Modern Stories
For classically trained ballet dancers, modern dance can be both risky and empowering
Dancers spring, spin, tilt and teeter across the stage in Scenario, Merce Cunningham’s 1997 creation with Commes des Garçons designer Kei Kawakubo. Cunningham’s signature powerful movement quality coupled with clever choreography at once amuses and astonishes. Ballet’s classical lines and body coordinations are flipped and twisted, and the dancers are neutral, extraordinary pedestrians moving in ways possible only through a highly technical practice.
Last summer, Vail audiences were treated to the unusual partnership between American Ballet Theatre’s Herman Cornejo and former Cunningham dancer Melissa Toogood in an excerpted duet from the iconic modern dance. For this year’s Festival, Toogood, who travels the country dancing and reviving Cunningham masterpieces, will restage a larger portion of Scenario involving several other duets featuring dancers from both ballet and modern backgrounds.
Cornejo’s boundless jumps are always exhilarating, but even more so when framed by the dramatic pauses and quirky steps characteristic of Cunningham’s work. His leaps explode from nowhere in the same unpredictable manner with which Toogood seems to carry herself across the stage in a single step. Dancing together, the two literally depend on each other to stay standing, precariously leaning back so far that if a single hand should slip, both would go tumbling.
This summer, Toogood, who travels the country dancing and reviving Cunningham masterpieces, will restage a larger portion of Scenario involving several other duets of dancers from both ballet and modern backgrounds.
“What I chose to stage [on Cornejo] was made for a dancer who was a huge risk-taker,” explains explains Toogood about for why she imagined Cornejo him excelling in the role. Contrary to the quest for perfection that drives classical ballet, the risk-taking central to Cunningham’s work involves accepting and embracing imperfections that arise. “To stumble, to potentially have a line not look perfect. It can be scary!” Toogood says. “But I’d rather fall over than take it safe.”
Allowing imperfection was new for Cornejo, who The New York Times has described as “virtuosic,” and “miraculous,” and “an impulsive force of nature”. He noted that imperfections make the individual, which in turn makes the dance, particularly when there is no story to explicitly portray. “I had to work to accept those imperfections, to be comfortable with them and to create art as a consequence of them.” This discovery allows him to approach the piece with a fresh perspective this summer.
“It’s the dancer who makes the work come across,” says Toogood. “Merce was very open to what each individual would bring to the material — he didn’t discriminate against movement.”
Scenario will be one of many of the modern dance works featured at the Festival this summer. Pam Tanowitz— who has been described as “one of the most formally brilliant choreographers around” (The New York Times)— will present her newest work, Blueprint, to the music of Leonard Bernstein Composer-in-Residence Caroline Shaw. The piece will feature former Miami City Ballet principal Patricia Delgado alongside two Juilliard-trained modern dancers, Jason Collins and Victor Lozano.
Delgado and Tanowitz first worked together last summer after sharing a car ride from Denver to Vail. Sensing strong artistic chemistry, Tanowitz spontaneously asked Artistic Director Damian Woetzel if she could create a solo piece for Delgado. Woetzel agreed and the result was a witty, upbeat and musical creation in which Delgado was praised for being “elegant, wholly unpredictable, commandingly playful” (The New York Times).
“What I love about Pam,” says Delgado, “is that she brings out a strong and independent woman in me in her work.” Tanowitz’s process stems from discovery and does not rely on a constructed character to carry the dancer or the audience away. Delgado “had to work at stripping away the ballerina way of carrying a posture, of always performing,” in order to be purely herself on stage.
“Our lives already have so many stories!” Delgado exclaims as she recounts the challenge of tempering back her dramatic expressiveness. “Modern dance can be like meditation. It can inspire clarity and be transcendent because it’s not driven by beginning, middle and end.” Such clarity invites the audience to bring their own stories and interpretations.
Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, who both danced alongside Toogood in the Cunningham company, layer many narratives upon complicated and abstract personal stories. The pair last performed their cheeky duet Desire Liar at the Festival in 2016. “We were trying to portray that we are two men in a romantic relationship as collaborators,” Riener says, “and the interesting tensions and humor that come out of that.”
Through a lens of abstraction, the modern choreographers embed stories within their work, allowing for audiences to experience the “multifaceted, complex, ambiguous portrayal of how we live in the world.”
Whether stripped away or radically layered, modern dance encourages letting go of expectations—there is no single correct interpretation. Instead, it offers audiences and dancers alike the freeing experience of reveling in the art of individuality.
