Making Dances
Choreography: Play Between Past & Present
This is the last installment in our series of posts on The Dance COLEctive‘s upcoming choreography showcase. We’ve talked with each of the choreographers, and today we have Melissa Pillarella with us to talk about her piece, where the dancers confront the complexities of feeling and accepting resentment by incorporating athleticism and a non-linear structure. Music from local band To Destroy a City furthers the tone and theme of the piece.
Melissa Pillarella
In life, I think there are always past events that people look back on and hold a little resentment or regret towards. Even if those events have brought them to a place where they are satisfied and happy, they may still think in the back of their mind about how they would like to go back and change something or do something differently. Of course, it isn’t possible, but the play between the present and the past, moving forward and looking back, is something that makes us who we are and is endlessly interesting to me.
What role did the band play in this process?
Usually music is one of the things I struggle with most, and I feel like it always becomes an afterthought once the piece is finished. I create something, and try to find something to slap on top of it that isn’t completely distracting. This time, I wanted to approach this project with a clear idea of what kind of music I wanted to use. I saw To Destroy a City perform at The Empty Bottle, and I turned to my brother and said, “I want to dance to that.” I was really into the mood and atmosphere they created with their intricate soundscapes.
At the beginning of the process, when we were first focusing on inventing movement, I played the album throughout rehearsals which I think influenced a lot of the vocabulary we created. As we got deeper into the project I was influenced by other sounds that I also wanted to incorporate in the piece, and it started to go a different direction. I decided I wanted to create a piece that used different samples of sounds I was interested in and convinced my hesitant friend, Donovan Lampa, to help me. Donovan is not a musician, so it was an experiment for both of us.
We liked what he created, but it needed something else. We decided to try reincorporating To Destroy a City, and it was exactly what the piece needed coming full circle. Now, the music is partially our experiment and partially the band (which is much better than our sorry attempt, but here goes nothing).
How did you communicate the idea behind this piece to the dancers—and was it difficult to do?
I actually waited until we were a few rehearsals in to discuss my idea behind the piece to the dancers at all. I didn’t want to feel confined by the desire to get a specific thought across, but instead I wanted to see where the piece naturally took us. It was only difficult to talk to the dancers about the idea because it wasn’t very easy for me to articulate. I do believe the original idea, whatever that was exactly, is very prevalent in the piece at least in structure and overall mood.
How much collaboration was involved in the creation of the piece?
I came into the process with some movement phrases and also gave specific assignments to the dancers to generate material. Together, we played with layering and working more in depth with the movement both I and they had created. Then I used a trial and error method for structuring the piece by watching the dancers work with various potential structures I threw out until we found one that seemed to make sense both thematically and aesthetically. Overall, I think the process was very collaborative, and I was incredibly lucky to have such talented dance artists working with me. The piece would not be the same without them.
Did you enjoy the choreographic process—or how would you describe it?
I have a love/hate relationship with the choreographic process. Like any true love, it can be horribly frustrating and totally satisfying all at the same time. Sometimes I wanted to throw out everything I had because it was shit and start over, and other times I thought that I was a genius who had just created the best work ever seen. In reality, neither are true, and I’m just beyond privileged to have a creative outlet that can sweep me up in the process… sometimes.
If you are interested in seeing this show, it runs May 18 & 19 at 8:00pm and May 20 at 7:00pm. Tickets are available here.
BIO: Melissa Pillarella, originally from Chicago, began dancing at Whitney Young Magnet High School and received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois. While at U of I, Melissa performed in works by Jan Erkert, Linda Lehovec, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Lorie Carlos and others. Currently, Melissa also dances with Mordine & Co. Dance Theater as well as independent choreographer Cristina Walterman. Melissa is excited and honored to be returning for her second season with The Dance COLEctive.
Choreography: Transforming Personal Poisons Into Beauty?
Atlanta Ballet’s New Choreographic Voices is exactly what it sounds like–a showcase for talented emerging choreographers. This year, the company presents three pieces–two world premieres and one Atlanta premiere. The choreographers include Christopher Wheeldon, Helen Pickett and Atlanta Ballet’s own company member Tara Lee.
Tara Lee, Photo by Charlie McCullers
Lee is a principal dancer in her sixteenth season with the Atlanta Ballet, and her choreography has also been performed by New Orleans Ballet Theatre and Emory Dance Company. Here she shares some of the ideas that inspired her latest piece, as well as what it was like to collaborate with a composer…
How did you first begin choreographing for Atlanta Ballet?
