DTW Studio Series With Oren Barnoy

(Since I'm about 8 months backed up on blogging (oops) I'm going to slowly post about dance stuff from this past spring - starting with an opportunity out of my usual bunhead realm...)

The only constant of the creative process is uniqueness – it’s always a one of a kind experience of time meeting artistry meeting innovation. But in today’s busy world creativity is often stifled by lack of funding, space, and opportunity. One of the most luxurious gigs I had this spring was working with contemporary choreographer Oren Barnoy in Dance Theater Workshop’s Studio Series – luxurious not in fancy costumes and great stages, but in prolific freedom to explore movement itself.

The Studio Series offers selected downtown artists a 100-hour residency and commission, culminating in a studio showing and wine discussion. Oren was chosen after presenting a successful solo at The Kitchen last fall, and numerous earlier works after graduating from CalArts.

Last year I received an email from him after my NY Times article came out, asking if I might be interested in working with him. When we met for a brief rehearsal at Joyce Soho we immediately connected over our love of dance. We spoke of arts writing, our vastly different backgrounds, and the NY dance scene. I was on my way to surgery and unable to continue at the time, but towards the end of December I got another email. A residency at DTW? I’m in!

What followed was 6 months of intensely physical rehearsals. We spent hours getting grounded in deep lunges, challenging movement intentions, toying with qualities, and freeing inhibition.

Being the bunhead that I am, I was tentative as to why a modern choreographer would want to create on me. He kept saying that I “have something honest” and though that was enough in theory, I pushed extremely hard to adapt to new ways of moving. Ballet comes on autopilot for my body, and I know from years of doing it how to improve, how to prepare, and how to play. With Oren’s movement I had to re-learn how to just stand up. I had no experience with truly feeling the floor or not making positions.

It was a long process.

The best part of the Studio Series is that we had that time to take. Oren would come in with a brief phrase – largely gestural – and we’d spend 2 hours growing the movement from marking to falling down in defeat. We’d do the same thing over and over again. He’d offer different ideas of qualities – bring awareness to certain body parts, intentionally feeling certain emotions, or simply thinking about my to-do list while moving.

Artistically speaking, this was the most intriguing and challenging part of it for me. I’d be given an abstract direction verbally and within seconds I had to manifest it through my body. I’m a thinker, but the way we worked through things I had to just do what was asked and see what happened instead of analyzing too much. The results were sometimes fascinating, always amusing.

Oren also developed a really keen sense of reading me. I guess that happens when you spend so much time one on one in a studio. He said once that I have a very strong mind and that as I’m dancing if I shift my attention or focus even slightly it’s very evident through the movement. When I’m in rehearsal I’m constantly only focused on the moment – so I thought. But after he said that I worked on finding new ways of redirecting my energy and intentions, something I had never been asked to do before. I found it to be almost a form of acting without physically changing anything necessarily. I would talk to myself, reminding myself to “let go” or “keep pushing” whatever the movement called for. It’s a hard process to explain in words, to myself and to others.

Oren was so wonderful to work with. He had unending patience for me and my multiple efforts to shake off ballet-land, and he always let me work where my body was at (ie. when we first started my foot was still not 100% strong post-surgery). And yet he pushed me to a new artistic level and challenged my endurance. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to learn from him.

To make a long story short, 6 months of sore hips culminated in a 15-minute marathon “work-in-progress” that was shown in June at DTW. A 15-minute non-stop solo that builds, and builds…and builds in energy. As we got down to the wire rehearsals were much more about running the piece several times in a row to build up the stamina and to determine exactly how much warm up was enough without killing me dead before the real run. These rehearsals = exhausting. With ballet, I know my limits. I know how to pace myself. I know what I need to eat to have the right energy. I know how to draw from inside to fake it if I didn’t sleep enough the night before (Lord knows I’ve done that a million times.)

With this foreign movement and way of working, it had to be a new effort of trial and error.

