Dance Central May/June 2015

May/June 2015

Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication

Content Made in China: A conversation with Wen Wei Wang Page 2

Cultures of Encounter

by Mirna Zagar Page 9

writingdancing A conversation with Alexa Mardon Page 10

SPLAY Justine A. Chambers Page 15

Welcome to Dance Central The issue features a conversation with Wen Wei Wang, whose work in progress, Made in China will be premiering at Scotiabank Dance Centre this June. He talks about his relationship to China, to Dance, and the challenge of being of two places and in two places.

Mirna Zagar writes about the recent season and about upcoming projects, and Justine A. Chambers talks about her experience in the first iteration of SPLAY, a project created by her and Josh Martin, using the Granville Street facade of Scotiabank Dance Centre.

In the Critical Movements series, we present a

Made in China

A conversation with Wen Wei Wang

conversation with writer, dancer and Migrant Bodies participating artist Alexa Mardon. She

AK: I would like to begin with 'China'; a word that means everything and

reflects on the relationship between writing,

nothing; it is like a gigantic bubble—sometimes we encounter it as an

critical language, visual art, dance, and on her

impenetrable 'other', sometimes we seem to be spending our lives in a

interdisciplinary practice.

world 'made in China'. It is a global superpower of more than a billion people, on the verge of becoming the world's dominant economy, and

Finally, on a cautionary note, a recent scientific

an ancient culture in constant, and often violent transition. In Vancouver,

study by Aniko Maraz, Róbert Urbán, Mark

China is constantly present—in the population, in the stereotypes, in the

Damian Griffiths, and Zsolt Demetrovics finds

real and imaginary roles that it represents. What is China for you?

addictive patterns among recreational Salsa and Ballroom dancers. For details, please follow this

WWW: There are so many different layers: It is home, but it is not

link: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/

home. I love it, and sometimes I hate it. I wish I was still there, and

article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125988

sometimes I wish I was never born there. And then there are all the changes—right now, the world is looking at China. For me, it is almost

As always, we thank all the artists who have

like I know I don't know it anymore, because I have been living in

agreed to contribute and we welcome new

Canada for more than twenty years, so I am somewhere in–between.

writing and project ideas at any time, in order to

Sometimes, I want to go back, but I am also afraid to go back, because

continue to make Dance Central a more vital link

I have changed and it has changed, and there is no place for me there

to the community. Please send material by email

now. But I have family in China. My father is still alive, and that's where

to members@thedancecentre.ca. or call us at

the connection is. That's China for me.

604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation!

AK: I was looking at an excerpt of Made in China, and I was struck by how different it looks and feels compared to your ballet work; the

Andreas Kahre, Editor

structure is open, incorporates improvisation, and the work feels like it is allowed to search for something, rather than making a 'statement'. What made you decide to work that way?

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Wen Wei Wang began dancing at an early age in China, where he was born and raised. He trained and danced professionally with the Langzhou Song and Dance Company. In 1991, he came to Canada and joined the Judith Marcuse Dance Company after which he danced with Ballet British Columbia for seven years. Since 2003, he has served as Artistic Director of Wen Wei Dance. Wen Wei is the recipient of many awards such as the 2000 Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award and the 2006 Isadora Award for Excellence in Choreography (Unbound). In addition to his works for Wen Wei Dance, he has choreographed for the Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, Dancers Dancing, North West Dance Projects in Portland and, most recently, Vancouver Opera’s production of Nixon in China.

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

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Made in China

Wen Wei Wang

WWW: Yes, it is like Quebec, where a community has brought what they have known, but it no longer changes, or changes in ways that only reflect the new place. In China everything

WWW: In 2010, I started a collaboration with the Beijing

changes, and we don't know what it will be. Even people in

Modern Dance Company, and we did a piece called Under

China don't know what China is becoming now. It has to do

The Skin which we toured in Canada before it went to China.

with money, like everywhere in the Western world. I run into a

Gao Yanjinzi is the artistic director of the Beijing dance com-

lot of immigrants from China, who are going through their own

pany and we have a lot in common—a lot of similar ideas and

cultural revolution in Vancouver. They have made their money,

ways of looking at life, and at our artistic work. She is much

they come here and they want to change their life. I think many

younger than me, and grew up in the 80s, while I grew up in

of them are our audience, but they are afraid to speak out be-

the 60s. She is the first generation of contemporary modern

cause they don't speak much English, and because they don't

dance in China, but I call myself a first generation contem-

know how much they are allowed to say here, so I think I am

porary dancer from China, too. That's why we decided to

able to help open that door for the newer immigrants

collaborate, and to put ourselves into the work as dancers

from China.

and creators; it was more personal that way, and we could search more deeply. We started to have conversations,

AK: When you go back, how do you experience yourself?

and we were looking for a name or a story from China, so I thought: Everyone knows objects 'Made in China', in good

WWW: First of all, it is very hard for me to change back to

ways and bad ways, but do people know how people are

speaking Chinese every day, to get used to the air quality, to the

made in China? We were made in China, so who are we? We

crowds. You don't feel that you have your own space. I feel like

wanted to showcase our emotions about how we make art,

I am somewhere in the middle; I don't quite belong in China,

and how we search. I don't think China has a cultural identity

and even here, after twenty years, I still feel like I am only half–

right now, because it was lost in the cultural revolution, and

way to being completely Canadian. Anywhere you go you have

there is a big influence right now from the Western world,

to adjust yourself and make changes, and then you go back and

especially from the United States. We asked: Where is our

make changes again. I think that's how we survive.

artwork? Where is the people's voice? We wanted to showcase those questions to the audience, and to let them be a

AK: You turn 50 this year. Do you know which direction your

part of the culture, of how we grew up, and how we still feel

journey is taking you?

it and how our emotions go through that journey.

WWW: This year is a big life change for me, because my mom AK: Do you have a connection to a young Chinese audience

passed away last year, and Grant Strate who was my long-time

here?

life partner just passed away, and so I still go through a lot of emotions; I feel alone and I feel that the personal connection

WWW: We do have a lot of second or third generation

here is gone, and the personal connection emotionally with my

younger Chinese audiences who grew up here, and who are

Mom in China is gone. This is new to me, and I just have to take

split; they think they are Western, but when they go back

it day by day, step by step. It is a very low period in my life,

home, when they are with their parents or grandparents, they

personally, emotionally. Some days I wake up and I say I don't

only speak Chinese. I wanted to open a door for them, be-

know what I am doing. Some days I think: It's just life—every-

cause they probably have a lot of similar experiences to us.

body goes through this. But it is hard, and it will take a long time to heal.