The ballet held a choreographers’ workshop years ago, where those of us who were interested could create a piece on the company and then show our work to a small audience in our studios. I presented an unfinished piece for the workshop, and (Artistic Director) John McFall invited me do a completed version for the company’s following season. “Sixteen String” was my first professional work; it premiered at the Ferst Centre in 2003.
How many works have you choreographed so far?
About 6…”Pavo” will be my third work for the Atlanta Ballet.
What was your process like when you created this piece?
The process of creating “Pavo” has been unique, because we commissioned an original score (a first for me) from Dr. Nickitas Demos, professor at Georgia State. It has been quite an experience, to create something that is in constant flux from all ends. Thankfully, Nick is a wonderful artist and collaborator.
As for the choreography, it ended up being a mixture of prepared material and spontaneous creation in the studio with the dancers. I might teach a body of material, and then ask the dancers to insert their language into those sequences. Then we would continue to adapt that new information further.
Working on "Pavo", Photo by Charlie McCullers
Jesse Tyler (my assistant choreographer) and I might improvise some partnering work in the studio, end up teaching it to the cast, and then evolving it with the dancers’ input. We would usually put the music into the mix after the choreography was already shaped and find the dancers’ natural timing to synchronize all the elements.
Can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind your new work?
Initially, Nick and I had a couple of meetings to see if things clicked, and we quickly came up with a couple of themes we were interested in exploring: cycles and continuum. After deciding on instrumentation, length of movements, and general dynamics of each section, Nick began to send me pieces of the score.
I was at a bit of a loss at first. The music was dynamic, but I didn’t know what to do with it, choreographically or thematically. Then I found an article about the peacock. It resonated with me instantly, and it became clear that I wanted to base the ballet on the spiritual symbolism of the bird. “Pavo” is the Latin word for peacock.
Photo by Charlie McCullers
When I learned that the peacock can digest poisonous snakes, and therefore represents the transmuting of one’s personal poisons, I recognized one of Nick’s sections to be “the digestion of poisons”. Some riffs even sounded like snake charmer music. I read further and discovered that peacocks dance restlessly before rainstorms; this presented the inspiration for the musical section I was worried about–it’s a very complex, feverish 3 minutes, and it made sense that it would be the storm section.
Nick had also sent me a lovely adagio for the featured duet, and when I read that peacocks also represent fidelity and faithfulness, I thought it was another great match. It was exciting to see our once broad themes become more focused and inspired. We had talked about cycles at our first meeting, and the metaphor of the peacock represented a breaking out of a cycle—a negative one. Awesome.
What do you enjoy the most about choreographing a piece?
I love walking out of a rehearsal being completely surprised at what we all just created.
New Choreographic Voices will run May 18th – May 20th on The Alliance Stage at the Woodruff Arts Center.
Watch an interview with Tara Lee:
Choreography & Following Directions
Today we’re continuing our series on choreography, thanks to the dancers from The Dance COLEctive who are choreographing for a show that is coming up in May…
Alaina Murray
Alaina Murray’s trio is about following directions. “Everything comes with directions: driving, cooking, games, taxes, school, work. What is the outcome of following, or not following, directions? Can not following directions prove to be its own path altogether? Routine movement sequences layered with surprising detours will explore these questions.”
Alaina’s pieces is called “Please read carefully. Here’s more about it…
1. How did you decide on this idea for your piece?
Recently the concept of rules has been a point of interest in my life. I’ve been thinking a lot about how this affects my life and the decisions I make. The initial broader concept of rules seemed to narrow into following directions as I thought about it further. This idea seemed to naturally lend itself to movement, and I was excited to explore it.
2. How did the idea of following/not following directions inform your choreographic process?
We were able to generate movement from very literal directions. We used a bread recipe, directions for changing a tire, and directions for being a good housewife. I wanted to convey the sense of order and repetition that comes from following directions in the structure of the piece. I also asked the dancers to write about their own experiences with following directions early on in the process. I wanted to know if they see themselves as rule followers or not; this was helpful in creating their individual characters for the piece.
3. Do you think that the piece would have been the same if you worked with different dancers? Why or why not?
Absolutely not, the dancers invented most of the movement vocabulary in the rehearsal process. I then was able to piece it all together with the dancers’ writing in mind. The dancers were very creative and thoughtful throughout the process, allowing the dance to unfold naturally. It has been a very collaborative process.
