Summer 2019
Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication
Presence Promptings A conversation with Davida Monk Page 2
Future Leisure A conversation with Julianne Chapple Page 8
Welcome to Dance Central
Critical Movements A conversation with Davida Monk AK: Your residency at Scotiabank Dance Centre was centered on three distinct works. In some form they seem to represent aspects of the past, the present and the future, and that made me wonder where you see the form, and yourself in it, in terms of where we are, where we come from, and where we are going. DM: I must first say how grateful I was for this excellent artistic opportunity. I was working on Ashes for Beauty for its third iteration, and on Helen Husak’s The Return for its first remount. For Antigone, which I commissioned from Paras Terezakis, had its premiere in The Dance Centre production. These works are all relatively new, so in response to your question, they represent the very recent past and the present. It is difficult for me to speak of the form itself, as you say, where we have been, where we are going, etc. However, when I reflect on my 35 years of experience in dance, some things do stand out as significant. It seems to me that there is much more activity today, and a greater range of aesthetic. There is a much greater effort on the part of artists to
Welcome to the Summer 2019 issue of Dance
reach out and connect with all sorts of different communi-
Central. This issue features an extended conversa-
ties. And there have been a few significant building devel-
tion with Calgary-based senior dance artist Davida
opments that make a huge positive impact on the dance
Monk, who during her recent residency at
community such as Scotiabank Dance Centre, Decidedly
Scotiabank Dance Centre presented Ashes for
Jazz’s new building and theatre in Calgary, and certain new
Beauty, The Return and For Antigone.
centres in Montreal, and more I am sure. continued on page 4
The 'Thinking Bodies' series continues with a conversation with choreographer and interdiscplinary artist Julianne Chapple on her recent and upcoming projects, and her relationship between movement and visual art.
Davida Monk began dancing with Le Groupe de la Place Royale in Ottawa in 1985. She created work for the company, served as Assistant Artistic Director to Peter Boneham and was instrumental in the development of Le Groupe Dance Lab that was Canada’s premiere choreographic development centre between 1988 and 2009. In 2004 Monk founded M-body through which she advances her own
As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed
creations and projects.
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 e-mail to
As a performer and as a choreographer Monk has been presented across Canada, in Poland and Finland. She is a frequent collaborator with fellow choreographers, dancers, musicians, poets, philosophers, visual artists and designers. Known as a master performer, cho-
members@thedancecentre.ca or call us at
reographer, teacher and mentor Monk was also Artistic Director of
604.606.6416. We continue to look forward to
Dancers’ Studio West from 2008 to 2018. The recipient of support for
the conversation!
choreographic development, artistic direction and touring from the Canada Council, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Banff Centre and Calgary Arts Development, Monk is an Associate Artist witH Pro-
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jet bk, and Associate Professor Emerita of the University of Calgary.
Promptings
D a n c e C e n t ra l M ay / Ju n e 2 0 1 9
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Critical Movements A conversation with Davida Monk
dance. Some move away, and Vancouver is a popular place for Alberta dance artists to go. AK: You lived in Ottawa and then in Saskatchewan for many years. How did you manage the transition from the 'centre' of
We still have some very good professional training programs,
Canada to the West?
some of them new like Modus Operandi in Vancouver, and a handful of university degree programs across the country. But
DM: Well, I never actually lived in Saskatchewan, although
we have lost programs and resources as well. I do regret the
I did some work at the University of Regina, lots of different
demise of Le Groupe Dance Lab which played a huge role in
projects with Robin Poitras at New Dance Horizons, and spent
the development of choreographers. For a long while now,
lots of time in the Cypress Hills. The difference in cultures did
most new work is being generated, and most dancers are be-
not strike me right away on my move from Ontario to Alberta.
ing employed, on a project basis where once funding bodies
My movement West from Ottawa was totally determined
supported a company model for the employment of danc-
by my falling in love with the Cypress Hills of Southwest
ers and the creation of new work. This shift makes it difficult
Saskatchewan. I recognized a turning point in my life when I
for any advantages that consistent long-term dedication can
was taken to the Cypress Hills for the first time in 1988 by my
encourage. While there is a very broad and healthy aesthetic
dance colleague Robin Poitras from Regina. It changed my
range in today’s climate, the worst-case scenario of the pres-
life, and all my decisions made after that first visit were about
ent situation is that dance artists flounder between projects,
how to dance close to that, about that, with that. There was a
dancers are not consistently nurtured and trained, and much
period of about 15 years, when I did a lot of outdoor dancing.
