Dance into the mind of a choreographer

It starts with a blank sheet of paper, 8.5 x 11, laid out on the desk. I draw stick figures as I see a formation in my head. I envision people, bodies, impulse, and contact. If I know something will not work, I write it down anyway. I imagine costumes, music, and lighting. When dancers begin to move, I let them explore and see what comes out. They play with different motifs, different points of initiation, different intentions. Then they play with their phrases, merging some together and throwing others out. I connect movement to ideas about visual art, music, theater, literature, and history. The process continues and a work of art starts to develop.

For many contemporary choreographers, the process is the product. The essence of a work becomes less about what audience members see onstage and more about how that work got there. The story viewers yearn to know is of what happened in rehearsal, when a collective mind was creating the dance. Underneath the makeup, costumes, and tutus—what inspires what is seen? Collaboration amongst artists and across mediums has inspired many of the works in New York City’s fall-winter dance season.

New York Live Arts, formerly Dance Theater Workshop, has been opening a window into the choreographic process for over 40 years. Described on its website as “addressing the ever-shifting needs of artists and audience members alike,” NYLA is a performance space that hosts a variety of shows.

In NYLA’s latest production, “The Thank-you Bar”—which runs from Wednesday, Nov. 9 to Saturday, Nov. 12—dance is paired with visual art. Choreographer Emily Johnson creates stories and visual images in her dance work, which is accompanied by an exhibit she also curated. Johnson intends the visual art to help viewers understand and relate to the mind that created the dance, not just to the dance itself.

The Australian-based dance company Chunky Move’s work, “Connected,” also connects dance with visual arts. The hour-long show, which was presented at the Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Ave., between 18th and 19th streets) from Nov. 4 to 6, centered around a sculpture by Reuben Margolin. The dancers were connected to the sculpture with strings, and their movements caused parallel motion of the sculpture, making it a fifth dancer onstage.

Choreographer Gideon Obarzanek said, “Once dancers go into motion they transcend their concrete forms and become wavelengths in time, and the sculpture has a similar quality.”

Martha Clarke, a MacArthur Genius Award-winning choreographer, similarly embraced interdisciplinary collaboration as a foundation for her work, “Angel Reapers.” Clarke collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry to generate a thought-provoking piece about sex in 18th-century New England. The reciprocal relationship she has created between dance and theater encourages the dancers to grow in different areas of performance.

“Stretching my wings as an actor and singer has been frightening and frustrating at times, but what a gift,” dancer Patrick Corbin said. “Martha’s process is always a conversation. She is very image driven. Questions and answers through image and movement.”

In Clarke’s process, as well as that of many other experimental choreographers, the dancer plays just as integral a role as the choreographer.

Corbin said she is “sometimes a guinea pig, sometimes a guide, sometimes a playmate. The process is highly collaborative, but she knows what she wants when she sees it.” The piece will show at the Joyce Theater from Nov. 29 to Dec. 11.

Collaboration and interdisciplinary inspiration don’t happen only in the citywide dance scene, but in Barnard and Columbia’s communities as well. The Barnard Project, which will show from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4 at NYLA, prides itself on a three-month choreographic dialogue that takes place between the dancers and choreographer.

“Doing the Barnard Project, I get the chance to see what goes through the choreographer’s head—how he or she puts things together and takes things apart. And more importantly, how something comes into fruition from just a few ideas,” Dan Pahl, CC ’14, said.

Another campus group, Orchesis, is one of the most accessible ones on campus, giving students the opportunity to choreograph and perform twice each academic year. The Orchesis board holds auditions at the beginning of each semester for both choreographers and dancers. The group’s latest performance, “metamOrchesis,” will show from Friday, Nov. 18 and Sunday, Nov. 20 at Lerner Hall’s Roone Arledge Auditorium.

The producer of “metamOrchesis,” Victoria Pollack, BC '12, said, “Every choreographer’s individual process is unique to them, some conceiving an entire piece on their own and others using dancer improvisation to develop their ideas.”

“Nonetheless,” Pollack said, “all of the choreographers’ work is shaped by their casts and constructive feedback from their fellow choreographers.”

The MaMa Project, a subdivision of Orchesis, is another student performance that takes choreographic collaboration seriously.

“At any rate, what I actually end up setting on my dancers in the studio is always very different from what I first come up with when just listening to the music,” Marie Janicek, BC ’12 and this year’s MaMa choreographer, said.

The work, which will premiere in February 2012, “explores a de-evolution of human behavior,” Janieck said. According to her, it focuses on the raw and vulnerable human being left when social façade is stripped away. Janicek’s inspiration came from animals, music, and her dynamic cast.

“But in a greater sense,” she said, “it’s a reawakening of awareness and presence, and of our bodies, emotions, and truly experiencing everything that happens to us in every moment.”

Collaboration and improvisation have become prominent elements of the contemporary dance world. Choreographers garner inspiration from various disciplines and find ways to make dance a more inclusive art form. Whether on my blank 8.5 x 11 piece of paper or in an open studio, dance is happening more behind the scenes than ever before.