4. Did exploring this idea leave you with any new ideas once the dance was created?
The movement that we generated started to take on a very feminine tone early on. This was not my initial intention, but I went with it. What evolved was a vintage feminine theme that naturally displays the order and uniformity of following directions.
5. What was the most enjoyable part of this process for you and why?
I have loved quirkiness in the piece. It was not my intention, but there are several humorous moments that evolved unexpectedly, and I love them.
BIO: This is Alaina Murray’s seventh season with TDC. Originally from Michigan, she received her BA in Dance from Western Michigan University. Alaina has also worked with Open House Dance Collective as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher for many years. She performed with Inaside Chicago Dance as a guest artist in 2006. Alaina shares her love of dance with little ballerinas every day at A Fairytale Ballet, a children’s ballet and creative movement program. She is the Chicago Regional Director of A Fairytale Ballet and Starbright Dance and manages four studios in the city.
Choreography: Knowing Where You Belong
Another installment in our series on choreography…we are talking with choreographers from The Dance COLEctive about their process and today we have Shannon McGuire. Her piece focuses on the subjective and intuitive sense of knowing where one belongs. “Is there a sensation or a recognition in a circumstance that one finds the need to exist in a certain place? Is this place geographical, ideological or social?”
Shannon McGuire
1. How did the idea for this piece come about?
The concept of the piece really came from a personal questioning. I spent my childhood in the country of a small town, At the age of twelve I moved with my mom to Chicago. I finished growing up in and out of the city, spending every other weekend with my dad in the country, and school in the city. The lack of being fully grounded in either of the extreme environments caused a confusion that plagued me for years. Each year that passes by I ask myself the challenging question of where I belong or where I need to be.
2. What did you do with the dancers to explore this concept?
I was initially interested in what “belonging” meant to the dancers. There were various responses and we explored the possibilities through conversations and writings. We discussed how we know we are at a place where we belong. The movement came from personal experiences and emotions relating to the topic.
Later I became very interested in the other end of things. When don’t we belong? There was a much more intense response from this. So I began to play with both ideas. I sort of took both sides and figured out how to make that journey from not belonging to finding a place belonging.
3. How did that translate into the choreography?
The dancers generated most of their material from personal experiences and points of views. I asked them to be as intuitive as possible at times when choosing a direction or place in space. There is an obvious change of quality in the dance at different times. I play a lot with the feeling of belonging and not belonging. The structure of the piece directly relates to my personal experience, while the content is very personal to the dancers.
4. What was the biggest challenge for you in doing this piece?
The biggest challenge was finding a medium. I played with both ideas of belonging and not belonging. However, I really wanted to find what happened when both concepts are introduced. How does one find their way to a content place of belonging when feeling out of place for so long? How do they know that they found that place? The answer really came the more we played with the material. I really needed to find the answers through the dance making process.
5. What did you enjoy most about this process?
I most enjoyed the freedom to discover. I really went into the process not knowing the answer to my question. It was a chance for me to really dig in deep to find some resolution. This is my first time exploring a concept that directly relates to me and my experiences. I had help from four beautiful dancers and friends to help me find answers as well as ask more questions. Entering the process without the answers and later seeing the result unfold gave me perspective on my inner conflict.
BIO: Shannon McGuire graduated with a BA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago. While at Columbia, she performed choreography by Twyla Tharp, Paige Cunningham, and Matthew Hollis. Shannon enjoys sharing her knowledge and passion for dance with children at local studios. She was recently a member of MaryAnn McGovern and Dancers and has performed in numerous independent projects and dance showcases throughout Chicago. Shannon is thrilled to be dancing her third season with The Dance COLEctive.
The Art Of Choreography–In Layers
If you’ve been following this series, you know that we have been interviewing different company members from The Dance COLEctive who are choreographing pieces for “COLEctive Notions 2012” – a Chicago-area show coming up in May. Today we’ll hear from Molly Grimm-Leasure–
(If you haven’t read the other posts in this series, here is the first, and then the second.)
Molly’s idea had to do with the thought that people may see the same piece of art differently. She comments, “Does it change your original thought to hear someone else’s idea? Or does it add another layer of understanding?” As she creates her work, she is having dancers view, write and move using her personal, abstract paintings to guide them through their own interpretations of what she originally saw before the brush touched the paint.