of a choreographer’s work does not achieve maturity. For the
I made dance video outdoors, and I did writing about dance
future then, I would say that there is much room for improve-
outdoors, trying to understand what the nature of the con-
ment in the support and nurturing of all aspects of the form.
nection to land was, and why I was so deeply affected. I was also interested in the impact on the sensory system of being
AK: Speaking of inter-provincial relations, hopefully after the
outdoors, and how it trains certain sensitivities and apprecia-
wine and bitumen wars, culture won’t be the next item on the
tive abilities. For example, when dancing outdoors I found the
list of sanctioned goods. How would you describe the situa-
first relationship to be a mimetic one. It is not a performance,
tion of dancers and choreographers in Alberta?
it’s not a sophisticated idea, but it is a relationship. ‘Can I do what that piece of grass is doing and what do I learn about it
DM: As I have hinted, I believe that there is much yet to be
and myself if I don’t judge that but just do that?' So I was taken
done in terms of the support of the development of dance
through a kind of apprenticeship and much of my endeavor
everywhere. In Alberta, while there are opportunities in both
through more than fifteen years was about that. When I came
Calgary and Edmonton, and the community does everything it
West, I first lived in Banff and then took a position at the Uni-
can to enrich these, it is a small and relatively young commu-
versity of Calgary, where they were establishing a dance pro-
nity. There is very little for the dedicated and mature artist to
gram in the nineties and I was lucky to get a faculty position.
fall back on as professional development offerings and experiences cannot be sustained. The level of professional activity
AK: That explains a term you used in describing your work
makes it very difficult for dance artists to practically address
'the promptings of the natural world.' It suggests a specific
the huge gap between graduating with an undergraduate
way of moving across the country, and a way of working in
degree from the University of Calgary and competing on a
which you seem to have taken opportunities to teach, train
national scale for opportunities. For example, while the Cana-
and research as more important than the ‘career’.
da Council grant is in many cases the logical step forward to being successful as a dance artist, Alberta dance artists apply
DM: I recognized first of all that the challenge of being a
for Canada Council grants much less often than those from
dance artist, a choreographer and a dancer, required all
other provinces and are much less successful when they do.
my focus. I have concluded that time in career promotion
The limited resources and professional development oppor-
simply undermines my ability to do good work, so I look for
tunities has a serious impact on those who wish a future in
opportunities that come without the need for much self-
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Dance Central Summer 2019
"My fundamental question is: How to get to the point as a creator and performer that allows the dance to do what narrative can’t do? I want to go there, because I think that's where the power is. When I think about ‘inner theatre’, I am sensitive to the fact that someone might be asking: Are the dancers characters and is there a story line? For me, it is No and No." promotion beyond artistic statements. I do apply for grants,
AK: I came across the phrase ‘inner theatre’ in your writing.
residencies and other opportunities but I feel there is a danger
Working across dance and theatre, I am curious about the
in self-promotion — the danger of believing your own bullshit.
experience and relationship between the 'interior' and 'exte-
I really want to focus on the work itself, and so have been very
rior' dimensions of dance, how they develop and are pre-
determined to really take advantage of the opportunities I have
sented — or hidden —, and the question how the interior and
been given, and to use them to protect the level of energy and
the exterior of dance are experienced by an audience. When
resources that allow me to do the work, without having to ask
you think of 'inner theatre', what do you see?
anyone for permission. I have been extremely fortunate to be able to take an independent stand; afforded first by my one-
DM: The term came from musings on Ashes for Beauty by
time University of Calgary faculty position, then by my ten-year
Stephen Bonfield, who is a writer in Calgary. Certainly, the life
directorship of Dancers’ Studio West and by my partner Allan
of the imagination is involved, but it means slightly different
Bell. Like any dance artist, I must find the money to do what I
things for me as a performer and a choreographer. Some-
want to do, but I am freed by the fact that I am not interested in
times as a choreographer, I plant imagistic suggestions in the
either fashion or fame. I am interested in making the best work I
dancers and see the result of their ‘inner theatre'. When the
can make. I look closely and critically. I see what isn’t working
dancer fully embodies the suggestion there is a qualitative
and I work on that. That is the safest way for me, it keeps me
result, a deepening perhaps, or a new clarity in rhythm or
focused on where I get my biggest reward, which is discovering
focus for example. Choreographically, the term ‘inner theatre’
the potential of what dance can do. I think choreography and
of a work might be a way to consider the sequence and
dance get sold short a lot. Our culture is so literally oriented that
presentation of its images, as well as its contours, dynamics
the world of the imagination is severely neglected and under-
and tensions. In either case, what I am always looking for is a
valued but it is something that the artist must take seriously.
