Dance Central July / August 2014

July/August 2014

Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication

Content 605 Re/Placement A conversation with Josh Martin, Lisa Gelley &Maiko Bae Yamamoto Page 2

The View From Italy

by Mirna Zagar Page 6

Thinking Bodies Susan Elliott Page 8

Designing Dance Jesse Garlick talks about DANCE MACHINE Page 10

Welcome to the July/August 2014 issue of Dance Central.

This issue features conversations with two groups of artists who are exploring dance in non-proscenium configurations: Josh Martin and Lisa Gelley of 605 Collective, together with Maiko Bae Yamamoto of Theatre Replacement talk about

605 Collective commissioned a new dance piece from Vancouver-based theatre company Theatre Replacement, which involves artistic co-directors, Maiko Bae Yamamoto and James Long creating and directing a work specifically for 605’s performers. The two companies are collaborating to translate a theatre-based process into dance language and context, in the first project that involves 605 working extensively with theatre artists, and engaging with another pre-existing collaborative team. The work is titled The Sensationalists, and premieres at The Cultch, May 12-16, 2015. www.605collective.com/en

605 Re/ Placement

their interdisciplinary commission The Sensationalists that is currently being developed at The Cultch for a premiere in 2015.

For Designing Dance, Architect and designer Jesse Garlick describes the process of creating DANCE MACHINE, a collaboration with Lee Su-Feh and Justine A. Chambers. Both projects focus on bringing audience and performers together in unconventional spatial configurations, and both are works in progress. Thank you to everyone involved for allowing us a sneak preview.

Mirna Zagar sends her impressions from her recent travels to Italy, and the Thinking Bodies series of performers' portraits continues with a conversation with Susan Elliott about her experience in travelling between different creative disciplines.

As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed to contribute and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send material by mail to members@thedancecentre.ca. or call us at 604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation!

Andreas Kahre, Editor 2

Dance Central July/August 2014

A conversation with Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin

t

AK: Maiko, 605 describes the project as a 'commission' to Theatre Replacement. What does that mean?

MBY: In essence they are commissioning Theatre Replacement to make a work on them and for them. In some ways that is just a matter of language — we (Theatre Replacement) have always worked by getting into a room with other creators, but there is something interesting about 605's philosophy and practice of finding artists they want to work with, who they feel will push them into new territory, and to envision new work with them.

AK: How familiar were you with 605 before you began?

MBY: I had seen a little bit of their work, and I knew from the buzz around town that they were an up–and–coming collective of hot dancers, but it was more through talking and working with them that I began to undertand their philosphy and what they want their work to do. At this point we have been working about thirteen weeks in the room together, which is substantial— and more than we get for many theatre shows— so I feel that we have really gotten to know each others' processes and that we have had good input. During the last workshop, I really began to understand how they think about things: For example, they talked

about a landscape, where I might talk about a vocabulary or a movement score, and so we have been learning each others' language. It has been nice to learn more of their vocabulary.

AK: Being two collectives, how do you arrange the voices in the room?

MBY: I think it may be transitioning a bit, especially for 605...

JM: It is transitioning, and it really depends on each project.

We can't set the way we organize the voices for each process without knowing who the voices are. We don't have a manual for collaboration, and the real reason why we work for thirteen weeks is so that we have the time to figure that relationship out. Every time we get into a new project, or even when we bring in a new dancer, there is a learning curve: How to fit inside the new dynamic, and how to stay flexible if that dynamic shifts during the process. Mostly we play it by ear; the leader changes, and for this project we really wanted to go in with the idea that we were going to do everything we could to support Maiko's voice and ideas.

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Dance Central The Dance Centre Scotiabank Dance Centre Level 6, 677 Davie Street Vancouver BC V6B 2G6 T 604.606.6400 F 604.606.6401 info@thedancecentre.ca www.thedancecentre.ca Dance Central is published every two months by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements.

Editor Andreas Kahre Copy Editor Hilary Maxwell Contributors to this issue: Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Josh Martin, Lisa Gelley, Jesse Garlick, Susan Elliott, Mirna Zagar.

Dance Centre Board Members Chair Ingrid M. Tsui Vice Chair Gavin Ryan Secretary Simone Orlando Treasurer Roman Goldmann Directors Kate Bilson Barbara Bourget Matthew Breech Susan Elliott Anusha Fernando Margaret Grenier Beau Howes Anndraya T. Luui Josh Martin Starr Muranko

605 Re/Placement

A conversation with Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin Of course, we knew that she wasn't going to come in and suddenly be the crazy choreographer with a scarf and a little dog who would tell us how to move...