Here are some of her thoughts on the process…
Molly Grimm-Leasure
What gave you the idea for this piece?
Recently I needed a new outlet to control some aggression I was feeling. I had always wanted to learn how to paint so I went to Michaels and bought a bunch of supplies. It became more of a passion and love–with the bonus side of being an outlet. I would put music on and make a mess with my paints! I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. Painting made me feel so free and open to anything. This is how I feel when I dance, so why not make a dance from some of my paintings!
What was the process like of creating this work?
Once I was able to pick out the paintings I wanted to use; five of them, I had the dancers write what they saw without me giving them any information. Then I told them the titles of the paintings and had them write if it changed what they saw. From there they created phrases for each painting; needless to say we ended up with a lot of material!
How did the dancers help inform the piece?
Hearing their interpretations of the paintings was really neat and informative of how to proceed. All the material you will see is all their own! If I got stuck at any point, or if I saw something not working out, I would ask the dancers. They are the ones performing, so I want them to feel as comfortable as possible, even if that means changing a few things around to make that happen.
Were there any surprises as you worked on the choreography?
I was surprised at how I pieced together the material. I started piecing movement and phrases together as if I was painting. It was hard because I would find myself working and re-working a certain section until I saw what I wanted. Even then I may go back and add something else. What I enjoyed was that I had the ability to erase a part I didn’t like instead of finding a color to cover it.
In the end, did you learn anything about your own paintings?
I saw them differently based on the ideas and images the dancers had. It opened my mind to see not only what I was painting but other images too.
If you were to do this again, would you go about it the same way, or would you change something?
I wouldn’t use five paintings!! Having so much material I had to cut out some, as it became overwhelming! The piece probably could’ve been closer to 20 mins if I used everything that I had!
BIO: Molly Grimm-Leasure is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where she obtained a BFA in Dance Choreography. While at Columbia, she was a featured dancer in Dance Spirit Magazine, which tracked her professional and scholastic achievements and reported what life was like to be a dance major. Molly was one of three dancers in the United States chosen for this opportunity. Molly has been with The Dance COLEctive since 2002 and has also worked with Breakbone Dance Co. under the direction of Atalee Judy. In2006, Molly performed in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Chicago Gay Games under the choreographic direction of Joel Hall and Kevin Iega Jeff. More recently, Molly has choreographed for Stagg High School’s Orchesis program and was involved in choreographing and helping to produce a series of videos for International Women’s Day. These videos were shown on Accenture’s website. For the past two years her choreography has also been featured in The Dance COLEctive’s, COLEctive Notions. On occasion, she will teach modern classes during The Dance COLEctive’s Open Company Class. Molly also works as a full-time massage therapist in the Chicago area. Molly would like to give special thanks to her husband, Zak, and her parents for their love and support as she continues to follow her dreams.
0The Choreography of Understanding: Edwaard Liang’s “Age Of Innocence” at the Joffrey
by Johnny Nevin
What would a work as rich and lustrous as Edwaard Liang’s “Age of Innocence” look like if you could see it, unlit and unformed, before any of it had been made? What would it feel like, what would it be like, to see the unilluminated beginnings of something whose ending was a bright, compelling, complex success?
Age Of Innocence, Fabrice Calmels & Victoria Jaiani, Copyright Herbert Migdoll
When the Joffrey Ballet performs Liang’s “Age of Innocence” in its “Spring Desire” series this month, their audience will see the return of a powerful and profound work, presented with all of the richly-woven precision that the Company is known for. What would it look like, though, if you could see it begin, before it was anything but a vision?
0Choreographer & Dancer: A Personal Relationship?
Last week we ran an interview with Margi Cole about choreography and her upcoming showcase, which features dancers from her company making their own dances. Today we highlight both the dancer and the choreographer, to give you a closer look at the overall process.
Kaitlin Bishop is the choreographer here, and she has created a solo delving into the basic human emotion of sadness. The piece looks at how early childhood experiences with sadness dictate its existence (or lack thereof) in our adult lives and how we react to it, in it and through it.
Kaitlin Bishop
Here are some of Kaitlin’s thoughts on the piece….
Where did the idea for this piece come from?
