 Happy Birthday to all of our friends who celebrate in November!
Kyla Barkin, Gracie Baruzzi, Busby Berkeley, Nick Boraine, Benjamin Britten, Isabella Carmenate, Ryan P. Casey, Aaron Copland, Andrea Underhill Curtin, Lane Dansereux, Eva Dean, Brian Eastman, Rick Frank, Savion Glover, Chuck Green, Alexander Godunov, Soufiane Karim, Laura Kinlin, Remy Marin, Jenny Oliver, Mia Paschal, Courtney Peerless, Jordan Pierce, Eleanor Powell, Kora Radella, Donna Rosenberg, Connor Shea, Michelle Schlief, Jon Taft, Susie Telsey, Aaron Ximm
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 Happy Birthday to all our friends who celebrate in August!
Alexandra Caporale, Alyssa Harris, Andrea West, Angelina Benitez, Bril Barrett, Courtney Blanch, Denise Sao Pedro, Derek Roland, Dorothy Christian, Drew Jameson, Ed Ryan, Elana Furtado, Elizabeth Powers, Emma Foley, Enid Beaton, Erin McDonough, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Felipe Galganni, James Gant, Jeremy Wechsler, Jessica Muise, Jillian Grunnah, Jilly Richcrick, Jordan Rosin, Joseph Maimone, Joshua Legg, Kelly Long, Laura Neese, Laurie Sales, Lisa La Touche, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Michael Wonson, Mikki Shoji, Olivia Blaisdell, Samara Seligsohn, and Sarah Duclos Monkeyhouse Loves You!  Happy birthday to everyone who celebrates in July, especially
Aisha Cruse, Andrew Nemr, Arleigh Rothenberg, Catherine Buell, Dorothy Mahoney, Edgar Degas, Ginger Rogers, Jason LaVoie, Jessica Friswell, Joanna Macone, Jon Wye, Katelyn Alcott, Kim Holman, Lisa Conley, Marie Libbin, Mary McCarthy, Michael Flatley, Nicole Adams, Nicole Zizzi, Ninette Paloma, Pam Vlach, Rachel Solem, Randall Rosenberg, Renee Harris, Ruth Birnburg, Thelma Goldberg, Theresa Fellion, and Twyla Tharp Monkeyhouse Loves You!  Happy birthday to everyone who celebrates in June! Monkeyhouse Loves you!
Arie Steiner Hockman, Bob Fosse, Brenna Banister, Caleb Howe, Deb Pierce, Elisa Nikoloulias, Elizabeth Krolak, Fay DeAvignon, Fred Kelly, Gabe Nesser, Harold Cromer, Henry LeTang, Hjordis Blanford, Jeff Shade, Jim Peerless, Kristin Wagner, Laila Fatimi, Lucie Baker, Martha Clarke, Mary Sousa, Melissa Dollman, Micheline Heal, Nikki Felix, Pat Krolak, Patrick Flynn, Paula Abdul, Rebecca Whittington Ross, Rita Krolak, Rosie Steinberg, Sean Cummings, Shannon Sweeny Curran, Shari Kaplan, Terri Beaton, Tom Christian, Tyler Cantanella, and Xander Weinman, Be sure to check out the links above to learn more about some of these amazing people! Want to be featured here? Let us know when your birthday is! By Nicole Harris N: How was the NACHMO experience? What was something that went really well? What was something that went a little sideways? BB: I have been choreographing for over 10 years and every experience has its ups and downs. For NACHMO, I felt it was such a new experience creating dance on film that everything felt wrong, but in a good way. I was challenged to use tools that went familiar, and unsure of where to start and what the outcome would be as a whole. I am pleased to say I would do this over and over and over again, and take what I have learned from NACHMO as I continue to create for as long as I can.
N: What sort of changes (if any) did you make between the NACHMO Boston informal showing and the Malden Dance Mile? BB: The changes between the informal and MDM showing I made, were use of space. I needed to consider the audience receiving more of a personal experience. Taking away the frontal view, and giving a visually uncomfortable take of searching for happiness.
BB: YES, this is very important. We must lift each other as artists because what we do is valuable and could have great impact on our communities. Im a FAN FAV of my dancers/ Boston based creators, Jeryl Palana and Deidre Lewis. These two fantastic women have continued to support me as I have supported them. To name a few more, Angie Conte, William McLaughlin, and Joe Gonzalez.  By Nicole Harris N: In addition to being the NACHMO Boston regional director you were inspired to choreograph a piece this year! What made you excited about your idea? BB: I initially started off the year not intending to choreograph. My first year as regional director I also choreographed and danced in a piece, and it was far too much for one month! However, once the month got rolling I was so excited by what everyone else was doing that I wanted in. A prompt put forth by NACHMO HQ this year was to dance with a piece of paper constantly connected to your body and the ground, and I found that very appealing. That was how the first phrase of my piece was created and I went from there!
I’ve also learned that organizing is key, having help makes everything more exciting (yay Monkeyhouse!), the Boston dance community needs more positive experiences with what mentorship means, and that choreographers are always excited by this opportunity. My favorite part of NACHMO is seeing new connections being formed! N: This year’s NACHMO was different than past years. What was one of your favorite moments? What was something that went a little sideways? BB: It was certainly different but so wonderful! I loved forming connections in the small groups of the Mental Health Happy Hours. It was amazing to form real, deep connection in a time when connection was so hard to come by. I also loved all of the group mentorship sessions. Each one was unique, but the current running through all of them was how kind and thoughtful people were about offering insight and feedback to each other. I left each session feeling inspired and full of admiration for the community that was created.
I try to pay these gifts forward by having a door open to talk about dance and life with the younger generation that I was lucky enough to get to know through a few years of teaching dance. Plus, by offering mentorship opportunities at NACHMO Boston with the goal that they feel as safe and fortifying as mine do. N: It is important to us that we continue to lift up other artists in our community. Who are some of your favorite Boston area choreographers? Why? BB: There are so many! Evolve Dynamicz, Ruth Benson & Lynn Modell, Kristin Wagner, Monkeyhouse, Sasso and Co, Public Displays of Motion, Ryan P Casey, and more!  N: We are so thrilled to be in Malden! Do you have any connections to this fantastic city?
BB: I unfortunately have not spent a lot of time in Malden, except for one time in Summer 2020 when my partner and I kayaked in the Mystic River. It was a beautiful day towards the end of the summer and was a new spot for us. I'm looking forward to returning to kayak again at some point this year!
N: For NACHMO Boston this year you created a piece on the ice. Can you tell me a bit about your history with ice skating? How has it complimented and contradicted your experience as a dancer? AG-B: Sure! It's interesting, my dance background actually began as a supplement to my skating career. I started taking ballet at the age of 9 (rather late!) to help with my posture, extension, and coordination on the ice, and I became increasingly interested in various dance forms as I continued my competitive track in figure skating. As my competitive career came to an end, I started to transition more and more to dance as a practice, and when I moved to NYC for my Masters in Composition, I gave myself over to training as a dancer quite heavily, working in disciplines from ballet to GAGA and many places in between. I took some needed time away from the ice to engage with my movement research more fully, but soon returned to coaching and sharing on the ice. It's been both a compliment and a contradiction, I have to say. On the one hand, they are very much one and the same, in which the blades come off and it becomes dance. On the other hand, there are many qualities that cannot be achieved on the floor that are unique to the ice and vice versa. That's part of the fun of it though- there are so many possibilities that can easily translate, while others become a real challenge, and that investigative challenge is particularly exciting to me. It can be easy to slip into the mindset of partitioning the two into separate categories, but I am working concertedly to integrate my movement practice and blur that distinction. Another category to add here is my background as a composer, which I have previously allowed to be its own separate entity in my life as well, but one that I would like to invite into the same space as my movement practice. I teach composition at Berklee College of Music, and I was always afraid to share the movement side of myself with my colleagues out of fear that I would not appear as a "serious" composer, but the more I live in my creative world, the more I realize these components of my life are one and the same. It was great fun to finally sample some great sounds from the ice in the sound design in this film. I want to push further in this regard, and this NACHMO experience was a step along that pathway.