In the week leading up to the final showing we did 3 runs a day every single day, PLUS I was rehearsing for another show the same weekend, working my regular 30 hours at my desk job, and planning my escape to Europe the following week. By the time Friday came, I was r-e-a-d-y. I got to the studio way early as they were setting up the chairs for the audience. Oren and I worked through the piece lightly a few times to get ready and then cleared the room so people could come in.

I gave everything.

Every time I finish a full-out 100% run of the piece I want to throw up at the end. Seriously. It’s the most physically grueling dance I’ve ever had to push through – only comparable to dancing mega cardio in a huge Santa fat suit at Radio City. My face burns and my throat feels clogged. My legs might give out at any second. I have to mentally force myself to breathe and to cling to consciousness. The applause came as I literally hit the wall to end the piece, and it sounds hazy after the blasting base. I bow, hyper-aware of my balance so I don’t tumble to the floor. It’s over!

Once that moment of sickness passed it was such a delight to see the audience with their wine waiting for the post-show discussion. And what a feeling of accomplishment – that must be the rush marathon runners experience. That wasn’t the first time I had gotten through the work like that, but it was the first with others watching.

In the conversations afterward we spoke about the rehearsal process, of Oren’s ideas and intentions, and of what the audience experienced. The only feedback I had gotten for 6 months was from the choreographer himself, so it was interesting for both of us to hear how others interpreted it. It was nice to see some important faces from downtown dance whom I had never met before.

As I packed up to leave later, former Village Voice dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer thanked me for my performance and said she enjoyed it. Wow! I appreciated her acknowledgement. She left me with these words: “It will be interesting to see where this goes…”

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TALK BACK: What was your most phsyically exhausting dance experience? How did you prepare?

An Update!

It's April. That's insane. So much is going on but I'm really going to try to get back to regular blogging...for real this time.

Next week marks 7 months since my ankle surgery, and it's only within the past few weeks that I've FINALLY felt back to 100%. PT started using iontopheresis on my foot, which is like being hooked up to a battery in order to force medication into the body. It sounds scary (and it sort of was the first time, being hooked up to electricity) but it is the first thing in 4 years of pain that has finally helped! Hooray!

Thanks to that I had my first major performance weekend post-surgery last weekend and it went well! It was our semiannual Performing in NY Showcase at Ailey, which I'm assistant director of. Not only was it a TON of work getting everything together (somehow these things continue to grow - which is wonderful! - but the work multiplies fast) but this was the first one of these that I was dancing as much as I was directing. I danced in the usual 2 ballet pieces my teacher puts together (excerpts from Raymonda and Sylvia this time), but I also did a new piece with Exit 12 Dance Company. AND I got the artistic pleasure of working on a piece with Australian aboriginal choreographer Ian Colless. What an interesting process! More on that in another post to come...

Now that that big show is done I'm onto the next big projects...

Next week I'm taking my Pilates mat certification exam! Providing I pass, I'll officially be certified this time next week :) I'm excited about that and have a few things up my sleeve to that end...I've also been teaching a regular floor barre class at Gold's Gym and have been subbing Pilates classes there. Teaching is growing on me more and more...

And the next big thing is my first lead role in a full-length story ballet! I'm super excited about this one...it's just with a small company called Ballet for Young Audiences - and obviously it's for kids - but the rehearsal process has really given me an opportunity to explore things I've never had the chance to. Also more on that in a post to come...the shows are the week of April 11-16, so it's getting close! Also in May I'm doing a new ballet with them also based on a poem about a water goblin :o

April 11-13, 2011
Queens Theater in the Park
10am and 11:30am

April 14, 2011
92nd Street Y
10:15am

April 16, 2011
Secret Theater
3pm

I'm also rehearsing with a modern choreographer as part of the Dance Theater Workshop studio series, which is also a fascinating process. It's not only physically challenging because I'm used to strict ballet, but it's an artistic challenge in the way we explore movement qualities. He's creating a solo on me that shows in June.