I think the idea for this piece has been slowly incubating in the back of my brain for a few years now. The work I’ve choreographed in college and for TDC is always rooted in a journey, be it a journey I’ve completed or a journey I’m currently experiencing. I’ve always been a very introspective person, keeping a journal even as a very young child, so thinking about and acknowledging my feelings is second nature, however, as I’ve gotten older, and have recently gotten married, I’m now not only recognizing emotional states but I’m really starting to analyze them, their range and scope, and question the true cause of them – if there is one. Sharing my daily life with another person has really been pretty fascinating in that I now have a witness to my daily emotional experience – someone who makes observations and asks questions, in a way forcing me to articulate how my internal thoughts & emotions manifest themselves externally.
Is there a reason you chose to make it a solo piece?
The idea and experience behind this piece is so personal, not just for me, but for Maggie, and essentially for every person who has ever experienced feeling sad. Everyone relates to sadness (and its varying degrees) so differently. Sadness is such a singularly personal and internal experience and journey, I couldn’t imagine attempting to capture that in anything other than a solo piece. When I watch dance, I’m always looking at and responding to the relationship between the dancers. When I see a (good) solo, I see a person existing in space, inhabiting their experience for me bear witness. I think if I added another person to that space, it would become about something else – not just this single person’s experiences within herself.
What was it like to choreograph this work?
It’s actually been very energizing and exciting in the process so far. Maggie and I have such an open and honest dialogue about our respective experiences of sadness (and causes thereof) in our lives, and also through this process, how ideas are being manifested physically and visually, etc. It’s pretty exciting to go into a rehearsal and have absolutely no reservations or fear about what we might discover, either in the work or in ourselves.
Can you explain your process?
We started rehearsing in the beginning of March, but we started discussing the piece in January. I had a (long) list of questions I created based on my own experiences throughout my life, questions I’ve been asked myself, conversations we’ve had in the past, etc, for Maggie to answer that served as the jumping off point for this whole process.
From there, we just kept making observations and asking more questions and having more e-mail conversations, until I went back and extrapolated the ideas, phrases, and stories that really resonated with me. Bringing those discussions into the movement invention process has involved a lot of improvisation and movement investigation, teaching each other our movement vocabulary, stripping it down, and then building it back up. I create work similarly to how I write: with the overall framework of what I want to convey set, and then allowing the movement vocabulary to develop and flesh out the experience, making changes and going in new directions as the process and underlying ideas dictate.
Prior to this—what experience did you have with choreographing dance?
Having grown up teaching and choreographing dance in a typical studio setting (jazz, tap, ballet, etc), I graduated college a little burnt out on the idea and not really interested in pursuing my own choreographic opportunities to any great extent. Working in a collaborative environment with The Dance COLEctive really satisfied that urge for the past several years too. I created a work for last year’s COLEctive Notions concert when I challenged myself to do something that scared the crap out of me and had such a great time, it really seemed to light a little fire in me. Plus, it would just be silly to pass up the opportunity and resources that Margi’s giving us in this process. It’s incredibly rare to be given the space, time, and energy that Margi’s giving us to do this.
What was it like to choreograph for Maggie?
Choreographing for Maggie is 90% of the fun. We have such a special friendship, and that has really served as an incredible foundation for the piece we’re creating together. To be able to so openly delve into our thoughts, feelings, and experiences and then really explore a physical embodiment of those discussions has been incredible. There’s no one I trust with this piece more than Maggie, and it’s actually been a great learning experience for me as well, to listen to her own thought processes and ideas as we’ve investigated movement ideas and such. It just adds to the personal reward of creating when there’s so much reciprocity with the dancer embodying the work, especially given the sensitive and personal nature of the subject matter. I don’t think there’s any fear or insecurity in this process for either of us, which makes it all the more exciting.
How would you characterize the entire experience?
So far, the experience of creating this piece has been amazing. The discussions, the discoveries, the challenges, have been so fun. What I think will be interesting (and slightly scary) to see will be what it’s like to have this piece viewed by others. Right now, Maggie and I have this very open and safe space we’ve created for each other in this process, and I’m very aware of the fact that at some point, others will see this, will see me, essentially, and the ideas behind this work are so incredibly personal for me, it’s more than a little terrifying to have it available for public consumption.
And now for a perspective from the other side…the dancer, Maggie Koller, talks about what it was like to work with Kaitlin…
Maggie Koller
What did you think of the choreographic process for this solo piece?
