Provo Sites: A new venue for dance in the Southern reaches

The third iteration of Provo Sites, a mobile dance series, took place last Monday at the Central Utah Gardens, which is an unassuming oasis somewhere in Orem. Choreographer Ashley Anderson, whose loveDANCEmore umbrella produces the series in partnership with Kate Monson and Kori Wakamatsu, opened the evening with “holiday”, a short solo performed by Repertory Dance Theater alum Chara Huckins. Though she’s been out of the company for two years, Huckins still dances with an understated facility that far outstrips most of her former colleagues. Monday night she wore a simple peasant dress that was the same striking green as her eyes–– the last thing revealed as she slowly rolled up through her spine from the folded over position in which “holiday” began. As she unfurled herself, tiny silver pellets fell from inside the folds of her dress. It was a miniature hailstorm, rife with metaphor, set to music from an “unmarked Christmas album”. The dancing that followed made magic out of repetition. Arms and legs reaching through familiar pathways slowly revealed something precious and strange about the lone woman on stage. It was “dance as a vehicle for the performer” at it’s best.

After “holiday”, Movement Forum lead us out of the amphitheater to an area called the gathering space which became a pedestrian traffic circle. Simply titled “an improvisation”, there was an easy, meditative quality to the whole affair. The audience, which included many sprawling families and older folks, promenaded behind the dancers. Movement Forum crawled and fell in and out of each other’s negative space with a rambling casualness that’s hard to achieve on a proscenium stage. The sun was setting, and Nick Larson of the Salt Lake Whalefishers was strumming a banjo, while crooning one of his brilliantly playful and sardonic lyrics. It was a dance for the summer. MoFo wasn’t breaking new ground here, but I think they ushered a lot of people into seeing dance in a way they’d never have signed up for if they’d had to think about it. Watching the people of Provo and Orem discover what it was to follow an unfolding dance around a corner was a pleasure in itself.

Then we arrived in the lower part of the garden where three more dances awaited us. Love duets by Kori Wakamatsu and Pat Debenham struck me as underdeveloped and predictable. Though I am sure they were a positive point of entry for many, I’ve just seen one too many dances featuring one woman, one man and two benches. Perhaps they also suffered from seeming presentational and flat after MoFo’s offering. Wakamatsu’s “Inicio”, had been commissioned by a Brazilian artist as a basis for a dance scene in an animated film. Perhaps if the final product could have been seen in tandem with the live performance, the piece might have held more interest.

The night’s most ambitious effort was Kate Monson’s “Women/Femme 10”, a suite of three dances for the formal garden and the model landscapes, which were quite literally a suburb in miniature. (The Gardens’ laudable mission is to teach the residents of Utah county how to use less water for landscaping.) In Part 1: Hand Wash in Cold, Leave Overnight, Jon Thomas stood still, facing the audience with a dead expression while the wryly comic Maylene White sipped water from a champagne flute, regarded her partner and grew increasingly exasperated with her costar’s unwillingness to dance. White’s style was jocular, even broad, but it worked surprisingly well as a vehicle for Monson’s choreographic agenda. White plucking each finger with a fork prong or sawing a butter-knife into her wrist had me thinking of much more earnest works from twentieth century art history. I was surprised to be reminded of performance artists like Martha Rosler, or even Marina Abramovic and Ohio choreographer Susan Hadley, who’s work has frequently been seen locally on Repertory Dance Theatre. The tone of this work was just right for this audience, but still carried a clear, feminist voice that had the children laughing and the crowd charged with that palpable, generative tension that means they’ve been forced to think.

Most Salt Lake City dance aficionados won’t venture down to Provo to see these shows, but they shouldn’t dismiss them. With or without us, these artists are carving out a place for themselves in an environment that looks even less like downtown Manhattan than Salt Lake City does. The attendance, enthusiasm and work were all comparable to what’s going on here in the capitol, and as someone interested in the ecology of dance, seeing that process unfold is an engaging way to spend an evening.

Sam Hanson regularly contributes to loveDANCEmore

The Wedding then the Garden Party

I said it in the June edition of 15 BYTES and I’ll say it again. While summer can be slow going for dance in Utah, things have been steadily building with concerts nearly every weekend of June and now well into July. As new projects emerge, artists capitalize on the off-season of mainstay companies and find new venues to support their work.

This weekend is just one example with NOW-ID’s inaugural performance, The Wedding, in the Masonic Temple theater. Tonight Erica Womack will be offering her take after the 7:30 performance so check back and offer your own thoughts.

On Monday, the third Provo Sites concert takes on the Central Utah Gardens in a mobile tour highlighting the areas amphitheater, formal gardens, gazebos and other gathering areas. Featuring choreography and performance by Ashley Anderson, Chara Huckins, Movement Forum, Kate Monson, Kori Wakamatsu, Pat Debenham & more, the concert offers an array of approaches and styles designed to both amplify and challenge the non-traditional spaces. From an unseasonal solo using Christmas Carols to a duet featuring a wife who dances and a husband who doesn’t, the concert offers new perspectives.

