reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT Interviews - Sarah Feinberg

by Nicole Harris

Photo by G. Mark Lewis

  With reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT just around the corner we wanted to give you a more in depth look at some of the work that will be performed.  Here is a quick interview with choreographer and performer, Sarah Feinberg!  

Sarah has been dancing with Monkeyhouse on and off for several years and we are thrilled to see what she's been building with Elizabeth Powers.  In addition to premiering a new work she has restaged Connexa, which she choreographed with Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch.  Sarah  will also be dancing in choreography by Elyssa Berg and Elizabeth Powers.

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reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT
Friday, July 27th @ 8pm
665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Tickets available here for only $10 if you use the VIP Code MH10.  
VIP tickets are not available at the door so get yours today!

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Nicole Harris:  You are building a duet for yourself and Elizabeth Powers.  How are you working rehearsals?  Do you build work together?  Are you responsible for coming up with material?
Sarah Feinberg:  A combination of strategies has been used. We have developed phrases collaboratively by improvising together, I have come up with and taught phrases and we have improvised with the phrases I have come up with to develop new versions. 

N:  You have led a series of Musings (a time for choreographers to play with ideas in a low stakes setting) over the last several months in preparation for creating this piece.  How have you used Musing time to help get you where you are now?
SF:  Musings have been a great opportunity to try out ideas and get feedback. I had some improvisational prompts that I started with but then got stuck when it came to setting choreography. I was challenged by Karen during a musing to come up with a phrase to teach and then use the improvisational prompts I had been playing with in conjunction with the phrase. This was a major turning point in the choreographic process for me. The phrase I came up with that day ended up laying the foundation for the entire piece.  

N:  What is a favorite rehearsal moment from the creation of this piece?
SF:  One of my favorite moments was when the last bit of choreography came together and all of a sudden I had an ending to my piece. I had initially came in to rehearsal that day with a very different plan for a possible ending and as we were working through the choreography the ending came naturally and that was that. 

Photo by JK Photo

N:  In addition to your new duet you will be setting Connexa, a piece you built with Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch, on Olivia Scharff and Sam Mullen.  How has it been going back to that piece?  What has changed when you set it on new dancers?
SF:  ​It has been a lot of fun getting to revisit this piece again. Sam and Olivia have been wonderful to work with and the piece looks great on them! I love seeing what they bring to the characters and how 

they make it their own. A few bits of choreography got adjusted here and there but the biggest change is just new dancers bringing new life to the characters. One of the things I love most about this piece is that no two dancers are going to perform it the same way. Every time this piece gets performed its a little bit different and that is part of what keeps it exciting.