During Justin's Jones' the SCREEN/the THING I kept thinking it was the Ocean's Eleven of Minneapolis's contemporary dance community on that stage.
The stage setting breathed an aura of the celestial. Time and the space seemed malleable. This was most apparent when a backdrop with several painted prosceniums on it lowered slowly to the ground like an accordion to the sound score of an overwhelming vibrating trashcan. Brilliantly planted was a blue stripe on the floor that seemed to serve only as a point of reference to the choreography on stage, as if playing the role of the speed of light, the only constant. I kept being transported to a "Solaris" type place in a Tarkovsky film, except when I recognized in the sound score cuts from other film scores — it took me out of the work within a piece that seemed so otherworldly.
Most successful was the opening (sound-wise and choreographically) — something that I could have also listened to longer. A hanging painting with relic-like images on it was an aspect of the set that I wasn't quite connecting to (afterwards it felt to specific for the work). However the miniature planets strung underneath the sound artist's table I found delightful and a wonderful addition to all the other objects on the table including, books, an old TV, rope, clip lamps — it was a wonderful little world created for the sound artist Elliott Durko Lynch to help play at seemingly Divine-like characterizations and manipulations within the piece. However I wasn't convinced of his leaving his desk and becoming more physically involved in the work. I was more captured by his subtlety and mystery.
After reading Jones' director notes that quoted Richard P. Feynman (who expanded the theories of quantum electrodynamics), I found it to be a wonderful coincidence that I happened to be attending the performance with a colleague of mine who is a lover of physics, Ben Siems. Thus afterwards I had all sorts of inquiries about Einstein's Relativity theory and quantum mechanics and how this all relates to the piece. Something that Ben said that I thought was so beautiful (and I hope that I get it right) is that "everything around us, even foreign matter that doesn't respond to us (dark matter), is all made up of these tiny little strings, and all that separates us is how those strings vibrate since the universe first exploded into being."
He also commented that we humans believe there are up to ten dimensions of space and that we can only perceive three of them because of our size limitations. This is what makes the movement and structural abstraction in this piece beautiful because no human can experience these ten dimensions of space. It creates this incredible longing to experience and see it even though it is 99.9% of the world around us.
Maggie Bergeron's House/Home had a very cohesive and uniform feel to it with five unique, well-designed miniature houses, charmingly stitched together costumes that frayed on the ends, a magical sound score by Chris Thompson, and a strong traditional modern dance vocabulary. However with themes (according to director notes) that indicate a struggle to understand the definition of a home I found a lack of tension in the work choreographically and performatively and felt there were missed opportunities to fully realize the props potential. However this lack of tension can open up other possibilities of the work living in a place of youthfulness where the opening image of lights from inside the houses reminded me of children inside their forts playing Peter Pan or later dirt (or pixy dust) thrown in the manner of feeding chickens, can simulate walking paths that leads together various parts of different houses to create a new home. And we end the piece sighing with an "awe" and a image of a young woman holding her handful of dirt high in the air triumphantly.
Vanessa, you have such a strikingly poetic and evocative command of language!!! Great commentary. My Harvard honors degree in English Lit (from long ago) is impressed.
The “Ocean’s Eleven” of current Mod-druhn dance in the Twin Cities certainly is the right name. There is a particular stratum of the dance world that might be defined as “people who were the crazy and creative cutting edgers when they were 24, but now it’s several years later.” These certainly would include Kristin van Loon and Arwen Wilder of Hijack, Morgan Thorson, Chris Schlichting, Dylan Skybrook, Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad of Body Cartography, Susan Scalf, Emily Johnson, Eric Boone and Jessica Cressey (both primarily as performers), perhaps April Sellers, Karen Sherman and and certainly a number of others. Hey, you might want to add to my list, or make deletions. In any case, this was a stellar cast. It is really striking to me how Anna Marie Shogren and Elliot Durko Lynch, who are a bit younger, have begun to be part of this particular realm of the dance world as well.
All of the above is just my perception of course. I don’t want to come off as some kind of “categorizer.” Artists loathe being categorized, and I’m an artist, so I understand. But I can’t help organizing my thinking, and that’s something artists are also good at.
All that said, what a stellar cast!!!!!!!!!
I agree with much of what you said, and I would like to add my own two cents. Two things leapt out at me in Justin Jones’ piece. One was that the work was spacially intelligent. It wasn’t just that places and pathways wedre specific, a sign of clear rehearsal. It was that places and pathways were evocative and significant. The utter sideways-ness of the opening piece. The elegant interplay between the duet and the trio in the section about careful foot placement and downward focus. The figure or figures moving on diagonals or up-down-stage channels in the second or third part. Spacial clarity is, in my view, an almost lost art. I love it, and for me it was so very delicious to see understanding and eloquence on this pallette.