physical result. As a dancer it is the depth and fullness of the Dance Central Summer 2019
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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 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, Art Director & Layout Andreas Kahre Copy Editor Hilary Maxwell Contributors to this issue: Davida Monk, Julianne Chapple, Photography by David Cooper. Chris Randle, Andi Mcleish, Ed Spence Dance Centre Board Members Chair Sheila G. Evani Vice Chair Layla Casper Secretary Eve Leung Chang Treasurer Annelie Vistica Directors Carolyn S. Chan Jai Govinda Megan Halkett Anndraya T. Luui Rob Kitsos Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Samantha Luo Directors Trent Berry, Sasha Morales, Mark Osburn, Janice Wells, Andrea R. Benzel Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Digital Marketing Coordinator Lindsay Curtis Associate Producer Linda Blankstein Venue and Services Administrator Robin Naiman Development Director Sheri Urquhart Development Coordinator Gemma Crowe Lead Technician Chengyan Boon Accountant Elyn Dobbs Member Services and Outreach Coordinator Hilary Maxwell 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 bynumerous 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, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.
Critical Movements A conversation with Davida Monk
connection to the physical idea where 99.9 percent of the work is done. It is as if the focus on and the connection to the movement promotes a new layer of imagistic thinking instead of the other way around. My preference is to avoid ideas like ‘inner theatre’ even though I know this happens. I am not interested in experiencing or interpreting a narrative in dance because I feel then that the dance serves the narrative. My fundamental question is: How to get to the point as a creator and performer that allows the dance to do what narrative can’t do? I want to go there, because I think that's where the power is. When I think about ‘inner theatre’, I am sensitive to the fact that someone might be asking: Are the dancers characters and is there a story line? For me, it is no and no. AK: A work like For Antigone is likely to be read by an audience as connected to a theme from Sophocles' play, and to a narrative involving characters. What makes you interested in a work like that? DM: In this case I was thinking as a dancer and I was interested in another choreographer’s focus. Paras Terezakis’ training in Greek theatre was the central attraction. Antigone is a work that has been done in so many contexts. It is full of unresolved issues; there is no resolution, no answer, no moral. It is just question after question, and that there is no resolution is a kind of satisfaction to me. I feel stimulated by the ambivalence and there is richness in the reminder that sometimes things are too much for us, that we can’t solve it but we can be with it. So, in the research phase we stayed close to the play, reading it along with contemporary interpretations, viewing productions of it, listening to YouTube lectures and immersing ourselves in something both ancient and profoundly human. But if I can speak for the choreographer here, even a theatrical work like Antigone can be a springboard for images rather than narrative. If the movement is deeply explored, the narrative can lose its stranglehold. AK: When it comes to creating a sense of 'inner theatre', music is a powerful tool. In your case, with composer
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continued on page 16
"I always encourage younger creators to look to the craft of what they are doing because the art form is concerned with how we say a thing. Of course, what we want to say is also extremely important, but discovering, controlling and saying something of value is not just a matter of craft but of life experience. "
Thinking Bodies A Conversation with Julianne Chapple
JC: It has been a lot of fun; in performance, we do that section without music, and we talk to each other. It is very casual, because a big part of the inspiration was that as female dancers you are usually used to partnering with a man who can throw you around, where you don’t have a lot of control of the situation, in classical dance at least — obviously contact is more egalitarian—
AK: You are you currently working on? JC: A duet with Maxine Chadburn and myself that we have been working on for a few years. We did a piece at EDAM in 2016, with Francesca Frewer in a trio that included a lot of lifts, and Maxine and I were interested in extending some of the techniques of weight sharing that we were using for that piece and taking them to more of an extreme, so whenever we have had time in between projects we have gotten together to study different kinds of taking weight, and the piece grew from there. We have performed some excerpts in different places over the past year, and this performance is going to be the premier of the full–length version. AK: The excerpt I saw reminded me at times of a circus performance, and I think you have circus training. JC: Yes, circus is an interest I developed as an adult, so I studied some aerials when I was nineteen, twenty, and I was taking any dance-related work, which included working for a circus company where they trained me in a lot of different crazy things. I was also exploring partnering with Maxine, and we did a lot of contact dance at EDAM. I was also interested in how dance traditions approach those things in a very different way from circus traditions, so the two of us studied with a hand-to-hand coach for the past year, in order to learn about this other perspective and to see how we can meld the two things. AK: Do they meld? JC: I think so! The aspects of hand–to–hand that we are specifically using in that duet have to do a lot with balance and static positions, whereas contact is usually really momentum-based, so we are exploring the difference by using momentum, stopping and doing the really finicky work of lining things up and living in that place of negotiation. AK: How do audiences react to this? 8