This iteration of Provo Sites has one show only! Monday the 29th; 7pm in the Central Utah Gardens; 355 West University Parkway; Free Admission. The show will take place rain or shine. If you miss Monday, it’s the third in line of a traveling series that has visited numerous unconventional spaces in the Utah Valley. 

The Wedding, in review

NOW, a brand new Salt Lake based dance company that seeks to be international and interdisciplinary, premiered their first work The Wedding to a enthusiastic and receptive crowd this past weekend.  The performance took place at the Masonic Temple, which houses an interesting in-the-round theatre.  This space bears a charge and a history of the rituals and ceremonies that are known to occur regularly.  Even walking up the many steps at the grand front entrance, flanked by stone lions statues, felt processional and added to the atmosphere of the night.  Audience members were free to pick from the three different facings of the theatre, a choice the undoubtedly affected how the movement was experienced.

The piece began with Ted Johnson, tall and calm, tracing the shape of the space, preparing both himself and the audience for what is about to take place.  Jo Blake, a former dancer for Ririe Woodbury, and Katherine Lawrence Orlowski, a Ballet West dancer, stood together, waiting for the experience to begin.  It may be assumed that the wedding was to be between Blake and Lawrence, as they have numerous duets, and both have the most developed solos.

Much of the dancing has an urgent unyielding quality, familiar textures in Boye-Christensen’s choreography.  There was also an air of solemnity and ritual, created both by the choreography, and especially by some of the music selections.  Yumelia Garcia, a Joffrey Ballet dancer, performed a solo that felt particularly severe and final, her body and performance at times rigid and uncompromising. The duets between Lawrence and Blake were cool and precise, displaying Lawrence’s strong lines and technical abilities.  They danced with a sense of execution and drive.

Blake had a solo that was both urgent and yielding, and served as a needed exhale to the mounting tension of this ritual.  He danced with beautiful abandon, allowing the movement to seep in his bones and sincerely be affected.  The moments of calculated uneven timing made familiar movement motifs seem new again.

Four Groomsmen flood the space, immediately filling the space with a non-dancer non-performer energy.  At times this pedestrian aspect of the piece works, particularly when the movement is kept to walking patterns, standing still or shifting from side to side as if in a real wedding, and at times their inclusion is alternatingly awkward and obvious, such as the moment when they pull flashlights out and begin to menacingly shine lights on a frantic Blake.

Later, a duet between Blake and Johnson gave the warmth and sentiment that some imagine and expect when a wedding is what is at stake; it is curious that this tenderness was not more explored between the two dancers (Blake and Orlowski) that were presumably the two that were undertaking the nuptials.  It is in this duet that we see Johnson, as he faces Blake, pass onto Blake his knowledge or blessing through a series of gestures.  It was striking to see these two men move and breathe together on stage.  They both are able to perform without the shell that sometimes encases a performer.

The last section of the piece includes the four dancers coming together as one united group.  This is the one part of the piece that felt choreographically rushed or underdeveloped.  The ceremony and ritual is climaxing, and just as soon as the audience catches on that the end is perhaps near, all but one are on the raised stage, arranged by the installation and four placed chairs.  Johnson, again marking a change in time and space, giving importance to what is being witnessed, quickly finishes the ritual with embodied and solemn movement.  And then the lights go to black, and similar to the events after two people experience the lightening quick change of marriage: the audience claps, congratulations are exchanged, and the crowd continues with their evening.

Erica Womack is a Salt Lake based choreographer. She currently teaches at SLCC.

Dance Outdoors: Justice for Some? at Art Access and Movement Forum at the Arts Festival

Despite the common perception that dance is most frequently found in performing arts venues, Utah’s dance artists have always stepped outside of theater settings to find new venues for their work. Sofia Gorder’s recent work with inFluxdance at Art Access and Danell Hathaway’s direction of Movement Forum at the Utah Arts Festival are only two examples of location shifting audience expectations to produce unique experiences.

At June’s Gallery Stroll, Art Access, in partnership with Brolly Arts, was host to an interdisciplinary evening of art exploring issues of social justice. The Friday night opening included a curated exhibit by Terry Jackson-Mitchell, choreography by Sofia Gorder of inFluxdance and other projects/performances by groups including the Drum Bus.

At Art Access these criticisms fell away. The setting of the Artspace City Center parking lot allowed the issues explored to cast themselves into the larger space rather than falling flat in the theater. In the open air, Gorder’s work read as an earnest exploration of the intersections between abortion, religion, sexuality and poverty as she opted to focus on personal narratives of performers, including Ariane Audd, Scotty Hardwig and Alison Spehar, rather than the historical footage of past iterations. Narratives were delivered to a microphone much as at a protest and played alongside simple and repetitive structures reminiscent of a body swallowed in a larger revolt.Art, and particularly performance, has a complex relationship to social justice. In dance, it can be difficult to use the moving body to relate topical concerns; something so inextricably linked to identity is already so layered and multi-faceted that to explore it directly often becomes heavy handed. inFluxdance in particular has dealt with this problem, trying to mount the dance “Justice for Some?” over the last few years at various settings in Salt Lake City, Virginia and Montreal. Criticisms of these performances have consistently reflected that the dance, while relevant and well-intentioned, is not producing new information about the conflicts of choice and equal rights it addresses.