My second thought is that this “Ocean’s Eleven” cast was exquisitely rehearsed. Elliot’s powerful and very intersting sound score was NOT a “countable” set of tin-pan-alley beats. The dancers had to develop a shared ensemble of mutually understood timing, breaths and intentions. Mission accomplished. I see work all around the nation and I have seen it done as well, but I have not seen it done better. It was virtuosic in the wonderful kind of way that draws an audience in and creates trust without showing off too obviously like some goddam “Dancing With the Stars” grabber. It was exquisite.
Uh…I also thought the work was a bit too long. It sagged significantly for me about two thirds of the way through, but recovered to a degree. And each of the separate segments could have been 30 to 60 seconds shorter for me, as well.
Maggie Bergeron’s piece was also too long, but here I think there was a different problem. With Justin’s piece the length was a matter of timing and pacing, where his choice of what to do disconnected from my choice of what I could sustain watching that night. The problem with Maggie’s piece was more basic: there weren’t enough articulated ideas to fill the time. Therefore some non-constructive repetition had to happen and some vague choices wasted time. Or perhaps it was specific choices that came off as vague.
The basic concept was potent, personal and engaging. Who am I, where am I from, and, as I grow, how much do my roots matter in the changing landscape of my life? The dancers were skillful, the sets/props were clever and many images were resonant. In a way this was an easier work for many audiences because the intention was quite clear, at least at the outset. I must confess that I have problems with dance that requires two paragraphs of quoted or explicated intellectual analysis. Such as about politics or climate change or abstracted theories of movement in space for dance MFA’s, or for that matter about quantum physics. I’m old-fashioned. I do better in my audience seat when I’m seeing work that is about the kinesthetic eloquence of human bodies in motion and when I’m seeing work about human experiences delivered by human beings who happen to be skilled dancers. Well. there you have it, and I guess I’m just an old fogey. So there was something very appealing for me about Maggie’s work.
Timing is everything. The reason this old chestnut is true is not that it has eternal verity. It is true because it is about communication. I could quote to you the most eloquent and fabulous passage from Keats, Shakespeare, Frost or Plath and it wouldn’t even go in if at the TIME that I say it to you it just happens that you are grieving the sudden death of a loved one, craving my body in horny delusional delight, or so angry at the latest news from the Justice Department that you’re almost ready to strap on a bomb-vest yourself. The message may be impeccable, inarguable, eloquent, virtuosic and world-class but the timing would be wrong. Timing is about when (and therefore how)you can communicate.
The timing of Hannah Kramer’s entrance worked for me. The gradual destruction of the small shelters (”houses,” “homes”) worked for me. The attempted re-assembly of a new shelter around Hannah about two thirds through the piece wasn’t fulfilled for me. Another dancer destroyed it too soon. The final re-assembly did work, but wasn’t allowed enough time to resonate. Tt arrived and bang! the lights went out and we applauded.
Over and over, just as I began to catch and follow a thread of movement ideas, the flow would break into prop manipulation. Over and over, when prop-manipulation began to make sense as a theatrical thread, it would abruptly break into group unison modern dance movement for some reason that I was not sufficiently prepared to grasp.
That was the problem. Timing and an insufficency of clear ideas. I suspect that there actually were a great many ideas in the piece, ideas that were clear to the performers and articulated in the rehearsal process. That’s a valid and important process. Getting it out to the audience is a different — striking different - and equally valid process.
All that said, more power to Maggie Bergeron. There is a passion and commitment lurking bashfully beneath the surface of this work. I know her only slightly but this piece makes me respect her more and want to know her better. That kind of impact is no small accomplishment for a “fresh new voice” on the scene. It is for me a clear indicator of artistic integrity and committed vision.
Ah well, I have babbled.
John Munger
Comment by John Munger — 7/17/2007 @ 8:31 am
Hello John,
I read your insightful post.
I am just taking a moment to let you know some of the things the dance artists you refer to in your second paragraph have been doing this year. I didn't talk to any of them, this is just a list I came up with off the top of my head. If you talked to each of them, I am sure there would be more shows, projects, accolades, grants, commissions, tours, etc. than what I include below.
I had to write, because I am not sure what this means : "people who were the crazy and creative cutting edgers when they were 24, but now it's several years later."
No, none of us is 24 anymore (thank god) and none of us is making the work we did back then (thank god again). Other than this one sentence, I am going to try to keep my personal opinion out of the rest of this post: all of the artists you mention are making better work, now. This is to say, being crazy and creative cutting edgers is great when you are 24, AND now it's several years later and all of the artists you mention (and many you don't) have committed themselves (thus far) to making, being in, promoting, teaching, and writing about dance work and the process of choreography and improvisation (I'm not saying being crazy and creating cutting edgers past the age of 24 is bad either….AND I'm not saying the artists you mention aren't still, but I AM trying to keep this simple)…
Collectively these artists are making, presenting, being presented, getting commissions and grants, being written about, and dancing on a national and international level. Additionally, everyone of the following artists has been working in Minneapolis, making shows in Minneapolis, teaching in Minneapolis, coming home to Minneapolis, and committing themselves to the wonderful, burgeoning, exciting, and talented Minneapolis dance scene.
