July/August 2013
Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication
The Most Together We've Ever Been A conversation with Ame Henderson
Ame Henderson and Matija Ferlin are two choreographers who have been collaborating since 2003, in addition to their solo careers, under the Public Records performance umbrella. This July, they will be presenting their work The Most Together We've Ever Been at Scotiabank Dance Centre as part of the 2013 Dancing on the Edge Festival.
AK: The Most Together We've Ever Been is a work that has reconfigured
Content
itself with each new presentation and performance venue. What is the strategy, especially in respect to how the audience experiences the space that you and your collaborators create? AH: It is a piece that brings out different values with each presentation, depending on what the interest of a presenter or an audience member is. For example, during a recent presentation at a festival of duet-based works in Ottawa, we discovered a lot about how this piece provided us as collaborators with a way of investigating our relationship, both to each other, and to the act of performing. We noticed how these two things become collapsed in this project, since we had worked together a lot, and
The Most Together We've Ever Been A conversation with Ame Henderson Page 1
A Note from the Executive Director Mirna Zagar
were looking to re-frame that relationship and to find a way of working on something that was co-created and co-performed. For me, the work is is mostly a playful interrogation of the act of meeting an audience, of the stage as a ground to suggest an encounter, but we work on holding off on 'developing' that encounter, so that the question keeps getting raised over and over again. This might seem conceptual and somewhat tedious, but it is actually quite lighthearted and funny, because of our dynamic with each other and the rigour we use in making these aborted attempts.
Page 4
Dancing on the Edge Calendar Page 6
AK: The audience is being invited into a space that is usually off limits; it is rare for us to be invited to wander onto the dance floor, especially in the context of large theatrical presentations, with a proscenium stage and moat. The piece breaks these conventions, and creates a deliberate transgression, but in such a way that the encounter is controlled and maintains
Thinking Bodies: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg Page 10
separation in the frame. AH: I wold say we don't break these conventions but reiterate them, in order to invite the spectator to consider their role in that framing. In general continued on page 2
Welcome to the July/August 2013 issue of Dance Central.
The Most Together We've Ever Been A conversation with Ame Henderson continued from cover
I tend to think of the projects that I make as focused on the codes or conventions of performance, so that we might consider how we might depart from them or renegotiate them, in a gentle provocation of the rules that we all follow in theatre. What we are really encouraging is for everyone to do their part but more fully: For the spectator to continue to project their own imaginations onto what they are looking at even when we are absent, to think about the nature of the entrance, and to be aware of one's own gaze.
Welcome to the July/August issue of Dance Central. We are pleased to feature a conversation with Torontobased choreographer Ame Henderson that focuses on questions that she and her collaborator Matija Ferlin explore in their upcoming production of The Most Together We've Ever Been at the Dancing on the Edge Festival. The 'Thinking Bodies' series features a portrait of interdisciplinary performer and choreographer Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, who speaks about her experience working between, among, and across disciplines, about the relationship between text and movement, and the challenge of defining one's work at the intersection of disciplinary boundaries. The Designing Dance Series for this issue was to be a conversation with costume designer Nancy Bryant, but the demands of a busy schedule and her work at Bard on The Beach conflicted. We wish her all the best for the upcoming projects and will be featuring that conversation in the September/October issue. As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed to contribute and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send material by mail to members@thedancecentre.ca. or call us at 604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation! Andreas Kahre, Editor 2
Dance Central July/August 2013
AK: Do you ever encounter surprises in how people behave? AH: We get spectators responding in all sorts of delightful ways to the ending of the piece, but during the performance —because there are all these gaps when we are outside for a long time—I always wonder what they are they doing in there. We try to level the expectation so that both spectator and performer ask: "What is going on, really?" I have no idea what has transpired while I was away, which is kind of a terrifying state to be in as a performer, but I realized that this is always how it is: You don't know what people are thinking while you are performing, and this just heightens those realities. AK: Considering how much theatre has become infused with the technology of control and surveillance, where stage management routinely uses infrared cameras to observe performers and audience even when they are in the dark, it is an interesting choice to deliberately cut off communication during the performance, and to avoid setting up cameras to look at the audience while you are outside. AH: I hope I won't be accused of being anti-technology, but what I find exciting with these projects is to explore the old technologies of what the theatre can be as a meeting place, with very simple elements, which is why we try to strip the theatre down to be able to see the walls, and to understand it as an architectural space that then gets transformed into a more theatrical landscape. What is it, really? It's just a room where people gather, where we can follow rules that people have been following for a really long time and perhaps discover something new, and maybe we'll just re-state our allegiance to those rules...