AK: The original Chinese community in Vancouver was founded around the turn of the century. For them, the cultural

AK: Does dancing connect you to the past, or more to

revolution never took place as lived experience, creating a

the present?

form of 'preserved' Chinese cultural identity, similar to the distinct French culture of Quebec. How do you encounter

WWW: Both ways. My early work connects with my heritage

that identity?

and my memories of growing up in China, but now my work

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"Before, I was always taught what was wrong and what was right.

Now, I don't think about that.

I don't judge,

I just feel it. "

is directed more towards the present, and who I am. I am discovering more about myself and more about the inside of me. Dance, in the last twenty years, has changed so much, from abstract artwork to something more theatrical, and to a new, minimal movement vocabulary. People are trying all kinds of ideas. For me, it is all mixed in with a personal voice, and a quality that can reach the audience. It's something innovative—something new to me, although it may not be new to everybody. With each work, I try to do something I have never done before. I don't go back and look at my old works. That's the past, like my Chinese life. Now, I am slowly thinking a little more about it. Before, I just didn't want to go back, because it was scary to think I would not be accepted any more, but there is always a risk; it's just like our life: We don't know when we wake up tomorrow what will happen, and that's what counts. My life is in the way I create it. It's a scary place and I always wonder if I will be able to deliver something. In this piece, it makes me happy to work with musicians on stage, not as a choreographer, but by dancing together and collaborating with Sammy Chien, the Video and Sound designer. Basically, it's a structured improvisation, because I trust them all as artists; they know exactly what they are doing. And we speak the same language, which makes such a difference when you are in the studio together talking in your mother tongue, and you don't have a headache when you go home at night.

AK: I notice that a lot of your work is set to contemporary compositions that incorporate abstract sound, noise, speech fragments. For Made in China you worked with Qiu Xia He, a classical Chinese pipa player. How does that music affect your movement and the space you make?

WWW: She played some classical music, which is very comfortable for me. There is a section where I use chopsticks, almost like a classical Chinese Tai Chi dancer, with her playing classical music, which takes me back to my memories, but she also does a lot of improvising. When we began rehearsing, she was always playing 'music', and I asked her to play just sound. First she said, “How?" and I told her to just let her fingers follow her emotion, forget what she had written and just try something new. That was the journey of the work, I think; we went from what we knew toward something we didn't know.

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WWW: In the 1950s, China and Russia were close, and so a lot of Russian ballet teachers came to China. That's how the Beijing Dance Academy started, with works like Sleeping Beauty. Of course, in the 1960s the cultural revolution began, Russia and China became enemies, and Madam Mao decided to do something in the arts that focused on the Chinese instead of classical Western ballets, and on real people and peasants instead of princes and princesses. In a way, if you look at it from a distance, that was the beginning of contemporary, modern dance about real people instead of a fantasy world. That's why Madam Mao started as a producer; she didn't create works but she produced the two most famous new ballets. One was called the The Red Detachment of Women, which the Vancouver Opera produced in 2010, in a half-hour long version that I recreated on stage. It was originally presented in 1972 when Nixon visited China. The other is The White-Haired Girl by the Shanghai Ballet.

At the time, I didn't know what ballet was, but I noticed that the dancers wore pointe shoes and danced on their toes, which I found very interesting. The story and the music were Chinese, but the feet were something fascinating to me, and when I went to see ballet for the first time at the age of six, I just fell in love. It is strange, I started to feel that I was the girl, the women: I became the white-haired girl. It was scary because at that age I didn't really know anything about gender yet.

AK: Are you still in love with dance?

I was six, for more than forty years, and I don't know what else I would do if I didn't dance. My parents wanted me to do something else. They are both school teachers, and I am the youngest of three children, and the only boy, but I said: 'I want to dance', and nobody could stop me; the only person who can stop me is myself.

AK: Did you come to Canada with the intention to stay, or were you just visiting?

WWW: The first time I came to Vancouver, during EXPO in 1986, it was just a visit, but it opened my eyes to the Western world, and particularly to Vancouver—to the beautiful scenery, to the people, and to the life. In China, we had been told that we were the best people living in the happiest, richest country in the world. We believed that many people in the West were hungry and homeless. So when I arrived here I thought: Wow! At that time, the doors were opening in China, and we were asking ourselves who we were; we really didn't know at that time. We were happy in 6

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six,

WWW: It is part of my life. I love it and I hate it. I have been dancing since

"Dance is part of my life, I love it and I hate it.

AK: When you grew up, did you think of dance mainly in the formof ballet?

I have been dancing since I was

Wen Wei Wang

for more than forty years,and I don't know what else I would do if I didn't dance."

Made in China

Dance Central September 2004

3

a way, because after the cultural revolution we didn't know

After I had returned to China, in 1990, Grant came to Beijing

much and we didn't have much. After EXPO, when I went

to teach at the Beijing Dance Academy, while I was study-

back to China, I felt like I could not be myself again; I had

ing dance and choreography at PLA Arts Academy — the

changed. I had been taking ballet classes at the Dance Gal-

Army University just across the street. I invited him to our

lery, and had met Grant. He made a solo for me, and while I

school where he gave a workshop, and I asked him if I

didn't speak English, I learned very fast, and I think Grant no-

could return to Canada to work in contemporary dance.

ticed that I learned steps very quickly, so we communicated

I knew that I wanted to find out what was going on in the

first through our bodies. I remember the last day of rehearsal:

world outside China. I really missed Vancouver, and I made

I did a run-through, he gave me corrections, and said: “Let's

a personal choice, because I knew that if I stayed in China, I

do it again!” The second time, I remembered his corrections

couldn't live the way I wanted. Grant said okay, and of-

and gave my best. It was exhausting and hard; Grant’s work

fered me a scholarship for the summer. I was in the middle

was always very hard. So when I finished, I was exhausted,

of my school year and when I got Grant's invitation, I was

and I looked at him, wanting him to make a comment. On

told I couldn't leave because I was in the army, so I quit

the inside I said to myself: 'That was great! I was great!' He

the PLA University, because if I graduated I would have to

looked at me and, after a pause, said “Do it again!“ and I said

work the next five years in China. My parents were shocked

“No.” He was shocked. I don't think anybody had said no to

that I quit a stable, safe, good job. It took almost a year to

him before.

get a passport, and when I received it, in April of 1991, and Dance Central September 2004

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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: Wen Wei Wang, Justine A. Chambers, Alexa Mardon, Mirna Zagar, Photography: Steven Lemay (cover), Andreas Kahre Dance Centre Board Members Chair Ingrid M. Tsui Vice Chair Beau Howes, CFA Secretary Margaret Grenier Treasurer Matthew Breech Directors Geoff Chen Susan Elliott Anusha Fernando Kate Franklin Kate Lade Anndraya T. Luui Josh Martin Starr Muranko Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Jennifer Chung Directors Trent Berry, Kimberley Blackwell, Janice Wells, Andrea R. Wink Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Venue and Services Administrator Robin Naiman Development Director Sheri Urquhart Technical Directors Justin Aucoin and Mark Eugster Accountant Elyn Dobbs Member Services Coordinator Hilary Maxwell

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 bynumerous 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. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.

