A New Work, Costume Making, and Doug Varone and Dancers
Well, summer is finally here. The past couple of months have been wonderfully full of dancing and dance-making. In May, I premiered two new works, Cloudburst and El Otro Lado/ The Other Side. Below you can watch video of El Otro Lado. I hope you will leave some comments for me on your impressions of the work.
One aspect of that project I particularly enjoyed was designing and creating the costumes. I am fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of great resources here at OSU, including the Department of Dance’s in-house Costume Designer, Mary McMullen. Mary patiently mentored me throughout the challenging process in a year-long independent study project. I certainly have a new-found respect for costume designers— the hours and hard work they put into the design and manufacture of costumes, and the particular demands for dance (durability, movement, etc) make them truly unsung heroes.
For the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of participating in the Doug Varone and Dancers Summer Workshop. Varone’s fluid and resilient style have always attracted me as dancer, and I attended the Company’s summer workshops in 2004 and 2005. I was particularly interested in approaching this year’s workshop with a pedagogical focus: how can I pass on information given to me as a student to my own students about this stylistic approach to movement which I find so satisfying, both on a kinesthetic and aesthetic level. In addition to being phenomenal dancers and performers, members of Varone’s company are fantastic teachers. Each class was a wonderful challenge for both the mind and body. I have also had the opportunity to see the Company in open rehearsals. As a choreographer, it’s so informative to watch choreographers who you admire amidst their own processes. Doug Varone and Dancers will be performing this weekend in Akron, Ohio a a free summer dance concert series. If you are in the area, make sure you check it out: http://akrondancefestival.org. They’ll be performing Castles and Lux, which are two of Varone’s enchanting and powerful full-company works. They will leave you in awe.
Next week, I travel to the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine, for some more wonderful dancing and dance-viewing. The Varone Company will also be in residence, so it looks to be a summer full of satisfying movement experiences.
-Betsy
Filed under: Individual Evolution | 2 Comments
Tags: Bates Dance Festival, Betsy, Cludburt, costumes, Doug Varone and Dancers, El Otro Lado/The Other Side, Mary McMullen, OSU
Betsy…….free write response to the first video clip for your thoughts and response.
First I wish you many more opportunities to present this dance. It is beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it with the perspective of having been involved in the creation of its precursor, “Feo, Fuerte, Formal,” back in 2006. The costumes are gorgeous.
I’m curious, how much time did you get to spend working on the technical design elements of the piece…specifically, lighting cues. It’s always challenging to read the success and environmental effects of lighting for dance on video, but I’m curious what your experience was like, whether you were satisfied and how much thought/what your approach was to designing the lights.
The relationship between the four women is curious. There is a friendliness and a sense of shared experience, but also a feminine reservedness despite overt sexuality. It’s like I see their boundaries or walls that are up that they’re toying with. I’m not sure what the story is between the four of them. I see them as fairly provincial, like maybe all from a small town having known each other forever. Or ghosts of women from different generations.
The solo is mesmerizing. The quality is so markedly different from the dance’s first section. What sort of environment do you see her in. How was the process of creating this solo movement like or unlike the process of creating material for other sections of the dance? It would look gorgeous on video shot from different angles.
That’s all for now….would love to hear your responses.
Cara
Cara- thanks for your comments! For the lighting, I collaborated with a fellow grad student at OSU, Ale Jara. Lighting is such a critical element for me, and I always envision light cues and colors as a part of the dance. So, to answer your question, I am somewhat satisfied with the lighting of this piece, given the short amount of time we had. It would be really interesting to go back and make some different lighting choices.
The relationship of the women has been a mystery to me throughout making the work- I didn’t set out with a concrete definition of who they were. But the impression I have after living with it for awhile is that they are at once four distinct individuals and also four aspects of my personality.
The solo is one of my favorite parts. It came together very quickly and I really didn’t change it once it was first set. Katy took some wonderful risks with the movement, which I think helps give it a bit of a desperate quality. Her character is the “true self” that is left after all the wonderful layers of personality and performativity are peeled off, and the solo is a moment to see the vulnerability underneath.