N: A lot happens in a short amount of time during NACHMO. What was something that went really well? What was something that went a little sideways? AG-B: Speaking of a short amount of time, that's what I had to film! There is a window in this one particular ice rink that I coach at before the sun comes up, and as I stayed one morning to skate on my own, I noticed this ethereal, otherworldly light that refracts as the sun peaks through that window. It is a magical glow that makes the fluorescent lights disappear for a bit, but it's a very narrow window of time that only lasts for about 20 minutes or so. Therefore, we only had about 20 minutes to film everything, which was rather nerve-wracking! I guess that thing that was so great was also the most elusive to manage.
N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? AG-B: Wow, where do I start? They have all given a piece of themselves to me and walk with me everywhere I go, whether I am creating work myself, teaching, or collaborating with others. I have many, and I endeavor to share the best that each of them has given me in my work and with the next generation of artists. I wish to give a special mention to my composition teachers, Reiko Fueting, Nils Vigeland, Marjorie Merryman, and Peter Child. They very much empowered me to imagine beyond what I had made on the page and where an idea could go. In my dance and figure skating training, I have many mentors: Frances Patrelle, Adrienne Hawkins, Mary Wanamaker, Beth Duxbury, Nathan Birch, Doug Webster, Sheila Barker, Brice Mousset, Manuel Vignuole...the list goes on. These people have given me so much support and so many tools to draw from, and at times have given me a kick in the "tuck-ass", in Frances "Uncle Frankie" Patrelle's words, to believe in myself and never be satisfied.
N: A lot happens during NACHMO Boston, this year more than most. In what ways did and didn’t your piece become the thing you thought it would at the start of the month? CC: I could not possibly have anticipated what developed from the unique circumstances of this year’s choreography challenge. My original intention was to set a work that was completelychoreographed, solid and repeatable, mainly because most of my work over the last few years has been largely improvisation-based. I also intended it to be filmed entirely outdoors. However, one thing I could not have anticipated was that I would end up being exposed to and contracting coronavirus very early on in the endeavor. That completely derailed the process but led me to examine how to conserve energy and work efficiently with the circumstances I was given. It forced me to be creative in ways that I would otherwise have resisted. It required me to set aside expectation entirely and strive for what made sense in the moment rather than trying to force something into existence. That’s where the idea of using a guided mediation came about. In the piece When We’re Stuck Inside, I was literally stuck inside, unable to go anywhere and frankly too exhausted to have gone anywhere anyway. But I am an energy healer and guided meditation plays a major role in my healing work. I decided to create a meditation as the soundtrack in an effort to suggest that one way to find joy is to find or create it in the mind. When I was able to film outside again, I used it as an opportunity to explore the relationship between inside and out that could signify finding the sense of joy as in a dream. It seems to have worked better than I intended because a number of people who saw the work in progress told me that, rather than feeling the piece as a suggestion, they went on the journey through the meditation as it was happening, feeling relaxed and happier afterward. The most unexpected part is that this led to an expanded project around this idea that is now in the first stages of production! I can’t say too much yet but I’m bursting with excitement over the possibilities of the first iteration and many more to follow!!! Now I definitely didn’t think my piece for NACHMO 2021 would become that, but here it is and I am so grateful!
For the Malden Dance Mile, I entirely re-filmed the piece but spent a great deal of time planning and implementing the production. Having the opportunity to hone the piece after the first showing was such an incredible learning experience. It’s still not perfect, (when will it ever be really) but I took to heart the suggestions given in the workshops and mentorship opportunities that NACHMO Boston provided this year which I feel elevated the piece in ways I had never considered before. And let me pause here to say how grateful I am for the grace and skill with which NACHMO Boston handled the challenges of this format. N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? CC: I am lucky to have had some wonderful teachers and mentors in my life as a dancer. I went to Bard College as an undergraduate to major in dance. I met some wonderful teachers there, two of whom I would like to mention in particular because they are no longer with us and I often think of them when I dance: Lenore Latimer and Aileen Passloff. Both of those wonderful women inspired me to dance with authenticity and honesty to who I am as a human being. I can never thank them enough for what they taught me in the short time I knew them. The rest of my professors in the dance department at Bard College all had a hand in making me the dancer and choreographer I am today. Peggy Florin, Jean Churchill, Maria Simpson, Leah Cox, Stuart Singer, Marjorie Folkman…each of these wonderful teachers and more all gave me something important. They inspired me, challenged old thought patterns, supported me while I learned to dance on pointe (even if they weren’t thrilled about it at times), and pushed me to discover what my way of dancing through the world is. In a completely different way, my Master’s Tutor at the Glasgow School of Art, Michelle Hannah, challenged me as an artist. Without that challenge, I might never have thought to push beyond what I thought of as dance performance, stretching into the world of fine art performance as well. Her support was invaluable in that process. And then there’s Dance Prism Ballet Company. Dance Prism, and its Artistic Director Mary Demaso, have become like an extended family to me. Though I have come and gone back and forth over the years that I have been dancing with the company, every time I walk through that studio door it feels like coming home. I am so lucky to call Mary and the wonderful group of dancers at Dance Prism my friends. Truth be told, I don’t know that I can ever do enough to pay forward what these wonderful dancers and teachers have given me over the years. The best I can do today is to keep making work and bringing dance into the world. Hopefully, someday I can inspire someone the way they did for me.
That being said, I have had some incredible experiences over the years with organizations like The Dance Complex, Dancing Queerly, Luminarium Dance Company, and of course Monkeyhouse. The works I have seen, classes I’ve attended, workshops I’ve taken and auditions I’ve been to have all been integral to the process of understanding who I am as a choreographer and dancer.