Dance Central Summer 2019
and we were similar size and small-framed. So we wondered if these things were even possible and what kind of extra technique or attention would have to be used when one person can’t physically take control of the situation. People who watch our negotiation in real time often end up laughing or gasping, and they get involved; we can hear them, they can hear us and it breaks down some of that fourth wall that we are used to having. AK: Do you think in terms of character, or narrative, or is it strictly a matter of tasks? JC: That particular section is just ourselves dealing with tasks on a list of things we have given ourselves to do, but the whole piece is called No More Fantasies and it goes from a very theatrical place to a breakdown of the façade of performance into this totally real thing where if we mess up it, you get to see it. AK: You are also working on a project with your company, Future Leisure. JC: Yes, this is my second full length project with Future Leisure. The first big one was presented by The Dance Centre last October, called Suffix. It was a collaboration with my partner Ed Spence, who is a visual artist, and dancers Maxine Chadburn, Antonio Somera and Francesca Frewer. That was a big project for which Ed and I had been crafting sculptures over the course of several years and created an installation, or whatever you want to call it… AK: What do you call it? JC: I do a lot of performances in art galleries and unconventional spaces. I don’t think of Suffix just as dance, but of a performance in a broader sense, and I am okay with a lot of different labels, but I know that some people are more specific about those things.
FUTURE LEISURE
"I am really interested in technological advancement, and especially in a medium that is based in the body. It seems very relevant to how our environments change, how our interaction with objects is changing, and how then the perception of our own bodies is changing because of all the technological influences."
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Dance Central May/June 2019
Thinking Bodies A Conversation with Julianne Chapple
JC: People also use the term outside eye, and in my experience that fulfills a similar role, where it is more a second pair of eyes, so that if I am not sure how things are being read I can refer to them as another perspective. Because
AK: Do you get audiences who accept that your work is not conceived as 'black box dance', or do you still have to negotiate expectations of story and character? JC: I get a broad range of reactions, and I have had the experience of presenting the same piece in an art gallery and then in more of a dance context. It is interesting to see how people interpret it differently based on their expectations, but mostly I find that people are becoming more open. In my experience as an audience member, I just like to have some understanding of what the expectations of me are, so that I don’t talk at the wrong time, or that the performers come into the audience and try to drag me onstage — which is my worst nightmare, even though I am used to being on stage, but when I am in the audience role I don’t want that barrier to be broken — so I am really mindful when I work in an unconventional setting to make clear what is expected of the audience. AK: Speaking of expectations, I saw that you worked with Gabi Baier as a dramaturg. JC: Yes, I worked with her when I was living in Berlin and also in 2015 while I was doing a residency here. I also often work with Chick Snipper, although she has asked to be credited as a mentor rather than dramaturg for this production. AK: Dramaturg is a term that is used in many ways, and dramaturg(e)s have very different expectations of their role in dance. I read that in describing your work with Gabi Baier, she was very concerned with character and story. JC: That was a funny situation because my pitch to her was that I wanted to make a piece that was entirely abstract, and take away narrative and characters, so she was involved in the very absence of the thing that a dramaturg would normally do. AK: How did you approach her presence, given that narrative doesn't seem to play an important role in your work, whereas that is usually a German dramaturg's understanding
