HOW TO GO:
What: The Dayton Ballet’s “February Fantasy”
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14.
Where: Victoria Theatre, 138 N. Main St., Dayton
Tickets: $21 to $72 available at Ticket Center Stage (937) 228-3630 or online at www.daytonperformingarts.org. Senior, teacher and student discounts available at box office.
ALSO: The Thursday evening performance includes a Pizza Prelude from at 7 p.m. in the Victoria Lobby with pizza provided by Uno’s Pizzeria.
Forty five minutes before each performance, artistic director Karen Burke will hold a pre-performance talk called “The First Step.” The talk is held in the Burnell Roberts Room at 126 North Main Street, beside the Victoria Theatre. Following each performance, a Q&A session entitled “Behind the Ballet” gives audiences the opportunity to learn more about the life of a dancer.
HOW TO GO:
What: “Etchings” by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
When: 7:30 p.m. Sat. Feb. 20 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21
Where: Eichelberger Theatre, Stivers School for the Arts, 1313 East Fifth Street, Dayton
Tickets: $25, $35, $45. Range from $ (937) 228-3630 or online at www.ticketcenterstage.com
World premieres created by nationally-known choreographers for Dayton dancers add to the excitement when the Dayton Ballet and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company present their February concerts.
The work of Melissa Barak, Los Angeles choreographer and former dancer with New York City Ballet, will be showcased in the Dayton Ballet’s “February Fantasy” on Feb. 12-14 at the Victoria Theatre. The program, which will feature four separate dances, will also introduce a new ballet — “No Strings Attached” — by the company’s artistic director, Karen Russo Burke.
On Feb. 20-21, DCDC will present an entire evening of dance by women choreographers entitled “Etchings” at the new Eichelberger Theatre at Stivers High School for the Arts. In addition to pieces by Debbie Blunden-Diggs, Francesca Harper, Kiesha Lalama and Crystal Michelle, the program will feature the work of guest choreographer Bridget L. Moore, who danced with artistic director Ronald K. Brown’s “EVIDENCE/ Dance Company.” Moore currently resides in South Korea and is a visiting professor at Sungkyunkwan University.
It’s fascinating to learn about the process of commissioning and developing new dance.
How it begins
DCDC’s associate artistic director Crystal Michelle said part of a repertory company’s artistic work is to challenge dancers with a variety of choreographic perspectives. The beauty of bringing in guest artists, she said, is that dancers are afforded the opportunity to learn a new language of the body, to take on a new identity or to see themselves from someone else’s vantage point. “We ask dancers to switch dance vocabularies, to express the intent of each individual choreographer’s aesthetic,” she explained. “In a sense we are curating the audience’s experience of what dance can be or look like or even what we assume it should be.”
Burke said a guest choreographers may push dancers to stretch both their artistry and technique. “And they may see something in a dancer that hasn’t been tapped yet,” she added.
“You can get locked in and you have to be open,” said Devon Baker of Indianapolis, who is in his second year with DCDC. “You have to be true to what each choreographer wants and at the same time still be true to yourself.”
Josh Beaver, who dances with Dayton Ballet, said working with a new choreographer allows him to explore movement in a different way. “I like to see how they transition from one movement to the next,” he explained. “It’s the challenge for you as a dancer to grasp their movement quality and make it into something of your own. Sometimes choreographers will want something very specific and other times they give you freedom to explore.”
Burke said the relationships between dancers and choreographer works two ways. “Dancers are trying to do what the creator wants; the choreographer is looking for inspiration from the dancer,” she said. “If — or when — the piece is ever done on another company, those dancers will be learning the steps from the way the original dancer did it!”
New ballets for repertory companies, according to Burke, are typically 20 minutes in length with costs ranging between $10,000 to $20,000. In the case of Dayton Ballet, which typically introduces a world premiere each season, monies come from the Dermot Burke New Works Fund, named in honor of Dayton Ballet’s former executive and artistic director.
Finding the right choreographer
When it’s time to commission a new work, dance companies often begin by looking at a choreographer’s previous work with other companies and how it was received. “I look to see if they have established a voice of their own as there are many choreographers that are just starting out that tend to mimic styles that are currently popular,” Burke said. “Having a good rapport with dancers is always important.”
Crystal Michelle said her choice is sometimes influenced by a specific project or the type of experience a choreographer may offer company members. “I look at a choreographer’s work and try to envision what a working relationship might be with our company,” she said. “We look for artists with great vision, thoughtfulness and choreographic voices that lend themselves to the national stage.”
