OnStage Summer Series Interview - Kelley Donovan

by Nicole Harris

With the first performance of the OnStage Summer Series coming up on Saturday we are excited to be sharing our next interview with you!  We interviewed Kelley Donovan for NACHMO Boston 2018 in January.  If you want to know more about what she's doing you can catch her show:

OnStage Dance Company, 665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Saturday, July 14th @ 8pm
Use VIP Code KDD10 to get a special ticket price here!

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Nicole Harris:  Can you tell me about the work you’ll be performing as part of the OnStage Summer Performance Series?
Kelley Donovan:  We are developing a modern dance work using chance elements, numerology and imagery from the Tarot, Additionally, I am performing a recent solo and showing an old solo from 1994.  Rozann Kraus will perform "Waltz news" featuring 6 dancers depicting images of the "false news" featured on social media.  

N:  Who are the dancers you’ll be working with?
KD:  10 dancers, some new and some whom I have worked with since 2007,  The dancers include: Rose Gibney, Carolyn Jepsen, Crystal Heroux  Jacqueline Wilkinson Jane Wong, Katie Logan, Kira Mathiesen, Lauren Sava Marva Yates , Samantha Wilson, Sarah Takahagi,, Tiffany Lau and Rozann's work features:  Jacqueline Wilkinson, Jim Banta, Karen Klein, Kelley Donovan, Rozann Kraus, Dan Quinn and Samantha Wilson

N:  You have a performance series of your own called the Third Life Performance Series.  Can you tell us about it? How did it come about?
KD:  Yes, the third life series has been going for 6 years now since 2012 and we have presented over 150 choreographers and groups!  It is an informal series, designed to echo works in progress like the Judson Church Monday night showings in NYC.  When I started the series there were few informal showing in Boston and I felt a need for a stepping stone to full concerts and full productions and a need to build community that comes from seeing one anothers work.

N:  Last time we spoke was for NACHMO Boston in January. We talked about the challenges of creating choreography in such a short amount of time and the challenge you’d given yourself in creating a solo.  Now that that process is over I would love to hear about how you felt it went and what tools you used to create in such a potentially limiting environment.
KD:  I work improvisationally mostly so I consider it a step in a long process of creating material.  I consider every performance actually as part of a process, even the fully produced evenings.  I am more interested in the process, exploration and growth or work on creating.  I give myself structures and practice improvising with those structures leading up to the next showing.

Photo by Olivia Blaisdell

N:  What are some amazing things you have been up to since we spoke in January?
KD:  ​I have mostly been performing solo work, at Thang at Somerville Armory, Mayfair, Third life and performed w/ teXtmoVes and with Kraus and..... in Dance for World Community, We Create at Hibernian Hall, I also reset a new work on Boston dancers called "Transitional State" at Dance Complex, and created a commissioned work for Boston Moving Arts for the same show!  It has been quite a busy year so far!