Dance Central November/December 2012

November/December 2012

Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication

Making Tools A conversation with Stefan Smulovitz

by Andreas Kahre

Content

Making Tools: Media in Dance A conversation about dance and new media with Stefan Smulovitz Page 1

Thinking Bodies: Anne Cooper talks about the development process for What I Imagined Page 6

Dance Calendar November/December 2012 Page 12

AK: You have been very active, as a composer and media-based artist working with a number of dance companies, while you also create media-based work and develop interactive tools for theatre and musical ensembles. What interests you about working with dance?

SS: What I love about composing music for dance is seeing your musical ideas appear in a visceral, concrete form. Seeing the connection between your music and its physical interpretation is very exciting. It is also fun to inspire movement and energy and see that connection go back and forth.

AK: What companies have you worked with recently?

SS: Most of my work has been with Kinesis Dance somatheatro, MACHiNENOiSY, Jennifer Mascall, Noam Gagnon, and Kokoro Dance. I have also worked with Rob Kitsos, and Cheryl Prophet, and I was part of a project with Henry Daniels while I was still a graduate student.

Henry brought in the person who developed the Isadora software. I didn't want to just make music but push myself in a different direction, and decided to work with lights. I created an interactive light that looked somewhat like a space surfboard, and sensors that tracked the dancer and created spirals of visual material projecting outward from her hands. That was my first foray into Isadora, and into work with dance that wasn't just music related. I also worked with Delia Brett, on a version of the Mad Scientist Machine, where she was being controlled by the lights. That was the first time I used my own software to control both musicians and dancers, by signaling or conducting through coloured LED lights in performance.

After premiering a version of the work for musicians at The Cultch, I had a residency in Greece and added controls to conduct two dancers; Delia with whom I worked here and Freya Olafson in Winnipeg. That was a lot of fun because I was able to actually create structures for both music and dance and to control both media at the same time, so that anyone who uses the system can act as conductor and as choreographer.

AK: I have experienced the musical version of the Mad Scientist Machine, where differences in the colour and duration of light are used to signal certain changes in gesture, or pitch, or whom to follow, for example. How does the conducting for the movement work? continued on page 2

Welcome to the November/December 2012 issue of Dance Central.

Welcome to the November/December issue of Dance Central, and the second issue to go online to the community at large a month after it is published to members of The Dance Centre.

continued from cover

SS: Similarly. There was a light in front of each performer, and there was a light reserved for the dancer. If the light was, say, white, that signaled to the musicians to play long tones, and indicated something like slow, sustained movement for the dancer. Green light indicated a noisy texture for the musicians and 'twitchy' movements for the dancer. Colours could be matched, or complementary, or opposing, so you were able to have a green light on the dancer while the musician had a white signal and to create various combinations.

Few aspects of the performing arts have changed as quickly and profoundly as the role of digital media; whether in dance, theatre, live performance or sited work, where the possibilities of integrating sound, video and responsive control systems are literally exploding through the creation of custom software.

How we work together, both from the perspective of the choreographer and from that of the media artist continues to be a developing dialogue. Traditional models of a hierarchical process don't work well when it comes to integrating interactive systems, and the rapid change in the capability and nature of the tools themselves demand a learning process from all involved. Stefan Smulovitz is one of Vancouver's most prolific musician and media artists, and he talks about his experience as an artist and as a digital tool maker.

The performer portrait of the Talking Body series features Anne Cooper, whose recent work What I Imagined premiered at the Firehall Arts Centre. She talks about her process and about finding a balance between improvisation and choreographic work that informs her practice.

Again, while this issue is devoted to conversations, we encourage you to submit writing, and ideas for new projects any time, to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. The deadline for sub-

AK: What effect did the combined sound and movement control interface have on the performance?

SS: The tendency with improvisation is for everybody to go to the same place, and you don't get counterpoint or opposing ideas happening at the same time. With this conducting system, those different elements can merge but at the same time there is much more opportunity for counterpoint to happen.

AK: Were you conducting?

SS: I was, but I also had two remote conductors for that particular piece: Todd Reynolds and Sarah Weaver in New York.