Made in China

Wen Wei Wang

went to the Beijing immigration office, I was told it was too late because school started in June, and I needed to apply three months in advance. I was desperate. I called Grant, who knew the daughter of the Canadian ambassador—she had studied dance with him—and I got a hand-signed visa. It was difficult and I arrived in Canada with two suitcases, but when I look back at the journey, I think it was meant to be. As soon as I crossed the border, I felt that I was free, that I could breathe. That's how I left China.

AK: Did your family find a way to reconcile themselves with your choices?

WWW: The first few years they were worried, and they often said that I could come back if I wanted, that China had changed a lot, but I couldn't go back on my decision, although many times I wanted to go; sometimes you feel like you are hitting a wall, in language and in culture. Coming to Canada, I felt like I was starting from zero. Many nights I dreamed that I was back in China, and when I woke up, wondered where I was. It was not easy, but the one thing that kept me going was that I loved to dance, the freedom, and that I had Grant here, who was my base, my support, my family. My father had never seen me dance. He is 87 and two or three years ago, I finally brought him some DVDs of my work.

He watched and said, "Now, I understand why you want to do this. And I think you do it very well!".

AK: Do you like to improvise?

WWW: I do now. Before, I was taught to dance step by step, and I taught steps to my dancers in my early work. Now, I just love improvisation, even though I don't remember what I did, but I don't want to go back. I think the knowledge I learned from all the different companies I have worked with, for example Ballet BC, and with all the great Vancouver-based choreographers who I worked with, like Peter Bingham, Jennifer Mascall, Lola Maclaughlin, and Karen Jamieson gave me the freedom to work that way. Before, I was always taught what is right and wrong and now I don't think about that, I don't judge; I just feel it. continued on page 22

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Cultures of Encounter

by Mirna Zagar With International Dance Day just behind us, and our season

infrastructure, from transit to the hospitality and tourism

drawing to a close, we continue to be in dialogue through

industries, to helping create a peaceful, civil society where

encounters among cultures, as well as developing a culture of

cultural differences are a source of enrichment and shared

encounter. With International Dance Day, where dance orga-

pleasure rather than conflict and violence. All of this takes

nizations across Canada, under the umbrella of the Canadian

place amidst a restructuring of the Canada Council for the

Dance Assembly (CDA), focus on generating interest from

Arts programmes, which will have a significant impact on

diverse publics and key stakeholders, including the close-

how dance evolves across the country, and how diverse

to-home political sphere, we had dance happening around

voices come together.

the city. There were new endeavours to work with schools and bring youth to dance outdoors—this time in front of the

With the end of our season, we are also about to conclude

Vancouver Art Gallery—inviting the unsuspecting public to

one of the largest projects The Dance Centre has undertak-

join them as they executed their moves, directed by Shiamak

en and participated in to date: Migrant Bodies. The project

Vancouver’s dance team. The evening concluded at Scotia-

has allowed us to present the traditions underlying art

bank Dance Centre with a series of presentations of works by

and culture across nations through the lens of dance, both

up–and–coming artists, and a first preview of SPLAY, a new

locally and internationally, and in investigating how they

project that animates the Granville street side of Scotiabank

contribute to how we see contemporary culture evolve,

Dance Centre.

including the many faces of dance. The project concludes with a presentation in Croatia at the Dance Week Festival

Throughout all this time, the work by the CDA, dance artists,

and then moves on to Bassano del Grappa’s Operaestate

organizations and professionals across the country continues

Festival, where the works will be featured in the context of

behind the scenes in Ottawa, as the Standing Committee on

an International Symposium which will see the participa-

Canadian Heritage which consisits of ten MPs from across the

tion of Margaret Grenier, in addition to Su-Feh Lee, Alexa

country, studies dance! Presentations to the committee by

Mardon and Sammy Chien.

BC dancemakers will be made by Emily Molnar and Margaret Grenier. We have great confidence that they will represent

The Summer ahead will be a busy one as we prepare for

us well, alongside other major dance organizations who join

Dance In Vancouver in November, when we will reflect on

CDA in this endeavour, Dancer Transition Resource Centre

our endeavours through the lens of Pirjetta Mulari from Fin-

(DTRC), the National Ballet School, and Regroupment Danse

land, and explore the overarching theme of veratile voices.

among others. You too can make a difference. Please talk to

None of this would be possible but for the many individu-

your MP about the important impact dance is making on the

als who continue to come forward in increasing numbers

well–being of our society and our communities, and how it

to support our endeavours. We hope that you, too, are

brings diverse cultures closer towards an inspirational future

inspired by what The Dance Centre offers and its efforts to

that reaches beyong the confines of conventional forms of

support the development of dance in our midst. Therefore,

entertainment and education. Talk to them about the impact

I invite you to join us on September 12th, for the largest

of dance on health, on social well–being, on local and national

Vancouver dance party yet – and help us raise the barre in

economies—even if it may not appear to be a lot from the

support of The Dance Centre, and to help us support your

perspective of the individual dance artist who still often earns

dance. Have a happy summer!

less than minimum wage. This worth is also reflected in the endless volunteer hours and the many skills the art form calls

Mirna Zagar

upon to be able to thrive. Talk to them about the many indi-

Executive Director

viduals and small companies whose work contributes to civic

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

9

Critical Movements: A conversation with

Alexa Mardon

ritingdancingwr AK: Why write about Dance?

