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My Dance Lovers,

I hope you have found your hot Thursday in July well…

I found myself talking with Elizabeth Streb this afternoon, watching an open rehearsal of STREB:FORCES, and witnessing a wonderful talk between Garth Fagan and Elizabeth Streb.

There is just so much to talk about here in tonight’s post…so much to distill. I would like to first focus on tonight’s discussion between Elizabeth and Garth. Both are alums of SUNY Brockport, both either now call or once called Rochester their home, and both have a huge respect and knowledge for each others work. Their appreciation for one another as creators in their field of movement was admirable and absolutely beautiful to witness.

Elizabeth Streb

I think that the audience assumed quite a bit about the opposition between these two choreographers, but rather than represent the expected polarity, Streb and Fagan offered up the similarities and appreciations. As Mr. Fagan exclaimed, “You can’t eat strawberries all the time, sometimes you want blueberries or pineapple. We are all different flavors of…expression.”

By no means did this meeting of the minds disappoint due to concurring thoughts, rather, it was lively due to the vibrancy for what they make and what they do. To me, this represents an intellectual exchange of support and fascination. Dance cannot exist without community, and I am glad to see such support given and received.

I thought Moderator Deborah Ronnen asked excellent questions and you could see how personally interested she was in talking with the artists. The posed subject of the evening was “What is Dance?”, but Ronnen then asked how important it was to actually define dance?

“I did not enter the field (of dance) to challenge it.” Remarked Streb. She then went on to discuss her interest in modern dance as a freshmen in college. “I thought, naively perhaps, that modern dance was about increasing the vocabulary of movement-individually dancer by dancer.” Being that her background is in downhill skiing and motorcycles, one can begin to understand the influence of motion extenders such as her gizmos and harnesses she employs-as well as her dancers.

“The bigger the better, I always say. Bigger bodies affect space…with all due respect, Balanchine eviscerated the female body. Every time I go to a ballet, which is not that often, I think: Put. Her. Down.” The crowd roared with laughter and applause.Which is what is so truly compelling about Elizabeth. She connects with people through her ideas of action, her expression of action, and her words.

Garth Fagan

On the subject of risk and dancers, Fagan is a beautiful appreciator of the dancer.”I studied from the best,” he said. “I wanted to see people dancing on stage, not dancers portraying people. Simple human beings dancing.” No doubt this is perhaps in reaction to his training with Martha herself. Fagan’s dancers span the ages of 20-58 and come in all shapes and sizes. He asks that they are vulnerable, willing to take risks, and perhaps above all, be expert musicians.

“And not the old fashioned doot doot doot musicians. I’m talking REAL musical ability.”

Streb chimed in to explain perhaps it was her lack of ability in music, because she couldn’t figure out how to count music and still be true to the movement. Ah, a difference arises, but we do not dwell here long, because perhaps we now want to sample the cherries or the kiwi fruit?

As a dancer/choreographer, I found myself inspired to look at movement and even flight and question my own definitions. I like that these artists do not claim to know-they just make to understand what they think they know. I admit, primary to my writing is my dancing, and tonight I feel like moving my whole body rather than just my tapping fingers and furrowed brow.

Here are my favorite quotes from the evening:

On Harm and embracing danger:

“I’m interested in representing the experience of the common person…We agree to get hurt when we walk into the studio…When you are poor, you can’t keep harm away from you.” -Elizabeth Streb

On Subject and Content:

“The work must have some spiritual moment in it…Allow people to be exactly who. they. are.” -Garth Fagan (and immense cheering from the crowd following this statement.)

“Action is the subject. I want to dramatisize the action moment…Action is episodic, not durational.”-Elizabeth Streb

“Why do we say, ‘there is a horse galloping’, rather than-and this would be my dream-’there is gallop.’”-Elizabeth Streb

In closing Ronnen read from a past artist reminding present artists: “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened by the old ones”. The always remarkable John Cage.

Thank you Elizabeth and Garth.

My Dear Dance Loving Readers!

If you weren’t in class or in bed at 11:15 this morning, you could have been at the opening ceremony of the Festival! (provided your bed is in Rochester)

The lawn of the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery was littered with local news team cameras, community members and lots of kids. I love that dance events always have so many children in the audience-because kids? Kids get dance. If you ever feel like dancing-go to the nearest child and ask for a twirling lesson.

The Festival topic is centered around the question, “What is dance?”. I was eager to get a taste of this topic during this opening, however I suppose I will have to wait for the panel discussions later in the week. The speeches were mainly brief and to the point, and while all the local politicians, art directors, and academics were highlighted, I was most excited to see Bill Wade, choreographer and artistic director of Inlet Dance Theater. He introduced his dancers to lead the crowd in a traveling improvisation line of follow the leader. This was a creative way to teach flocking to a large number of people all at once, and I thought it was a fun idea.

However, I still wish that Mr. Wade had taken the opportunity to expose a little bit about his company and his philosophy. Even talking about improvisation and what improvisation means to dancers, would have been an interesting addition to the ceremony. All the same, the festival goers were up and making dance happen on the bright Saturday afternoon. I was really impressed with the participation of my hometown. The audience followed Inlet’s dancers from stage to stage, down University Ave.’s ArtWalk.

Stage One: A performance by the Chinese Dance School of Rochester satisfied the crowd with traditional celebration drum dancing. By far this was the cutest and youngest of this afternoon’s performances.

Stage Two: Converge-a Nazareth born dance company that has since split off to have their first independent performance recently, was a great example of community modern dancing. Their choreography was very simple and casual, but they seemed to have a good time. The artistic director mentioned that their performance of new work “1975″ was a work in progress. I think it’s great to have the community involved, but Converge didn’t seem as ready as I would hope for the opening festival of their Alma mater.

Stage Three: FuturPoint Dance! I just had the pleasure of watching this company about two weeks ago at Triskilion Arts’ WAXworks program in Brooklyn. Guy Thorn is an energetic and youthful choreographer and dancer, and you can see the fusions and influences of Fagan technique, ballet, & street dance. They had great energy on their home turf and I really felt their joy for what they do. I am interested to see the progression of this company here in Rochester and beyond. The dancers are full of passion and energy, but I am interested watch them solidify their own vocabulary as they continue to grow. They have show stopping dance moves and amazing presence that can’t be denied. I trust that they will use those tools to further deepen their own artistic repertoire.

On tonight’s menu, I’m off to see Inlet perform at Nazareth’s Callahan Theater.