I am not writing to boast props for my colleagues or myself, I just wanted you to know some things you might not know about, because as you do know, a life of dance making can be difficult. It's important to respect each other and the processes we all undergo as artists. The artists below don't announce to the world every praise or gig they receive, they just go get another one…and more often, this is happening outside of Minneapolis - where the world is more difficult and where we sometimes don't have the soft landing of community to rely on. I just thought you should know that it IS several years later and alot IS STILL going on.
Here is the list, again… off the top of my head:
Arwen Wilder and Kristin Van Loon of Hijack toured their show "Hijack's Half" to Chicago in March, they performed in the first ever "Nothing Festival" at DTW, curated by Tere O'Connor in May, and they took their dance "Fetish" to Austin where they were nominated as 'best touring show' by the Austin Critic's Table. They also programmed an entire month of performances, classes, symposiums, and workshops at Links Hall in Chicago, bringing Morgan Thorson, Emily Johnson, Karen Sherman, Sheldon B. Smith, Laurie Van Wieren, and their own work to a festival called "TRAMP: Dances from Minneapolis." Oh, and in December their previous NY show was noted in the New York Times as one of the ten best shows in small venues for 2006!
Morgan Thorson is an NPN artist this year (National Performance Network) and she is bringing her dance work,"Faker" to Jacob's Pillow later this summer! She has a current U of M Dance Dept. commission and has, so far this year, toured her work to New York and Chicago in addition to dancing and touring consistently for Hijack, Justin Jones, and Karen Sherman.
Chris Schlichting is probably making something eccentric, poetic, obsessive, and wonderful (whoops, there's my personal opinion again) in his living room right now. He is also involved in a group of people who get together to practice dancing and spontaneity with structured exercises. He danced for Justin Jones in this show, and has toured this year with Morgan Thorson to Chicago, New York, and soon, Jacob's Pillow.
Dylan Skybrook has been collaborating with art star Catherine Sullivan. His choreography (and his, Justin Jones', and Kristin Van Loon's dancing) are featured in her new installation which will premiere at the Walker Art Center in August and be, I believe, in the Walker's permanent collection. They've been dancing and filming alot in Chicago and Miami.
Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad make dance work and dance films, and teach classes all over the world. I think they are in Paris right now. I know they are restaging their dance "Holiday House" this fall. "Holiday House" won a 'people's choice ' Sage Award last year. They've been in Massachusettes, Dublin, the UK, and Madrid the past few weeks.
Susan Scalf just presented a new work at the "Something More Useful Then" show at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater. She collaborated with drag artist Stephen Herzog. She is currently working on two new pieces.
I (Emily Johnson) have, this year, toured to Austin (where "Heat and Life" was also nominated by the Austin Critic's Table as best touring show), Chicago, and Montreal. I choreographed (and acted in) a play in NYC - a collaboration with Lisa D'Amour, Katie Pearl, and Krista Walsh. I just finished a show at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater and hosted a performer in from Montreal. One of my films screened at DTW in January. I just completed a Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Residency, I'm an NPN artist this year, and I've got a west coast tour coming up.
Eric Boon continues to dance his ass off (and complete mind-boggingly difficult yoga asanas in the class I am often taking with him). He is in Penny Freeh's Fringe Festival show that opens in two weeks.
Jessica Cressey is currently dancing for Emily Johnson and for Morgan Thorson. She also dances for Hijack whenever she can and for Chris Schlichting (and whomever else she wants). This year she has toured to Austin, NYC, and Chicago and will be dancing at Jacob's Pillow very soon. She, along with Hannah Kramer and Emily Johnson, created "Pamela" a dance shown at the Rogue Buddha Art Gallery in March. She is continuously going to see dance shows and supporting her dance community and she keeps an open dialogue with local dance critics.
April Sellers has been running Patrick's Cabaret. Arts administration is a thankless job, but we all love Patrick's Cabaret and thank god there are great art administrators to run and program it. She is also probably working on something right now that will sell out her next Bryant Lake Bowl Theater show (again!!).
Karen Sherman is quickly plowing her way through the list of Minneapolis achievements…with a Jerome Fellowship, a McKnight Fellowship for Choreographers, a Momentum Series commission, an Isolated Acts commission, and a current commission from the U of M dance dept. under her belt already (and she has been in Minneapolis for a relatively short time). She toured her work this year to Chicago, and Montreal and regularly performs in New York. She is also dancing all over the country in Morgan Thorson's "Faker" and I think it was last year that the City Pages named her "Best Dancer."
