• Home
  • About
  • Who's Who
  • Contact Us
  • C2C Blog
  • Donate
    • Fiscal Sponsorships
  MONKEYHOUSE

C2C Blog

NACHMO Boston Interviews - Christopher Croucher

1/2/2023

0 Comments

 
By Nicole Harris
Picture
Not only is Christopher Croucher one of Monkeyhouse’s Vault Artists, he is a long time NACHMO Boston participant! We are always excited for an opportunity to share more information about him and his work.
You can learn more about NACHMO Boston and take the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge by following us on Instagram!

(P.S.You can support Christopher and all of Monkeyhouse’s fiscally sponsored artists here!)


N: This is your fourth NACHMO, making you a pro! Do you have any advice for first time participants or artists who have felt nervous about taking the challenge?
Christopher Croucher:
 Honestly, I feel like NACHMO is the perfect way to shake off those nerves.  The way that NACHMO Boston supports the choreographers really makes it a choose-your-own-adventure kind of challenge.  Put in as much or as little energy as you have to give, really, it’s okay!  As Brenna Banister and Alive Dance Collective say, we’re full time humans and part time dancers.  It’s okay to jump in at the deep end or stick a toe in the wading pool.  No matter what, you’re going to take something from this experience!

I think the most important things to remember are that 1. This should be fun, otherwise why do it? and 2. You’re stepping into one of the least judgmental and most supportive communities you’ll find in the dance world…enjoy it.  You never know what will come out of it until you shake it off and go for it. 

​N: You have been incredibly busy in the last year working on Letting the Land Lead. Can you tell us a little more about it? Where are you hoping it goes from here?
CC: Never truer words!  It’s been an intense year and it’s only getting more so going into 2023.  I am currently working on three more shows with the Groton Conservation Trust in Groton, MA which will be happening seasonally until September.  During that time I’m really hoping to develop the structure and function of the series to serve the communities that it’s taking place in while supporting me in the process and the performers and collaborators I work with for each piece. 
Christopher standing with his arm raised in the air in a large field
By Brian Cowe
There’s a lot of growing to do but when I look back on all that’s happened in 2022 and particularly since NACHMO 2021, I know that growth is absolutely possible!

N: With all the site specific work you’ve been doing, how are you translating work that is made to be done outside in nature to an indoor traditional performance space?
CC:
 Site specific work is very important to Letting the Land Lead and its function of connecting folks to their ecological environments, however, the backbone of the creative process for LTLL is actually pretty translatable.  It starts with a somatic meditation practice that I do with participants and performers and we create the movement from there.  It may be that, for this NACHMO, instead of starting in-studio and bringing the movement outside to let the land lead, I’ll start outside and bring it in…we’ll see!

N: Monkeyhouse and NACHMO Boston believe that we wouldn’t be here without the support of our community. Who is one of your favorite local choreographers and why?
CC:
 I’m going to cheat a little and mention two choreographers because I met them both through the National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellowship this year and I really love the work they’re both doing.  There are certainly more, including more I met during the Fellowship, but I’ll keep it as brief as I can.  

The first is Ellice Patterson who is the Artistic Director of Abilities Dance Boston.  Ellice is a wonderful person and also an incredibly powerful activist for social change.  The company not only creates dance work that centers dancers who identify as disabled, telling the truths of their own  stories, but also works towards extending true accessibility to all people of all needs in the performing community and beyond, even to the point of fighting for changes to legislation that will support this work.  I am truly humbled by the force of change that is Ellice Patterson. (abilitiesdanceboston.org)

And Amanda Whitworth.  Amanda is a co-founder of Articine, an organization that brings together the worlds of art and medicine to both support health care workers and inspire them to treat their patients from a place of deeper compassion and humanity.  The ideas and research behind this work are truly fantastic and Amanda herself is an incredibly kind and supportive person who clearly loves the work she does. Her excitement for it is palpable and infectious and makes me smile whenever I get a chance to speak with her.  (articine.org)

​Truly, the dance world, and the world as a whole, is better for the work these two choreographers are doing. ​
0 Comments

Getting to Know Christopher Croucher - NACHMO Boston Interview

4/26/2021

0 Comments

 
By Nicole Harris
Photo by Olivia Moon Photography
I first met Christopher through NACHMO Boston in 2018 where I interviewed him about the piece he was building. I got to spend a lot more time with him for NACHMO Boston this year, for which I am very grateful! The funny thing about these interviews (and the current state of the world) is that I have never actually met Christopher in person... We’re going to have to fix that soon!

My question based on today’s interview is this: What can we be doing to make sure that the members of our community who don’t directly live/rehearse/train in Boston or Cambridge still have connections to the community? I know so many dancers and choreographers who, like Christopher, live in the Metrowest area, Central MA, and beyond. Any thoughts on ways we can continue developing those relationships?

