Summation Dance Blog

Summation Warriors: Julie McMillan & Erin Okayama

During the Q&A for last years’ Keep Your Feathers Dry, an audience member asked:  how do you prevent injuries with all of the falling movement?  I answered by saying that dancers are trained to manipulate parts of the body to make these movements look real.  For partnering, a lot is just trial and error.  Very rarely does someone actually get hurt.  Gearing up for this show, we must focus not only on the physical movement, but on intention and emotions as well – making everything look as real as possible.

But this past Saturday, we made things look too real.

In the piece, there is one section involving all of the dancers partnering in what we call, “the moving mass” (you’ll totally know what I mean next week).  It’s a section of unrelenting, subsequent movement where each dancer attempts to break free from the others.  I catch Erin on my shoulder, scurry to the back to pick up Allie, take a forceful step to the downstage and – WHAM.  The bridge of my nose to the crown of Erin’s head.

The confusion immediately afterwards literally contains blood, sweat, and tears.  A bloody nose, a crunched neck, two bags of ice, and thirty minutes later – the crew is back to work, figuring out how many “skis between the pauses”.  Regardless to say – sometimes those moments that look real on stage actually happen in the studio.  No need to worry.  Erin and I are just fine, if you don’t count a stiff neck and bruised face.  “Resilience” is Summation’s middle name.  Plus, I can totally show off this shiner.

You really don’t want to miss what has given us broken fingers, black eyes and all sorts of odd bruises next week.  We’re selling out fast!!

Julie

Kelsey Berry in Summation Rehearsal

I have two favorite moments in the creation of a new work. First, I love the very beginning of the process, where everything is new movement, sometimes hilarious experiments, and grand conceptual conversations about topics the piece could possibly address. In this stage, the movement is fresh and the possibilities are limitless. Certainly there’s a lot of new-movement related soreness and bruises, but we’re tough (it’s why we’re in Summation Dance).

Sometime after that, large sections of the piece start to take shape. For months, we develop chunks of movement in broad strokes. Some of it is performed in its intermittent state, some of it is kept strictly in the studio. In any case, none of it is quite done, and the novelty of possibilities being limitless starts to wear off.

I would lament that period of time, but it inevitably leads up to the second moment in dance creation that I love. This moment occurs the first time that we run the piece, starting at the beginning, and finishing at the end. The very existence of a “beginning” and “end” is gratifying – it means that somewhere along the way, we crafted, through broad strokes and choices among endless possibilities, one complete work of art.

Deep End is teasingly close to this exciting “completion” moment. It’s a bit bittersweet – on one hand, the trajectory of the work feels just right. On the other hand, we’ve definitely said goodbye to some hard-practiced movement that at one point was thought would form the core of the dance. It’s a stripping down that has to occur. We started with such a breadth of options, and now it’s all about depth. Good thing we named the dance appropriately.

Come see Summation Dance in Deep End on March 8-10 at 7:30 pm at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, choreographed by Sumi Clements and produced by Taryn Vander Hoop.

Love,

Kelsey

Allie Lochary. Keep Your Feathers Dry, 2011.

Happy New Year from Summation Dance! For us, the beginning of 2012 meantime revisiting 2011. Our first rehearsal back in January was spent remounting Fortitudine, the first section of Keep Your Feathers Dry, which premiered almost a year ago. We’re bringing it back in just a couple weeks for the Tisch Alumni Show. It may be an oldie, but it’s a goodie that is still incredibly exhausting no matter the condition of your stamina.

For me, remounting Fortitudine basically felt like relearning it. I was never a good actress, but I do remember something from acting class…something like you should never try and recreate a performance because each one is going to be different for different reasons. This is great advice to keep in mind for any type of artist performing repertory; a way to keep things fresh.

Enough about old stuff. We’re in go mode as we continue creating our newest evening length piece, Deep End. We look forward to sharing it with you at BAC, March 8-10. Just in case you didn’t get the memo from a newsletter, Facebook, or twitter, tickets just went on sale! Mark it on your calendar folks and buy your tickets today!

Much love,
Allie

Megan!

If you weren’t a dancer in NYC, what would you be doing?
I was initially planning in going to school for Marketing and Advertising and double majoring in Math. I have always been very interested in business so I guess I would be working somewhere in Corporate America…

How many places have you lived and can you pick a favorite?
I have lived in North Carolina, Maryland, California, New Jersey, Florida, and New York. My favorite was definitely Manhattan Beach, California. I lived right at the beach and it was 75 degrees year round! I have always loved moving around and exploring new places!

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Coldstone’s Oreo Overload with Chocolate ice cream in the Love It size! I have such a weakness for Oreos and chocolate!!

What is one thing you can’t live without?
Mary Kay Mascara! I love my eyelashes and I absolutely cannot go anywhere without my mascara.

You have a whole day off in NYC – what would you do?
I would probably start off by going to brunch with my boyfriend at my favorite cafe in Inwood. Then I have a long list of things I want to see in New York City so we would probably pick something off that long list and just go! The Bronx Zoo is definitely one of my favorites on that list!

Dancing Literate Project. Judson Memorial Church. Photo by David Andrako

Every student of dance history can expect to learn about the creation of Judson Dance Theater at some point in their education. JDT was comprised of a collection of dancers who studied under Robert Ellis Dunn in the early 60′s, and whose experimentation with pedestrian movement concepts caused huge paradigm shifts within the dance world. Never before had Western dance forms been so open and undefined. Judson Church, the place, was the group’s chosen venue for their premiere performance, and in turn became a major hub for other influential Post Modern artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

This past summer I felt butterflies in my stomach when we began discussing the possibility of performing at this historic venue with Summation Dance. Judson has always been on my “Top Three Venues for Performing” list, so when we received confirmation for our show dates I knew this would be one for the record books.

In the spirit of our Post Modern ancestors, Summation Dance invited three amazing artists – Andrea Miller, Kendra Potier, and Peter Kyle – to present work in a program geared towards educating the audience about dance and the process of creating dance. This program was called the Dancing Literate Project.

While we rehearsed in the church, I admired it’s vastness, but honestly did not feel as I had expected. I thought I would be struck by the famed Church and all its history, feeling the buzz of dance ancestors past and all that jazz. It wasn’t until I walked into the space on Thursday evening that I felt this excitement. Summation’s dancers, all bundled in sweats and socks, were stretching while Peter Kyle’s dancers stomped out rhythms and Kendra Portier flitted around downstage.

Suddenly, with the seats placed and awaiting the audience, I strangely felt our mark on the dance timeline. Summation Dance and the other artists in the show are a small but significant dot on the path that was laid out by JDT in July, 1962. We are a continuation of their doctrine.

Fostering that creativity and collaborative opportunities are a couple aims of the Dancing Literate Project. It was an irreplaceable experience: I performed the work of two choreographers I greatly respect, and shared the night with people that I admire as creators and performers.

During the after show “talk back sessions”, we heard from dance celebrities Deborah Jowitt, Patricia Beaman, and Gus Solomons Jr. about the history of JDT and how they ended up at Judson Church. I knew this performance would mark one of the highest points in my own little history. This is why I think Judson Church was the best possible place for the Dancing Literate Project!

**Thank you to everyone who made this show possible!!**

Love,
Cat D.