Photo: Chris Randle
AK: You say 'these pieces' that brings up the question, in the context of your long-standing collaboration whether this piece has a particular connection to your previous works? AH: Indirectly it does, since Matija and I have been collaborating for about ten years. Both of us have an individual body of work as choreographers, and he has performed in several of my creations over the years, so there is a shared language about performance between us, and shared questions about dancing and choreographies that one could probably trace in the parallels between our work, but this is the only piece that we have made and performed together. We are planning a second duet which we will start working on next year, so it is definitely the beginning of a new kind of relationship. AK: Is there a conceptual or thematic connection, apart from being a duet, or is it a new opening in that way, too?
AH: I think this piece is quite distinct in its aesthetics, but there is a theme or a set of questions that I have been working on through several projects, linked to togetherness and collaboration. This work was designed specifically as a way of developing methodologies to work on the notion of togetherness, and one where we started with our artistic relationship. We sat together in an empty room to come up with something, in a process which was very much inspired by the fact that we knew each other as friends and colleagues. This is a reversal of the ways that I have worked at other times, where I have had an idea first, and then determined who I wanted to work with. Starting with a relationship, a connection and a desire to make something together was another way of exploring togetherness and collaboration. As such, the piece is its own universe, and we talk about it in terms of what happened when we met and tried to find a shared language between the two of us. continued on page 5
Dance Central July/August 2013
3
Dance Central The Dance Centre Scotiabank Dance Centre Level 6, 677 Davie Street Vancouver BC V6B 2G6 T 604.606.6400 F 604.606.6401 info@thedancecentre.ca www.thedancecentre.ca
From the Executive Director
Dance Central is published every two months by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements. Editor Andreas Kahre Copy Editor Hilary Maxwell Contributors to this issue: Ame Henderson, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Mirna Zagar Dance Centre Board Members Chair Andrea Wink Vice Chair Gavin Ryan Secretary Ingrid M. Tsui Treasurer Roman Goldmann Directors Barbara Bourget Susan Elliott Margaret Grenier Anndraya T. Luui Josh Martin Simone Orlando Jordan Thomson Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Michael Welters Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Jennifer Chung Directors Santa Aloi, Linda Blankstein, Grant Strate Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Services Administrator Anne Daroussin Development Director Sheri Urquhart Technical Directors Justin Aucoin and Mark Eugster Accountant Lil Forcade Member Services Coordinator Hilary Maxwell
Dear Members, And here we are: Summer is finally upon us and our fiscal year-end is fast approaching. While we have officially closed our season, summer is usually quite a busy period here at The Dance Centre, as we finalize the details for the fall season and host partnering projects. This year, we are especially pleased to be partners to the 25th celebration of the Dancing on the Edge Festival which will be under way when this edition of Dance Central reaches you. Congratulations to Donna Spencer and her team! We are also very pleased to host here at Scotiabank Dance Centre MACHiNENOiSY as well as Ame Henderson and Matija Ferlin as they return to Vancouver with their work The Most Together We've Ever Been which has been touring Eastern Canada to critical acclaim. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank all of our generous volunteers for their contribution to our success, and to thank all who have contributed to a most successful Shall We Dance event which was held in May at the Vancouver Club. Without the help of our commu-
The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible by numerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, community peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.
nity and without each of your individual contributions we would not be as inspired to reach new heights. To all our members and friends – here is wishing you an enjoyable summer. We look forward to seeing you all back in the studios and on the stages as a new Season unfolds in September! Until then, happy dancing!