Sarah does a lot of telepresence work, and it was very interesting to get her feedback from using the system. Todd Reynolds is a violinist who plays with Bang on Can, and often uses a conducting technique called 'sound painting', so he had a lot of experience working in this kind of context.

AK: Since these artists do not normally work as choreographers, what did they report back about their experience of working with dancers?

SS: Everyone really enjoyed it; they told me that it added a real layer of interest and complexity which was satisfying for both the conductors and musicians, but also for the dance performers and the audience. They agreed that it made the system much more engaging when they could see a physical representation of what the conducting cues meant.

missions is the first day of the month prior to publication.

Please send material by mail to members@thedancecentre.ca. or call us at 604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation!

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Dance Central November/December 2012

AK: There is something in conducting improvisations that creates recognizable, repeatable structures —even if the individual gestures differ completely. New York bass player Lisle Ellis,

Making Tools A conversation with Stefan Smulovitz continued who appeared in your first iteration of the Mad Scientist Machine, often conducts improvisors with gestures that indicate how you would approach the next gesture: Play with someone else, oppose, support, repeat or loop, echo another part etc.. Does it work in a similar way when you are conducting movement?

SS: We did not get to that level of specificity, but that would be interesting to pursue more.

AK: If you have a chance to revisit this work, what would you do next?

SS: I would like to work with, say, four dancers and four musicians, and see how much more of a counterpoint one could create. I think that improvisation sometimes gets a bad name, especially in dance, and while some love it, some seem to feel that it has only one note. This system is about pushing performers past the one note, and creating new relationships that are structured and not just related to impulse and context, in a similar way that it works with musicians, where it takes them beyond impulse and conversation, to respond to a structural component.

AK: I am thinking back to earlier experiments between media and dance, particularly when video began to appear in the context of dance, and functioned as a backdrop or as a virtual space, either static or governed by rules of its own. What has changed most in recent years is perhaps the complexity with which elements can now be made to interact with one another. Do you think of media in the context of dance as similiar to how it works with music or differently?

SS: The time scales are very different, so creating the media can often take much more time than creating the dance, particularly in a more improvised setting. For example, I worked on an interesting project called Gesture 4 with Noam Gagnon, Vivian Houle and Jamie Griffiths, who was doing interactive video work. Once I built my own musical tools, they were versatile and flexible enough

that they worked with the movement, but for video there still isn't a set of ready-made tools that is quite right to help you achieve what you want quickly.

Sometimes the integration with all the lights and so on is tough, and then there are the impositions of the tools on the body. For the MACHiNENOiSY piece I worked on recently I was using the Connect Sensor, and sent its signals to Jamie who was using them to create video work, but it has a set of physical limitations that are difficult to incorporate aesthetically: You have to stand in a certain pose for a while for the sensor to see you; after that you can do what you want, but initially it imposes choices. If you can get a better result incorporating an operator, what's the point of incorporating this technology? That has been a big question in a lot of the work I do.

Sometimes the technology creates an excitement of its own: "What if the dancer can trigger this?" someone will ask. My answer is "Yes, we can spend ten hours, and we can make it kind of work, and be reliable eight or ninety percent of the time,—which is not really good enough for performance — or we can have an operator move this little fader, and we can have it done now..."

Particularly with interactive technology, I think if you don't have space in the choreography to play with the system, and integrate it from the beginning, then you might as well have something set. It is so much work to automate those interactions, and the audience usually won't know the difference.

So unless you actually have some kind of real sense of the feedback of the system, a lot of the interactive work doesn't pay itself off.

AK: Do you get a sense from the choreographers you work with that they understand these limitations?

SS: It really depends. Some are incredibly aware of how technology integrates. Some need to see it and experience it, and once they have the physical experience to relate to, continued on page 5

Dance Central November/December 2012

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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

Next:

Dance Central

January/February 2013

Contributors to this issue: Stefan Smulovitz Anne Cooper Dance Centre Board Members Chair Andrea Wink Vice Chair Janice Wells Treasurer Roman Goldmann Directors Serge Bennathan Barbara Bourget Alison Denham Margaret Grenier Stephanie Hungerford Anndraya T. Luui Simone Orlando Gavin Ryan Jordan Thomson Ingrid M. Tsui Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Michael Welters Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Jennifer Chung Directors Santa Aloi, Linda Blankstein, 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 Director Cass Turner Accountant Lil Forcade 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 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.

