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

C2C Blog

Repost: Getting to Know Jordan Rosin

8/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Dancer on a stage  Does backbend with one hand raised Wears no shirt, tan pants
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.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    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

    February 2023
    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