Mirna Zagar, Executive Director 4 Dance Central July/August 2013
AK: I noticed in looking at video footage that there is something both presentational and pedestrian about the entrances, and about the frame of the 'mini dramas' that constitute the work. To what extent is it choreographed? AH: It is pretty constructed. The improvisatory side is largely a matter of timing, and how to play or display these miniature entrances, but we mostly do exactly the same thing in every performance. Some performance elements are relational. For example, at one point Matija goes close to one of the largest
Next:
Dance Central
September/October 2013
objects in the set, in one of the rare moments that he makes reference to the set. That changes from location to location, but we'll find that in tech rehearsals and will then repeat that exactly for the rest of the run. The work is quite structured, because that is one of the things we were interested in exploring. We wanted to know where the spaces are, and what goes on between these elements, and we wanted, more than with our other works, use a rigorous, formal approach to what is a fairly stripped-down movement language. We are on our tiptoes for the whole piece, which dictates what we can and cannot do directly. AK: Do you have a sense of how audiences react in different places, or are you just staring into the blinding footlights?
Proximity: a conversation about future projects
AH: The gaze is weird, because we have sunglasses on, so we can see everybody, but there is a kind of social construct that it is almost as if looking at the somebody wearing sunglasses gives you the illusion that they can't see because you can't see their eyes. We can see everyone staring at us, and they forget that we can see them. So even though we look like we
Thinking Bodies: Alvin Erasga Tolentino
are protected by these glasses, we are actually subjected to quite an open gaze by the public, and we have realized that we just don't know how to read these gazes, and that we can never make any sort of judgement about what people might be thinking.
Designing Dance: Nancy Bryant
It depends on the audience more than the place, just the quality of a certain grouping of people and how they encourage each other, or not, to find things funny— sometimes there will be one person who cannot stop laughing for the entire
and more...
piece, and of course that sets a certain kind of tone, and people join or are disoriented. So there are all kinds of microperformances going on among the public, some of which we witness and some we hear about after =wards, but I would say it changes more with audiences than place. A full house
continued on page 16
is a very different thing than a partial house because it seems that people become more self-conscious of their role when there are fewer people, so sometimes a half full house feels a continued on page 14
Dance Central July/August 2013
5
Schedule of Events, July 4 - 13, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 7:00pm DUSK DANCES Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg Julia Aplin w/ Tiger Princess Dance Projects Eury Chang Carmen Romero Kate Franklin | Meredith Thompson Vancouver's Carnival Band CRAB/Portside Park FREE/By Donation 9:00pm of good moral character Lara Kramer | Lara Kramer Dance Firehall Arts Centre
Friday, July 5, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 7:00pm DUSK DANCES Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg
Julia Aplin w/ Tiger Princess Dance Projects Eury Chang Carmen Romero Kate Franklin | Meredith Thompson Vancouver's Carnival Band CRAB/Portside Park FREE/By Donation 7:00pm EDGE One Constance Cooke Josh Martin Edmond Kilpatrick | Karen Jamieson Firehall Arts Centre
9:00pm of good moral character Lara Kramer | Lara Kramer Dance Firehall Arts Centre BUY TICKETS 9:30pm EN3: Community Circles Colleen Lanki | TomoeArts Chinatown Night Market Keefer & Main St FREE
Saturday, July 6, 2013
12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 7:00pm DUSK DANCES Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg Julia Aplin w/ Tiger Princess Dance Projects Eury Chang