MBY: I want to do that now...

JM: ...but that she would be bringing a different perspective and approach, and if we were to talk over her, we would be defeating the purpose of the project, which is really part of the professional development for us. We need to think about how we can be working in different ways, so in this particular context, the organization of voices in the room is to listen to what Maiko says and then try to translate it together in a way that we can all get behind, so that our voices become part of the translation and add to the development of our physical language and whatever we will be doing on stage as 605.

AK: You refer to the languages of theatre and dance as separate entities. Compared to the way performing artists in Vancouver used to describe themselves, it seems that

Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Jennifer Chung Directors Santa Aloi, Grant Strate Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Services Administrator Anne Daroussin Development Director Sheri Urquhart Technical Directors Justin Aucoin and Mark Eugster Accountant Elyn Dobbs Member Services Coordinator Hilary Maxwell

theatre and dance have grown further apart in the last ten years. Especially in the context of a collaboration with a physically—based theatre company, do you think of yourself as part of a continuum of movement–based art, or more along the formal categories of dance and theatre?

MBY: Between the kind of theatre that I am interested in making, and the kind of dance that these guys make, there is certainly a lot of common ground and shared language, and I think we are actually closer to each other than the theatre I make is to more traditional theatre. But it is interesting to observe the cycles. In theatre in general there has been a kind of push back toward traditional forms. I think it might be a response to the dominance of biographical and verbatim work, and it feels like a natural

The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible by numerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, community peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome.

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path for people to say: 'We have had enough of that, let's do Ibsen. How radical is that.' I don't know whether they are actually doing Ibsen in a radical way, but I am observing that kind of reaction to the forms of verbatim-based theatre that are currently being picked up and moving around internationally: Raw, stripped down...

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AK: ... cheap to tour...

MBY: Yes, that too. Is something similiar happening in dance? Is it moving back toward a traditional vocabulary again?

JM: I don't think about it in terms of whether it is traditional or not. I'm not even sure what traditional is in this sense, as I think it has always been cycling. But the reason we became interested in the whole theatre/dance dynamic was because we have been seeing a lot of theatre in Vancouver, and thinking about how direct, how to-the-point it is, compared with some current dance, where everything seems kind of clouded in a mystery of what is actually being said and embodied. We just wanted to figure out a way of approaching dance more directly, more along the lines of 'here is what it is'. The dance I see as being more popular today is starting to have more direct lines; it's less about trying to create alternative routes that have back doors and pathways that kind of allude to something, but instead to show something more raw. I also see the concept of the stage as this magical place disappearing. Both approaches still exist but there are a lot of shows where you are just going to see bodies in whatever the space is and no one is trying to make it more than that. That's the pull that I had toward the theatre side of it. I see something in theatre, right now, that I wish our dance could have, right now.

MBY: Yes, and at some point you may perhaps see a return to a more traditional separation between performer and audience.

AK: This might become crowded...

MBY: Yes, that's part of the experience; the energy of people's bodies and of being in this space without a delineation between audience and performers, where everyone is there trying to experience the same thing; trying to make the same thing happen. We have been working at this for thirteen weeks and we have thought it through, but we found that in actually doing it, there is a lot more unknown, there are a lot more question marks than we expected. We have been trying to figure out how this material works with lots of people in proximity, but in small sections, and we are looking forward to figuring out how it works with everyone.

AK: How do you do this without a test audience?

MBY: We are trying to arrange for at least a few opportunities to have a significant number of bodies in the space to see how it plays out.

AK: Is the material something you think of as movement, or dance, or theatre — or does it matter?

AK: There are a number of people in theatre who say they

JM: It is important to us that we are still creating a dance

"The change in proximity

makes you really trust in the

detail of the body."

wish they could have more of what dance has these days, perhaps because in the last ten years, dance has opened up more to new forms than theatre. Talking about space: You are working specifically with the idea of the space you're in and the audience is at the centre of the process.

MBY: The idea is that the audience will be on the dance floor, with the dancers in this space (The Cultch).

AK: The seats will be in place?

piece, so I would say the material is more movement– based, but we hope that the context makes it more theatrical, and makes it more about what is going on in this entire space now, rather than just a dancer dancing. Still, the dance portion of it is the primary focus.

AK: Does the piece involve text?