2018 VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL MAGAZINE
NOW: Premieres 2018
The debut of these commissioned works showcases a variety of choreographers, embodying the heart and soul of the Festival
New works and collaboration characterize the ethos of the Vail Dance Festival. Through Artistic Director Damian Woetzel’s thoughtful casting and deep well of trust, spontaneous genius springs from the cross-pollination of artists otherwise divided. The Vail Valley is fertile ground, and NOW: Premieres is the evening to experience the newest results of this creative incubator.
Last year’s NOW program celebrated women choreographers in recognition of the need for fostering creative potential without barriers. In continuation of the Festival’s mission to nourish new voices and radically disrupt the status quo, this year, six choreographers— the majority of whom are women— will create works ranging from neoclassical and contemporary ballet to tap and modern dance. Pulitzer Prize-winning Composer-in-Residence Caroline Shaw and Gabriela Lena Frank, named one of the 35 most significant women composers in history by the Washington Post, will compose new scores commissioned by the Festival.
Tiler Peck: The Collaborator
Tiler Peck is a dancer whose speed and finesse stretch time; her meticulous musicality melds movement into sound. Peck has been described by The New York Times has described Peck as a “paragon” of dance, and Vail as where the “prima-ballerina’s ever-increasing versatility has been most evident.” Fittingly, Vail will again provide the backdrop for Peck to take her next artistic step into the role of choreographer.
“Damian has always pushed me out of my comfort zone as a dancer and individual,” says Peck. “If it wasn’t for him, I am not sure I would have taken the leap.”
Peck dabbled in choreography as a young girl, and has created professional works in collaboration with others, such as Time It Was with Bill Irwin created for the 2015 Festival. For her first true solo choreographic work, Peck said she will consider herself to be in collaboration with her dancers.
The ballet world often maintains a strict separation between choreographer and dancer. Peck’s consideration of her dancers as collaborators welcomes a collective puzzle-making process that encourages dancers to become active participants in the creative process. “Sometimes the steps you make on yourself don’t end up looking the same on someone else,” Peck says, “so you have to see what is in front of you and be flexible.”
Lauren Lovette: The Nonconformist
As a dancer, Lauren Lovette has been described as a free spirit. In choreography, the New York City Ballet principal dancer likewise proves herself a nonconformist, naturally progressing ballet forward to better fit into the 21st century.
Lovette makes work with a message. In last year’s NOW program, she choreographed a ballet for four women, including a pas de deux on Patricia Delgado and herself, featuring spoken word by the genderqueer Boulder-based poet Andrea Gibson. “I feel like we fell in love with each other onstage,” Lovette told Dance Magazine of the untraditional partnership.
Most recently, Lovette created a lush pas de deux for two men in Not Our Fate, her second major work for New York City Ballet. The dance was described by The New York Times as “startling and wonderful…a tender, athletic display of desire.” Lovette, who describes herself as being “in a constant flow of information, desire, emotion, and connection with people,” draws inspiration from the powerful personal experiences that move her.
Lovette’s intuitive approach to dance-making renders her work radically relevant without seeming preachy or put on. She simply senses her world— our world—and synthesizes it through movement and music to comment on issues relating to gender and sexuality, race, and sexual harassment. “I want to let out a lot of things that have happened that aren’t necessarily sparkly,” she says, “I don’t want to hide the struggle.”
Claudia Schreier: The Hybridizer
Claudia Schreier is an independent neoclassical choreographer whose burgeoning career climbs skyward. Schreier’s works are free from narrative, allowing for pure interpretation and nuanced expressiveness. This summer will mark Schreier’s third ballet for the Festival, which has kindled her career since she began as an intern ten twelve years ago, during Woetzel’s first year as Artistic Director.
Schreier dives into rhythmically charged music to create ballets that synthesize classical ballet with a distinctively grounded and spiraling style, an impulse that takes on deeper meaning for her latest NOW premiere. She will choreograph a duet for two dancers of Ballet Hispánico, a company that intimately involves music as a means of expressing the varied richness of Latino culture and identity. The work will co-premiere alongside a new score by celebrated composer Gabriela Lena Frank, who has been described as “something of a musical anthropologist.” Frank draws upon her multicultural heritage— she is of Peruvian, Chinese and Lithuanian Jewish descent— mining from traditional Latin American idioms to create hybridized forms for the 21st century.