By Nicole Harris  Photo by Victoria Awkward One of the best parts of this year’s NACHMO is that, because it’s entirely virtual, people can participate from wherever they are. I was thrilled when former Monkeyhouse artist, Elyssa Berg, chose to choreograph something! She moved to NYC a few years ago and it’s exciting to be able to work with her again! Learn more about Elyssa and NACHMO, and play along with the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge by following us on Instagram! N: What have you been doing since you moved to NYC? (P.S. We miss you!) EB: Thank you, I miss you all too! Since moving I have been doing a variety of different things. Fitness has been a huge focus for me the past three years. I have been teaching for barre3 at the Long Island City studio where I am also a mentor to the instructors. For some time I was teaching Movement Education at a private school in Queens until the pandemic hit. I have also continued to take dance classes and have done some freelance work performing since I have moved. N: How have you been handling quarantine? What have you been doing to keep moving and creating during this year? I know you started a new business that seems to be wildly successful…! Can you talk a little about it? EB: Quarantine has definitely been a huge challenge for myself and I know it has been for many others too. Being in NYC, it was really difficult to shift life and adapt to living inside your small apartment. With so many people living around you even going for a walk at times felt almost impossible. As difficult as it has been thus far, it has also been a tremendous year of uncomfortable but necessary growth. My employment has changed a lot since last March but I was able to adapt to teaching fitness classes online through Zoom. That has definitely kept me moving and given me some consistency during this time which I am so grateful for. During quarantine I decided to open my own Etsy shop, String and Dowel. It consists of macrame pieces and handmade home decor. I taught myself how to create macrame a year ago as a way to create holiday gifts for friends and family and I honestly never stopped! I have even started to explore dip dying yarn and redoing furniture which have both been really fun ways to experiment and create without any expectations of the outcome.  Photo by Lindsay Wenning N: What will you be making for NACHMO? Will you be working with dancers or on your own? EB: I will be creating a solo for NACHMO. I am going to be choreographing, dancing, filming, and editing myself. I have created some dance films in the past with the help of other moving bodies but I am excited to approach this piece very differently than I have in the past. N: You have performed for NACHMO before but this is your first time choreographing. What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? EB: Yes, I am very excited to be choreographing this time! I am most excited just to get back into the process of creating movement. I have been finding different ways of creating throughout other aspects of my life and I had recently taken a step away from dance, especially through 2020, so I am excited that NACHMO is serving as my way to get back to doing what I love. That makes me both excited and nervous at the same time. Since I am creating this piece for myself it makes it feel a lot more personal and vulnerable and that can always be a little scary to share.  By Nicole Harris
N: You have done many virtual performances in the last year, between 24hr ChoreoFest and OnStage’s most recent season. What are the joys you are finding in this format that you wouldn’t get in live performance? AF: For 24 hour ChoreoFest, I found joy in creating a duet that could never be performed in a conventional theater. In this duet, I was projected onto a screen in the room where my collaborator was dancing in, allowing us to look like we were in the same place, while we were miles away. The duet that I created was inspired by the ending of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, a story that I wouldn’t have been able to approach if not for the virtual format. For OnStage’s Season 19, it was inspiring to be able to dance in nature at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA. While it took a couple of rehearsals to learn how to dance on grass, I have never performed in a more beautiful space than that!  Photo by Olivia Moon Photography N: This year’s NACHMO is different than anything we’ve done in the past, with all events entirely virtual. How will you change your process to deal with the obstacles 2021 brings us? What is the first thing you did at the start of the month? AF: My goal for NACHMO is to embrace the fact that we are all dancing in our homes. Because of that, I started this month with playing around with dancing on my bed and other places of my house. It took a little bit of time to understand how to work in a narrow hallway or a bouncy bed, but these experiences certainly opened up the movement vocabulary of my piece.
N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? AF: Larissa Ursprung is my constant sounding board and mentor. She’s usually the first person I run my dance ideas by and sometimes, like for 24 hour ChoreoFest, I get to collaborate with her! Being a member of OnStage has also provided a community of dancers who mentor each other. The OnStage choreographers often provide feedback and help each other think through their pieces. N: It is important to us that we continue to lift up other artists in our community. Who are some of your favorite Boston area choreographers? Why? AF: Wendy O’Byrne of Contemporarily Out of Order is among my favorite Boston area choreographers. I find her way of incorporating a story into her choreography compelling. Natalia Maldari is another one of my favorite Boston area choreographers. I appreciate how she juxtaposes traditional ballet vocabulary with novel movement.  By Nicole Harris
N: The piece you are building this year is a bit of a love letter to your kitchen. Can you talk a little about why dancing in your kitchen is so important to you? RR: Haha- yes, my kitchen. I have a number of reasons. One is that some of my silliest memories with my mom are of dancing together in the kitchen. In fact, one time she dipped me and dropped me but we were giggling so hard. It was awesome! I also have so many different memories in the various kitchens of my life- eating breakfast and listening to the radio while my mom blow dried her hair in the next room; making pies with my dad; the portable dishwasher I grew up with; sneaking treats like whipped cream or M&Ms when I wasn't supposed to; dancing around the island pretending we were on a 3 hour tour; making applesauce with my parents, my friends, my own family; hosting after Thanksgiving parties....you get the idea. I think most people have these kinds of memories. The kitchen may not be the central point of a home any more, but it is an essential point that everyone goes through every day. Then in addition to all of that, I keep exploring my own challenges with the kitchen and food and the essential life as the food maker for a child. A frequent question in our house- "What should we do for dinner?" "I don't know." "What do we need from the grocery store?" "Will you do the dishes?" "Is there coffee?" And I also have a love of negative space and reactionary movement- how can you dance with the refrigerator? Or the microwave? Since it won't be often that I can bring these partners to the stage, I decided to take advantage now.  Photo by Olivia Moon Photography N: How have you been handling quarantine? What have you been doing to keep moving and creating during this year? RR: I am mostly at home- WFH, school from home, date from home, movies from home, dance from home...you name it! My house is all healthy but the pandemic has meant changes in parenting schedules. I have been learning how to do what I want while also seeing to my child's needs and letting him learn what I do and want to do. I made a playlist of dance videos I like and exercise to. We take walks and bike. My creation isn't always in movement- I have also completed 4 quilts, various projects with my son, and a fully online musical for kids. N: This year’s NACHMO is different than anything we’ve done in the past, with all events entirely virtual. How will you change your process to deal with the obstacles 2021 brings us? What is the first thing you did at the start of the month? RR: I did a lot of thinking- I usually do before choreography. I have a sense of what I want to do and think a lot. Then write a bit and explore. The challenge is finding time to video when I won't be interrupted!