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

4 Dance Central November/December

Contemporary Ideas in Non-Western Dance Thinking Bodies: Designing Dance: Lit Space

continued from Page 3

they understand. As with music, some have to hear the sonic implications of what you are talking about and can't hear what you are describing. One of my best assets is that I am a good improvisor and can generate a lot of material quickly, and frequently that is what works best. You can have a musical concept which sounds great in theory, but when you place it against the choreography it just won't work, so you have to try something different, and if you are too caught up in making the music then you can lose the connection to the choreography, or it may work at the beginning of the rehearsal week, but not at the end, because the dance inevitably changes.

It is the same with interactive tools: I try to make things that are flexible enough so that you can find something that will work with the piece, but it has to be incorporated at the beginning. You can't toss these elements in at the end, because then they have no meaning and you would be better off using the standard theatrical design team after the fact. Interactive or responsive media has to be part of the process of developing a piece from the beginning.

AK: In your recent work with Kinesis Dance somatheatro, you were physically integrated in the piece. How did that affect your work?

SS: Originally, the piece was a site-specific work, created at Scotiabank Dance Centre, and the spaces we were in were very small, so that the physical separation between musician and dancer seemed arbitrary, and there was a need to acknowledge the live music performance. When the piece was remounted in a theatre, it seemed worthwhile to keep that interaction in the work. James Maxwell and Claire French's recent piece worked with the same ideas but approached it very differently. With my background as an improviser I was not as worried about the instruments as their musicians might have been, and I was trying to be as engaged in my body as the dancers were.

As an improvisor I perform differently than classical musicians, who spend much of their energy reading the score, so it is harder for them to be physically engaged in the piece.

AK: When you work in this context, how do you experience the difference between using an actual instrument like the viola in your case, compared to operating some kind of control field or touch pad, or a laptop?

Making Tools A conversation with Stefan Smulovitz

ANNA WYMAN SCHOOL OF DANCE presents the Winter Concert of Dance 2012 December 8 at Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver

2pm matinee 7pm evening performance Tickets may be purchased through the school or box office Contact: info@annawyman.com 604-926-6535.

continued on page 11

Dance Central November/December 2012

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What I Imagined

Photo by Luciana D'Anunciacao 6 Dance Central November/December

THINKING BODIES | Portraits A conversation with Anne Cooper

Vancouver-based dancer and choreographer Anne Cooper

not been connected to the 'marketing mind'. It continues to be

recently presented no comment, a commissioned work by Chick

the mystery it has always been— but there has been a shift in

Snipper and What I Imagined, a new work by herself, performed

how I think about my own work.

with Mirae Rosner, (who also contributed source material and improvisation), The source material for the piece was created

AK: When you say 'my work', do you mean your choreographic

through a process related to the work of Jungian Analyst Marion

work?

Woodman, and was led by Dale Genge who directed voice & image work for the production. Lighting for both works was de-

AC: Yes, although I have been trying to sort out for some time

signed by James Poudfoot, and the premiere took place Septem-

what is dance, or art dance, as I know it, because of my relation-

ber 21, 2012 at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver.

ship to contact improvisation, and to the principles inherent in that form. I love improvising, probably more than anything else,

AK: You have been a dancer, improviser and choreographer in

and maybe I could only improvise, but at this point I am still

the Vancouver dance scene for many years. If you step back,

composing things. There is an aspect to dance in many cultures

what does the balance between these elements look like?

where it serves a purpose as part of life, celebrations and rituals, and I am still trying to figure that part out. Technique, training,