In the case of Melissa Barak — named as one of the “Top Ten to Watch” by Dance magazine, it was Barak’s “distinct voice” that was the attraction. “It is very interesting and different from anything we currently have in the repertory,” Burke explained. Barak’s new work for Dayton is entitled “Tonal Interceptions.”
Michelle said DCDC had first worked with Moore in connection with an emerging choreographer contest where one work was selected for a residency that would include full staging, costumes, and lighting. That work will be performed this month and is entitled “To: Marvin - From: Love” (a tribute to Marvin Gaye).
“I’ve followed Bridget as a choreographer, teacher and artist in the field and she is a voice to reckon with,” Michelle observed. “Bridget is an African-American female choreographer at a time when we aren’t seeing a whole lot of those voices. That kind of courage was recognized by the Princess Grace Foundation several years ago and we’ve been keeping an eye on her work ever since.”
Bringing choreographers to Dayton
Burke said it’s always interesting to see where the creative process begins for each new choreographer. “Some start with the music, some start with a “story” or theme, others just begin with the movement,” she said. “There is no wrong way and that is what is wonderful.”
In Barak’s case, she said, music was never played until the piece was entirely finished. “She had the music memorized in her head so the dancers were learning the steps without it,” Burke explained. “When she put the music on, it all fit. It was amazing!”
Dayton Ballet dancer Nathaly Prieto said working with Barak was inspiring. “She definitely pushed us to move outside of our comfort zone,” said the dancer who also enjoyed communicating with a guest artist on a personal level. “I was so happy when I found out she was also a fan of “The Walking Dead” because it made the learning process a lot less stressful.”
Beaver said Barak brought a cool energy to the studio and seemed to understand what it was like to have an outsider walk in and start throwing movement at you. “You can be a little shy at first or maybe nervous,” he admits. “There were moments when Melissa would say ‘what was that?’ and I would show her again and she was like ‘yeah, yeah I like that. Let’s do that.’ “
When it comes to new work, Melissa said DCDC has some “soft guidelines” but not the sort that dictate artistic vision. “Typically we ask for a certain length of work and to use a certain number of dancers, but outside of that choreographers are free to roam the creative universe,” she said. “There’s a bit of a beautiful surprise during the making of a project. We all get to watch it unfold and witness the choreographer collaborating with the dancers to make something unique to their work together.”
All choreographic voices, she said, are a bit different. “It’s like trying to speak with a new accent or find your way through a culture and you don’t know all the rules in the social contract. We have to discover them as we go. For some dancers, that can be difficult.”
Choreographers weigh in
After her career as a dancer came to an end in 2011, Barak began to build her own company and started accepting commissions from others. She said it’s the composition factor that appeals.
“I like making order out of chaos,” she explained. “I love decorating and designing, interior design. As a choreographer, I like working with different dancers and their various strengths and interpretive styles.”
When she’s on the road and coming to cities like Dayton, Barak begins by watching classes or a rehearsal, which provides information about a dancer’s work ethic, capabilities, communication skills. Choreographers typically have only a a short time to put together a new ballet — perhaps a few days, a week. When she’s working, Barak said, she’s discovering more about the dancers. “It happens organically as the ballet unfolds and is being created,” she explained. “It’s collaborative, sometimes dancers do something in a way I hadn’t thought of.”
Moore generally starts a new work with a conceptual idea or theme. “I then begin listening to a variety of music to support my idea,” she said. “Music is what initially inspires me to create the first step and I also do research.”
The work she’ll premiere in Dayton is set to the work of R&B singer, songwriter and musician Marvin Gaye. She’s been a fan since childhood. “When I listen to his music I feels a sense of joy, sensuality, pain, struggle, and intense passion that is infectious,” she said. “It leaves me with a surge of energy that simply transforms into pure love and satisfaction.” For this dance, she decided to use Gaye’s classic works and avoid his better-known hits.
Moore said her best work comes from showing up at the studio without preconceived notions or expectations, allowing herself to be inspired by the people in the room. “I am very much a process-oriented choreographer, and prefer not to teach large portions of movement material all at once or to have too much movement prepared prior to seeing the dancers,” she said. “Each dancer has a unique quality and I believe it is my job as a choreographer to pinpoint those individual qualities of expression.”
She was happy to create a work about love. “It is my hope that the audience will leave with a reminder of what love can bring — joy, kindness, compassion and inspiration,” she said.
The folks at both DCDC and Dayton Ballet are hoping their upcoming concerts will give Miami Valley audiences yet another reason to fall lin love as they introduce new artistic compositions to local stages.
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