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!
​
N: What sort of changes (if any) did you make between the NACHMO Boston informal showing and the Malden Dance Mile?
CC: Really the only change I made to my piece between the informal showing and the Malden Dance was the production value. During the first filming of the piece, I was rushed and basically made whatever made sense with the easiest resources at hand. Because that was always the plan going into it, I went into that first production thinking of it as a storyboard, knowing things would change but the shape would remain the same.
Malden Dance Mile Saturday, June 5th & 12th 8pm Malden, MA

​​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.
​
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?
CC: Truth be told, and I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, I am not particularly familiar with choreographers in the Boston area. Living about an hour outside the city makes building connections with the dance community a little difficult. Strangely enough, in this year of isolation, I have felt more connected to other members of the Boston dance community more than ever before. I am hoping that this is the beginning of some wonderful friendships!
​
Standing by a treeWhite man in a blue scarfSmiles at the camera
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.
0 Comments

Getting to Know Christopher Croucher - NACHMO Boston Interview

2/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Photo by Amy Tatarka
by Nicole Harris
I can never decide if it's more exciting to have a change to talk with choreographers I know or to meet new choreographers through these interviews!  Thank you, Christopher Croucher!

To learn more about NACHMO Boston you can find them on Facebook and Instagram!  Don't miss the NACHMO Boston Concerts at the Dance Complex on Friday, February 9th and Saturday, February 10th!

N: What are you most excited about for this year’s National Choreography Month?
C:  This is the first National Choreography Month that I’ve participated in so I’m excited for the experience and to see what kind of work the choreographers come up with. I’m really excited to be getting my work out there in a public setting. Since I graduated from Bard College about five years ago I’ve been dancing as a company member in Dance Prism, a small ballet company in West Concord, MA. It’s a wonderful company and community but with a degree in modern choreography I only really get to showcase any of my own work during our summer studio performance. Most of my solo work is done on pointe so I’m also interested to see what the general reaction is to my kind of work with a man dancing on pointe, being that it’s my first time putting it in front of a wider audience.
Photo by Judy Croucher
N:  Can you talk about the dancers you’ll be working with?  What are you looking forward to and what are the challenges of working with this particular group?
C:  I’d be happy to talk about the dancers that I’m working with, namely because my dancer is me. I tend to dance in the majority of my own pieces, mostly because I like to dance in the style of work that I set on other dancers. I also like to use men who dance on pointe and because those are particularly difficult to find I am usually the one dancing those parts. My main challenge working as a soloist and choreographer is also what I’ve been most excited about setting my solo. I am TERRIBLE at setting solo work on myself that I actually like. For some reason, seeing the work on someone else I am usually very pleased with the outcome. Looking at myself however, I am very critical during my creation process which leads to hours in the studio with little or nothing to show for it. It has been the same throughout this month of choreography so far but with the looming deadline I am forced to be a little less critical and just let the work happen. I have actually had a wonderful (if occasionally frustrating) time just learning to let go and give in.
N:  Who are some of your favorite choreographers?
C:  My favorite choreographer is Antony Tudor. I love his understated style of ballet. It is so smooth and yet says so much. I often show clips of his Jardin aux Lilas and The Leaves are Fading to my dancers when I start a new piece, to give them a sense of the subtle arms and understated emotional cues that I love to see. I also love a lot of Twyla Tharp’s work because of her use of pointe shoes in a more modern setting. I love to see subtlety in a choreographer’s work. My “wow” moments happen most often when a choreographer hits all the right notes, in movement design, music choice, and their ability to elicit just the right response from a dancer. When a choreographer is able to make all the pieces fall together, it is just magical.

N:  What changes in your process to build a piece in such a short time span (one month)?  How long do you usually take to create work?
C:  ​Honestly, I am fairly well used to creating work in less than a month. For the summer performance that I mentioned earlier I am usually working on up to four of my own pieces while learning other choreographer’s pieces as well in an equally short time. I’ve been doing this for five years now so I am no stranger to this process. I do like to have time to go back and modify the work if the piece needs it. Having more time allows for more precision but the shorter rehearsal period, as I said before, has forced me to let go of my perfectionism. It has actually allowed me to produce a piece to which I feel surprisingly connected thus far because I don’t have time to obsess over the details. I’m also working on a piece now that won’t be performed until the summer and I am setting it on two dancers from Dance Prism which means that I am experiencing two very different kinds of process at the same time. It has certainly been an interesting experience to hold back to back rehearsals, one in which I can take all the time in the world to communicate the piece to my dancers, and one in which I struggle over trying to let go of detail enough to fall in love with my own movement in a very short period. It has been a very enlightening month of choreography and art.
0 Comments
    Created with Tagul.com