AC: I still feel like a dancer, meaning that I am engaged in being

and composition offer something, but that is not necessarily

part of somebody else's process, and curious about working with

any more valuable than the dance of the three year old, which

their material. With some, like Peter Bingham, I have many years

can be amazing, or the dance of somebody who shows up at a

of shared history, and there are some new choreographers that

jam and has very little movement training but plays and learns

I have had a chance to work with in the last few years, and they

and tries. You can have amazing dance experiences with people

all ask something different of me. For example, a couple of years

who have their own life movement experiences, even if they

ago I worked on a piece of Laura Hicks' for Dancing on the Edge

don't have any training. There is of course technique and skill to

that was quite comedic. I really enjoyed it; I hadn't done anything

improvisation and contact improvisation, but as with any form

like it since I worked with Harvey Meller many years ago. At the

of dance, there is a certain kind of rawness, an open feeling that

same time, I have been choreographing since 1989 when I pre-

moves us, and I am interested in the question how the technique

sented my first solo piece, and have continued to present work in

manifests and serves your purpose.

different places, including some larger group pieces, and Bull in a China Shop, which I created with actor and writer David Bloom

AK: How did you begin to dance?

and musician William Moysey in 2002.

AC: According to my mom, I was always dancing. I grew up outAt the same time, contact improv and improvisation continues to

side of Ottawa, in a rural area, and I had a lot of space in nature

be really important to me. I have been invited to San Francisco to

to engage. Part of that was moving, and getting obsessive about

co-collaborate and research contact improvisation with Nancy

remembering things,—little steps along the way— and making

Stark Smith, Ray Chung and Mike Vargas, and a group of seven or

up skits with my siblings or friends. When I was eight, I started

eight American improvisers this December. Teaching is an other

in a local ballet class. There was another aspect: My father was

important part of my life. You never know what's coming around

very authoritarian, and hard-working, and when he was present

the corner — or not— in terms of being offered work, and I have

you would immediately appear to be busy. I found when I was

Dance Central November/December 2012

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in the ballet classes, I could work very hard at something that

and what is stripped away. There was a discipline to that

was, at the same time, under my jurisdiction, and I liked that, so

which wasn't unlike ballet, and at the same time part of a

I became very serious about it. When we moved to Vancouver

totally different reason for being. Since then the technical

Island, we found a very good teacher in Parksville, and then I

prowess of how high someone can lift their leg and all that

saw a performance— The Ecstasy of Rita Joe—that had a big

doesn't really interest me as much compared to the interior

impact on me. That's when I knew that this was what I would

way of being in a room and sensing the energy in the room,

like to do. I auditioned and got in to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet

and the way you sense and follow an impulse.

summer school at 15, and then stayed in residence for the year, which was a big financial commitment for my parents. After

AK: Does your background in improvisation inform your

I graduated from the RWB school, I performed quite a few of

choreographic process for a piece like What I Imagined?

the classical ballets with the company and went on tour, but it seemed that I would have to go and audition elsewhere. I got

AC: There is very little improvisation in the piece, except for

into a contemporary company in Quebec City called Danse

two sections. The piece is set in two overlapping imaginary

Partout, who were working with choreographers like Paul An-

landscapes, and we worked with several objects, and after

dré Fortier. That was a huge mind-shift.

a kind of 'clearing movement' when a pair of lamps got struck, we went into an improvisation where we allowed specific symbols from the landscape to run through the

AK: Did you continue with ballet?

body and the voice, in a practice that we used many times No, I was with them for three years, and that was all I did. We

as we prepared the work.

had Graham and Limón-influenced classes, and I was learning how get down onto the floor, which was very difficult for me;

For a long time in the development process I struggled

I realized I would have to totally retrain. When I first showed

with the question whether I would set everything, but even

up, I had the 'ballet attitude' that you could always do modern

as we improvised, the piece was beginning to set itself,

dance if you didn't get into a ballet company. Once I was there

and certain symbols would come up in the development

I understood the scope of it; this is a whole other set of tech-

process. Certain variations and certain dynamics would be

niques. Then I discovered contact improvisation.

consistent. For example, there is a moment where a sharp, odd voice-thing occurs; It's a knife that Mirae found, as an

AK: In some ways you have lived on three extreme edges of the

image, in the pocket of a 'coat rock', which is part of the

landscape that is dance. They are related disciplines, but also

symbols in the landscape. It is made of layers and lay-

quite different in how they approach the body...