Inside, the tone was similarly direct. Rather than being left to ruminate about the visual art’s relationship to justice, visitors had the opportunity to engage with the artists, who were on hand discussing their process. Jackson-Mitchell notably shared her history as a survivor of the racist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, which has inspired her work.

While this collaborative format addressed particularly complex issues, the following day at the Arts Festival, improvisation group Movement Forum was able to share their work in a much lighter way for new audiences. Performing some of their improvisational scores alongside the music of the Salt Lake Whalefishers opened up their form of improvisation in a casual way. Similar to inFluxdance, Movement Forum has received criticism (most recently in SLUG magazine) for presenting a grab bag of improvisational strategies, so the Arts Fest was a perfect fit for their work. Their performance was able to hold the attention of the crowd while allowing space for reflection on how it may relate to the more formal performances on the main stage. Similar to the protest language of Gorder floating across the Art Access parking lot, the movement jokes of Movement Forum were engergized by the festival environment and a great live band, something that would have been lost in the quiet solitude of the theater.

Ashley Anderson directs loveDANCEmore events as part of her non-profit, “ashley anderson dances”.  She is also the dance editor for 15 BYTES where this post is shared, along with other coverage of dance in SLC.

Daughters of Mudson

In its second installment, loveDANCEmore’s Daughters of Mudson proves to be a viable resource for artists who not only value the investigative nature of choreography, from inception to presentation, but who dare to reexamine and refine their work, allowing the audience to be privy to both the successes and challenges of the process and product in an intimate way.  The stripped-down, streamlined yet “rough around the edges” feel of the studio theater of the Rose

Though a variety of aesthetics and artists were presented, many converging choreographic devices emerged early on, ranging from nostalgic musical scores to the use of repetition and motif to create specific structures.  These unintentional but recurrent markers gave the audience a through line, suggesting a “choreographic formula,” which, depending on one’s viewing palette, was informative and fully investigated.

“Skewered: An unrelated summation of the whole” by Efren Corado Garcia and Tara McArthur revealed several tantalizing vignettes as a disjointed relationship between them unfolded.  Emphasized by mobile lights and building to a satisfying unison phrase and a final “face-off” pose, the piece dissected, restricted and obstructed the body through a puzzle-piece narrative.  The shadows thrown on the stark walls added another texture and would be a welcomed exploration as it could further the interplay between the dancers and light.

The luscious improvised movement of Josie Patterson-Halford’s “point b” was captivating as the repetitive sweeping of the arms, expressive torso, exquisite lines and attention to each movement complimented the sound score which reflected upon a new mother’s hopes, fears and wishes for each defining moment of her baby’s life. Patterson-Halford’s use of diagonal line and one entrance and exit point with a continual build onto established movement solidified the connection between the relationship.  At one point, Patterson-Halford began removing articles of clothing, suggesting either a shedding or giving of one’s self.  As only two socks and one layer of a shirt was removed, the gesture seemed to be more of an after thought than a poignant exhibit in context to the text.

“Temporary Triptych” by Katherine Adler, in collaboration with four dancers, also drew upon entrances/exits and the traveling diagonal to survey a quirky collection of random connections.  With dancers in jeans and Bob Dylan music to boot, the piece felt like an alternative, tongue-in-cheek Gap commercial. The movement was endearing and surprising at times; complete with encoded gestures, smirks, tiptoed shimmies and many, many vivacious stag leaps.

Being able to see both first drafts and final performances of  “Mi Corazon” by Eileen Rojas and “Neils” by Ashley Anderson was intriguing and gratifying.  Both choreographers’ use of repetition, musical selection, strong focus/facings and counterpoint helped set the foundation of each piece; however, each choreographer fleshed out their investigations in very different ways.  Rojas’ internal dialogue portrayed through simplified gestures asked the universal questions, “Why do we love who we love?” while examining the driving force between interpersonal relationships. The repetition of the fingers incrementally tracing down the centerline of the body had a lasting residue, much like the overlaying text on a particularly engrossing sound score.  Just as Eileen and partner Nathan Shaw approached movement with a perceptive, palpable touch, so did the subject matter, asking the audience to continue the conversation long after the piece concluded.

Anderson’s masterful use of counterpoint and analogy to songs performed by artists who all share the name of Neil was a highlight of the evening. Using similar structural configurations as the other pieces, Anderson’s playful way of taunting the audience with subtle interjections of irony (like horribly loud colorful sweaters and random bursts of oddly-crafted gestures) helped keep the piece fresh, mischievous and lively. The piece included songs by Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and Neil Young, each song highlighting one dancer while the others completed tasks; each round, though, included a slight change in order, direction, movement or energy, keeping the mind alert to the many different versions at play.

At just under an hour and showcasing an eclectic array of artists, Daughters of Mudson is an accessible and refreshing reprieve; it creates a fine balance between process and product and continues to support the innovative dance artists in Utah.

Danell Hathaway directs Movement Forum and teaches dance at Olympus High School.