JM: There has been text in the room, but nothing definitive at this point. continued on page 7

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The View from Italy Summer may be at a low simmer in Vancouver, but The Dance Centre is boiling with activities as we get ready to wrap up the season and prepare for the next. My summer holiday included a pleasant work assignment that took me to Pisa and surrounding towns, to the New Italian Dance platform. Organized by several leading cultural organizations in Italy, including the Fondazione Fabbrica Europa, and supported by regional governments of Puglia, Veneto, Toscana and Lombardia, along with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The event is an initiative to present the most significant Italian choreographic productions of the season. The 19 works that were chosen by an international jury fostered a very constructive encounter between Italian and international dance operators, and included some artists that we are somewhat familiar with in Vancouver, such as Chiara Frigo, whose work with Emmanuel Jouthe WHEN WE WERE OLD was presented in our past season to an enthusiastic audience. Silvia Gribaudi —some will remember her quirky contributions to the Triptych residency project— will be seen here again, as she is embarking on a work with Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg. Alessandro Sciarroni, whom we will meet when he comes to Vancouver as the Italian participant in our Migrant Bodies project also presented new work.

It was also a pleasure to reconnect with the works of some of the artists whose works have stood out for the past century of contemporary dance in Italy and who are still going strong: Enzo Cosimi, Compagnia Virgilio Sieni, Company Deja Donne, as well as recent productions of Atterballetto, Balleto di Roma, and the regional modern ballet dance company of Roberto Zappala, attesting to the fact that ballet is still a strong discipline in Italy.

The works presented offered a diverse portrait of what new Italian dance is, from contemporary ballet to the more physically and contextually driven works of a new generation of dance makers who, despite the very competitive and even dire funding situation for dance in Italy, are creating a very vibrant scene, with excellent performers and interesting ideas. Shows were well attended despite the hot weather, and there was inspiring dialogue around a range of themes. I attended a thematic panel on Dance Space in the Mediterranean Area, which covered Italy, as well as North Africa and Asia Minor and offered some truly inspirational stories and insights into a

region we do not often have the opportunity to hear about— including contemporary dance in Egypt and the work of our colleagues at the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center. The highlight of these panels for me was the presentation of Greek-Canadian Alexandre Mistriotis, whose inspirational observations of the context of today’s crises and the role of the art, both in Greece and in general, gave rise to a feeling of hope, and a new belief that what we do today through the arts and the investments (or even lack of) has a long lasting meaningful impact on our society and the world of tomorrow. And, while Mistriotis spoke about the newly found strength of the arts community in Greece today, saddled with the economic downturn and resulting austerity, he spoke about new ways of working, collaborating, new ways of seeing causality and affect. He passionately called for a world in which art is valued to the point that we, working in the arts make it meaningful and worthwhile for others to experience art as life’s laboratory. He is a young thinker, and artist, who I believe will be heard more of and I certainly look to encountering again – perhaps in Canada this time.

And, one such theme and laboratory is what Migrant Bodies is about – the theme of migrations and how these processes impact societies here in Canada and across the EU. The artists start their residencies in Italy this July in beautiful Bassano del Grappa, and continue in the Central European city of Zagreb, before they move to France and to Canada (Montreal and Vancouver), encountering diverse communities along the way and fuelling the artists' imagination as they embark on their works to be presented in 2015 in participating countries.

Closer to the home front I am gearing up for encountering the national scholars and think-tanks at the EMBODIED ARTFUL PRACTICES organized by the Canadian Society for Dance Studies Syposium at SFU, and the artists who will be featured at this year’s edition of Dancing on the Edge festival. So hoping for many dance inspired moments still to come as I await the hot Summer Days still to come. Happy Holidays and come back for more dance in the new season.

Sincerely, Mirna Zagar Dance Central September 2004

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605 Re/Placement, continued from page 5

them. We are trying to activate that way of thinking and ask LG: I think one of the important aspects is how the movement

everyone, ourselves included, to act as humans, and find

vocabulary we are working with ties in with the audience's

out what the possibilities are. So we are not going to single

presence on stage, and trying to think of what we can do that

anybody out. It's all about giving permission. How can we

won't alienate them— not just a dancer doing this crazy thing

give them a sense of permission to be involved in what we

beside them that they could never do themselves. How can

are doing, and for us to actually require their help for it to

we put them in a situation where they feel invited rather than

happen. We have been playing a lot with how we can ask for

intimidated, and where, if they thought about it hard enough,

that help.

they could do what we are doing? During another segment of the work, where we may move back to traditional seating, we

AK: How do you stage and light something this 'de-centered'?

might amp it up and show more of the kind of 'dance' that may be expected.

