SDC FOUNDATION
BEYOND NARRATIVE ANNIE-B PARSON
IN CONVERSATION WITH
SAM PINKLETON PHOTO Ike Edeani
SDCF’s podcast series, Choreographers in Conversation, invites choreographers to interview other choreographers whose work excites them as a way to learn more about their craft and preserve the stories of these fascinating artists in the industry. In October 2022, Sam Pinkleton spoke with Annie-B Parson about process, adding dimensionality to narrative, and the choreographic mind. Their wide-ranging conversation has been lightly edited for print; the podcast—along with insightful, in-depth interviews and panel discussions about the working processes and experiences of directors and choreographers over the past four decades—is available on the SDCF website. SAM PINKLETON | I was hoping that we could talk about process. Can you talk about what you’re in rehearsal for right now? ANNIE-B PARSON | I’m really just prepping right now for rehearsal. I’m not in the space yet. Both of the projects I’m working on are large-scale operas, which is pretty new for me. There are, I think, over 70 people in each one—one is Candide and the other one is The Hours. I’m really thrilled to be in the opera world. So far, both of the operas are very open to experimentation with the body in space, and both of them are ‘dance heavy,’ meaning in one of them, the dancers never leave the stage. They do a dance from the beginning to the end for two hours. SAM | Are you working with people who identify as dancers? ANNIE-B | In both cases I hired a cast of, I think, 13 dancers for each opera. I hired the most virtuosic dancers I could find. The Hours is all women, female-identified or femalepresenting dancers. I was looking for dancers that were pretty butch—I find that to be ultimately more beautiful, more feminine, plus it’s about three women, one of which is the great feminist Virginia Woolf.
SAM | I’ve done a few large-scale operas. On the first one, I felt like I had fallen out of a spaceship onto the surface of Mars and that my job was keeping people from running into each other. I had three hours to keep people from running into each other. You said this is new for you and I’m curious what feels different about it, beyond just perhaps the scale or the palette that you have to work with? ANNIE-B | Well, in one sense, nothing is ever different, because everything is based in composition, everything is energetic, kinetic. Everything is about rotation and locomotion and duration and the basic elements of choreography. Whether you are working with a pop band or the symphony orchestra, a marching band or a ballerina, or a chorus in the opera, you’re still dealing with compositional elements. What is different in each one is the emphasis on story; I’m narratively challenged. The narrative to me seems minor compared to the light and the space and the sound and relationalities. What seems new is the emphasis on this little part of the body that is between your chin and your clavicles, which is your throat! It seems like there’s this hot circle drawn around this voice box, around the throat. The emphasis on the voice is pretty extraordinary. I do think it
already has affected the way that I’m generating material and I can’t really describe it. Maybe we can talk about it after I’m all done. I’m happy you asked that question because I’m realizing that I’m so affected, even on terrible recordings, by what these people are doing with this tiny part of their body. The other thing about opera that I always noticed, even though I hadn’t seen that much, is the imagination in opera is so far out. I once saw Pavarotti, and he was quite large at the time, and quite old, play a very young prince. SAM | Nobody cares. ANNIE-B | They don’t! When he died, it took him like 10 minutes to get to the ground, and nobody was bothered that it wasn’t realistic! Everything is very unreal, and I love that. In a sense, I feel like I’m born to it. So we’ll see, we’ll see. SAM | Folks ask me, “How did you start doing opera?” And the answer was, “A director asked me.” My experience was, I think, probably a less confident version of your experience. The way you do opera is you start doing opera. But I hope that more people who would think they would never show up in an opera room develop a curiosity for that form, because it can be bonkers. FALL 2023 | SDC JOURNAL FOUNDATION SECTION
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