AM: For me, it started out as an attempt to reconcile two

AK: In the publishing world, there is the trope of the 'com-

practices: I did my degree in creative writing at the University

mon reader'; used by publishers to add a soft penumbra of

of Victoria, and then moved to Simon Fraser University, and I

egalitarianism to the hard business decision that 'difficult'

dropped a lot of my writing practice while I was training quite

texts may lose them revenue, and by editors to lop off things

intensively with Modus Operandi. I guess I tried to challenge

that stick out too far from their conceptual grid. Do you have

myself to bring these two things together, because it seemed

such a creature in mind when you write?

impossible that they weren’t related. I think that dance can’t exist in isolation. So for me, writing about dance isn't necessarily a

AM: I think when I begin writing something related to dance,

way to pin it down, or explain it, or take it apart, but I’m discov-

it often is selfishly about me trying to figure out exactly how

ering how writing can exist as a way of furthering all aspects of

to think about it. I think I am probably guilty of the assump-

my work in dance. And in writing about other people's work,

tion that my reader has of some previous knowledge—if not

to find out what's happening there, conceptually, contextu-

of dance, then maybe of contemporary art—but it depends

ally. I do think that there is still a hangover; this idea of dance

on what form the writing takes: With the Migrant Bodies

existing in isolation, dance as a transcendental medium - and

project, I have been asking this question a lot, because the

in turn, dancers, unlike a lot of artists working elsewhere, aren’t

project has spanned such a long period of time, and I have

expected to be able to speak about their practice as much. For

been trying to find a more creative form of working through

me, writing about dance is a way of challenging that—perhaps in

the project’s ideas, like the booklet I handed to people, while

part because I was jealous of visual artists. I have a lot of friends

simultaneously working on the longer-form book. A ques-

working in visual art, and I was thinking, 'Why do you guys get

tion that comes up is: 'Who exactly is going to pick up these

to have all these critical discussions about what you are doing?'

books; and just what level of engagement do they already

In my experience to that point, I hadn’t encountered it directly

have with the project and its topic? Can I assume that peo-

in my circle of influence, so I began seeking it out, and of course

ple who pick them up have already heard of the project and

there are a lot of people in Vancouver asking this same question.

know what it is?' But I think a 'general reader' is a dangerous

And for me, because I have the material of writing available to

thing if we want to talk about contemporary dance, where

me through my history with it, it was my way into the ques-

of course the subtext is that we are talking about a Western

tion, as summed up recently by Justine A. Chambers, “What

tradition of dance.

else is there?” I am not so much interested in criticism or value judgements in dance, but in investigating what dance can do

AK: The 'general reader' is also a convenient tool to pose a

and what it can be. Many people are interested in other ways of

normative set of ideas on writing. I am thinking of Donato

doing this - for example, it happens in conversations with their

Mancini's recent book You Must Work Harder to Write

peers or mentors, or in using another art form to extrapolate

Poetry of Excellence, which traces literary criticism as it

what they are working on in dance, but for me, it happens to be

constructs and enforces the paradigm of a national 'Cana-

writing, and, lucky for me, writing is a tangible, shareable form

dian' poetry. I wonder if there is such a thing as a 'common

that can further future conversations.

reader' for Canadian Dance.

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itingdancingwriti

Dance Central September 2004

Dance

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Dance Central May/June 2015

11

Critical Movements: A conversation with

Alexa Mardon

down and writing 'critically' about it, but maybe that distinction between types of dance writing is not useful. This makes me think of an essay by Angela Rawlings, a poet, editor and critic, called Mark My Words (http://www.actionyes.org/issue17/rawlings/rawlings-printfriendly.html), that explores the

AM: I wonder who the 'general reader' of Donato's work could

possibilities of the reader as dancer; the way that you engage

be; it's certainly not in the Can Lit canon. It's a question I could

with a page—your eyes moving from left to right (in English)—

probably consider a bit more in dance writing. There’s a histori-

the way the author acts as a choreographer, or as a guide, to

cal precedent for dance writing in various forms, for sure. I don’t

the reader. Those booklets were my proposal to the theme

know how many of those forms do dance any favours, actually.

of the project, but also asked the reader and the audience to engage with my response. I was happy with those.

AK: The work you created for Migrant Bodies was a text operating as a dance in its own right— a physical object that defined a

AK: You write in a more descriptive mode as well, for ex-

space and transformed it in a way to which the text was central—

ample, in a recent piece about Justine A. Chambers' Family

a 'masking' effect that acted as a performance.

Dinner project, which followed a more conventional form of 'dance writing'. Do you prefer one over the other?

AM: In the Migrant Bodies project, it didn't feel like writing about dance or writing around dance, because the artists involved who

AM: Lately, I am spending more time doing the latter; the

were not the choreographers were given a chance to respond—

investigative play of taking an event, trying to work through it

not so much to the dance or performance, but to the topic. It

in writing, and asking questions: How does it live in relation

is interesting that you see that booklet as performative. I loved

to other things, not just as a dance? How is it related to the

the way that we (myself and the designer, Jordyn Taylor-Robins)

community we work in here in Vancouver? How is it related

were able to work with the materials and have the reader actually

to dance as work and how is it situated within contempo-

able to physically engage with the object. Ginelle Chagnon, the

rary art? It's a challenge to myself, and I learn as I do it. I am

dramaturge for the project, was working with tracing paper in her

enjoying that a lot more lately. The next thing I am working

installation, and we had this conversation about the redacted po-

on is a publication for the series that I co-curated in March

ems. Something felt missing, an element that invited the reader

at the Unit/Pitt project, called An Exact Vertigo, a workshop/

in further, and that material was in this case the missing link. I am

lecture/residency/place for a contemporary dance gathering.

a bit disappointed that we weren't able to continue to do that

Brynn McNab, the other curator and I are putting together a

with the larger book, but printing 500 copies with tracing paper

publication of interview questions, documents and photo-

would have been a complete nightmare. It feels different than

graphs that we have been gathering over the month. We are

seeing a performance or engaging with a project and then sitting

each writing our own essay to frame what happened in that

month, asking: Is it important? If so, why? That is the challenge, but that is also what I love; taking all those pieces, arranging them and seeing what they might become next to each other.

AK: —which is how many choreographers describe their working method. Dance has begun to appear in the visual art world, after decades, if not centuries, of being considered a lesser pursuit. Going back to the question of the reader, do you find that if you write for dance artists that you address them differently than visual artists or performance artists?

AM: I am trying not to. I think there is still very much of a divide between contemporary visual art conversations and contemporary dance conversations in Vancouver, which

"I think when I begin

writing something related to dance it often is selfishly aboutme trying to figure out how to think about it."

was one of the things, that— maybe naively— Brynn and I wanted to address in this project. She comes from the visual art world, and of course mostly dancers showed up to the events, but we were pleasantly surprised at some talks and workshops, It is really interesting right now. I am just observing what is happening in Vancouver as a microcosm of this giant conversation about dance being welcomed, invited, co-opted, whatever you’d like to call it, into the gallery, and watching my friends, colleagues and peers begin to find ways of working outside of the theatre, outside of the studio, and finding space for their work in galleries in Vancouver, which are very quickly becoming receptive to having performance in the space. I’m curious to see what happens. I think it is really exciting that there is a growing opportunity for the art-going public to engage with dance that doesn't involve paying $30 or more to sit

Critical Movements: A conversation with

Alexa Mardon

you contend with the different modes that text comes to be experienced in?