N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? RR: I don't have a specific mentor right now. I very much reflect on the classes and work I have done with Susan Creitz who was an improv professor of mine in college and a former Nikolais dancer. She helped train us to be very connected to the moment of the group so that we could improvise together and create beautiful work. I also respect the work of karen Krolak and her work on grief. I think it's incredibly important to explore all our grief and sometimes the best way to process is through movement. I also like the work of Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion in creating work and choreography that is elegant and approachable to all people. I hope to bring these gifts through my work and to work and honor dancers who offer the same. N: It is important to us that we continue to lift up other artists in our community. Who are some of your favorite Boston area choreographers? Why? RR: As mentioned above- Karen Krolak and her work on grief and movement of the every day. Peter DiMuro for his work that honors places and stories. Kristin Wagner for her work with women and telling women's stories. Aysha Upchurch for her powerful storytelling. There are so many others....  By Nicole Harris
N: I know you have been expanding your definition of what dance is during quarantine. Can you tell us a little about what you’ll be working on in 2021? JR: I’m starting my Nourish Project for 2021, which was developed over the past 9 months of suspended performance and isolation. I’m asking some key questions: How can we find creativity with so much unrest in our world? Who nourishes the nourisher? More specifically relative to my own experience, how can Black mothers take care of themselves in order to provide for their families? How can we find the nourishment of art and creativity when adapted performances are relatively limited? Is there a way for everyone to experience a shift of perspective, communion, resonance with a shift of attention to the resources we’re already accessing? I’m drawing parallels between attentively tuning inward, and physical dance forms. What is the intersection of movement and racial/social justice? I’ll be addressing these Nourish Project questions in two different ways: This year, I’ll be Artist in Residence at Lexington Community Farm, helping farm visitors to embody the choreography of picking their produce. I’ll offer movement directives so visitors can engage with their senses and physicality to bring a creative experience to growing and harvesting. I will also be working in partnership with Cambridge Center for Families, in which I’ll Zoom interview, chat, and choreograph with Black mothers (non-dancers), asking them about their states of being, asking HOW are you doing? What exactly do you feel right now? Given their responses, we’ll dance toward positive transformation, making personalized choreographies that fit each mother's experience. Culminating both engagements at the farm and online, I’ll be creating a Body Map of my findings, a visual guide to these physically related stories. I’m planning an installation experience, where individual visitors will be able to enter an environment to interact with these movement directives and sensory questions. I’m interested in how sharing personal experiences - the heart of dance communications - can be translated into other art mediums, an adaptation of a dance concert.  N: You will be heading up to Subcircle Residency in Biddeford, ME this year. What are you hoping to work on while you are there? What do you most value about this opportunity to be in residence somewhere? JR: I so appreciate the opportunity to take time and space away from home life to be able to really go deep in my creativity. Since the pandemic started, I, like many others, have not felt safe enough in my body to dance as I once had. Between parenting my school aged children and minding the needs of my parents who live with me, and all the other political and health concerns happening, I’ve been quite limited. Working hard to hold on to what’s important for my basic survival and artistic growth has been such a challenge. Going to Subcircle in Maine will provide much needed respite from all those concerns. I’ll resource a physical practice again by reconnecting my Nourish ideas to feeling secure in a studio again. It means so much to me to have the support from Monkeyhouse and Subcircle to make this residency possible.  N: This is your second time participating in NACHMO. What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? How are those things different than last year? JR: I love the feedback sessions NACHMO provides. It’s a great way to learn firsthand how other local choreographers are developing their own work, and to share resources and perspectives. I really like how generous everyone is by sharing encouragement and inspiration! I like having the support of my community, getting to know my dance peers, and what the focus of a daily choreographic practice brings up, be it resistance or productivity. I think this year is even better, because NACHMO has broadened the parameters of what dance means to us, be it making phrase, a picture, a film, a full piece, a discussion or a sketch. We get to think about what kind of investment in dance we want to make, relative to our differing needs. and there’s more support this year, with peer to peer mentoring, group mentorship, one on one mentoring sessions, as well as regular self care meetings. I get nervous when I start to judge myself on what I thought choreographing should look or feel like. My prepandemic value system of productivity is readjusting. I believe in the quality of my work so far; there’s a lot churning in my head and journal, even though there isn't any dance to show! N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? JR: Deborah Hay has been my mentor starting over 30 years ago when I was a dance major at Wesleyan. Deborah is getting well deserved international recognition for her 50 plus years as choreographer. I reconnected with her recently in a residency, which was significant to mark the life changes and creative developments we’ve each been through since the first time I studied with her. From her, I’ve learned how to keep fascination going, and how to kindly challenge myself. Deborah taught me how to be an artist while parenting, to work with the resources and abilities I have on hand. Deborah is an excellent writer and ruthlessly candid editor; I learned how to write dance and dance my writing from her, among many other teachers. Karen and Nicole have been mentoring me weekly for many months through COVID, providing me with words of comfort and affirmation in a very humane, honest exchange.Through Monkeyhouse, I’ve become more comfortable with my own creative voice. and made incredibly deep friendships in so doing. I'm honored to be able to pay it forward by teaching dance students how to help each other in lecture demonstrations and workshops. I also enjoy mentoring my peers in their work, offering my point of view in support of their process. I value the opportunity to be there and help in whatever way I can.
 By Nicole Harris
N: How have you been handling quarantine? What have you been doing to keep moving and creating during this year? SC: As an extrovert with a typically very busy schedule, quarantine has been really hard. I’ve tried to do as many walks and outdoor activities as possible, both alone and with friends and loved ones, in order to still have some social time (and lots of phone calls and Zoom chats). After some initial numbness/resistance in the early pandemic times, I soon started taking online dance master classes and yoga classes – and I started some online teaching in the fall which really helped me get back into the creative groove. N: What will you be making for NACHMO? Will you be working with dancers or on your own? SC: I’m making a tap piece based around one of my favorite pieces of classical-jazz music; I’m working on it as a solo. This year’s NACHMO is different than anything we’ve done in the past, with all events entirely virtual. How will you change your process to deal with the obstacles 2021 brings us? What is the first thing you did at the start of the month? This is my first time doing NACHMO, so I don’t have past years to compare to. However, I will do a LOT more improv/self-filming and then selecting aspects I like to build upon. I use my computer and phone to note my choreography ideas much more than I used to, even speaking steps and rhythms into Voice Memos! At the start of the month, the first thing I did was reflect quietly and listen to what inspired me – and pretty quickly, an idea came to mind that started with the music. N: A lot happens in a short amount of time during NACHMO. What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? SC: I’m most excited about feeling the collective motivation and push to create something, and the opportunity to connect with other choreographers. I’m most nervous about actually creating something that I feel is “good” and interesting – not boring or “standard.”