Dance Central September 2004
3
The 25th Annual Dancing on the Edge Festival Carmen Romero Kate Franklin | Meredith Thompson Vancouver's Carnival Band CRAB/Portside Park FREE/By Donation 7:00pm BAMBOOZLED Delia Brett & Daelik | MACHiNENOiSY Scotiabank Dance Centre
9:00pm EDGE One Constance Cooke Josh Martin Edmond Kilpatrick | Karen Jamieson Firehall Arts Centre
9:30pm EN3: Community Circles Colleen Lanki | TomoeArts Chinatown Night Market Keefer & Main St FREE
Sunday, July 7, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 2:00pm BAMBOOZLED Delia Brett & Daelik | MACHiNENOiSY Scotiabank Dance Centre
7:00pm EDGE Two Jolene Bailie | Gearshifting Performance Works Nigel Charnock | Vision Impure Firehall Arts Centre
9:00pm BAMBOOZLED Delia Brett & Daelik | MACHiNENOiSY Scotiabank Dance Centre
Monday, July 8, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 1:30 - 2:30pm Field House Ensemble presents Joe Ink’s Move It…(Slowly) Joe Ink Strathcona Field House 857 Malkin Avenue (at Hawks) Free (bring something to trade) 7:00pm EDGE Three Amber Funk Barton | the response Vanessa Goodman Tomomi Morimoto Firehall Arts Centre
Dance Central September 2004
3
9:00pm EDGE Two Jolene Bailie | Gearshifting Performance Works Nigel Charnock | Vision Impure Firehall Arts Centre
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 12:15pm 1:15pm wobble tops Sandra Botnen SFU Woodwards Atrium Free 1:30 - 2:30pm Field House Ensemble presents Joe Ink’s Move It… (Slowly) Joe Ink Strathcona Field House 857 Malkin Avenue (at Hawks) Free (bring something to trade) 7:00pm EDGE Four James Gnam | Plastic Orchid Factory Arash & Aryo Khakpour Meredith Kalaman & Sophie Yendole Firehall Arts Centre
9:00pm EDGE Three Amber Funk Barton | the response Vanessa Goodman Tomomi Morimoto Firehall Arts Centre
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 12:15pm 1:15pm wobble tops Sandra Botnen SFU Woodwards Atrium Free 1:30 - 2:30pm Field House Ensemble presents Joe Ink’s Move It…(Slowly) Joe Ink Strathcona Field House 857 Malkin Avenue (at Hawks) Free (bring something to trade) 7:00pm EDGE Five Wen Wei Dance Firehall Arts Centre 9:00pm EDGE Four James Gnam | Plastic Orchid Factory Arash & Aryo Khakpour Meredith Kalaman & Sophie Yendole Firehall Arts Centre Thursday, July 11, 2013 12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE 12:15pm 1:15pm wobble tops Dance Central September Sandra Botnen SFU Woodwards Atrium , Free
2004
3
1:30 - 2:30pm Field House Ensemble presents Joe Ink’s Move It… (Slowly) Joe Ink Strathcona Field House 857 Malkin Avenue (at Hawks) Free (bring something to trade) 7:00pm The Cube W&M Physical Theatre Firehall Arts Centre
8:30pm The Most Together We’ve Ever Been Ame Henderson & Matija Ferlin | Public Recordings Scotiabank Dance Centre
9:00pm EDGE Five Wen Wei Dance Firehall Arts Centre
7:00pm EDGE Six Tania Alvarado Jennifer Mascall | Mascall Dance Pamela Tzeng Firehall Arts Centre
8:30pm The Most Together We’ve Ever Been Ame Henderson & Matija Ferlin | Public Recordings Scotiabank Dance Centre
9:00pm The Cube W&M Physical Theatre Firehall Arts Centre
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE
12:00pm 25 Gestures for Dancing on the Edge Co.ERASGA Dance Site-Specific - Gastown Historic Steam Clock FREE
7:00pm The Most Together We’ve Ever Been Ame Henderson & Matija Ferlin | Public Recordings Scotiabank Dance Centre
1:30 - 2:30pm Field House Ensemble presents Joe Ink’s Move It… (Slowly) Joe Ink Strathcona Field House 857 Malkin Avenue (at Hawks) Free (bring something to trade)
9:00pm EDGE Six Tania Alvarado Jennifer Mascall | Mascall Dance Pamela Tzeng Firehall Arts Centre
Dance Central September 2004
3
"I am
6 Dance Central July/August 2013
THINKING BODIES | Portraits A conversation with Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg
also good at Math." AK: Given how many different things you do as a performer, do
through movement...", and then when I am hired as a dancer,
you identify primarily as a dancer?