I am not working with character it doesn't usually go to a traditional theatrical model. AK: So how do you negotiate it when they ask you about how a movement serves the 'story'? JC: I think that anyone who works with me also has an understanding that I am not using a traditional narrative structure. Instead, it is more of a question whether the conceptual or emotional arc makes sense. It happens in a similar way to a narrative where you can feel if this should happen next or if it needs another five minutes before we have earned that particular action. AK: How did you get to work with Chick Snipper? JC: I had a residency through The Dance Centre in 2015, and they offered to pair me up with a more experienced artist as a mentor figure to talk to. This was the beginning phase of Suffix, the first really ambitious project I was working on and they gave me a few names, so I googled them, and Chick had done dance, but also film and writing and I thought 'this is the person who will understand where I am coming from'. We continue to have a working relationship, and since then, she has been a friend and someone I go to for advice. AK: In the context of Future Leisure, you talk about transhumanism, and what role it plays in your thinking. Can you describe the source of your curiosity? JC: I am really interested in technological advancement, and especially in a medium that is based in the body. It seems very relevant to how our environments change, how our interaction with objects is changing, and how then the perception of our own bodies is changing because of all the technological influences. This has been the underpinning to a lot of the work I have made in recent years, but Suffix was specifically about trans–humanism. The very first ideas for this piece began when Ed and I were in a residency in a very small town in Italy, where we had no cellphones, the
of their role? Dance Central Summer 2019
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Thinking Bodies A Conversation with Andrew Nemr
internet was super slow, and you had to buy your groceries directly from the farmers. We felt like we were living back in time, and it made us question our dependence on technology — and then we went down the rabbit hole from there. AK: There are many paths toward trans-humanism, from cryo-stasis for deceased pets to Donna Haraway's cyborg explorations, to developments like the genetic chimera (which coincidentally, has just been legalized in China to allow human organs to be grown in pigs), to the stem cell cutlet which my butcher on Gabriola island informs me will be available within the year. For some it is a vision of a dystopian society where corporations gain totalitarian control, while others think of it as a utopia without genetically determined disease and where, if you can afford it, you can order blue eyes and an extra 10 IQ points for your baby. I am not sure which is preferable... 12 Dance Central May/June 2019
"I often envision the piece so fully formed in my own head that explaining it to someone else to execute is a much work as figuring out how to do it by myself." I speak of the craft, because your interaction with the thing shifts for the sake of execution. When I play the instrument — the floor, wood on wood, on JC: When we were in Italy we began looking at the Futurwood — ist movement, because this conversation began with the is very Futurists, as an art movement devoted toit the industrial revolution, and we wondered what the contemporary different from version for the digital revolution might be; would it be less violent, less misogynistic? We played at writing a neothe little board I futurist manifesto and started with the most mainstream use idea of trans-humanism at the time — the cyborg that for literally incorporates hardware into your body. We also practice. That is started with sculptural elements that could be worn, and while we were working on another project, continued whywe‘craft’ to research, and over that time I did a lot of reading about is theI became word I the different pathways to trans-humanism. really interested in the movement to upload your mind choose to use, to the cloud, and in Ray Kurzweil and Martine Rothblatt's 'Terasem' movement, which is therather first techno religion. than ‘the dance’.
I was reading anything I could find on the idea of the 'singu-
usually think of as the opposite of science, became one of
larity' (the emergence of true AI, ed.) and noticed that, just like
my favourite stories. The whole project ended for me at
the futurists, Rothblatt's was saying we WILL have this in the
this place of trans–humanism becoming a spiritual belief,
next five years, upload our minds, live in robot bodies. At one
with all the dangers that we associate with religion.
point I began to wonder if she had the scientific background, but in fact she does. She also commissioned Hanson robotics
AK: Did you also write a cookbook?
to make a replica of her wife, Bina, which allegedly contains her wife's memories, and they created a website where
JC: No, why?
anyone, not just the super-rich, could upload their memories, and by now it is a 'real religion, with her son as the high priest,
AK: The Futurists were crazy about dinner parties, and
where you can worship technology, all tax exempt, of course.
Marinetti wrote an entire Futurist cookbook, with mostly
That, and more specifically the idea that this belief in the
inedible recipes involving things like aircraft aluminum, as
utopian future, and the fanaticism turned into faith, which we
they were crazy about airplanes —
Dance Central Summer 2019
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Thinking Bodies A Conversation with Juliane Chapple JC: — