Finding Joy Through Performance Art An Interview with Sasha Kleinplatz

The intersection of dance and modern art at choreographer Sasha Kleinplatz’s “We Move Together or Not at All” and “Miracle’ing/Close to Me/ Close to You” provides a space for creative expression that is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Kleinplatz’s two intriguing performances offered me with a new perspective on modern performative art. “We Move Together or Not at All” involves an improvisatory performance by a single performer engaging in interpretive dance inside a miniature greenhouse. “Miracle’ing/Close to Me/Close to You” is a more abstract group production that comments on the nature of performance and practice. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Sasha to discuss her background, the performances, and her perspectives on life and art. Here are some of the key parts of our discussion, the entirety of which is published on the Bull & Bear’s website.

Tell me a little bit about your upbringing and how you got interested in dance and choreography.

I grew up in Windsor, Ontario, which is right near Detroit. I started liking dance when I was really little, like three or four. I saw “The Nutcracker” or “Swan Lake” and I was really into it, but I didn’t start taking class[es] until I was ten. Also, when I was around ten, I saw Alvin Ailey, which is a modern dance company from the U.S., and that was really inspiring. I was kind of infuenced a lot by being part of the indie rock scene and the rave scene in the nineties, so both of those communities and aesthetics were important to me in the way I thought about performance.

In “Miracle’ing” there was a lot of subtle and some not-so-subtle humor. Do you think that helps loosen the bounds of the formality of performance, and do you think it makes the performers more comfortable in that improvisation?

I don’t know if it makes them more comfortable. They have oftentimes told me that they’re not comfortable, but they move between comfort and discomfort. I do think the permission to be silly is helpful, and another thing that I’m interested in is improvisatory comedy, and when people break. There’s something so human about it, so breaking is a very welcome part of the process, and it doesn’t have to be hidden. I think it allows the audience a different kind of window into the work.

How does the improvisation differ between “We Move Together or Not at All” and “Miracle’ing” and is there a substantial choreography difference between coordinating the improvisation for an individual versus a group?

Yeah, it’s somewhat different. For [We Move Together or Not at All], what we talked a lot about, is that each of the dancers has a solo practice that they do, and it’s part of what they do on a regular basis. So how can you translate your solo work and your