These choreographers came to mind because they each have a powerful voice and commitment not only to making creative work, but also to building collaborative, loving communities. They are supportive of others and dedicated to making the Boston dance scene a thriving one. N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? SC: I had the joy of taking class with Dianne Walker over the past couple of years, pre-pandemic, and she is one of the most fun, funny, and nurturing mentors you will ever find. She is hugely supportive of the Boston (and global) tap scene and encourages all of her students with such love! Most recently, another wonderful mentor has been Brenda Bufalino. I took a virtual course with her in the fall, which launched into individual mentorship, and she has shared so much insight, not to mention tons of information and resources to help shape my process and work. The fact that someone so amazing (she has done so much in her life!) is willing to share her time – on Zoom, no less – with younger creators just shows how generous she is! Also: my mom has been one of my mentors! She is also a tap teacher, and has continued to coach and support, and to share her ideas with me as we both navigate the world of teaching virtually. I hope to pay it forward by teaching my own students with the same encouragement and openness that all of these women bring to the table – or tap floor.  By Nicole Harris  Photo by Tone Evans One of my favorite things about NACHMO Boston is the number of new people I get to meet! It’s so exciting to watch our community strengthen and grow every year! Here is Jennifer Binversie, a NACHMO first timer! Learn more about Jennifer, NACHMO, and follow the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge by following us on Instagram! N: You have done a lot of teaching in your career. What is your favorite thing about being an educator? What do you hope your students can take away from their time with you? JB: Teaching is my passion and my strength. It amazes me how our job as educators is to make our dancers better than the generation before then because we have that much more information in us then our teachers had in them! I hope my students take away an appreciation for the art of dance. I teach dancers varying from outreach programs to classical ballet schools and I always say that if after all of this you decide you don’t like dance at least when you see dance on the stage you have an appreciation for the art and an understanding that what those dancers are doing is not easy and in the very least you give them credit for that. N: How have you been handling quarantine? What have you been doing to keep moving and creating during this year? JB: My creative dance juices turned into creative knit juices. I became a test knitter for an amazing knitwear designer Knit Sisu. I learned how to cross stitch. Took up a new language and even took golf lessons because I just never learned! N: NACHMO brings unusual challenges to our creative processes and this year adds a whole new slew of things to think about. How will you change your process to deal with the short timeline and the obstacles 2021 brings us? What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? How are those things different than years past? JB: This is my first year with NACHMO as I identify myself as a dancer and dance educator. Choreography does not come easy to me so already joining NACHMO was a huge step for me and I’m already nervous! I’m really falling back on different exercises I learned in college at the University of Hartford to help me out. With the choreographic prompt of “searching for Joy” I have been writing down all the things that have made me happy over this last year and surprisingly there are more than you think!  Photo by Ron Compton N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? JB: It’s amazing to think about all the people that have impacted you in a positive way and they don’t even know they did! When I moved to Boston three years ago I was so lucky that I was taken in by a supportive female ran business at Upward Spiral Studio and then followed by my Education and Community Initiative family at Boston Ballet where I have learned and continue to learn so much from teachers like Erin McNulty and Mary Teuscher. Never have I felt the importance of the statement, females supporting females then I have during my time here in Boston and I make it a priority to continue that mentality whenever I can be it via the dance community or otherwise. N: It is important to us that we continue to lift up other artists in our community. Who are some of your favorite local choreographers? Why? JB: I have worked with dancers of NSquared twice now and they never disappoint when it comes to feeding off of each others energies on stage. I also love watching pieces and taking class from choreographer Jenna Pollack. And of course another shout out to choreographer Erin McNulty as I worked with her in a contemporary music video she choreographed for.  By Nicole Harris  Photo by Olivia Moon Photography Next up on the NACHMO Boston interview list is the one and only Evolve Dynamicz. I am so excited to be working with them not only as choreographers but as co-hosts of our Mental Health Happy Hours! You can join us any Tuesday or Friday in January at 7:30pm EST! You can always find the link to Happy Hour on the front page of our site. To learn more about Evolve, Collective Moments, NACHMO Boston, and to follow the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge, follow us on Instagram! N: Evolve Dynamicz is co-hosting Mental Health Happy Hours as part of NACHMO Boston this year. Why are these mental health breaks so valuable to you? Evolve: We believe taking the time to focus on something that sparks joy (like dancing!) is important for our sanity, especially during this pandemic. We put on a production in October 2019 called LUCIDITY that Monkeyhouse was also involved in! The production was a series of vignettes about people’s experiences with mental health and illness: written, danced, choreographed, and spoken. We also partnered with a national non-profit called, This is My Brave, whose tagline is “storytelling saves lives” and we’ve really adapted that mindset as well. Normalizing conversations of mental health is essential to making it out of this pandemic on the other side. We are not only losing lives to COVID-19, we are also losing lives to the effects of social isolation on top of the preexisting systemic issues which add to the burden of mental illnesses. And we believe that community support is one of the best ways to combat this by enhancing mental health and wellness. And so, we are excited for others to join us and take a moment to take care of our mental health together, as a community. N: Kaylee, what made you decide to start your own company? Kaylee: I could write you a novel on why I decided to start my own dance company simply because I could talk forever and ever about dance. Instead I’ll give the short answer. I decided to start my own dance company because there is nothing more interesting and exciting for me than choreographing and getting to work with people. It has always been a dream of mine to create my own dance company! So, I decided to just go for it and here we are! Why wait to chase your dreams, life is too short to not wake up and do what you love to do everyday!!!!  Photo by @KebnerPhotos N: This year’s NACHMO is different from anything we’ve done in the past, with all events entirely virtual. How will you change your process to deal with the obstacles 2021 brings us? What is the first thing you will do when the month begins? Evolve: We shifted to Zoom rehearsals at the beginning of the pandemic and have been working that way since. So we’ve had some time to work out the kinks of virtual rehearsals. We’ve also put together a few films already, but not yet in one month’s time! We hope that by providing Kaylee with our pre-established virtual rehearsal structure, she will have more space to focus on creating and teaching her choreography! Kaylee: This first thing I am doing is having a (Virtual) meeting with everyone in the piece, sort of as a check in to see where we are all at! We all have different living circumstances etc, which is something important to be mindful of. I am doing this piece completely stationary which I am excited to play with. In having that challenge, I hope it helps alleviate some of the potential pressure/ anxious feeling of wanting to be able to dance but not having the proper space. Again, for me as a choreographer and individual it is important for me to be aware of everyone as individuals and try to keep in mind the dancers needs and/ or challenges!!!! N: Evolve Dynamicz has participated in NACHMO Boston several times in the past. This year you are collaborating with Kaylee Mahan’s new company, Collective Moments Dance Company, which is a new way to tackle the month long challenge. What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? Evolve: We are so excited to mentor Kaylee and support her through this process. Lisa: After knowing Kaylee since she was 7, it has been inspiring to watch her through high school, college (as an Evolve apprentice, too!), and now launching her own company. Nicole: I have not had the pleasure of knowing Kaylee as long as Lisa has, but she has been with us as an apprentice since our first production as a company SPACES in 2017 and it has been a pleasure having her on this journey with us! (She is now a full member since graduating college in May.) I remember in SPACES we did an improvised piece and I was injured at the time, so I was improvising while sitting on a prop we had built for the show. She came over to me during the performance, danced with me while I was seated, and the piece ended with us hugging. I knew in that moment that our souls connected on a deeper level and that our dance careers would be intertwined for years to come. We are very excited to both be a part of her new company and watch her grow as a leader and artist. The only thing that we are nervous about this month is hitting ceiling fans as we are dancing in our homes! Kaylee: Nicole that moment will stay with me forever. I truly cannot begin to come close to expressing my gratitude and love for these two people! They truly are an inspiration to me everyday and I cannot thank them enough for sharing their dance journey with me! I still cannot believe I have been with Evolve since basically the beginning and I had never gotten the chance to be a part of this event! I am very excited! I think I am most excited to honestly start the new year off creating a new work! I can have quite the difficulty in trying to make decisions/ be decisive, but, I feel with the prompt of having a month to do it will help push me to make decisions and be decisive. And I think that is also what I am most nervous about.
Luminarium - we really look up to Luminarium as a company doing things that we hope to be doing in the next 5 years. A lot of the decisions we have made in growing our company have been inspired by Luminarium!
Ellen Oliver - Nicole had the pleasure of participating in The Dance Complex’s aMaSSit residency and was inspired by her thoughtful and carefully curated body of work. Lisa got to meet her this past October when we were performing at the Starlight stage and we were both mesmerized by her choreography and movement involving tinfoil! She is such an elegant mover, choreographer, and filmmaker! She is also producing a film festival this winter that everyone should check out! By Nicole Harris  Photo by Olivia Moon Photography Ruth Benson Levin and Lynn Modell’s piece was one of my favorite parts of NACHMO Boston in 2020. (Which might make it one of my favorite things in 2020 all the way around!) I’m thrilled to have them back this year and to get a chance to learn a little more about them! To learn more about Ruth & Lynn, NACHMO Boston, and to follow the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge, follow us on Instagram! N: I noticed in your bios that you both went to Adelphi. Is that where you met? R&L: Yes, we met in 1972 as 17-year-old freshman dance majors in the Adelphi U. dance program. After college, we moved to Boston with 2 other AU graduates and formed a company, Kineticompany, 1976-84.