JM: I don't want to speak for James Proudfoot, our collaborator, but we wanted to not rely on the lights to make it appear

AK: Do you expect to touch them or will there be a tiny fourth

like magic from above, but to be in the space with us, so

wall, or membrane?

LG: We don't want to create fear in the audience that they will be implicated in a way that makes them uncomfortable, but we want to see if we can gain their trust and make them feel at ease taking part, and invite them in certain moments to do things that may involve touch, but not force anything...

"I see something

in theatre right now that I wish our dance could

have right now!"

MBY: ...there should be warmth to the touch. You spoke about a membrane, which is always present in performance, but we are working on developing strategies that help the audience feel okay with us engaging with them in this way; it is based on the

we are thinking about lights that are moveable, that can be

natural responses people have to certain kinds of movements—

shifted by the performers and the audiences. 'Very simply' is

like, if I can give one away, there is the idea of the catch, or

the answer.

the need to support or to help someone who is stumbling, for instance. It has been amazing to work this way with dancers,

AK: You said there will be text, or there might be text...

because they are problem-solvers: I give them questions, and they solve them, which also means that we keep going deeper

MBY: We are playing with forms where the dancers have

and deeper into problems, and sometimes they can flatten

to do very complicated things with text, and I am not sure

out, because the dancers are so good at solving problems with

how much will stay, but it has been an important part of the

their bodies. We have been developing these ways of generat-

process that has challenged us all. It is akin to the exercise

ing natural kinesthetic responses, so that the audience embody

of patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same

a little bit of what's happening around them. It reminds me of

time, and to try to remove some of the pretension of per-

how I feel when I watch tennis or especially professional skating

formance by setting a task. We are playing around with a

because of the risk of falling. I feel that I am doing those qua-

narrative structure, and the idea of character, but it dances

druples with the skater, and I feel the risk inside of their and my

back and forth between their vocabulary, and mine; it is kind

body. That has happened several times in watching these guys

of a conversation between the two. I do see a narrative —

during the process, but mostly we work with things you have a

and I sometimes see a character pop out while they are being

natural tendency to do, like to support someone. We try to play

who they are. There is also a narrative that we have all talked

with all of those vocabularies...

about and it has been very enjoyable to talk about story in some ways, but the piece is a metaphor for the idea of dance

LG: ...It's a question of 'What would a human do, if someone fell beside you while getting off a bus?' You would naturally help

performance. So there is a meta-level and a narrative level, D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m bcontinued e r 2 0 0 4on page 3 16 Dance Central July/August 2014

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Thinking Bodies: A conversation with

Susan

"For me, it is all one Life!"

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D a n3c e DCaennct e r aC l e J unl yt r/ a A lu gSuespt t2e0m 1 4b e r 2 0 0 4

n Elliott

AK: I found a picture of you as 'Chef Susan'—looking goofy and severe all at once. What is the balance these days?

SE: Life is very good. I am in process of shifting my schedule, so that I mostly cook in the morning, which leaves the afternoon and the evening free for dancing and rehearsal directing—and for Baby Teo. AK: How did cooking come about?

SE: I wanted to see if I could learn something completely different. I have my certification as a Yoga teacher, I was starting the Pilates route, and I have been studying Thai massage, but I wanted to challenge myself with something that was creative, physical, and different enough from dancing. It was an adventure, and at the very least I will walk away from it with incredible skills. It was never about changing careers or 'retiring', as some people seemed to think.

AK: Have people understood that you are still very much a dancer?

SE: As soon as I went into cooking school, it felt like some of the community concluded that I had retired, which really shocked me, because that was never my intention at all. I found it interesting that people in the 'business' don't seem to allow a little more latitutde, but perhaps that is changing.

AK: How did you train?

SE: I investigated a few cooking schools, and found one that I liked. I did four months of culinary training, four months of pastry, and then an internship, although I never had the intention of working in a restaurant. Then I found an amazing job working as a personal chef, which makes for a perfect addition to a creative life.

AK: Do you take things back and forth between the worlds?

SE: If I had started cooking in my twenties, I think I would have been into the adrenalin, the high pressure, and the long hours, because that's what being a dancer is like. There are so many similarities between dancing and cooking; repetition of skills, hard work, not the greatest pay but really enjoyable, pleasurable, creative work. I love the kind of cooking that I am doing now, because I have direct feedback from the clients and I know how it is affecting their lives. And we dance a lot in the kitchen...

AK: I remember another time when the community seemed to think that you had shifted your ground from dancing to choreographing, around the time when Anatomica presented I seem to be a Verb.

SE: It is strange. There are many dancers who have a company, a choreographic vision, and a distinct style, and still dance D a n c e for C e nother t r a l S echoreographers. ptember 2004 3

Susan Elliott: Photo: Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

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AK: Do you think it is easier for men to step in and out of the role of dancer and choreographer without being pigeonholed?

SE: I never considered it that way, but it is possible. I always thought that people saw me as a dancer—and I still love to dance for other people. It was never a matter of loving dance more than choreographing or teaching.

For me it's all one life, and I see that it is more accepted now for people to create their own work and also dance for others.

"For me, it is all one Life!"

Thinking Bodies: A conversation with Susan Elliott

AK: I wonder if, in part at least, the reason is that collectives have become much more prevalent, since it is getting harder all the time to set yourself up as a 'one-person-corporation. Have you been a part of any collectives?

SE: Yes, I worked with a collective based in Toronto, with Shannon Cooney and Julia Aplin, while they were at Dancemakers, and we commissioned three choreographers to create work for us. Later, in Vancouver, Ziyian Kwan, John Ottmann and I formed a collective, called Quorum, and we commissioned four choreographers to create work for us.

AK: Had you been choreographing before you started Anatomica?

SE: Yes. It began when Pipo Damiano and I had Frozen Eye. When Pipo left Dance, I kept the company but changed the name. I had choreographed several pieces before, but the big changeover to Anatomica was to give my choreographic and teaching work a home.

AK: Is Anatomica still going?

SE: It is in the process of being changed over to somebody else.

AK: Would you go back to having a company, or a collective?

SE: It's not something I have been thinking of but I would consider a collective. I don't want to have a company any more.

AK: Too much administration?

SE: It's more the challenge that you have to make a piece every year, and the requirement to make work in certain formats. I didn't want to have that kind of demand on my artistic practice. The model probably works for some people, but not for me— I didn't want to follow the pattern that the funding creates.

Dance Central September 2004 10

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AK: Would it make more sense to be supported when it is appropriate to the creative process, rather than following the 'industrial' model of predictable output?

SE: That would be amazing. I have been thinking about choreographing more. I just created a work for Continuum Dance based at the Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby. It was the first piece I made in three years, and it was a lot of fun to work with them. I had eleven dancers, and that fired me up again. I have also been pondering the thought of making a solo for myself. But life is busy at the moment, especially with the young man.

AK: How does Teo affect your way of moving?

SE: It is endlessly fascinating to watch him, and insipring to see how much he loves to dance naturally; to see his innate desire to move. Watching him satisfies a certain aspect that I miss— the daily routine of moving, of going to class. That's one element I have been trying to find room for.

AK: You have also been building a house. There is a picture that shows you in a huge landscape...

SE: Yes, it is an amazing place. We built a house, nicknamed the Skyhouse, which sits under a vast huge sky. That took us two years, and was another big creative push, because we did a lot of the work ourselves.

Ak: What happens next?

SE: I will dance for Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg again, on tour, and in a new piece she is making, and I will continue to rehearsal-direct. I am also part of several projects with 605 Collective. When I decided to take a break from choreographing, I found that I really wanted to work as a rehearsal director. There isn't a long history of that role in Vancouver, compared to Toronto or Montreal, but I have been thrilled with the amount of work I have been getting. I think it is healthy for the creators to have somebody help, especially if they are dancing in their own work, and I love the process of emptying myself, going into a room, and inserting myself into the creative process of helping without dictating.

AK: The phone just rings?

SE: Yes, sometimes somebody says: "I have a performance in two days!", or they have a two year plan, a timeline and a budget. It is a really interesting creative path to take, and so far I have really loved working with all the people who have asked.

Dance Central July/August 2014 Dance Central September 2004 3

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Designing Dance: A conversation with Jesse Garlick

Dance Machine

AK: When we speak of dance, we rarely hear the voices of people who create the space for dance, or perhaps the dance of space, and their role in the relationship that results in what might be called the 'situated' body. Your practice seems to be placed at the intersection between architecture, dance, design, and theatre. What role does Dance Machine play in your work and how did it emerge?