ers of artists' coats. I found a piece of paper in the pocket, and Mirae, a knife. The physical form of the improvisations

AC: ... and in the philosophy represented in the body, and that

would differ somewhat each time, but there was enough

really was a shift. I feel very fortunate that I started in ballet

consistency that eventually I decided to set it.

and went as far as I did for the experience; it is very trippy to dance these mythological stories, to classical music, with a veil

AK: Were the symbolic objects purely notional or did they

on your head. But then, with that underpinning, to be part of

have a physical presence at any point in the process?

the new dance being made in Montreal, was also very exciting.

When I moved to Vancouver I knew I wanted to try something

AC: They were in the mind's eye, and in the sensations in

different, and went to classes in everything I could, including

the body and the voice, and came out of my process with

showing up at Main Dance Place in my green unitard... At one

Dale Genge, based on her training with Jungian Analyst

point I wandered into the Western Front, into Peter Bingham's

Marion Woodman, who has developed landscape work

class and I went: "Ah, improvisation! OK! Wow!" I knew I really

based on entering a doorway and meeting symbols from

wanted to learn this thing— which is, of course, many things,

your psyche, in the presence of a witness. My symbols

and takes a lot to study and practice to learn, especially the

were all imaginary, and expressed with the body, but Dale,

discipline of the principles which Peter was teaching more of

coming from theatre has a tendency to look for ways to

back then: The fundamental principles of contact, small dance,

make things concrete, and so for a while we did work with

Dance Central November/December 2012

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"... all I ever wanted to do was the singin' and the dancin'. " real coats which were being bundled into a big pile, until I began

Dale was saying "That's what your piece is about", while

to feel that they were getting in the way. I didn't picture a great big

for me all the other energies and symbols we had en-

set; I was much more interested in the energy of these symbols,

countered in the process were equally as rich. The sounds

and in the way Dale encouraged us to explore how it ran through

sometimes contained specific references, and one could

the voice and the body.

compose with them, or follow the ebb and flow of the content, or they could become something completely

Curiously, when it came to making a piece out of this whole

different. I had to really think carefully about how I could

process, Dale wasn't available to guide me, and the challenge

integrate these sounds within the structure without freak-

was to figure out how to make something out of all this stuff that

ing the audience out.

anybody else could possibly relate to. It is very important to me to make work that is available to a wide range of people, includ-

I was in Banff at a residency. It was one of the first times

ing those who may have not seen a lot of art. Perhaps it relates

that I had hours of space to myself, and could go much

to the fact that I come from a small place on the island, and a lot

deeper with the material. There was a kettle and it had a

of my family members are very practical people. Everybody has

very loud whistle, which was a sound that already existed

creativity that they express in one way or another in their life, so I

in my imagined landscape, and I thought "this would cre-

figure that theoretically we can relate to one another, but I had all

ate a nice way to link the sound to landscape if it appeared

this very strange material and I was making all these weird sounds

as a prop."

that people would not think of in terms of dance, so it could seem threatening.

AK: The superimposition of imaginary and material objects, especially if they the same, was interesting to track.

AK: The work includes a song, and a whole range of vocal events.

You used two standing lamps, presented in a very formal

Where did they originate and how did you decide to structure

process, including the laying out of the chords. Whence

them?

the lamps?

AC: The sounds and the body gestures are the heart of the piece,

AC: The lamps, like my grandmother, just showed up, and

even though I didn't leave that many in the final work, because in

presented another conundrum which I resisted for a long

working with these symbols, a story did arise at a certain point,

time until I had go though a process of telling myself: "Yes,

and that was a big conundrum for me as a dancer. My bal-

this belongs." For some reason, right from the beginning

let background includes narrative but that is not what I tend to

I had this thing about a lamp, the chord and the defin-

work with in a creation process. Dale immediately said: "Oh, your

ing of space. Things bleed from one process into the next

grandmother is in there", because she showed up in this pile of

sometimes. It had something to do with a state where you

coats; it was her dress, a flapper dress—even though she probably

sense objects in space, in the stillness of a room, which

never wore such a thing—with her story of being sent out West,

has a meditative beauty to it. I have been curious about

to live and work as a maid with the Coopers, and her saying "All I

the material and immaterial aspect of an object, and about

ever wanted to do was the singin' and the dancin'."