R&L: The heart of Boston is the dance studios. For us, it was Green Street Studios and The Dance Complex (formerly the Joy of Movement Center). This is where we took class, taught class, rehearsed, and performed. The loss of Green Street is huge. N: How have you been handling quarantine? What have you been doing to keep moving and creating during this year? R&L: We have performed outdoors 4 times since June: Twice at Larz Anderson Park, Lynn's neighborhood, and at the Starlight Theater. We have rehearsed over Zoom as well as outside. Lynn has continued teaching her classes that used to meet at United Parish in Brookline and now are on Zoom.  N: This year’s NACHMO is different than anything we’ve done in the past, with all events entirely virtual. How will you change your process to deal with the obstacles 2020 brings us? What is the first thing you will do when the month begins? R&L: It has been difficult for us to get together since winter arrived. Rehearsing outside is unappealing and the rise in Covid numbers has limited our in-person work. We are doing most of our brainstorming and planning on Zoom. N: This is your second NACHMO as a collaborative pair. What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? How are those things different from last year? R&L: The constraints of virtual performance have motivated us to develop skills in creating and editing video. We're excited to be part of NACHMO to use these new skills.
By Nicole Harris  Alive Dance Collective - Photo by Olivia Moon Photography January is National Choreography Month. We are working with NACHMO Boston again this year. I can’t wait to introduce you to all these incredible artists! First up is Alexandria Nunweiler from Alive Dance Collective. Follow NACHMO and Monkeyhouse on Instagram to learn more about this month’s events and participate in the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge! N: Your work is described as being “rooted in community, history, and daily life.” What does that mean for you? How do you involve those things in your process? AN: As the Alive Dance Collective we create dance for the human experience. We use that art to process and connect with others to better understand each other and grow as a community. Connecting that overarching theme to me and my process, I root my work in relatability and storytelling. Whether that be something as universal as your arm falling asleep, or the life of Henri Matisse, or the lore surrounding the Loch Ness monster I seek to surprise and connect with my audience on every level. N: I understand you grew up in a dance family. What was it like to be part of a studio owned by your mother? How did she impact the dancer you became? AN: Great question! I see my mom as the center pillar in my dance training and a wonderful mentor to how I create and teach today. I always refer to myself as a "studio brat" because I did my real growing up in a studio... and when I say "growing up" I mean from the womb until high school graduation-- my mom was still rolling around on the floor teaching Graham technique 9 months pregnant with me! My mom put a strong emphasis on education as well which pushed me to pursue my college degree in dance. I regularly return to Dance Theatre of Greenville to set work for my mom's students, teach master classes and attend performances. She runs a truly special program in the upstate of South Carolina and many (including me!) have benefitted from her education, approach and experience. N: This year’s NACHMO is different than anything we’ve done in the past, holding all events entirely virtually. How will you change your process to deal with the obstacles 2020 brings us? What is the first thing you will do when the month begins?
N: Alive has been part of NACHMO for many years, and you performed in 2020, but this is your first time choreographing for NACHMO. What are you most excited about in this process? What are you most nervous about? AN: I am most excited to take on the challenge of a new work in one month. I love the open-endedness of NACHMO and that as long as you're creating you're right. Additionally, being a somewhat new member of the Alive Collective, I'm nervous/excited to work in the group as a choreographer for the first time and make something new with them. N: Who are your mentors? What makes those relationships special to you? What are you doing to pay forward the gifts they have given you? AN: I lean a lot on my mom as a mentor and I will be paying that one forward for the rest of my life. Outside of that relationship, I rely on a lot of peer-mentors. One person in particular is my collaborator Ashlea Sovetts who I am currently working with on a research project. She is the ultimate sounding board and creative yin to my yang. I'm able to pay this forward by participating in things like NACHMO where peer-mentorship is encouraged and growing the tightness of the dance community is a must. N: It is important to us that we continue to lift up other artists in our community. Who are some of your favorite local choreographers? Why? AN: Kristin Wagner has been a real inspiration to me personally. Her work is always so truthfully raw and I'm constantly reminded to dig deeper while working with and watching her. I'm also very inspired by Brian Feigenbaum. He really gave me my dance family in Boston when I first moved here and started showing up to his classes. He is so gifted in a way that transcends words and makes movement the only language that matters.   Happy birthday to all our friends who celebrate in December!
Amanda Untracht, Amy Foley, Barry Duncan, Brianna Unsworth, Carly Krolak, Corey Hutchins, Darren Buck, David Makransky, Frank Sinatra, Jenna Dewan, Jennifer Beals, Jennifer Kuhnberg, Jessica Roseman, Jon Lavalley, Jose Greco, Khalid Hill, Mara Blumenfeld, Marty Allen, Natalie Schiera, Nicole Ohr, Ralph Farris, Robert Joffrey, Rowan Salem, Rudolf Laban, Ruth Faris, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Grace, Thomas Durand, Todd Shanks, and Vanessa Martinez de Banos  Happy Birthday to all of our friends who celebrate in November!
Kyla Barkin, Gracie Baruzzi, Busby Berkeley, Nick Boraine, Benjamin Britten, Isabella Carmenate, Ryan P. Casey, Aaron Copland, Andrea Underhill Curtin, Lane Dansereux, Eva Dean, Brian Eastman, Rick Frank, Savion Glover, Chuck Green, Alexander Godunov, Soufiane Karim, Laura Kinlin, Remy Marin, Jenny Oliver, Mia Paschal, Courtney Peerless, Jordan Pierce, Eleanor Powell, Kora Radella, Donna Rosenberg, Connor Shea, Michelle Schlief, Jon Taft, Susie Telsey, Aaron Ximm  In celebration of her birthday (August 30th) we are reposting this interview our then intern, Daniel Foner, did with tap dancer Lisa La Touche. Orginally posted on 11/05/2013 here. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Lisa La Touche, an internationally renowned tap dancer. Her career highlights, as she writes on her website, include "New York and North American touring casts of STOMP, the Sophisticated Ladies at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, A.C.G.I with Emmy Award winner Jason Samuels-Smith, Rumba Tap with Max Pollak, Co-Director and guest artist with the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, faculty member of the School at Jacob's Pillow, and guest artist at The American Tap Dance Foundation and The Vancouver Tap Dance Society." If you're interested in learning more, you can visit her website. By Daniel Foner DF: How did you start learning tap? What about it made it so interesting to you?