JG: Dance Machine has a long history, based in multiple collaborations. It began about five years ago with an initial workshop between Steven Hill and Su-Feh at Caravan Theatre in Armstrong, BC. They were investigating the idea of a body machine, its functional and also its 'anti–functional' possibilities—for example, a machine which, when you were hungry, would move food away from you. Next was a funded project that I was involved in, which investigated the overlapping territories of body/machine/architecture. We conducted a series of experiments and many conversations where we were trying to figure out the relationship between space, architecture, machine, body, and we tried to collapse them into one another, and observed them fight each other. We investigated the idea of the 'contraption'—which was also the title— and found that some things worked, and some things didn't. Next, we worked on a project called Da Wink at the Russian Hall in Vancouver, where Steven and I looked at how space, the performer's and the audience's body intersected, informed by Steven's interest in clown and a theatrical point of view. We worked with the space and the audience, and we found that they could really become one: The chairs were arranged in a grid, there was a series of moveable partitions that the actors could move, creating architecture out of cardboard, which, with the help of lights and other elements became what you could call an 'authentic' experience, related to everyone's unique viewpoint in relation to the moment of space that surrounds you. It was really interesting, fun, and successful as an experiment on the theatrical side of what the machine could be— if it wasn't something contrived and controlled, and created within someone's mind to fulfill a specific function. Instead, it became a machine of subtle, almost ephemeral relationships between a viewer and a space, between audience members, actors, and light sources.

After that project, Justine A. Chambers, Su-Feh and I started to have more conversations about the relation of the body to the space that surrounds us. We followed the idea that architecture and dance share many similarities and contradictions, both being based in essential humanness yet abstract and difficult to define.

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Dance Machine

Designing Dance: A conversation with Jesse Garlick

AK: How do these questions relate to architecture for you?

Something that continually interests me in my architectural practice is the relationship to the human heart; how architecture relates to human needs, without which it becomes nothing but a form, as dance without movement becomes death. The function of architecture as it relates to pedestrian movement—opening a door, activating a lightswitch— has more to do with the relationship between architecture and dance than the formal impositions of the discipline. In the context of the workshop with Justine and Su-Feh, we were interested in a space where everything becomes one, and where the distinctions begin to blur— where audience, performer and space interweave.

AK: Did this emerge from the collaboration, or did Su-Feh have a direction in mind?

JG: Justine, Su-Feh and I communicate really well together, and although we all have different voices, we are able to see how our points of view balance each other. The idea of a machine had been part of the design concept for Su-feh's show, but now we had to think of a way of actually creating a physical form. For me, the 'Aha!' moment came when I saw Su-Feh's solo performance, which starts with a bundle of incense sticks.

AK: There is a striking similarity in the colour scheme...

JG: That was an accident, but the piece certainly captured a number of things that were authentic to her, and it created defined space in a beautiful way. So I thought: How can we get there? I had been thinking about 'improvised' architecture— something made of many components that could be rearranged on the fly, knowing that the machine would have to respond to different situations. Bamboo came up as a natural renewable material that was light-weight, and could be suspended on pulleys. I had seen enough other bamboo-based projects that I had a sense of the range of movement. That seemed to resonate with Justine and SuFeh as something to explore further. The thing didn't behave as we had planned it, of course, so we went though a series of observations and experimentation. That iterative process is just as important to my work on buildings as it is to collaborations and set design. We experimented and it started to do some interesting things. The material seemed appro-

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Dance Central July/August 2014

priate, the copper appeared, and then the hot pink rope (which I

JG: Yes, the bamboo and the copper make sound, and we sus-

had designed to be red, but couldn't find, and the pink just spoke

pended Chinese coins in the counterweights, in order to help

to everyone)

bring awareness of the space that surrounds you— because it is easy to become so absorbed by what happens in the centre‚—

AK: The central structure seems linked to external pulley points...

but when you move the centre, sometimes the counterweights move just a couple of millimeters, and we wanted to have a

JG: Yes, there is a counterweight for each bamboo piece on the

sound that responded and drew attention to their movement...

outside that is a shorter piece of bamboo on the perimeter of the room. We discovered through experimentation that a larger

AK: Has it been tried with an audience yet?

piece of bamboo, coupled with the resistance of the pulleys could be placed almost anywhere and hold the centre in bal-

JG: Not really. We have had visitors, but they were dance

ance. There is something almost magical about it; almost as if the

groups. That will be the next phase of testing.

room is filled with a kind of gel— it activates the space around itself in a very interesting way and acted as something that alters the space around it.

AK: There is an interesting tension between the way the machine articulates

AK: It would interesting to see the effect for someone who isn't

"There is something almost magical about it—the room seems to be filled with a kind of gel."

space that exists, and how

inside if it, given how much it visually intersects the body inside

it creates space— even without a body in it. It appears more

it. It is not like a conventional set or even a close frame like the

like a fulcrum at the interstice between several modes of space

'door frames' that Justine has used in the past. This would alter

rather than an architectural structure, with an infinite number of

your perception, depending very much on how it is lit...

potential configurations.