it is usually by someone who wants what I do, like Conrad Alexandrovich, who will want me to move and make ridicu-
TCF: I guess I do, because that's how I started. When I was about
lous sounds. I find that I am a bit of a negotiator between the
two and a half, I demanded to go to ballet class, to the horror of
two things. When I go into a project as a choreographer, like
my poor feminist mother. As a being, I identify as a dancer, but
I am currently doing with Bard on the Beach, to tease out the
as an artist, I identify also as an actor, as a choreographer, and as
dancer in the actor, I find we do ourselves a disservice when
a kind of 'movement designer', because choreographing a dance
we insist that dance needs to be at a particular level techni-
is a completely different animal than going into the tent at Bard
cally, especially in the theatre milieu. Everybody has a body,
on the Beach and choreographing a bunch of actors to convey
and everybody moves, and that mode of expression is vital.
something dramatic. I come up against the question all the time,
I consider it as part of my meaning to get that out of actors
however, and have to justify myself in those ways. When I write
and to get them to be comfortable in their own movement,
grants—for the dance section mostly because that's where I have
because once they are, they have a whole other language
been most successful— I am always thinking 'how do I spin it so
and even if they are not 'dancing' per se, they are expressing
it is 'dance', I can and have written grants for the theatre section,
themselves with their whole body, which makes it so much
and it remains a frustrating thing to have to justify my work in
easier for the audience to participate.
one medium, because I make performance and I perfom it, and when I am performing, I don't separate the dance from the text,
AK: Do you observe a difference between the different
the acting from the dancing. It's all the same thing, including the
generations of performers working in Vancouver work, given
design.
how the different training institutions approach movement?
AK: When you deal with people in theatre, where you are per-
TCF: Very much. The young contemporary dance artists
ceived more as an actor, and don't have to work in the concep-
coming out of training in Vancouver seem to realize that they
tual confinement what constitutes 'dance' and its different styles,
probably should know a bit about using text. They also seem
is it an easier question to negotiate?
to recognize that they should know how create their own work in some way because they are not necessarily going to
TCF: It depends on who you are working for, or with. Certainly
get a job with a company. This is something that many of us
in dance, and to some extent in theatre as well, there is a sense
had learned early on, and sadly, many people just stopped
that 'the pie is only so big; therefore we can't have anybody who
because they weren't getting a job. Still, even though dance
is not 'purely dance' going for a part of it, because perhaps they
theatre, or talking and dancing, has been going on for a long
can go somewhere else'. In this city, most people know that I am
time now—Denise Clarke was trailblazing that in the eighties,
a multidisciplinary person, but I find that when I am in a purely
along with Nigel Charnock and DV8— it is still kind of 'fringy',
theatrical milieu and I am acting, I do have a tendency to move
even though so many choreographers are using text. Some
the work towards the point of saying "Oh, but we could do this
Dance Central July/August 2013
11
"Sometimes text will contradi will contradict text, and I need astute young dancers understand that they maybe should take the voice intensive, or acting workshops here and there to get that basic technique. There is nothing worse than a great dancer who opens their mouth and out comes something like "nnnnggghnyyy" You want the performance level to match. I also do think there is a move towards more interdisciplinary approach among young artists. It is almost as if we are going back toward the turn of the century (the previous one), where people in opera, for example, sang and danced and acted, and half of them probably painted a set, where people were able to navigate multiple places and mediums to say what we want to say.
volved with it? TCF: I was asked to be one of the mentors. When Corbin Murdock was running the youth program, he asked dance people, theatre people, spoken word artists and songwriters, and over the course of a months we mentored this group. I adore this work, because it reminds me of why I am doing this. They are so fresh and they want it so bad, and they are just developing their choreopgrahic voice, so I got the idea that these youth could be a great addition to Highgate, because I wanted to turn the whole building in to a Victorian funeral home. They were amazing, and
AK: Do you find that your own work is conceived as interdisciplinary from the beginning, or does it proceed from a conceptual centre? In other words, do you work from an idea outward and then incorporate what you need or do you create with a discipline in mind? TCF: I usually start physically, but that may fall away and the text may take over. I usually start from a completely sensory place of what feels interesting in my body. That might be the voice of some goofy character that I am experimenting with, and then the theme will get woven in there, and I may want to use whatever elements serve that. My work is largely character-driven, and I will use whatever discipline best serves the story of the character. Sometimes text will contradict movement, and movement will contradict text, and I find that I need both of those things. You can't just have a great voice on a character and no physicality. As the work develops, the aspect of the visual design becomes a really strong current, and I am getting more and more interested in how we perceive the design of the world that characters live in as a whole. AK: Do you design your own work? TCF: Yes, but usually in conjunction with a collaborator. When we created Highgate at The Cultch, we involved a lot of the IGNITE youth, and passed it off to them saying "It's got the be Victorian funerary; go..." and they came up with fantastic thing . Dance Central July/August 2013
AK: IGNITE is The Cultch youth program. How did you get in-
12
creepy, standing that entrance in costume. AK: I was struck by the idea of a Victorian theme for a Dance work, in that the body is so obscured and reveals itself mostly by what is hidden. How did you come to think about the theme? TCF: It began with my visit to Highgate cemetery in London, and with thinking about the Victorians, who were so shut down and controlling, but also—and because of that— completely whacky people. A people perpetually in mourning, since Queen Victoria was in mourning for 60 years, was fascinating to me, along with the question how to translate that into movement. I loved the resulting contradiction between control and what spills out the edges, between what is said, and what is not said. What do you see, what is the chiaroscuro? It started as an experiment for a short piece, but it got more and more involved. I was also fascinated by the costume, which is quite accurate, except that I didn't wear a corset. I tried one on and got instantly crabby. AK: What will you do next? TCF: I am working on a new solo, with the working title Porno Death Cult. Something subtle, which is of course what I am known for. The seed of the idea came when my husband and I walked the 800 kilometer Santiago pilgrimage trail across Spain in 2010. It is a long walk, and not everyone who walks it is catholic, myself included, but the big bloody sexy Jesus in each cathedral along the way made me think 'This is a porno death
ict movement, and movement d both of those things.." cult. The title stuck with me, and I find that so many things about
Chambers come in as dance outside eyes. I think it is impor-
our culture are porno death cults. I am starting with an individual
tant not to be working in isolation.
character, and will premiere the work at the Firehall at the beginning of March 2014. Speaking of crossing disciplines, Marcus Youssef
AK: Some years ago, when we worked together on Bush of
is my director, and we have started to work together. It is a very
Ghosts with Theatre Conspiracy, I was struck by the degree to
interesting collaboration, because he us such a writer, and political
which your characterizations read as complete interior worlds.
thinker, and he is challenging me in ways I have not been chal-
How do you do research?
lenged before, which I welcome with open arms. TCF: I always stare at people — and get into trouble for that. I AK: Going back to your training, you said you wanted to go and take
also draw on movement, and on trying to feeling it authenti-
ballet classes when you were two and a half. Did you?
cally, textured, and layered. I find that really fun.
TCF: I did. I wore my mother down, and danced from then on, until
AK: How does that compare to the days of ballet where form
I went to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School as a teen. That's when I
is largely imposed from the outside?
realized "Hm, I could end up as dancing wallpaper if I do this." Your chances of becoming the Primaballerina are slim, and in those days
TCF: Ballet, like Graham or Limon technique, are all about the
it was said your career as a dancer would last until you were 27 and
shape, but once you master the technique to a certain degree
then you were done. I didn't like that, and my mother kept pointing
it is all about sensation: You can tell when it feels right, when
out that I was more interested in making the other little girls laugh
it clicks in—what some people call the 'gadget'. You can see it
than doing the triple pirouette. I really value that training, just as I
with dance technicians, but it applies across art makers in all
value the fact that then I started to do contemporary dance and
disciplines. You know when it's there.
gymnastics, and more theatre training, which probably saved my body from early hip replacement surgery. I still find that ballet tech-
AK: Are you a good administrator?
nique is a really good basis in the body. TCF: Yes, I have to be. I am also good at math. In the studio, AK : How did you train in theatre?
when I need to take a break, I do long division to give the other half of my brain a rest. It relaxes me.
TCF: I did the theatre program at the University of Calgary, and then got a Dance degree at SFU.
AK: If you had been anything different, what would you have done?
AK: Do you work collaboratively most of the time, or do you also work alone, or with outside eyes?
TCF: I like coaching people, so I might have been something like a career coach. I also like design. At one point, I thought I
TCF: I always work with somebody. I spend a lot of time in the stu-
would be an architect.
dio by myself, and try to work almost every day, although now that I have a toddler that's hard, but I always have somebody else in the
AK: Which is where shape, structure and mathematics merge
creation of the work, like now with Marcus and my director Sophie
in a multidisciplinary form. Many thanks!
Yendl who directed and dramaturged Goggles, Nick and Juanita and Banger, and is just coming back from maternity leave, so she will be a creative instigator. I will also have Susan Elliott and Justine
Dance Central July/August 2013
13
"It is ve don't strange t
little more tense or anticipatory. I have just resigned myself
ing a strange character choice —unlike if Matija wore them.
to not knowing anything about what audiences are do-
They both accentuate and make more difficult the task I set
ing or thinking. I think what we are working on is realizing
myself out to do, which is to tiptoe though the whole piece.
that we are individuals looking at a whole bunch of other
It is as if we are using our own identities and then figure out
individuals and what is getting created is about all these
how to push them to accentuate the tasks. Perhaps that is
different viewpoints coexisting.
true across the board in the triangulation between ourselves as emerging characters and what we may be representing
AK: I was curious about the costuming choices and the
in terms of gender and other aspects of identity. I hope that
casual sense of being gendered in the piece, unlike the
because it is so stylized it feels like we have made choices,
heightened or diminished sense of gender that often ap-
and what you see makes sense. It is very strange, what we
pears in modern dance where the costuming tends to ei-
do; and I don't mean weird, I mean we make strange these
ther strip away or overexpose something of that aspect. Is
ordinary things, and that includes our own gender identity.
that casual presentation part of the intention, given that the movement language isn't gendered, but your presence is.
AK: It does appear that way. All the elements are re-contextualized; it alienates from what appears ordinary, like seeing
AH: I imagine we are trying to be as we are, heightened in
the world under a black light bulb. Everything has some kind
some way; that we are gendered but also ourselves. We
of difference built into it, and while it is gentle, and doesn't
are performing these strange roles, not as characters, but
seem intended to appear freakish, it does destabilize all re-
through the strange behaviour we perform, we become
lationships. There is nothing you can accept without a sec-
characters. We are not trying to leave gender out of what
ond take, so for an audience that will try to learn the rules of
is being discussed, but by being casual about presenting
this universe, gender will be one of the aspects they may be
ourselves, but also by making very particular choices to
interested to understand the role of. You were saying at the
heighten our positions somewhat‚ like I am wearing these
beginning that this piece relates to your collaborative work
spiked heels
as artists. What got you interested in working together in the first place?