Frank’s reference to a “genetic memory of culture” as responsible for Peruvian music “sifting” through her compositions resonates powerfully with Schreier, who is of Jamaican and Jewish descent. Schreier’s impulse to create dynamically layered works infused with undulations and twists is fueled in part, she says, “by the exuberance of the Jamaican spirit” that she inherited from her mother. “My choreography is rooted in the cleanliness and rigor of classical ballet technique,” Schreier says, “but I have a visceral response to music that moves me in less traditional ways and makes me want to dance with abandon.”
Michelle Dorrance: The Choreography Chemist
In last summer’s NOW: Premieres program, tap heroine Michelle Dorrance showed the symbiotic benefits of creative conspiring in her premiere of we seem to be more than one. As Choreographer-in-Residence, Dorrance was given free reign to let her wild imagination run and merged the Festival’s myriad styles—including ballet, contemporary, tap, modern, flamenco, and even vaudeville— together. The artistic alchemy confirmed Dorrance’s remarkable ability to coalesce detailed rhythmic and spatial patterns regardless of the movement language.
The accomplishment, witnessed only once in Vail, lead to the co-commissioning of three new works premieres by the Festival and American Ballet Theatre this year: a small gala work to premiere at ABT’s annual spring season at the Met, a group piece in Vail, and a final, larger-scale work for the Company’s fall season in New York.
“The gala piece will be a shorter work, but a foundation for what happens in Vail, which in turn could be a foundation for what happens in the fall,” Dorrance told The New York Times. “But in Vail, the range of the dancers’ styles and the collaborative nature of the Festival means that crazy things happen, and there are likely to be elements that might just stay in Vail.”
Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener: The Shape Shifters
Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, former members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, return to Vail this summer to create a new work on a cast of modern and ballet dancers, including Lovette. Such interdisciplinary work is nothing new for the duo, who are intrigued by multiplicity. In art and in life, the pair work to incorporate the particularities of the individuals and spaces they find themselves working with and within.
“It’s exciting that we’ll be working with Lauren [Lovette],” the pair says of their collaborative artistic process. “She is a woman making ballet, which is so rare; it’ll be interesting to have that potential perspective in our work.”
While the pair’s work may at first seem purely abstract, it is, in fact, deeply rooted in experiences of the lived world. “Our work is actually very political, but in a frame of abstraction,” Mitchell explains. “We’re constantly engaging in what it means to be a human, the ambiguities, the constant shifting, and how art can activate and change value systems around definitions of beauty. We aren’t neutral.”
Now: Premieres will take place on Monday, August 6th at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater.
2018 VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL MAGAZINE
Catching Up with Misty Copeland
Since first joining us in Vail in 2011, the world has watched Misty Copeland soar with grace and dignity, all while maintaining a commitment to opening doors and inspiring others to excel. In addition to her performances with American Ballet Theatre and as a guest artist around the world, Copeland recently released a book on health, Ballerina Body, launched a dancewear line, and co-curated the Kennedy Center dance program, Ballet Across America. We checked in with Copeland to hear about her artistry, inspirations, and what she’s looking forward to this summer.
Sarah Silverblatt-Buser: Since your first time at the Festival, you’ve done so much to push the dance world forward, so I was hoping to hear from you as, first and foremost, a dancer and an artist. What do you love about dancing and why?
MC: Having an opportunity to do something that I haven’t been given an opportunity to do for most of my career is really freeing. I like being able to do things like Romeo & Juliet and Swan Lake where I can be extremely expressive and individual in my approach and artistry, and really become a character.
SSB: Are there any composers or musicians you are especially moved or inspired by?
I grew up with soul and R&B and hip hop, and I feel like when I’m not on stage, that’s still so much a part of what motivates me, what kind of calms me down before I go onstage... and really, I think, influences the way I perform as a ballerina.
SSB: I’m curious how our lives offstage influence the art we make on stage. Will you speak a bit more on that?
MC: Absolutely. I feel like when I started working with Prince -- when I met him, his presence, his belief in me – and then watching him perform and rehearse, has had such a huge impact on me as a dancer and as a ballerina. It opened my eyes to what’s possible and to not being afraid of taking chances and… it’s interesting that a rock star would do that for me.
SSB: When you speak of taking chances, what does that mean for you?
MC: When I think of myself and taking chances, it’s about letting myself go, being so completely immersed in the moment and present.
SSB: And now that you’re returning to Vail, is there anyone or anything you’re looking forward to?
MC: I always have a really good time with the dancers from other companies… Damian [Woetzel] just has such an open mind and heart and is really open to bringing in people and giving them opportunities to grow and be seen as the dancer that they are capable of being.