I found the process to be very interesting! When Kaitlin views dance, she finds herself more appreciative of work that gives her time to establish an emotional connection with the dancer(s) on stage. So, we’ve spent a lot of time creating the sort of normal, day-to-day personality and movement vocabulary of the character to help the audience connect with this person before we ask them to be with her while she finds herself in more compromised emotional states. Kaitlin also has a very interesting view of space and how she (or the work) applies meaning to the various areas of the stage. I was in the quartet she set on TDC last year, so I’ve gotten to work with her in this capacity before. This process has been even more fascinating for me because it’s just the two of us! I get to see more deeply into her head and understand her unique points of view on dance making.
What was the most difficult part of the process for you?
Perhaps this is an obvious answer, but I think the fact that this work is a solo makes it challenging. After being in the company for 6 years, Kaitlin and I are well versed in the “Margi style,” which includes a great deal of partnering and relationship development. In a solo, you don’t have anyone else to build a relationship with, so we’re really having to work to tell the story with a single body in space. Secondly, that single body is mine! So I am fully responsible for communicating Kaitlin’s vision, and it’s really important to me to bring that vision to life.
What was the most fulfilling part?
Probably a combination of the subject matter and the development of the work as a solo. The span of negative and positive emotions people experience, whether as a reaction to events or encountered habitually, is something Kaitlin and I have spent a lot of time discussing over the course of our friendship. It’s been really interesting to continue those discussions with an end goal of translating our thoughts and experiences into movement for her work. I am also finding this solo process to be quite satisfying. I really appreciate being put in a position where I’m expected to manifest such specific requests and corrections. Every breath, focus change, direction of energy, and the force I put into each moment has been analyzed and dissected repeatedly by both of us to make sure the way I move is true to Kaitlin’s vision and true to the emotional states we’re exploring.
What was it like to work with Kaitlin as a choreographer?
I love working with Kaitlin! She and I are really great friends and share a unique connection as human beings, so having this time and space to work together has been truly wonderful. I really feel comfortable moving in front of her and am totally open to her feedback. Analyzing, emailing, journaling, and talking about all that we’ve explored to get to where we are with the work has been very engaging. I’m honored that she trusts me with her vision.
BIOS:
Maggie Koller received interdisciplinary dance training at the Academy of Movement and Music in Oak Park, Illinois. She earned her BA from Beloit College with a double major in Dance and Psychology, graduating with departmental honors, Summa Cum Laude. Maggie is currently in her sixth season with The Dance COLEctive (TDC). She has also danced with Chicago-based companies The LIVE ANIMALS Performance Collective, Ayako Kato/Dance Union, and The Space/Movement Project (TS/MP), for which she acted as co-director and CFO. Maggie has choreographed for TDC, TS/MP, The Open Space Project, The Inconvenience, OPRF’s Orchesis, and is involved in an ongoing performance collaboration with musical artist AM Brother. Maggie also has a full-time position as a Creative Planner for Central Coast Agency, a creative think tank for advertising, content, user experience, and design.
Kaitlin Bishop came to Chicago in 2002 to pursue her dream and passion for dance. A graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Dance, Kaitlin has had the privilege of working and performing with such dance makers as Krenly Guzman, Nicolle Wood, Molly Shanahan, Angie Hauser, Colleen Halloran, Jeff Hancock, Sandra Kaufman and Liz Burritt. Kaitlin also serves on the Board of Directors and heads the Fundraising Committee of The Big Hearts Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds for canine and feline cardiac disease. This is Kaitlin’s sixth season with The Dance COLEctive and she thanks her family and friends for their unwavering love and support.
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Margi Cole — On Choreography
This month on 4dancers you’ll notice posts on choreography. Today we have Margi Cole, Artistic Director and Founder of The Dance COLEctive, a Chicago-based company that has been around for over 16 years…
Margi Cole
When did you first take an interest in choreography and what drew you to it?
Believe it or not my interest in choreography started young. I organized neighborhood kids and actually produced performances in the garage at a neighbors house. Funny to think about now. I think I really enjoyed gathering and organizing groups of people.
How do you see the role of the choreographer in the dance world?
This is a hard question. I guess the privilege of being a choreographer is creating the opportunity for others to see something new. The power to create an image or explore an idea that resonates with someone long after the live performance.
What is your own choreographic process?
I work very collaboratively. Usually I come in with an idea and some plans around how I want to explore that idea whether it be through the development of movement vocabulary, research, personal writing exercises and conversations about our own experiences. I share this with the group and then we go on from there. The process is informed by everyone’s participation and my role inevitably as the editor.