Dance Central November/December 2012

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continued from page 9

energy, which is what you build on in dance. A lamp links to our daily life.

way of creating, and I got a little bit of research funding, and that's when I brought in Dale and learned about this process as a way of finding source material.

AK: In the sense that an object imposes its material presence on us, or in its uncanny independence from us?

AC: Both. It's what we share our lives with. I have a lot of objects, but I also spend a lot of time in empty spaces. Things can have a soulful quality, a sentimental dimension, and some are just necessary. I was also thinking of an audience that may not be used to seeing much dance: You've got a concrete object—something in the space— and then we create the form of the lamp through the body, and then we take it further, but with reference to the energy of light, or to a million other things. I talked to a friend about the lamp at one point, and his point of view was that, as different people, we are each under a different light and that it made sense that a symbol in my imagined landscape linked to the blending of consciousness and un-consciousness, material and immaterial things, waking state and waking dream state.

AK: If you could add another skill or discipline to what you have, or what you are currently using, what would it be?

AC: I have been writing for a number of years, in workshops here and there, and I would like to pursue that more. I also think of music and voice, as well as my interest in psychology, philosophy and more of what you might call community engagement or involvement.

AK: Have you ever been interested in creating a company or some kind of structure around your work that would help give it a public shape, or—horrible word—would help 'brand it'?

AC: Insofar as a company might allow for more opportunities to work, I feel a little bit closer to seeing myself in that realm. I am at the end of a very long process, and I hope I will be freed up now from making things related to this landscape, so who

AK: In developing a landscape that signifies symbolic aspects of the self, it sounds as if you had to negotiate the tension between narrative, verbal logic and physical logic, or between differing degrees of tolerance for ambiguity or dynamic shifts in meaning. Insofar as that also describes aspects of the various modes of dance that you inhabit, where do you think this process and this work is placed as a way station in your path

knows what I will be inspired to do next, including the possibility of 'branding' myself more. I do have more confidence now that my own work is 'equal' to that others, that it is part of the fabric of work that is being made here, now, and I look forward to what comes next.

AK: Many thanks!

as a dancer and as a choreographer?

AC: Working with Dale in a process like this was a real shift.

I have made quite a number of dance-poetry solos over the years, where the objects, the poetry and the words kept raising their heads in my imagination, so at a certain point I decided that I was going to let them in. I have been writing poetry for a while, and had started to do some readings, and then it began to show up when I was trying to create dance solos, and so I combined them in a collage-like way. My work with the voice—although I had done the SFU voice intensive in 1994 or so, was limited to speaking the poetry, and less as pure sound. Working on this piece changed that relationship from a collage to something more integrated, and using the voice as sound, without a lot of text. I was looking for my own Photos by Chris Randle

Dance Central November/December 2012

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Making Tools

continued from page 5

SS: When I am playing the viola, it is a much more visceral, concrete experience for me. When I play the laptop, I think about ideas and sounds, and the work is much less about a physical experience. I have some faders and knobs so I can use some gestural feeling, but I am thinking "Oh, I should load up this sound file now," and "What kind of processing do I set up next?" whereas with the viola it's four strings and a bow, and I don't think "Oh, maybe I should add a fifth string."

AK: What kind of language do you use with choreographers to come to an understanding of how you want to work, and what to give and what to get?

SS: I find it is really important to connect viscerally. I also like to know if there is a concept behind the piece, for example to help me chose source material, but in terms of seeing the choreography, I look for the impulses that drive a section, and that is what I try to base my musical choices on, gestures that either help provide that impulse, or sometimes play against it, so that somehow you are always pushing or pulling and creating some kind of tension that allows the movement to exist or have a purpose.

AK: Is it different when you work with theatre or on pieces that use a lot of language?

SS: I work in a similar way with dance and theatre. The main difference is that I am more careful with my frequencies, so that the middle band where the voice is located remains clear and the music doesn't get in the way. In either case, it is about finding the root reason: Why is there music, and to create tension or support.

AK: Do you approach the combination of elements in a theoretical context, as a compositional task, or purely on the level of sensation and response? Do you work from a conceptual base, or is it different from piece to piece?

SS: I think for me it is a triangle: There is the moment, the impulse, then there is composition which allows you to have some sense of what has happened before and where you are going, forming some kind of structure, and there is some idea or concept against which these are set. I like to have those three things circling and interacting iteratively with one another, so that while I am playing I am aware of the structure — depending on the choreography, looking for elements such as tempo and structural elements—,

A conversation with Stefan Smulovitz then there is being present in all those moments, and then there is being aware of what the concept is and how can I connect to it. Paras' piece, for example, was about the Odyssey, so I asked myself "How do I connect to the story of the Odyssey, in however loose a fashion, as he does? What are source materials? Ships bells, or my own abstract sense of the stories of the sirens singing, and whatever I can take from the concept." These elements tend to flow in a circle and influence each other as I create.

AK: Do you think the presence of media in dance is going to expand, and eventually consume the other aspects, the way it happened when recorded music became digitized is now part of an integrated way of manipulating data as media rather than being considered in a physical or instrumental context?

SS: I think there is a real opportunity for new tools that allow the creator direct access to more possibilities. One of the things I am interested in is creating tools that the creators can use. For instance, I came up with a piece of lighting software that lets you grab any image, and then the lights take the colour of that picture, so if you have a palette in mind, you just take the picture of a Van Gogh painting or a frame from a movie you love, that palette is instantly available as a tool. Some of this stuff gets so high-tech that you still need intermediaries, which means you have to integrate them from the very beginning, and work with them throughout the rehearsal process. Traditionally, lighting designers don't do a lot of work until the end because they don't have any lights in the rehearsal space to work with. With these systems, if they can play and put up a few lights in the rehearsal space then all of a sudden they become integral parts of the show, and that's where it becomes exciting— when media, lights or projections are integrated from the beginning and are no longer backdrops or extra elements added at the end. That possibility is finally beginning to develop. I also think that human-sized projections and scaled projection mapping offers a lot of exciting possibilities, that will again help remove media from being an add-on or backdrop. There is a lot of potential and excitement, but it requires budget, and most importantly, a concept that includes it from the very beginning AK: Many thanks!

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Calendar of Events

November 14, 15 Compaigni V’ni Dansi presents Cookin’ It Up Metis.

7:30pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre.

Tickets and Info: www.vnidansi.ca

November 2, 3 Raíces Y Alas: Colores.

7:30pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre.

Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, Info: www.raicesyalasflamenco.com November 4 Heart of the City Festival featuring the Dovbush Dancers, Barvinok Choir, the Vancouver Fold Orchestra, and Axé Capoeira.

3pm at the Ukrainian Hall, Vancouver.

Tickets and Info: www.auucvancouver.ca / 604.254.3436 November 4, 15, 17, 24 Ballet Kelowna presents Double Variations.

7:30pm. Nov 4 at Sagebrush Theatre, Kamloops; Nov 15 at Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre, Revelstoke; Nov 17 at Nakusp Arena Auditorium, Nakusp, BC; Nov 24 at Chilliwack Cultural Centre, Chilliwack. Tickets and Info: www.balletkelowna.ca

November 16 PI in C-improvisation performance and contact jam. 7:30pm at the Labyrinth Saint Paul’s Anglican Church, Vancouver. Tickets and Info: 778.855.7337.

November 16 Ballet Productions Canada Society presents Coastal City Ballet. 8pm at The ACT- Arts Centre & Theatre, Maple Ridge (Main Theatre).Tickets and Info: www.theactmapleridge.org/Coastal-City-Ballet November 16, 17 Dance Victoria presents Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.

7:30 pm at the Royal Theatre, Victoria.