AM: It doesn't concern me that much. The writing that I have done for ISSUU magazine appears only in print; the writing I did on Justine's projects exists online only

down in a theatre, and I think it is one opportunity to continue

because she put it on her website. I think that the more

the conversation how we structure dance, and its visibility, and

ways writing about dance is accessible and shared, the

how we allow it to live outside of that troubled relationship.

better, and thus far I'm not too precious about what is

Dance takes on an agency in these other situations that maybe,

accessed and how it is disseminated, but the Migrant

somehow, in 2015, some people still are turned off by. Dance is

Bodies booklets are an experiment in a way of working

a social practice, in that it (almost always) requires collabora-

with text that I would like to explore more; it does feel

tion and I think that that is very political. Bodies in a room, an

choreographic. But wait -- are you asking if I am con-

exchange between audience and performer, a vulnerability is

cerned, or feel responsible for how a reader discovers

required between both parties. Of course, performances in a

my work?

black-box can be disarming and challenging in this way. But a lot aren’t. In Vancouver, it feels like there is a change underway, but

AK: No, I am thinking of the fact that some readers and

I also wonder why dance has to be validated by visual arts at all.

writers—on the grounds of many different arguments—

I was reading about the Tate Modern in London asking artists to

seem strongly opposed to reading, or placing text online,

respond to an invitation to use the Turbine Hall as a performance

while others don't seem concerned as long as the work

space, and Yvonne Rainer's response to a list of questions about

gets read and there is a dialogue. There is also a whole

what this would give to dance. Her (one word) answer for one

set of economic concerns that surrounds the shift from

question was 'validation'... Then, I read an interview in Momus

one mode to the other, and I am curious if you feel

and Sasha Kleinplatz said, “I get it, we want to survive, and we

strongly one way or the other?

want to be legitimized. But my question is, what is so illegitimate about us in the first place?”

AM: If I were concerned with making money with writing, I would be doing it for the wrong reasons. Also, I

AK: If you look at the website for the Venice Biennale which is

don't know how useful that concern would be for my

about to open, there is a little dance ghetto...

generation—I think it may be a different conversation -when the goal is to be sharing and to begin a dialogue as

AM: In Vancouver, I think it is more complicated and more fluid

opposed to have an object that exists in print, as a docu-

than that. Also, performances in artist-run centres maybe aren’t

ment of a day’s work.

so flagrantly for sale as those backed by large institutions. But I have heard some equally valid concerns by visual artist friends

AK: Do you participate in online discussion forums like

who say: 'Okay, when you are presenting a dance work in a

Dialogue on Dance Writing?

gallery, are you taking into consideration all of the things that a visual artist has to be mindful of in situating themselves in the

AM: I am a part of the facebook group, and I read as

greater history of art in the gallery?' Taking dance and plopping

much as I can. I was really interested when Lee Su–Feh

it down in a gallery space doesn't mean that you are creating

and Justine A. Chambers did the Talking Thinking Danc-

something new. There is a responsibility to consider the his-

ing Body project. At the time, it was just mind-blowing

tory in which you are positioning your work, which includes the

to me that someone was positing something like that in

marketplace.

the city, and those two artists have become people that I look to talk with about dance critically, and about dance

AK: Speaking of positioning: Text, and the act of writing have

writing. The project at Unit/Pitt was also an experiment

transformed dramatically in the recent past as the printed do-

to see what would happen if we offered a space; we

main is no longer dominant. You create text-based objects, but

structured it fairly loosely, so that person x showed up

I imagine a certain portion of your work appears online. How do

on Wednesday night to talk about something—it could be

14

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

continued on page 24

SPLAY

A conversation with Justine A. Chambers

Throughout the 2014-2015 season, 605 Collective and dance artist Justine A. Chambers will be creating an intriguing series of site-specific dance happenings and installations behind the doors of Scotiabank Dance Centre's 1930 Art Deco frontage on Granville Street. Inspired by the architecture and the history of the site and the concept of confined space, the project seeks to put the process of creation in the public realm and encourage opportunities for dialogue, dissolving the barriers between performers and passersby/audience members. http://thedancecentre.ca/blog/view/2015/01/splay_ practice_space Full details TBA.

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D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

Dance Central September 2004

3

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

15

"Arguably, when you work in a space like this,

you are never

getting ready

for a performance—

you are

performing immediately."

SPLAY A conversation with Justine A. Chambers AK: Tell me about SPLAY.

AK: Do you document the work?

JAC: Josh Martin approached me and said 605 Collective was

JAC: No, nothing beyond my notebooks. I think our Family

applying to The Dance Centre with a proposal to let us use this

Dinners project started this non-documenting process, where

space to work in. It would be a collaboration between 605

I am using my inconsistent memory to be constantly rebuild-

Collective and myself. For me, it was interesting that the space

ing things. I am enjoying remembering what gets lost, and

is at street level, and in the path of people's daily lives. In the

how staggered time shows up in the process.

fall, we started working on movement ideas that I proposed to Josh and Lisa, and—lucky for me—I got to work with them as

AK: Recently, you have been working on a training project in

dancers. We don't have any external funding for the project,

the space with the students of Modus Operandi, the training

but I think we all felt a desire to work the way we used to work

program of Out Innerspace Dance Theatre?

before we became so incredibly busy, and focused on funding, so we have been doing it in the pockets of time we find

JAC: Yes, it's a project about the bodies of backup dancers/

between other engagements. I started working with the space,

singers; we are primarily looking at backup dancers from

and with their bodies, and the relationship to the movements

the Motown era. I have always been interested in them. A

of the people outside of the space. Working with moving

documentary, Twenty Steps from Stardom, shows that they

thought as an idea, and working with what I saw on the street

actually are the sound of popular culture, and that this sound,

outside as material, I was accumulating as I was seeing it,

for the past forty years, has been a black voice. There is

trying to keep track, knowing that I was forgetting every-

something in it for me about cultural production, and about

thing but trying to hold on to it. I did that until the first week

being black. I am black, but people rarely know that I am.

of December, and then Ben Brown and I worked on a project

There is a tension between being perceived as a very white

called We’re Making a Band. We were rehearsing at the China

black person while knowing that so much of my identity and

Club, doing hour-long improvisations on setting up and get-

how I move through the world is shaped by being black.