LLT: I started taking tap lessons when I was 8 years old. I had amazing parents, dedicated to finding me a fun extra-curricular activity as a kid. After soccer and piano and gymnastics, which I didn't love, tap dance stuck. My mom also took lessons as a kid, and would sometimes show me steps and I always got a kick out of it. So upon my first class on my own, I was hooked immediately. The fact that I could make sounds and music with my feet thrilled me, while also being able to dance and express myself. DF: Many dancers and other artists are inspired by their predecessors. Are there any tappers that inspired you to pursue your passion? What do you admire about them? LLT: Oh man... there are so many that it's hard to narrow down. I've been really blessed and honored to have many mentors and their inspiration and wisdom is timeless and endless. Some to mention: Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Max Pollak, Barbara Duffy, Martin "Tre" Dumas III, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne "Lady Di" Walker... they are all such lions and lionesses in their craft. They all, to this day, dedicate themselves deeper daily in their contributions to the art form and the community. They teach me so much about what honoring your craft means and what transpires from staying focused and connected to your own passion. Jason Samuel Smiths inspires me always to see how the level of execution can always increase, and to never get comfortable. I'm always hearing "reach" when I think of him. Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards... I never have words... not only the execution but profound wisdom and grace in her dancing and teaching, and also a truly resilient woman and a divine lady always on and off stage. Max Pollak... a prime example of the possibilities of what one can achieve while branching out and simply staying true to investing in what inspires you. He's the pioneer in incorporating Afro-Cuban music and it's legacy as a tap dancer. He has created and mastered his own technique with his in-depth endeavors to study and hone the Afro-Cuban music and culture and earn respect from its homegrown artists. DF: On your website, you write that you like to stay connected in the NYC jazz music scene. How does your experience with tap dancing influence your appreciation for jazz? Are the two connected in any way? LLT: To me tap dance is another component of jazz. It's the same language, but different instrument. Tap is to dance as sound is to movement. It goes hand and hand to me. You have to learn how to dance and you have to learn how to play music. I've had the honor of working with some incredible musicians and they have influenced me deeply as much as my dance mentors have. Sometimes it can be a barrier to break through to have musicians be open enough to really work with a tap dancer and respect them on the same level as a musician. But upon meeting those that really do that, it's really fun from both parties to see that we really do walk the same walk... Jazz to me means a freedom to improvise and to push boundaries always in the "music," so to speak. We are composers as well - that would be the musician's term for us as "choreographers". One of the biggest highlights of my performing experiences: being on the band stand as a tap dancer with the Revive Da Live big band directed by Megan Stabile and Igmar Thomas. Having Igmar compose and arrange a song for us tap dancers with a 22-piece big band and then coming up with our own choreography composition within it was the best. And the reaction from the crowd felt like we were rock stars. This craft is truly so powerful and the advantage we have, so to speak, is the fact that we do get to dance while making our music, so music lovers always lose their minds. DF: You belong to a tap group in New York called Tap Phonics. Can you tell me a little more about that? In other words, what does Tap Phonics do? LLT: Tap Phonics started as my own "pick-up" company. Right now pick up companies are mostly how dancers function with their own groups. We get dancers together that we like working with on a project basis. This started for me with moving to New York in 2008. I met Brooklyn singer-songwriter Maya Azucena and she invited me to present my own group and open for one of her concerts. So I had to come up with a name, and [Tap Phonics] stuck. From then on, as different gigs came up, I pulled dancers together that I needed and it grew from there. Tap Phonics now, to me, is more of a project than a group. I'm focusing on new arrangements and compositions and always collaborating with other artists or musicians. I think of it as "phonetically speaking." We are a group that can represent essences of the tradition and legacy of the tap dance art from, yet push past the "straight ahead" regime and find new ways to keep it contemporary. I've worked with spoken word artists, R&B musicians, MCs and electronic sounds in my projects. I'm currently working on curating a show while I'm here temporarily in Vancouver in support by the Vancouver Tap Dance Society. New works are being created as we speak which will funnel into the next Vancouver International Tap festival and I'm really excited about it! DF: You've performed in dance festivals and on tours all across the world. What's next? LLT: Next is working on my own conceptualized show as I mentioned before. Taking time to "be still and create." I'm very inspired lately and am composing more than I have in a while and it feels good. I've worked with so many amazing artists worldwide and only hope this will continue. In the meantime it really does feel good to take the time to work out my own ideas and build new platforms for myself and for others as well. I'm working more in Canada as of recently and am trying to bridge more of the gap between my home country, its dancers and the American tap dance scene. New York still resonates as home to me, and my roots ignited also in Chicago. It means more to me than I can express to be considered a contributor and to be respected by my American peers. DF: And one just for fun: if you could do just one step for the rest of your life, which would you choose? LLT: Funny as it sounds, you'll find cramp rolls and 5 count riffs in so many of my phrases. But all in all, I think in terms of musical patterns and then let that determine what vocabulary I should use.  Photo by D. Feller Eva Yaa Asantewaa celebrates her birthday on August 26th. In celebration we are reposting and interview our then intern, Daniel Foner, did with her on 08/15/2014. Orignally posted here. By Daniel Foner I recently had the opportunity to ask a few questions to Eva Yaa Asantewaa, an acclaimed dance writer based in New York City. If you’d like to learn more about her, I encourage you to visit her blog, InfiniteBody. For now, however, I’ll leave you with our conversation, which speaks for itself better than any introduction could. DF: What first interested you in writing about dance? EYA: I was always a writer, from childhood, writing poetry and satire and creative versions of the television shows I loved (what today might be called fan fiction). I read a lot and wrote a lot, training myself to write, and I was always very good at it. I was one of those introverted kids who expressed herself best in writing--and perhaps I still am! I have also loved dancing since I was a kid--at family parties with lots of Afro-Caribbean and Black American music and, later, rock and soul and the like. It's only now that I realize that not only was I a talented dancer at that time, I was a choreographer! I'd had limited exposure to ballet classes when I was young but, in the coming years, I would pick up folkdance, modern (Graham, Ailey, even Isadora Duncan), jazz dance and Middle Eastern dance classes but never with a serious thought of becoming a professional. I didn't really have a role model for that, and I had absolutely zero family support for that as a career option! When I graduated from college, I needed something to relieve the depression that I'd fallen into, and I remembered how good and healing it had always felt to take dance classes. So, I went back--to jazz dance, to Afro-Caribbean--and took up bellydance, which is probably the dance form that I studied for the longest. And it was great feeling to get my authentic energy and my body back. That same summer, I discovered two courses in dance criticism were being offered, and it just made sense for me to put these two interests together. I wanted to share my observations and thoughts and feelings about an art that had meant so much to me as a student and a fan. At first, it was a complicated task to write about dance performances. As a newbie, I think I overcompensated, struggling to capture too many details, not sure of my authority--especially in a field dominated by white writers, as it still is. A friend said, "You are working way too hard." That stuck with me, and I eventually trained myself to relax, to be discerning about what information was significant and sufficient to tell the necessary story, and to allow the keen observer and the poet in me to come through. Writing for non-conventional outlets like The Village Voice and Gay City News was also incredibly freeing. As I went along, I felt more and more permission to be exactly who I was and to express myself on the page. In fact, I think I caught that kind of courage from the art that I was seeing, and I still do. DF: Dance is heavily dependent on visual and audio aspects. To face this challenge, what's your process for translating these into prose? EYA: I don't really see a distinction between perceiving, processing and documenting movement and doing the same for visual and audio aspects of a production. I've been "raised," if you will, on interdisciplinary approaches in the performing arts and feel not only able to process and express the intersection and interaction of multiple elements in a performance but excited by that challenge. I have to weigh the relative impact of each element in the overall context and effectiveness of the piece, but I also have to keep all of my senses open for whatever's incoming. I also do