“COLEctive Notions 2012” is coming up in May, and it’s a showcase for choreography from members of your company. Can you talk a bit about how you helped mentor the choreographers through the process of creating works for this program?
First, they had to submit a proposal where they put forward their ideas in writing. While this seems simple, it is often a great challenge to clarify ones ideas in writing. It is an important and necessary tool. From there they work on their own for an extended period of time. When they are ready they invite me in for feedback, ask me questions, look to me for direction and confirmation that their ideas are working. I encourage them through the process and help them see it to the final stages for performance.
What are the greatest challenges for new choreographers in terms of creating a work?
Having the resources they need to create work whether it be space or the knowledge of how to assemble a group and produce a performance or access to a “mentor” to help them explore their ideas and ask them questions throughout the process.
Is the relationship a reciprocal one? Do you learn anything from the choreographers?
Absolutely! It is so interesting to see what they value in terms of craft. Watching them helps me to further define my own aesthetic and watch them deepen their own. It is pretty awesome!
What is the most surprising thing you have learned since you have been choreographing dances?
The power of a strong visual image. How important it is to be honest in the process with yourself, your collaborators and your audience. That the options for creativity are endless and that fills me with fear and wonder!
BIO:
Margi Cole graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts, received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a teacher and guest lecturer, she has taught for numerous educational and professional organizations such as the Alabama Ballet, the American College Dance Festival, Ballet Tennessee, Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, and various other institutions throughout Illinois, the Midwest, and the Southeast. As a choreographer, Margi has been commissioned by The Alabama Ballet, Springfield Ballet Company, Sanspointe DanceCompany, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Girl’s Preparatory School of Tennessee, Beloit College and Columbia College Chicago.
As a performer, Margi has danced with well-known choreographers and companies, including Ralph Lemon, Joe Goode Performance Group, Liz Burritt, Stephen Koplowitz, Ann Boyd, David Rousseve, Bill Young, Douglas Nielsen, Timothy O’Slynne, Paula Frasz, Colleen Halloran, Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, Mordine & Company Dance Theatre, Renee Wadleigh, and Ellie Klopp. In August 2011, Cole traveled to Finhorn Scotland to join 19 international performers to participate in the Deborah Hay Solo Commissioning Project.
Awards and acknowledgements of Margi’s accomplishments include making the list of “Teachers Rated Excellent by their Students” four consecutive semesters while on faculty at the University of Illinois, receiving two Dance Center of Columbia College Choreographic Mentoring Scholarships, two Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships, a 2005 Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant, a American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, and winning a Panoply Festival Choreography Award for Contemporary Dance in Huntsville, AL.
Margi is active in the Chicago dance community, serving on grant panels and in public forums as an arts administrator, dancer and choreographer. In 2011, she was integral in organizing both the Dance/USA and Marshall Forum annual conferences in Chicago. Cole is currently a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Consortium Member and is part of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship Selection Committee. She is currently on faculty at Columbia College Chicago, where she has served as a Lecturer and Associate Chair. Most recently she was name on of The Players in New City’s “Fifty People Who Really Perform in Chicago” List.
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Success and Housewives: Making Modern Dance Make Sense
by Lauren Warnecke
Photo by Kelly Rose of Savage Rose Photography
Perhaps one of the biggest barriers that “normal people” express about going to see modern dance is that they don’t understand it. At nearly every post-show talk-back I’ve ever attended there are at least one or two people who start their comment with, “Now, I don’t know anything about modern dance, but…..” yada yada, you fill in the blank. The standard issue response that I tend to hear is “you don’t have to understand it,” or “whatever you FEEL it’s about, IS what it’s about.”