Also in June I'll be performing with a company I worked with last year - New American Youth Ballet - with live orchestra. And Exit 12 is working on performing on The Intrepid during Fleet Week. And I'm starting my reformer certification. And I'm trying for real to travel to Europe this spring/summer at some point. And I'm still working and doing workstudy. And I have a big article I wrote coming out this month in M Life Magazine, the custom publication of the MGM Hotels in Las Vegas.

There are even more things I've failed to mention but...as I post more I'll get into that more! Happy Back to Blogging :)

Happening Now: DanceNOW[NYC]

Take Dance photo by Jordan Matter Photography

This week is the annual DanceNOW [NYC] Festival at DTW. Bending rules, exploring the untried and defying the standard, DanceNOW invites audiences to take a journey through the New York City dance community and "Find a New Artistic Crush."

Looking over the programs, which run from last night through this Saturday September 11 at 7:30pm each night, there are lots of interesting groups to see. The highlights I would've loved to see:

-John-Mark Owen's "Unam Ceylum"

Thursday 9/9 program

-Riedel Dance Theater's "Verdant Fire"

Friday 9/10 program

-Misnomer Dance Theater's "Misnomer"

Saturday 9/11 program

-TAKE Dance's "Salaryman"

Saturday 9/11 program

Experimental Rehearsal

A week or two before I found out I'd be getting surgery I got an email from an independent choreographer. He would be doing a residency at The Kitchen this fall and wanted to choreograph a new solo work on me. How exciting! I was looking forward to the prospect of working in a different style and having a solo opportunity in the city.

And then...the foot.

I emailed him apologizing up and down, emphasizing how grateful I was that he thought of me and that I hoped perhaps we could work together once I've recovered. We decided to meet for one rehearsal pre-surgery anyway, since he had already booked studio space.

And how nice it was! We chatted for a good 45 minutes before we did any moving - discussing the dance community in general, my background, his approach to choreography, gossip about dance critics, and so on. He explained that he saw something "real" in my article and that's why he wanted to work with me - I was honored.

I couldn't do much because the foot's been bad, but we spent a while going through a simple movement sequence with lots of walking and dynamic arm movements. It was nothing like I'd done before...no ballet here! But it was fascinating to work on something so pedestrian and make it art. He changed the timing of steps, the quality, the phrasing, the spacing...simple steps can be vastly different.

It's a shame I'll only have that one rehearsal with him for now and obviously won't be able to perform this work as hoped. It was tough to grasp what this was all about and to really make it mean something in just one hour - but he mentioned another possible residency in the spring, so hopefully I can try to be a part of that when I've recovered.

I was grateful at least to meet him and test the waters. Every minute in the studio is a chance to learn.

dance irrelevant?

Check out this interesting (and greatly amusing) conversation going on at Dance Theater Workshop's blog about the Gawker comment arguing that dance is increasingly irrelevant (posted after Deborah Jowitt's firing from the Voice).

I certainly hope dance is not becoming irrelevant...

dance writing week 3

The Writing on Dance course I'm taking just keeps getting better and better. It's already half way over, and I wish it were a full semester kind of class instead of a 6 week workshop!

Tonight we got our reviews back that we turned in last week. Mine was what I wrote on Petronio for ExploreDance, which we took apart during the class last week. But it was so wonderful to get written feedback from someone so well respected (C. La Rocco from the Times) as a dance critic. So helpful to see and hear tips and listen to other critiques and such.

Lately I've been able to meet and speak with people about dance on a much higher level of conversation than I've ever had access to before. It's interesting that that doesn't occur more in a school-type situation but rather amongst professionals or just audience members. I love it though.

Just some interesting notes I made to myself throughout tonight's class I thought I'd share...

-readers will not necessarily be able to see the dance piece you are describing, so their experience of the art is only through your verbal interpretation of the movement as the critic

-in contemporary dance you're going into the unknown, which is different from traditional classical dance

-criticism is the meeting of minds: the writer and the artist (choreographer)

-a critic's dialogue is with the audience, NOT with the artist

-what are some theatrical cliches?

I have tons more notes and things to think about and incorporate in my writing but just thought I'd put those up for discussion. I'm so inspired by this course and don't want it to end!