ting ready to play the instruments—but never actually playing

Motown music is what I grew up on. It feels really embedded

them, and we thought it would be great to work on our move-

in who I am; the Marvellettes, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jack-

ment score in a public space as performance. Arguably, when

son—all of those artists are part of my dance history. Think of

you are working in a space like this, you are never getting

the Rayettes and Hit the Road Jack; it is really their song and

ready for a performance, you are performing immediately. So

physically all they do is snap, and move their shoulders. The

we came in, set up lights, some instruments and a small amp

movement is tiny, simple and important. It is choreographed

and performed for an hour. Alexa Mardon and I are working on

to be contained, because you mustn't be bigger than Ray

a project in the coming year, and wanted to find a gentle way

Charles and Tina Turner on stage...

into our project, which has something to do with writing, with writing our own dance history, and with performing a recent

AK: —and you can't get away from the microphone...

dance history; we are still figuring it out. Part of our project seems to be about reading, because we realized how many

JAC: Yes, they are totally trapped, and at the same time, every

things we read only partially—perhaps because of the time

one of them is doing it just differently enough to express their

we live in, of the need to work quickly, and we decided that

individuality. Every one is taking the tiny movement and the

this informs our history as dancers, so we wanted to carve out

tiny number of steps they have to reveal themselves - taking

time and space to read. In January, we met in the space, once

agency through movement. So in this project all I wanted to

a week, with a heater and two chairs facing the street, and we

use was step/touch and a snap, with a lot of people, and see

would read together, keeping a list of thoughts and questions

how much difference becomes visible when everyone does

that came up. We continued that project at An Exact Vertigo

the same thing. It's about delight: There is nothing that feels

at Unit/Pitt and shared the practice with the participants.

better than doing a simple grapevine, and finding a groove

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

17

SPLAY A conversation with Justinte A. Chambers in your body. I would argue that that's why any of us dance:

JAC: We began by working without music, but the

We like the feeling of finding some sort of flow in our bodies.

movement started to look like a cult; really unmusical

For me, it's completely attached to Motown, because I had

and without a groove. Now, we have a playlist of songs

a stay–at–home black mom, and that's what we listened to;

that are at roughly the same tempo. From Dancing in

when days were bad, or days were good, we would have a

the Streets to Son of a Preacher Man. They all know the

boogie, and it was almost always to Motown.

songs, even though they are in their late teens and early twenties. They felt they needed it because they would

AK: How does the personal connection inform the work?

speed up without it and they needed to feel a groove.

The sound is only played inside the space for them, and

JAC: My great-grandmother died last year. She was a hun-

it helps them keep time. Then the choreographic ques-

dred years old and was once a dancer in a gangster's club.

tion became about individuality: 'When you are doing

It's family stuff, but I realized that my grandmother is now 86,

the step/touch, and you extend your focus to your en-

and that all these women are leaving, and that those dances

tire physical experience, what other movements arise

have everything to do with what I do, so I wanted to work on

beyond what is choreographed?' We started making

them. And, as you know, my interest in virtuosity has nothing

those gestures part of the dance. For instance: If some-

to do with the back flips we can do as dancers, but with how

one wiggles their nose, that becomes an addition to the

we can deal with minutiae. I asked Tiffany Tregarthen and

dance, and they do it with the same time value as each

David Raymond, who run Modus Operandi and are the co-

step; it accumulates in the moment over an extended

directors of Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, if I could work

period of time. Who they are as individuals shows up

with their students on the idea for a month.

over time, including how they might get distracted. It starts very symmetrical and regimented, and then it

AK: All of them? In there? At them same time?

seems to fall apart but they fall into being themselves.

It's hard— it's a body/brain puzzle.

JAC: Yep. I usually have eighteen dancers in there, and for the performance there were fourteen. They get squished into

AK: Do they stay put or do they move in the space?

that space, working on a simple step/touch with a snap, and I watch how we are all working on the same thing. You can

JAC: They enter doing a grapevine, which takes them

see the full orchestration of the music moving through their

into a V formation, and then they slide into two lines,

upper bodies.

where they are always appearing and disappearing behind the heavy wooden frames of the doors.

AK: Did you work with actual or remembered music?

The most interesting space in the SPLAY space is the

"People ask us what we are doing, and I tell them

it's a dance

and then some people want to have the

conversation and some don't,

18

but like the FIELD HOUSE, people will stop and ask about it. It might be a simple conversation, but it's an opening."

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5 19 Dance Central September 2004

3

space above our heads. The actual floor space is tiny. It is like a

AK: It has become all the rage among visual artists to pres-

display case— for me, this relates to the presentation of the backup

ent themselves with instruments. Some know how to actually

dancers of the early Motown era. They were told how to act, how

play, but it seems that the gesture and its readings vis-a-vis

to dress, on stage and off stage. It's the total opposite to hip hop

notions of high art/low art, or an opposition between virtuos-

culture which emerged from a sub-culture formed in reaction to

ity and democratization matter more. How did you approach

socio-cultural oppression, where celebrating race and individuality

it?

was important. I am drawn to the contained and oppressive aspect of this space, coupled with the reveal of the individual through

JAC: Ben and I met because he used to accompany my class-

movement.

es, and he told me he wanted to work with dance, but I didn't want to work just with music, and I found his physicality really

AK: SPLAY relates to DISPLAY, I imagine?

exciting when he improvises on the drums. We were looking for a way to both be dancing and be musicians; we thought

JAC: Yes, Josh and Lisa came up with that. It links to the idea of

'There must be sweet spot in between.' and we asked: 'What

something that is splayed open, a revealing process, watching

do I know and what do I have, and how does that translate

people as they display themselves in a glass box, almost like a

into another medium?', instead of getting territorial without

jewelry case.

good reason.'

AK: Is it about the performance or the process?

AK: Looking from the outside, the faux grandeur of the facade—especially now that it is completely disconnected from

JAC: It's all about process, but in this space you can't get away

the building —is meant to impose authority and distance, and

from performance. One day, I was watching Josh and Lisa from

in order to see what is happening in the space, the eye has to

the outside, and a student was watching me watch them, and they

overcome a whole series of obstacles. How does this affect

thought I was doing a performance - they didn’t even see Josh

the relationship between dancers and the 'audience', or in this

and Lisa in the space. Now, I see people watching me outside the

case perhaps rather 'spectator'?

space, perhaps because I am using the sidewalk in a way it isn't supposed to be used. But in the space it's about the process. We

JAC: It creates a problem, because of the physical recession

have a structure, but we don't want to accelerate the process into

of the architecture you feel that you are not being seen and

becoming a 'performance state', which can feel static. It's about

there is no transmission because we are not sharing a space

actively engaging in tasks, rather than a formal presentation.

with the viewer. It is like a jewelry case, because the public can't access you as they would in a shared, space where an

AK: How does the public interact with the process?

energetic exchange would take place. When you discover that someone is watching you, it can be jarring. And something

JAC: People ask us what we are doing, and I tell them it's a dance,

about the facade seems to make people feel like they are not

and then some people want to have the conversation and some

allowed to look. It's an odd relationship with our 'viewers';

don't, but as with our Field House residency, people will stop and

they are not an audience, and they rarely stay to watch—they

ask about it. It might be a simple and short conversation, but it's an

look, they're gone. When I work with Modus Operandi, there

opening.

are so many of them, and they are working on a task, that they don't necessarily pay attention to the outside, whereas with

AK: I imagine it changes with the time of day and whether you have

Josh and Lisa we were really aware that we were being seen,

light in the space, how people engage?

and watched, and we incorporated that into our research.

