African and Australian wildlife and living out in the bush, just in general. My piece is very much about that. I’ve studied a lot of animals and their movements, and just nature in general. [I] have read books on Australia and Africa and just the hard life and about what it’s like to be so connected to nature and to rely on it completely for your well being. And the people that really do that have a totally different sense of sensuality and embodiment. It’s so focused and it’s not at all like we have here. Everyone’s like [makes gesture] or totally in their own world. My piece is about connecting back to that original place and that inner animal. I guess.

TAYLOR- Elena, what’s been your relationship with your composer?

E- Funny story. It’s actually been pretty good. He is a friend of a friend. He has a band. It’s a very strong rock influence. He’s extremely extremely talented but doesn’t adhere to deadlines. And that’s all I’m going to say! [Laughs] No, it’s just hard when you want to be in control of all these different components of your piece and then you have to wait. Like I was saying to Heather, I still don’t have the final cut of my music yet so I’m kind of stressing about that. He gave me a rough cut of it he did on the computer, but it sounds very synthesized and very techno right now. But he did everything. The main instrumentation is guitar, piano, drums, base. Extremely rock and roll heavy influence. It’s kind of a ticking time bomb right now.

TAYLOR- Well that leads to my next question. What’s been the biggest challenge for you so far?

H- When your whole goal is to create from an inspired state, and you’re not inspired.

TAYLOR- Does that happen a lot?

H- Not too often. But when it does happen you feel like you’ve wasted so much time and it’s really depressing. Those are the hardest moments. But they don’t last.

E- If you have good dancers, yeah.

H- Yeah.

E- I’ve had a few [challenges], but really I think it’s staying true to instincts, because a lot of times you find yourself kind of going off course and you question yourself and you’re like, ‘Is that cool? Is it not? I don’t know, I’ve seen it so many times. I’m kind of bored of it now.’

H- That happens to me all the time.

E- I’m like, ‘I don’t know, is this boring? I don’t know if this is interesting.’ So it’s trying to find that balance between trusting it. It also helps to get a fresh pair of eyes to see it.

TAYLOR- What’s been the best part?

E- That’s a hard question. I think for me, it’s like this is my vision that I put into movement. It’s really hard to articulate because you have this idea in your head and it starts out as this little thing. Then eventually when you see it with lights and music and costumes and you see everything come together, it kind of just makes you want to cry because really it’s like your baby. You gave birth to this thing and it’s such a satisfying feeling.

TAYLOR- It’s funny that you say that because I was talking to Meghan [Pilling] the other day and she said the exact same thing about it being like a baby.

E- That is funny. Same analogy! But it’s true!

H- For me, I do love that moment. I really do. The best part is when you have your concept and you dig and dig really deep to understand it yourself. You find all sorts of things that you never thought about. Your dancers reveal things for you, and the movement reveals things for you. You get a really awesome understanding of what it is that you’re studying, and so do you dancers. For this dance I’ve had to dig really deep. I feel like a different person [laughs]. I’ve learned a lot and I feel like it’s translated into my other classes, and just in everyday life too. It’s cool when your dancers go on the same journey.

TAYLOR- Do both of you want to choreograph after you graduate?

H- Perhaps. I always thought I’d never be a choreographer and do choreography but I just switched my concentration to choreography, so who knows.

E- My concentration is choreography. I would like to continue to pursue it, maybe not on a huge scale, but I do like the idea of working with dancers and going through this process of creating something. I feel like it’s really important, as a dancer too, to really find what makes you, you. You’re expressions and everything.

TAYLOR- My last question. Do you have any advice for future choreographers or those coming through the DAW experience?

E- Woo, future choreographers of America! Get your music rights in the summer [jokes].

H- There’s so much you could say.

E- There is so much. To really be open to the idea that your piece may no end up what you originally thought it was going to be. I remember the first time I choreographed I was hell-bent on this one thing, and I would not change my mind. ‘This is what I want.’ And yeah, that’s good, but at the same time you restrict yourself so much by doing that. So just be open to possibilities. Don’t be so straight and narrow like I was.

H- I would say probably the same thing. Just don’t be discouraged. Take every opportunity in your choreography to grow and learn from everything that you can. The best part is when things don’t turn out they way you thought they would and it ends up being so much better.
E- Amen.