2017 VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL MAGAZINE
Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC
New York gets a taste of Vail’s adventurous spirit
Beneath the Moorish, mosaicked ceilings of New York City Center, East Coasters attending Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC experienced the exceptional selections of dance and music that have come to define summers in Vail. Year-round Manhattanites enjoyr stellar dance performances in a city that brings the best the world has to offer to the stage and boasts its own world-class companies. But the first days of November left even the most seasoned dance enthusiasts swept up by the expansive artistic vision to which Vail dance-goers are accustomed.
“Action-packed, stylistically eclectic and with deluxe casting,” praised The New York Times chief dance critic Alastair Macaulay of the thoughtfully constructed programs. In his 2016 year-end dance review, the critic singled out Sara Mearns’ ReMix performance of Alexie Ratmansky’s Fandago, stating “we’re lucky to live in times that produce creations and performances of this ilk.”
Like the Festival in Vail, each night was as dynamic as it was exceptional, with a repertory built off of 10 years of programming under the artistic direction of Damian Woetzel.
“I found it particularly exciting to see the music and dance come together in the historic space at City Center,” reflected Woetzel. “It was thrilling to premiere pieces created in Vail, but unseen in New York, and then on the same program to present Balanchine’s 1928 Apollo on the stage where New York City Ballet performed it in the 1950s.”
Apollo was presented in its seldom-seen original version, depicting the birth of the god, and was made complete with Kurt Crowley, Music Director of Broadway’s Hamilton and the Festival’s first Music Director, leading a full orchestra in Stravinsky’s invigorating score.
Live music added extra energy to an already dazzling lineup of dancers. Yo-Yo Ma, who first accompanied Lil Buck playing Camille Saint-Saens’s The Swan in a now-viral video, reunited with the jooker for a Jookin’ Jam Session, and was joined by a collection of musicians, including members of the Silk Road Ensemble, the Catalyst Quartet, and Kate Davis.
Witnessing partnerships first cultivated in Vail was another highlight for New York audiences. Among many, one remarkable moment was the reuniting of Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles and Fang-Yi Sheu, whose exquisite Anywhere on this Road exemplifies the adventurous, collaborative spirit that is central to the Festival’s identity.
When asked if audiences can look forward to new iterations of Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC, Woetzel hinted that the happening was “designed and even titled with the anticipation of taking this to other cities.”
2017 VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL MAGAZINE
Modern in the Mountains
Modern dance thrives in the Vail Valley each summer, where fresh forms mingle with classical traditions. The Rockies are a testament to the weathering forces that have sculpted them over the years—and like the mountains, dancing bodies archive the past as present.
American modern dance originated in the late 19th century with Isadora Duncan’s Ancient Greek-inspired “free dances” and the Ancient Egyptian and Indian-inspired movements of Ruth St. Denis. Martha Graham later created the first American modern dance technique and company, laying the groundwork for many luminaries to follow. More than merely reacting to ballet, these contemporary artists explored new ways of living in and responding to the world they inhabited.
The Vail International Dance Festival maintains a commitment to both the classical and contemporary. Choreographers and dancers fluent in their own movement languages are invited to collaborate in unlikely partnerships, nurturing new relationships and perspectives. From Shantala Shivalingappa’s descriptive Kuchipudi—a style of Indian classical dance—to Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener’s boundless explorations into abstraction, the Festival programming encourages similarities to shine by preserving the beauty of difference. Though not all Festival choreographers and dancers collaborate directly, sharing studio space and programs such as NOW: Premiers offers artists the opportunity to explore where their embodied biographies might overlap.
The use of the body as an artistic tool cuts across disparate contexts, content and textures—be it Merce Cunningham’s avoidance of narrative and representation, Paul Taylor’s athleticism and meticulous musicality, or Trisha Brown’s attention to pedestrian gestures. Collaboration and juxtaposition enliven these histories, revealing the dance DNA that links the artists both to each other and to their antecedents.
This year, the Festival welcomes back Paul Taylor, who is frequently cited as one of the greatest living choreographers working today. Taylor has ventured into new artistic ground since 2013, his company’s last appearance in Vail. This past March, the Taylor company performed two commissions by outside choreographers, Doug Elkins and previous Festival choreographer Larry Keigwin, adding new influences to the company’s development. “Mr. Taylor has exemplified modern dance,” says Michael Trusnovec, the most senior member of the company. A true paragon of dance innovation, it is fitting for Mr. Taylor to welcome new choreographic voices.