Tickets and Info: www.dancevictoria.com

November 4 Evergreen Cultural Centre presents Menaka Thakkar Dance Company's Prince Rama in the Wilderness at 2pm, and Shakti: an evening of classical & contemporary dance at 7:30pm at the Evergreen Cultural Centre, Coquitlam. Tickets and Info: www.evergreenculturalcentre.ca / 604.927.6555 November 4-10 Conversations with Willie: “It’s Complicated”.

7:30pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre.

Tickets http://willie.bpt.me, Info: info@conversationswithwillie.com / conversationswithwillie.com November 9 Kinesis Dance somatheatro presents Takako Matsuda's Baby Metamorphosis Workshop - Open Studio Showing. 4pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre. Free.

November 16, 17 Karen Flamenco presents Snow Queen.

8pm on Nov 16, 3pm & 8pm on Nov 17 at Granville Island Stage, Vancouver.

Tickets and Info: www.karenflamenco.com November 18 New Works presents Dance Allsorts with Dancers of Damelahamid & Raven Spirit Dance.

2pm at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

Tickets: www.eventbrite.com, Info: www.newworks. ca November 22-24 Ballet BC presents In/verse featuring new works by Jacopo Godani, Nicolo Fonte and Emily Molnar.

8pm at Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ca, Info: www.balletbc.ca

November 9, 10 DanceHouse presents Kidd Pivot: The Tempest Replica. 8pm at Vancouver Playhouse.

Tickets and Info: www.dancehouse.ca

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For a regularly updated calendar of dance performances and events, please visit our website www.thedancecentre.ca.

November/December 2012

November 28, 29, 30, December 1 the plastic orchid factory in partnership with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts presents Chunking.

8pm at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts Studio Theatre Info: http://shadboltcentre.com/subscription_ packages_and_ticket_prices.php November 29 The Dance Centre presents the Discover Dance! noon hour series - South Asian Arts. 12 noon at Scotiabank Dance Centre. Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, Info: www.thedancecentre.ca November 30, December 1 Belsher Entertainment presents Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance. 8pm on Nov 30, 2pm & 8pm on Dec 1 at The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets and Info: www.ticketmaster.ca, 604.280.3311.

November 30, December 1, 2 Dance Victoria presents the Goh Ballet in The Nutcracker. 7:30pm on Nov 30 & Dec 1, 2pm on Dec 1 & 2 at the Royal Theatre, Victoria. Tickets and Info: www.dancevictoria.com December 2 New Works presents Dance Allsorts - Vancouver Tap Dance Society with Guest Artists.

2pm at the Roundhouse Community Centre Advance Tickets: www.eventbrite.com, Info: www.newworks.ca December 6-8 The Dance Centre presents Karoshi by Shay Kuebler as part of the Global Dance Connection Series.

8pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre.

Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, Info: www.thedancecentre.ca

December 7, 8 Canadian School of Ballet & Ballet Kelowna present The Nutcracker 7:30pm on Dec 7, 2pm & 7:30pm on Dec 8 at the Kelowna Community Theatre Tickets and Info: www.balletkelowna.ca / 250.862.2867 December 8 Anna Wyman School of Dance Arts presents the Winter Concert of Dance 2012 2pm and 7pm at Centennial Theatre, North Vancouver.

Tickets and Info: info@annawyman.com Tel. 604.926.6535.

December 14-16 Ballet BC presents Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet in The Nutcracker. Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ca, Info: www.balletbc.com December 21 PI in C-improvisation performance and contact jam.

7:30pm at the Labyrinth Saint Paul’s Anglican Church, Vancouver.

Tickets and info: 778.855.7337.

December 21, 22 Cowichan Theatre presents Royal City Youth Ballet’s The Nutcracker.

7pm on Dec 21, 1pm on Dec 22 at Cowichan Theatre.

Tickets and Info: www.cowichantheatre.bc.ca Tel. 250.748.7529 December 27-30 Ballet Victoria presents The Gift of Pandora's Box. 7:30pm on Dec 27-29, 2pm on Dec 30 at the Royal Theatre, Victoria.

Tickets and Info: www.balletvictoria.ca/ Tel. 250.380.6063

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Dance Central November/December 2012