JG: Yes, the current version doesn't allow that yet. And this is JG: Yes, and Su-Feh is approaching it as a set of states that are

the studio version, which fills the entire room, which may be

constitute the 'rules' in working with different artists, but they are

able to hold 30 or 40 people but the travelling version would

phases of an infinite number of possibilities. It is very interesting

offer many different possibilities— looking from the outside in,

how it works with different choreographers.

using more conventional lighting.

AK: To articulate it, you have to move all the external pieces or is

AK: What happens next?

there a way to move it all at once?

JG: Different choreographers are being invited to experiment JG: They are moved one by one. If they are massed together,

with it. If we can get a little more funding, we want to redesign

they form a structure which surrounds the body in the way it

it so that it can be set up easily in different places. The dream

might occur in contact improvisation: You can lean into it and it

is that it can be collapsed and shipped as a set of parts, with

realigns as you interact with it. I have done a little bit of contact

instructions, so that it can be an installation in a public venue or

improv, and I like that it is a real thing, that it responds directly to

a performance venue.

the body.

AK: It is very different from a set which surrounds a specific AK: It appears that it acts like a partner...

piece, or works as its environment. This works as a distinct articulation of space itself.

JG: True, although if you get too spunky with it, it gets angry. Josh Martin sent an e-mail saying he spent an hour untangling it... It

JG: There is a lot of opportunity to bring the public in and let

has its own limits.

them explore, but it is still a work in progress

AK: It seems that it would also be a percussion orchestra?

AK: Thank you!

Dance Central July/August 2014

15

A conversation with Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin

605 Re/Placement

continued from page 7

before we know the entire piece. I really like that way of seeing the piece right now; as having components, and I'm excited and nervous and terrified about tying all these things together

that are talking to each other, and while the text may not stay,

for this space, but it is exciting to be in that position. We go

the idea that they are talking and creating a language is going to

through moments when we get really excited about the po-

remain present.

tential of what this could be, and then we wonder how we will do it. You see moments of what it could be, and that is unlike

AK: Not to give too much away, how do you imagine an audience

anything else I have done, and seen...

will enter into this space, and what will their expectation be?

AK: If you have been dancing with an invisible or imaginary MBY: We have thought of many different possibilities. One is

partner until now, and you have some idea of character and

that there is an activation that happens outside, in the lobby, and

story line—how does that affect the way you are moving

the show starts before it gets into the space. Another idea is that there will be something that draws the audience into the theatre,

JM: I think we are making movement and material that we want

and they will naturally follow the dancers doing a kind of ener-

to feel we could change at any moment, that we can respond

gized group movement. In any case, I think they will have some

to any occurrence, because we have to remind ourselves that

basic information that will give them a hint— the request to wear

anything could happen in the space during the performance,

comfortable clothing and shoes, and the request to remove bulky

and to have that extra information in the space— we have done

or hazardous objects, to prepare them for an experiential immer-

trials, but just having more bodies in the space we are being

sive piece. There will be a way to give them enough information to

fed more information as a performer, so I think it changes the

prepare them for being in here, but leaving the surprise.

way we approach the dance, because it isn't just us and a bare stage, but us and all these other elements.

LG: As long as they understand that it's not so much about a passive experience but something active, it's not going to be a secret

LG: There is always a shift between what you practice in the

that they will not be sitting the whole time.

studio and what you perform on stage, but from the experience we have had in these tiny showings with the audience

MBY: It's about something natural that the space itself evokes. It's

coming closer, it is a different kind of shift that we aren't as

about a balance. Some people will feel anxious—just sitting in that

familiar with. The change in proximity makes you really trust in

seat.

the detail of the body. So it is a little bit of a different — more of an inward rather than an outward shift. That is exciting.

JM: It will bring out the natural curiosity.

MBY: I remember the first moment when we had an audience AK: So when the work goes up in May next year, is it a 'stand-

milling around, and you (Lisa) were talking to them. There was

alone' experiment, or will you develop it further?

a kind of intimacy that was really interesting to see after knowing how they had been working. Normally, 605's work is about

JM: It is too early to tell, but for now it is just an opportunity to try

projecting the energy outward—it's like someone stomping on

something different. The hope is that this creates an essence of

your chest; very athletic and energized, and to translate that

something that we could re-do in different spaces. I don't think it

to holding people close in as opposed to trying to send that

will be a one-off, but definitely a great introduction to achieving

energy out, it is a really pivotal shift. It's exciting to observe.

something like this with an audience for future.