That is completely true, and something I’ve said myself on numerous occasions. But over the past few months I’ve been formulating a theory that it’s not a particularly useful response. In other words, I’m thinking that “come to this weird thing you don’t have to understand” isn’t as effective a tagline as we’d like to think it is to getting butts in seats. After all, we are all human. We crave compelling stories and generally tend to try to apply meaning to things. Dance, however, often lives in a world of abstraction where the layers of meaning are imbedded in movements and gestures that don’t obviously reveal their stories. That’s what program notes are for…
The problem is, sometimes we (the choreographers) are so lost in the tangled web of ideas and abstraction that we too can’t exactly articulate what our pieces are about. When I gaze into a set of program notes and read that the dance I’m about to see is about a girl’s fiancé breaking their engagement, or satanic cults, or gender identity, I get a little overwhelmed.* Seeing a dance concert should be a relaxing and enjoyable experience that is accessible to everyone, and satanic cults are something I don’t often feel like dealing with on a Friday night. It’s not that these topics aren’t important and can’t or shouldn’t be explored through dance; it’s just that maybe you can find another way to express your idea by pairing it with something a little easier to swallow. Either way, heavy topics often become so abstracted by the time they reach the stage that you might as well say that the piece is about puppies, because the untrained eye won’t really see the difference anyway. No matter the subject, we come up with quips and phrases for press releases and program notes that say sort of what we think our piece is about, but most program notes could really just say “this piece is about whatever you feel it’s about and you don’t have to understand it” (read: “I’m not so sure what it’s about either…”).
1The Curse Of Being Creative (Why WorkFlowy is Amazing)
by Lauren Warnecke
- I consider myself to be an organized person. I mean, I guess I know I’m an organized person because I usually end up where I need to end up on time. I usually pay my bills on time. People hire me to organize performance projects, and, as far as I can tell, they all turn out ok. I’m organized, but I’m also a dancemaker. Like most other working artists I can’t survive unless I have multiple jobs. Last fall I think my brain got to capacity. I had taken on more than any organized person – or rather any person – should, and it got to the point that some things were starting to slip… like remembering to brush my teeth and pay the cable bill.
- Things float in and out of my brain. It’s the curse of being a creative person. We’re not linear thinkers. I am often simultaneously thinking about the role of the American housewife, the importance of the right index finger, the best way to engage new audience members, if I have any clean pants, and what to have for dinner. One thought leads to the next in a stream of consciousness that, heard by another person, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. This is an awesome problem to have, but can also be frustrating when you are 1) trying to communicate with people who AREN’T non-linear thinkers (and yes, I realize I just used a double negative there), or 2) trying to communicate with someone who is also creative, but not your kind of creative. That’s pretty much everyone.
What a dance looks like in Lauren's head
- But it all makes sense to me. I just don’t have room for it in my brain. Enter 2012. Even before the confetti was falling on a new year, I had resolved that I needed a new way to organize my thoughts. I love paper planners, and though I completely embrace technology I’ve never found a techie tool for storing a to-do list effectively. You either have to categorize things, rank things, or otherwise pigeon hole your thoughts into a few characters. By some sort of divine intervention (that is, the “freshly pressed” feed on WordPress.com), I came across a post about a newfangled organizational tool: WorkFlowy.
- I’m in love with workflowy. It is new(ish? I think?), but its brilliance is in its stark simplicity. WorkFlowy is a big, fat, unlimited capacity, bullet-pointed typepad, that you don’t have to save, can open up wherever you have the interwebs, and share with whomever you please. No categories. No muss, no fuss. No pigeon holes. Today on my WorkFlowy, I brainstormed marketing ideas for an event I’m managing, added bananas to my shopping list, and wrote this article.
- Apart from shameless promotion for a new thing I found that I love, the point is this: in order to keep ourselves surviving and making work we have to keep seven jobs. In order to keep seven jobs, we’ve got to be organized. In order to be organized, you don’t necessarily need WorkFlowy, but you need some sort of interface that works the way YOUR brain works. That could be a paper planner, an iPad or a sheet of loose leaf paper. For me, I think it might be this. Until, of course, the internet goes away… but I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.
Lauren Warnecke
Contributor Lauren Warnecke is a Chicago-based dance artist, educator and writer. She trained at Judith Svalander School of Ballet and Barat Conservatory of Dance before earning a BA in Dance at Columbia College Chicago. In 2009, Lauren completed her MS in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an adjunct instructor for the Department of Kinesiology at UIC, the Performing Arts Coordinator at the Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls, a member of the Cecchetti Council of America, and Neurotransmitter to Synapse Arts Collective (read: too many jobs).
Lauren created and maintains Art Intercepts as a platform for dance that is informed, inventive, and evidence-based. In addition to writing at 4dancers, Lauren is a columnist at Dance Advantage, specializing in dance injuries and prevention, dancer wellness, and evidence-based teaching practices. She also enjoys her freelance work as a grant writer and production manager and likes to grow strawberries, bake scones, and dig in the dirt.