The company’s comprehensive repertoire, fueled by Mr. Taylor’s encompassing musical interests, has established the troupe as foundational to American modern dance. Such abiding curiosity and creativity have allowed the company to progress in tandem with the shifting dance landscape.
“We are discovering and stretching the meaning of the word ‘Modern’ because it continues to evolve,” Trusnovec explains, noting the sometimes “stuffy” association some have with the term. He suggests that, to combat this, dance not be rigidly parsed out into various eras and categories. Trusnovec’s love for all iterations of the art form is palpable: “With so much touring, the Vail Festival is definitely a highlight,” he says, “I admire a lot of these other artists. It’s impressive how intelligent the [programming] choices are. It’s like a laboratory for creation.”
Genre Clashing
Dance alchemy is a defining characteristic of the Festival, where Artistic Director Damian Woetzel’s commissions often result in revealing chemistry. Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, who first began working together as dancers in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, are inspired by the challenge of creating work across boundaries. Building upon their 2015 Festival debut, this summer the duo will create work on ballet dancers to a predetermined piece of music. Both elements are unusual for the choreographers. Typically, the two create on themselves or with other modern-trained dancers, and only add music as a texture after already establishing movement.
Investigating the clashing of genres, mediums and ideas is integral to their process, explain Mitchell and Riener in between performances at the Museo Jumex, a contemporary art museum in Mexico City. “The tension between the stylistic differences of the ballet and contemporary dancers” Mitchell says, “will certainly shape the content of what we’re making, which is exciting for us.” Riener agrees, adding that finding “common ground” among contrasting dance languages is an enlightening experience. Much of the pair’s work focuses on the “deeply honest and really individual self.” Such self-awareness, Riener explains, relies on the dancers’ access to their own physical and intellectual histories. It is in this abstract realm where unexpected connections are made.
Another former Cunningham dancer, Melissa Toogood, made her Festival debut last summer as well, dancing alongside Mitchell and Riener in addition to assisting choreographer Pam Tanowitz. Toogood will again be joining the duo, adding her bold yet sensitive style to the mix. Toogood was recently named a Dance Magazine “25 to Watch” and calls herself an interpreter of all expressions of dance, from the abstract to the theatrical. When asked how she is able to bridge the many different worlds of her freelance career, Toogood describes Cunningham Technique classes as her anchor. Her consistent connection to a specific method is crucial to staying grounded while experimenting with new forms.
Shantala Shivalingappa similarly relies on a strong connection to her particular dance language when creating contemporary works. She admires the Festival for its celebration of multiple genres, and is excited to rejoin VIDF’s vibrant and welcoming atmosphere. Shivalingappa has a robust history of collaboration, having worked with artists including the French ballet choreographer Maurice Béjart and the groundbreaking postmodernist Pina Bausch. In 2014, Shivalingappa worked with Lil Buck, a Festival regular, and will likely collaborate with the Memphis Jookin’ innovator again this summer.
Shivalingappa’s dance vocabulary of Kuchipudi dates back over 2,000 years and is a marriage between pure rhythmic movement and dramatic narrations. Shivalingappa credits her mastery of Kuchipudi with enabling her to interpret unfamiliar dance and music genres. She is fascinated by the complexities that arise through the deep study of a codified technique, mentioning the similarities between Lil Buck’s incredible precision and her discrete hand movements or mudras.
But Shivalingappa is drawn to the humanity of the dancer even more than superb technique. “Something about the inner approach is the same,” she says. “When you come through the language of dance and music and rhythm and shared energy, you realize we can all be connected in some way.”
Jodi Melnick, whose Festival debut was in 2012, enticingly expresses her own inner world. Melnick is a supremely intelligent dancer and possesses an innate ability to synthesize multiple levels of movement knowledge. Also a highly regarded teacher, her classes focus on awakening the body from the inside out by using imagery that draws awareness to each element of the body and how they all connect.
One of Melnick’s most influential collaborators was Trisha Brown, whose work focuses on the sequential nature of movements more than a singular movement or shape. Melnick’s choreography, while decidedly her own, echoes Brown’s process. She has been described by The New Yorker as mercurial, “like water made human,” simultaneously expressing vulnerability and strength.
While a work of modern dance may not move mountains, it certainly does chisel an artistic landscape. Balancing on the precipice of the past and present, this summer’s contemporary choreographers tenaciously carve space into the future.