something else, on a professional basis, that's similarly complex--divination using imagery from Tarot and other card oracles, the kind of thing that can be intimidating in its complexity, because there's just so much going on in and around these visual images and symbols--and yet I relish this challenge, too! DF: What are your favorite styles of dance to write about, and why? EYA: When I got into this field, I was seeing a wide variety of work--from Ailey and other Black American choreographers to ballet to Graham and various forms of dance from other cultures. Also lots of postmodern dance. So my head was opened up to a lot. I never got stuck in one mindset about what dance could and should be or who the sacred cows were. My first review editor--Tobi Tobias at Dance Magazine--insisted that I stay open to covering many kinds of dance. That was exciting and empowering, and I'm grateful for Tobi's insistence. I'd say my range was bigger than than it has been in more recent years, since I don't really cover ballet anymore. I consider New York's rich slate of progressive, contemporary dance to be my beat. That world, in itself, is pretty big and diverse. But I also love opportunities to see and cover traditional dance forms from a variety of world cultures because that most often speaks to my spiritual values as well as my love of travel and a broad range of music from around the globe. DF: You've been writing on dance since 1976. In your view, how has the art and the community changed through the years? EYA: There are so many valid answers to that question, but the one that most haunts me concerns the impact of money--or, rather, lack of money--on the field. When I started out, there was much more funding available. It was a great time to be in love with dance. I think, in this society, you always have to have noble courage to stand up for dance and dancers, but things were a little easier then. Since the funding has dropped off, I think it's just harder for the individual dance artist or small dance organization--and even some big ones--to stick their heads up and take big risks that could impact their careers and opportunities for funding and presentation. Certainly, it's hard to be the kind of artist who speaks truth to power--and I don't just mean political power, although I do mean that, too. I also mean the power of all those who hold control--the funders, the presenters, certainly the critics and journalists, even arts administrators and individual teachers. There's too much fear of consequences for saying what you're thinking. I have a triple heritage--Black, feminist, lesbian--from kickass communities with solid histories of not only speaking truth to power but also banding together, hanging tough and building our own resources for the common good. (I should add that the women in my immediate family were all union women in the garment industry.) I especially saw that and participated in that kind of activism in the lesbian community in the 1980s, and I kind of miss that communal energy and determination and get a little impatient when I don't see it around me with the people I care about. But I have to remind myself that a dancer is usually working overtime not only to make excellent work but also to just plain survive on the daily as a human being, especially in an expensive city like New York, to have a viable life. And dance artists give us their very best, for which I remain respectful and grateful every single day.  The choreographer, Jordan Rosin, performing in The Ume Group's "Facet" at the 2013 WAVE RISING SERIES at WHITE WAVE; photo by Anton Martynov In 2014 Monkeyhouse interviewed many of the participants in the CoolNY Dance Festival, including Jordan Rosin of the Ume Group, who celebrates a birthday this month! Originally posted here on 01/28/2014. By Nicole Harris Our next interview in the CoolNY 2014 Dance Festival series is with Jordan Rosin of The Ume Group. You can see his work on Friday, February 7 at 9:00pm & Sunday, February 9 at 6:00pm. All performances are held at the WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theatre, 25 Jay St., Brooklyn, NY and are FREE! -Nicole. N: Butoh is such a distinct movement style. How do you find it blends with the other movement styles you experiment with? Are there things that you struggle to meld due to the nature of Butoh?
JR: While from the outside eye it may appear that there is not much in common between butoh and some of the other physical disciplines we practice (like gymnastics or kung fu), there hasn't yet been a movement style we've hands-down failed to meld with Butoh. Mostly, I think this is because of the fact that we view Butoh more as a philosophy and as a physical / spiritual discipline than as a movement style in and of itself. There are certain characters and situations in drama where our most self-sacrificial Butoh practices may seem out of place in performance, but things like embracing the physical hardship of a choreography or offering our dance to the benefit of others can really only deepen the resonance of a given performance (in any style). N: Your company, The Ume Group, is called a physical theatre company. Can you talk a bit about what that means and how it differs from dance or dance theatre? JR: Primarily, our core ensemble has come from the world of theatre. All of us have trained in method-based acting and a realistic approach to telling stories onstage. The word "physical" comes in because we aim to train our bodies and to practice our art with the self-discipline and dedication characteristic of athletes or dancers. Every 2nd & 4th Tuesday for example, our core ensemble and community of followers join together in a free & open-to-the-public event known as "Open Training" where 3 teachers share 3 radically different approaches to training the physical body of a performer. I'm excited that in February we'll also begin our first weekly "Company Classes" which will focus (at least initially) on tightly goal-oriented training in gymnastics, yoga, and butoh for our most frequent performers. Many would say that the work we do is like dance, but not coming from that world myself, I wouldn't really know. N: It looks like your work is a very intense and hands on. How do you find the people you work with? How much say do they have in the creation process? JR: In the last year or so we instituted a physical training program known as the Training Ensemble, where for three months at a time one day each week a group of 6 artists gather to learn a variety of physical disciplines, create new work together, and practice their own skill as teachers. From this program - now in its third quarter - most of our principle dancers have emerged, including Marie Putko and Dave Herigstadwhom you will see perform when you join us at the CoolNY Festival on Feb. 7 and 9. In our first two years as a company, membership was all about participation in our flagship martial-arts / butoh-dance epic, BUTOH ELECTRA which we produced at numerous venues and for which casts of actors and actor/dancers selected from extensive rounds of auditioning trained and rehearsed for months at a time. That's how we met Yokko and Hannah Scott, who still teach and dance with us on a regular basis. Now we've begun - through the Training Ensemble - to develop a more formal, but still remarkably organic way of initiating new artists into our creative process. As far as that creative process is concerned, it is always truly varied and highly ensemble-based. As a "choreographer", I pick a few of the landmarks (sometimes themes, music, words; occasionally the body positions) which I think will render the most interesting or resonant journey for the artists to undergo in front of an audience and then I ask the artists to practice that journey, discovering their own landmarks with sometimes similar, sometimes different destinations. Their commitment to moment-to-moment honesty with themselves and with the universe around them is more important than any combination of poses or words, which I think of as part of that final destination. N: People in the arts often develop strong mentor/mentee relationships. Did/do you have a mentor throughout your career? Do you have a person or people that you have taken the mentorship role for now that you're a more established artist? How do you feel those relationships change your work? JR: Awesome question. I believe that mentor-ship is fantastically important. I was lucky enough when I was in acting school to have a teacher by the name of Steven Cross who truly pushed me to explore alternate ideas of what "theatre" could mean. As one of the school's two "movement" teachers in the acting program, he not only advised all of my directing work, but was also the first one to introduce me to the tools-of-the-body I use on a regular basis today... yogic asanas, whole-body listening, handstands (which are a fabulously useful trick for anyone to explore), and centering myself with breath. From these seeds I developed a whole variety of interests in disciplines as diverse as butoh and competition-style gymnastics, but perhaps more importantly, he helped me develop an awareness of my body as a playground and a temple, across which my spirit is thrilled to dance and play in new ways every day. That's what I aim to cultivate in the artists I mentor when I am blessed to teach in The Ume Group's workshops and Open Training sessions.  Happy Birthday to all our friends who celebrate in August!
Alexandra Caporale, Alyssa Harris, Andrea West, Angelina Benitez, Bril Barrett, Courtney Blanch, Denise Sao Pedro, Derek Roland, Dorothy Christian, Drew Jameson, Ed Ryan, Elana Furtado, Elizabeth Powers, Emma Foley, Enid Beaton, Erin McDonough, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Felipe Galganni, James Gant, Jeremy Wechsler, Jessica Muise, Jillian Grunnah, Jilly Richcrick, Jordan Rosin, Joseph Maimone, Joshua Legg, Kelly Long, Laura Neese, Laurie Sales, Lisa La Touche, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Michael Wonson, Mikki Shoji, Olivia Blaisdell, Samara Seligsohn, and Sarah Duclos Monkeyhouse Loves You! |
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