JAC: I have seen about fifty people record us with their cell phones,

AK: How long will the project continue?

and I think at least a hundred people have stopped to talk since we started working. Some people even waited, when I was working

JAC: We will keep working for at least another year. It is a

with Ben Brown, to ask questions like "Why were you counting

relationship worth exploring. We have found there is a lot

into a song for twenty minutes?" and I had to reply: "Because I can't

of potential for sharing the project with the community. I am

play..."

20

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

SPLAY

interested in finding ways to share practice that is particular

A conversation with Justine A. Chambers

to the space with other dancers - a democratic practice with no specific authorship. Making it a place to work on ideas together. It's exciting that The Dance Centre has encouraged this kind of project in the space. I remember coming in here when it still had a bank machine. And even though the machine is gone, I feel the bank presence in a big way. So perhaps you can still get a mortgage while you wait...

AK: Thank you!

"It is a relationship worth exploring, there is potential for all sorts of

democratic

presentation in the space, and if you are a dancer and you can deal with the

restrictions, then why not invite people to

make a dance with anyone who is interested in this strange configuration."

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

21

Made in China

informed by your cultural identity. Do you think of your work in those terms?

WWW: It is very interesting. When Chinese people look at my work, they say, 'Oh, this is really new, this is not Chinese dance.' When Westerners look at it, they say, 'Oh, this is Chinese; it is contemporary but it is still Chinese dance.'

I have lived here for more than 25 years, and I speak English, but when people look at me, I get the impression that the first thing they think is 'He is Chinese', when they look at my work, they think, 'He is a Chinese artist, so his work must be somehow Chinese.' I don't really know what I am—Chinese or Western. The only thing I wanted to do is to be myself and see how I respond to time, sound, and to space, and how my body feels, trying to deliver that vocabulary or language through my dance. So whenever people read it differently from different cultural backabout; that's exactly why we make it. We want people to journey, to open their minds.

AK: Vancouver is both a colonial city located in isolation at the edge of the old Empire, and a multicultural centre with strong connections internationally and especially to Asia.

Do you have a sense where you fit in the 'cultural ecology'.

WWW: I always feel like I am in the middle, but I think I have been accepted into the Vancouver dance community, that I am part of the family. I try to do my work differently from most people here, and bring to it what I think about life, both from my cultural identity and from a personal voice, and then it is entirely up to other people to judge.

I have been supported very well in some ways in this country, and I have been lucky, especially when I got here from China. That doesn't mean I can be complacent; every year is different, and you have to ask yourself all the time, 'Do you still love it? Do you still have a lot of juice that can come out?'

22

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

look at it they say 'Oh, this is Chi-

grounds, I think that's great because that's what art is

"It is very interesting. When

movement, especially in Made in China, seems profoundly

Chinese

heard your dance described as 'transnational', and yet your

people look at my work they say 'Oh, this is really new, this is not Chinese dance'. When

defined, more open play of elements and forces. I have

Westerners .

mal, architectural structure toward an exploration of less

nese; it is

AK: Your work seems to have made a journey from a for-

contemporary but it is still Chinese dance."

Wen Wei Wang

continued from page 8

Dance Central September 2004

3

AK: How do you approach choreographing? Do you work

balance, and how your mind is trying to communicate or

from your own body, from visual shapes, from steps?

dialogue with the feeling. I am always combining many different senses to see how they interact. In the end, it is the

WWW: When I start, I have a whole concept for a work in

understanding, the attention, the interest, where the artwork

my head, but I don't build any steps when I create the con-

transforms you. We all can tell stories and like to read books.

cept. I hire dancers, who I think can create or deliver some-

If I go to see dance it can't tell me stories, but if the work

thing interesting with the idea, and then I go to the studio

is able to take you into its world, you enter a journey with

and sketch the movement in solo material, but I don't put

the artist, and when you come out you almost feel like you

any meaning into it; I only want to know how the body

watched a film or read a book. If my work achieves that, I

works— the dynamic, the feeling. Then, I start to sketch in

feel it is successful. I don't think many dance artists think that

duets, all toward the concept as I build the steps. I build

way; I don't know because we don't talk much.

tons and tons of material, and I start to put elements together to see which ones fit. The most interesting moment

AK: In talking with dance artists, I have the impression that

is when you put things together in different ways; that's

they do share that idea, but that they often put it in very

where the mind comes in, so actually you’re not teaching

different terms, shaped by training, experience, the expec-

steps, you are creating the steps in that moment, and then

tations of their chosen form and the cultural context. The

you sit back and find out how they relate.

desire to find ways to connect is universal.

AK: Do your dancers improvise for you?

WWW: Yes, it is universal. It is human. I think as long as I am alive, I will always work in dance. That's my life.

WWW: All my works start with improvisation, and then we build the movement together. I don't give them exact

AK: Thank you!

shapes, because the movement has to come from them; if they don't feel that something is comfortable in their body,

Made in China was created by

we will be able to see it, and then it becomes fake—just

Gao Yanjinzi, Wen Wei Wang

steps. I want it to be alive!

Music: Sammy Chien, Qiu Xia He Lighting design: Jonathan Kim

AK: You have worked with Peter Bingham. Does contact

Video design: Sammy Chien

improvisation play a role in your work?

Dramaturgy: Donna Spencer

WWW: Yes it has. I met Peter when he came to work with John Alleyne, around 1998, and created a 40-minute piece.

Since then, I have taken classes with him, and we built an hour-long piece together. I have learned a lot from him.

AK: Made in China shows some of that 'co-presence'. I also noticed a horizontal axis in your movement, a kind of sway that I have only seen in martial arts, and that appears in several of your works.

WWW: For me dance is like visual art. If you see it, you can feel it, and it doesn't always have to have meaning. Often, I take myself out of the work, and think of how to give it meaning— if I give the audience too many steps, they will be confused, and if I give them too few they will be bored.