_______
Thanks for being so active all the time, John.
Peace and respect,
Emily Johnson
Comment by Emily — 7/18/2007 @ 2:46 pm
O.k. I have never blogged before in my life and quite frankly I am not one for words or sharing too much of my opinion. I find these above blogs quite interesting and especially appreciate Emily Johnson’s respect for what we do and the processes we go through. I found myself quite irritable at the performance this past weekend, and really started asking myself the question of what we think is coming across or is important to a work is being communicated clearly. I say this with regards to my own work, but that is what I thought a lot about with each of the works in the show. I rather enjoyed the sense of space I felt with Justin Jones’ work how I kept finding myself looking closer at the Southern Theater walls and ceiling, and I also particularly enjoyed the lighting of the work. As for the performers they were all very committed to what they were doing and the world they were in, but I never felt a sense of what was going on and particularly for Justin’s piece I felt as though the choreographic voice was all over the place as if a child was simply doing what they wanted at that moment and then simply shift to the next thing- a little ADD. The beginning of the work gave me a sense of awe and I excitement of where this was going to go and te movement vocabulary was interesting for a portion of the time, but then kept with that same vocabulary and I found myself wanting some release or flow from one thing to the next. I keep finding myself struggling with the fact that 'o.k. that is simply not my aesthetic of what I think dance is', but I also want to be moved or entertained by something happening. I see a little something different in Maggie Bergeron’s work, I am hopeful that I will go away with something from her piece, but this work of Maggie’s I just kept seeing a similar dynamic of we break our houses down and try to repair and keep repeating. The piece had a similar dynamic happening throughout and I concurred for myself that Maggie just got caught up in the props of the piece. There was a moment in the work where Jamie gets surrounded by all the dancers in the space against the stage right alcove and right there I thought a shift was going to happen or develop, but then it went right back to the same place and dynamic. Maggie has some stellar movers behind what she is doing and I wanted to see them move and get to show that part of themselves. Momentum always fills me with excitement to see what people are doing out there and making.
Comment by Mathew Janczewski — 7/18/2007 @ 4:56 pm
Oh Emily….
I so totally agree with everything you say in your literal text and also between the lines.
Sometimes it’s really hard to convey “tone of voice” on blogs, e-mails, and other publications. I may have gotten your “tone” wrong, so please correct me if I’m mistaken. I think…I THINK that you read my sentence, “…people who were the crazy and creative cutting edgers when they were 24, but now it’s several years later,” as a dismissal of the group I went on to list in part.
Please let me say gently, “Totally opposite.”
I have the highest regard for the group you name, and which includes yourself. I totally agree with you that all of you, as a group, are no longer “…making the work you did back then,” and that all of you are “…making better work now.” I think of this group that we are naming as one of three (so far ) “Great Generations” in the overall history of Twin Cities dance. I called this cast “exquisite” and I meant it. I was never ironic or sarcastic anywhere.
When I wrote the sentence you quoted, it was to imply rather than to say directly, the exact thing you went on to clarify. Yes, you all make better work now. Let me add that I think you make wonderful work when you’re “on” (we all have our down productions) and that you teach me. I am not of your generation and I don’t know how to make the kind of work you make, using the methods you use. (I daresay it goes the other way too, but you’re “now” and I’m “then.”) I am envious. I wish I did know how, but in the end I have stopped trying to imitate you. When I did, briefly, it was just an abortive attempt to please panels.
I have instead come to the conclusion that I should do what I do, not what you or anyone else does, and that I do my thing a little better each year, just as you do what you do a little better each year. In the past year or so part of what I do has become writing about dance, which I personally would never have expected when I was 24.
So I am painfully rattled by the fact that you so clearly have a big problem with my choice of words in trying to say what you ended up saying better. Well….I learn too. I hope to write better when I am 70 than I have been doing while I’m younger than that.
Also, I thank you for your exhaustive listing of accomplishments among various dance artists whose names have arisen (And I add again that my list was a quick top-of-the head-blog and not necessarily complete, and I further add that there are certainly others who belong on this list. And further, somebody might disagree with the presence of somebody on this list.) I actually knew much but not all of what you report, but I utterly APPLAUD this wonderful opportunity to get this information onto a blog with the impact of the Walker website.
Well let’s just see what THIS weekend’s “Momentum” brings. I’m on stage (with Off-Leash Area) in all my elderly limitation, and so I’m fair game. (Chuckle).
With equal respect, and fervent hopes for peace in a planetary scale,
John
Comment by John Munger — 7/19/2007 @ 10:19 am