    Categories

    All
    [82]
    Abigail Ripin
    Acro
    Adelphi University
    Advice
    Aftab Dance Group
    Aisha Cruse
    Alexander Davis
    Alexandra Nunweiler
    Alexandria Nunweiler
    Alexa Romancewicz
    Alive Dance Collective
    Amanda Whitworth
    AMaSSiT
    Amy Foley
    Anne Goldberg Baldwin
    Anne Goldberg-Baldwin
    April
    Artweek Boston
    August
    B-A-R Dance
    Bar Harbor
    Betsi Graves
    Bharatanatyam
    Birthdays
    Books
    Boston
    Boston Community Dance Project
    Boston Dance
    Boxing
    Brenna Banister
    Brett Bell
    Bridges Dance Theatre
    Broadway
    Caitlin Canty
    Caleb Howe
    Carli DiMeo
    Carmen Rizzo
    Cassandre Charles
    Cayley Dorr
    ChoreoFest
    Choreographer
    Choreography
    Choreography Mentorship
    Choreograpy
    Christopher Croucher
    Claire-Solene Becka
    Clayton Raithel
    Cnc Little Library
    Collaboration
    Collective Moments
    Colleen Walsh
    College Of The Atlantic
    Community
    Connections Dance Theater
    Connexa
    CoolNY
    Dance Complex
    Dance Film
    Daniel Foner
    Dani Robbins
    David Makransky
    David Parker
    Deepa Srinath
    Derick K. Grant
    Design
    Dictionary Of Negative Space
    DrumatiX
    Elizabeth Powers
    Ellice Patterson
    Elyssa Berg
    Emma Morris
    Empower One Another
    Endicott College
    Erica Nelson
    Erin McNulty
    Erin Saunders
    Eva Yaa Asantewaa
    Events
    Evolve Dynamicz
    Faneuil Hall
    Felipe Galganni
    Firk II
    Fleur D'Orange
    Geetika Bajpai
    #geochoreography
    #getcaughtreading
    Gracie Baruzzi
    Gracie Novikoff
    Grant Jacoby
    Green Street Studios
    Guest Artists
    Gwen McGovern
    Hannah Ranco
    Heather Brown
    Hip Hop
    Holiday
    Ice Skating
    #IfNotYouWho
    Illumination
    Impact Dance Company
    Improvisation
    Impulse Dance Center
    Interns
    Interview
    Jackie Bowden
    Jason Ries
    Jennifer Binversie
    Jennifer Crowell Kuhnberg
    Jennifer Crowell-Kuhnberg
    Jenny Oliver
    Jessica Prince
    Jessica Roseman
    Jordan Rosin
    Josh Bergasse
    Jo Troll
    July
    June
    Kaleidoscope Dance
    Karen Krolak
    Katrina Conte
    Kaylee Mahan
    Kaylee Mayan
    Kelley Donovan
    Kelsey Griffith
    Kelsey Saulnier
    Kim Holman
    Kinetic Synergy Dance Company
    Kristin Wagner
    Lacey Sasso
    Laura Neese
    Libby Bullinger
    Lisa Giancola
    Lisa La Touche
    Local Dance
    Luminarium Dance
    Lynn Modell
    Madison Florence
    Malden Dance
    Malden Dance Mile
    March
    Margaret Wiss
    Marissa Chura
    May
    ME
    Mentoring
    Mentors
    Michela Doherty
    Michelle Boilard
    Mohiniyattam
    Musing
    NACHMO
    NACHMO 2022
    NACHMO 2023
    NACHMO Boston
    NACHMO Recommends
    Natalie Schiera
    Nick Daniels
    Nicole Harris
    Nicole Laliberte
    Nicole Zizzi
    November
    Now + There
    Nozama Dance
    NSquared Dance
    Olivia Scharff
    OnStage Dance Company
    OnStage Summer Performance Series
    Paradise Moves
    Pearl Young
    Portuguese
    Priya Bangal
    Program
    Public Art
    Que Unlimited
    Rachel Roccoberton
    ReAct ReBuild ReCollect
    Repost
    Ricochet
    Roger Williams University
    Ruth Benson Levin
    Sam Mullen
    Sapna Govindan
    Sarah Craver
    Sarah Feinberg
    Sarah Friswell Cotton
    Sarah Grace
    Sarah Ready
    Scott McPheeters
    Skooj
    Soufiane Karim
    Soumya Rajaran
    Spring Fling Fundraiser
    Tap Dance
    Teresa Dominick
    Tess Liddy
    ...that's What She Said
    The Dance Complex
    The End Ensemble
    The Ume Group
    Tova Teperow
    Translation
    Turning Key Dance Company
    Tyler Catanella
    Uplift
    Vault Grant
    Vault Program
    Virginia Commonwealth University
    Voetstoots
    Zackery Betty Neagle

    Missed an older post?  Find it here!

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • Who's Who
  • Contact Us
  • C2C Blog
  • Donate
    • Fiscal Sponsorships