It's all about balance. I think the work is all about how you

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

23

continued from page 14

Critical Movements: A conversation with

Alexa Mardon

their practice, or something in relation to it that they were interested in—and then we would see what happened. I think we

AM: It would have to begin with a discussion, similiar to

learned a lot from it, including what we could do better next

what we discovered at Unit/Pitt in March: What do people

year, but it felt really exciting to have a room full of people who

feel is missing? A few things right off the top of my head

are working in dance, or around it, or are interested in dance,

include a physical place where there is sanctioned time to

having, at times, heated conversations about the level of criti-

have these conversations, whether that is a fixed date or

cism, or lack thereof, in the city. Asking why we don’t have a

an open structure, a library, a practice space that is acces-

dance publication that exists —I mean, some exist obviously,

sible and visible. Perhaps an administrative place where

but something more like ISSUU magazine or another magazine

dancers could work on grants, with an office, and maybe

that deals with those concerns?

a home for a small publication. Gabriel Saloman recently gave me a publication, FRONT, from Portland, a newspaper-

AK: That may have something to do with the funding model

sized collection of essays, critical writing and photo essays,

for publications. The Canada Council Dance section has no

all printed on newsprint, in one colour (one in pink, one in

money to put toward publications, the Publications Program

yellow ink) and I thought, 'Yes.' I guess, what's missing is a

is oversubscribed, and other programs wouldn't be able to

home for dance; there are some that act as 'rest stops', for

extend their mandate to fund a dance publication. What exists

sure, but nothing, at least for myself and a lot of my peers,

follows either the commercial model—which means advertis-

that feels like 'our place' in the city. (The real estate situation

ers, typically adverse to controversy—and subscriptions, plus

in Vancouver may have something to do with it).

some small amount from Council, or can be found online in the blogosphere, or, if in print, exploits those who create and

AK: Would you be looking to create mainly a meeting place,

contribute to it. $50 per page is not an unusual amount for

or a place that conforms to CADA's requirements, where

magazines to offer to Canadian writers. Wealthy patrons and

dancers can actually dance? The theatre community has

foundations make some things possible that would otherwise

been successful in creating some spaces, like Progress Lab,

never have existed —think of Cabinet magazine in the U.S.—but

or the Arts Factory, and there are artist-run centres like the

the cost of production and distribution alone makes a print

Western Front, or spaces like Scotiabank Dance Centre.

magazine a difficult venture beyond the enthusiasm of the first

Would any of those models fit?

four issues.

AM: I don't know about the Western Front, having never AM: I wonder about having a structure. We had a lot of discus-

worked out of there. The Dance Centre is a different model.

sions about the question 'Why can't dancers have an artist-run

Because it very much is that sanctioned place for physical

centre, or a dancer-run centre?' Some people we were speak-

training and rehearsal, and performance. It also does func-

ing with were baffled that bums in seats were a big part of a

tion as a rental space, though, and so in some ways that’s an

final report...

obstacle to the kind of fluid-use model we’re dreaming up here. I honestly don’t know how you would get around that

AK: Yes, especially when money comes from sources like Ca-

though, rent-wise, in this city.

nadian Heritage.

AK: I get the impression from Mirna and Raquel that they AM: I feel like I am still discovering, and with every question I

would dearly like to find ways to participate in such a

ask, I discover new obstacles.

project.

AK: It is encouraging that dance artists seem to be developing

AM: I believe that, and since we are having a hypotheti-

a different way of relating to their own practice, in their think-

cal conversation here, I will say that I’ve never asked The

ing, their talking and their writing about it, and that the black

Dance Centre to support anything like this. Anything is pos-

box is no longer the exclusive venue for presentation. What

sible, and yes, to have a heavy-hitter like TDC supporting

do you imagine a dancer-run centre would be like?

24

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

"I can't imagine that and

dancing

writing are not part of the same thing."

these little experimental gatherings, well, it might change the

more traditional dance background, or more from a collec-

nature of them, but it would be silly to dismiss the possibility

tive, improvisational model?

of some kind of collaboration. What was exciting about the month we hosted at Unit/Pitt in Chinatown, was that during

AM: I did the typical RAD ballet training as a kid, and Modus

one weekend, when a dance piece was showing at Access

has a wide range of teachers so we worked in both ways.

Gallery, a block away there were also other events on the

With Modus Operandi, at least when I was in it, there was

same evening, and artists were walking from one to other; the

more emphasis on being highly trained in order to execute

proximity was nice. But it would be interesting to see where

choreography as well as having our own choreographic tools,

this momentum takes us. We want to make An Exact Vertigo

to work in collaboration with a choreographer.

annual and we are thinking about where to do it next year.

AK: What happens next?

AK: I want to ask you about dancing. How, when, and where do you dance?

AM: Next month I am going to France to Performing Art Forum. I plan on spending a lot of time in the library, and I

AM: I am currently dancing for some other people. I am work-

have been interested in a couple of ideas to turn into chore-

ing with Rob Kitsos in a project that opens at SFU in Decem-

ography‚ although it is fine if it takes a couple of years of read-

ber. I am also working with Emmalena Fredriksson for her

ing before I get there... Then, I will be going to Bassano del

MFA final project which will in fact be shown in an art gallery

Grappa, Italy, to present the final stage of Migrant Bodies at

(SFU’s Audain Gallery). Working improvisationally, like with

Operaestate Festival and then to Venice, for a couple of days

Emma, feels like work-sanctioned time to be curious about

to run around like mad seeing all the art I can at the Biennale.

myself, my physicality, my perspective, and choreography is a way to practice using my perspective in a more fixed struc-

AK: What will the book contain?

ture. Both are challenging, but in totally different ways. I do have a slightly more difficult time articulating my work as an

AM: There will be conversations with other artists in the proj-

interpreter in relation to these other topics we’ve discussed.

ect, and a continuation of that poetic response to the topic

Working for other people helps me situate myself so I can

of the project you saw in the booklets. Right now, I am trying

talk about how dance work might function in this community.

to position the whole project in the introduction. Going back

This is interesting and important, I think, I mentioned dance as

to who the reader might be, I am trying to take into account

social practice. I’m interested in what happens in the work-

what this project is taking on, and putting that into a page

ing environment, how people treat one another, how they

and a half. There are visual markers, throughout the book,

communicate. This is political. I am having conversations with

photographs and the redacted poems, and hopefully they will

people about how they work, and often it seems as important

help guide a reader through my process and give them one of

as what gets made and presented.

many possible responses to an enormous set of questions.

AK: You were part of Modus Operandi. Do you come from a

AK: Thank you!

D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 5

25

May/June 2015

Dance Central