JM: We always perform for an audience, but I have never MBY: I feel like it would be really interesting to do this in a space

been in a position where I have been thinking about dancing

that isn't a typical theatre or performance space— a warehouse,

for somebody— an individual who is right there... I have seen

or somewhere where you wouldn't naturally feel the tendency

a lot of performance where there is some proximity, or a shift

to sit there and watch something. The great thing about how 605

in relationship, but there is something super-interesting about

works is that they can compartmentalize the work in a way I have

a body offering that to an individual, and that is something I

never experienced before. We have had lots of opportunities to do

am really excited about for 605. It was always: Here are the

sections of the piece, and experiment with little parts, and ideas

dancers in their world, Dand they affected ance C e nare t r a l being Septem b e r 2 0 0 4and 3 trying to change time and space in their world, and you are looking

16

Dance Central July/August 2014

just in. But for us as individuals to dance for another individual is

we get them to feel that they want to be a part of it, and move

something new and interesting.

in certain direction. There have also been people who have refused to go somewhere. There was one person in a showing

AK: 605's work is usually very energetic and connected, relying on

we did, where the dance got bigger, and we started pushing

the bodies in the space to know where each other is going at any

through people to open up the space, and he just would not

time.Does an audience this close mean that you miniaturize the

move, which was fantastic. He was squatting near the floor,

movement, or completely change the way you direct the energy?

right where I needed to be, and so I went right to his feet, laid down and did my bit, basically in his lap, with the rest of the au-

JM: It's important for there to be risk in the space in some way, and

dience on the outside watching. It totally worked. An audience

keep adapting it, without putting participants in harm's way. We

that doesn't know who 605 is may end up being confused as to

are discovering ways of making space for the risk but also to play

whose is a performer, and that breakdown is really exciting.

into the subtle things we have never used before; there are lots of amazing things you can do just by having all these bodies available,

AK: When you make site-specific theatre and move people

so all of a sudden they are playing a role in controlling the space.

around, they become the 'show', especially once critical mass is

Suddenly we are in a situation where we are too tight for a certain

achieved. Do you experience a sense of them and us, or will the

movement, and they can't necessarily get out of the way, so as long

boundaries blur?

as we can protect them but also play that edge, then we can do pretty fantastic things...

JM: I hope that they will blur, and that the audience will feel they have permission to offer things to the performance.

AK: In the tests you have done do you experience yourselves as working in pairs, or groups, or are you performing as a whole group,

MBY: In the tests, they have tried to physically further what

as a unit that has a sense of itself?

they thought was happening. I think we will encourage that to a degree, while ensuring that the integrity of the dance and the

MBY: It changes all the time. I believe that you can have these circles

stories remains intact, but there is a lot of room for people to

that radiate closer and open out as well. It's really about orchestrat-

move inside it.

ing those moments, and those transformations. One time my sisters came to watch a show, and they became very invested in one of the

AK: Do you anticipate children?

dancers, because they were with her, and they had been talking. It opened to the whole group but they held on their investment with

MBY: It'll be more like PG 13. Teenagers will be interested, but

Lisa. They cared about her and they wondered what was going to

the little ones may get bored, or scared, or trampled...

happen to her over the course of the dance. I think it is very interesting that it can involve these one-on-one relationships, but as soon

LG: We will include them in the test...

as the dancers do something in unison, for instance, you see a larger picture, and they become interested in creating meaning and stories

AK: Who is involved?

in the larger frame—whether it is a very classic tale of boy meets girl as something recognizable, or whether we project our own experi-

JM: James Proudfoot is creating the lighting, Gabriel Solomon is

ence on what is happening, but it has been my experience that it

designing sound. Cast includes ourselves, Justine A. Chambers,

is very easy to shift from the one-on one investments to the wider

Laura Avery, Jane Osborne, and a yet-to-be named. James Long

group. Sometimes, they clump together and your focus radiates

will also be joining us intermittently as our dramaturge.

inward, and there are ways you can bring it out to the whole...

AK: Maiko, how do you experience your role?

JM: You can control the vibration of the crowd to a certain extent...

MBY: I think it is directing and shaping. I'm not a choreographer, LG: At least in theory... We are still working on that. If we want them

so Josh or Lisa step out to choreograph if needed. It is really a

to be in a certain place, how do we do that?

live room, though not as as noisy as a theatre room

AK: The bellwether system?

JM: For us it is the noisiest room we've had...

Dance Central September 2004

JM: How do we involve the audience in the choreography? How do

AK: Thank you!

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Dance Central July/August 2014

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July/August 2014

Dance Central Dance Central September 2004

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