AK: Exactly... AH: As part of this work I can wear heels without that beDance Central July/August 2013
14
Lighting and Photography by Itai Erdal
ery strange, what we do; and I t mean weird, I mean we make these ordinary things, and that includes our own identity. " Ame Henderson
AH: We met when we were both students at the international school in Amsterdam, and we did some work there, but then
have to talk so much about what we're going to do before
I came back to Canada and invited Matija to come to Toronto
we do it, and almost fulfill our own grant applications and
to work on a project in 2005.
proposals in a way that isn't always bad, but becomes a kind of pattern of creating that I am starting to question
There was something about the beginning about this interna-
more and more.
tional artistic relationship that felts very easeful, because he would come here and I would go there. It continued because
This was a chance to work differently, with someone in
it was easy. It felt like we met each other at a moment when
whom I trusted very much, and who was able to draw me
we were both really curious about what we could offer each
into the inner workings of my own creative world. That is
other; and we just chased that curiosity. I was an indepen-
why it became so vital and also challenging. Matija was
dent artist in Toronto at the time, and it didn't seem probable
someone that I knew really well who was able to take me
or possible that I could invite international collaborators to
somewhere I had never been before, and that has contin-
come here and live here for several months and make work,
ued to feed me. We made the work in 2008 and pre-
but somehow with Matija and a couple others, there seemed
miered it in 2009, and it has continued to be a touchstone
to be a will there to continue the conversation that dissolved
for me in my other endeavours—thinking about my own
all the other distances. I believe that if you feel that kind of
role within my work, how I position myself as a collabora-
solidarity it's worth pursuing, so we just continued to find
tor, and how I can share a language with people that I am
ways to collaborate.
working with. I learned a lot about the process of working from doing this piece, and it is interesting that it also cre-
The invitation to make The Most Together We've Ever Been
ated a finished work that stands on its own.
was really important, because it was Matija offering an invitation for me to come into his context to work. He created
AK: Does it still change, or get adjusted?
a situation where we could go to Vienna, where he had a residency already to make another work, for a month, and be
AH: The last time we got together it had been some time
in a context where we didn't have to provide any kind of ex-
since we had done it, and Matija came with a proposal that
planation to anyone about what we were doing. It was a very
we should try to replace some entrances, since we had
rare creative space. I realize more and more that usually we
made twice as many entrances as we actually perform in
Dance Central July/August 2013
15
the work before arranging them in an order and selcting which
rity on stage. Perhaps that also goes back to the questions
ones to keep. He proposed that we should revisit the structure
about gender. It is about who we were when we were six
and when we tried to do that we realized that the whole thing
years younger and what it is going to be like to continue to
was going to fall apart if we started to change it.
do this minimal and revealing work as our bodies change. How long can we do it before it transforms into something
The most interesting thing about revisiting a work that is now
completely other?
five years old is to actually stick with what we decided before and having to meet our former selves in dealing with these
AK: Thank you!
strange constructions that we made and asking ourselves "why did we do this in the first place and how can we continue to do it?" was a more interesting question than how can we change it. Another aspect, that is outside of or control is our age. When my partner saw the work again this past winter, he pointed out that we have aged and that our age changes the quality and tone of the work, He found it much sadder, not because aging is sad but because the youthfulness that especially Matija had several years ago has transformed into a different kind of matu-
WA L K TO T H E B E ST O F DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER B E F O R E YO U C A N S AY
CHA CHA CHA.
Official Hotel of The Dance Centre. A short walk from the Holiday Inn & Suites Vancouver Downtown brings guests to popular night clubs, trendy restaurants, funky shops, beautiful waterfront and so much more. Enjoy a choice of accommodation, use of a 24 hour indoor pool and fitness centre and our always popular restaurant and lounge. Call us today and ask about special rates for members of The Dance Centre.
I N TH E H E A RT O F VA N CO UV E R ’ S BUSINESS, SHOPPING AND E NTE RTA I N M E NT D I STR I CTS.
Call Toll-Free: 1-800-663-9151
www.holidayinnvancouverdowntown.com 1110 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC Canada V6Z 1R2
Dance Central September 2004
Dance Central July/August 2013
16
3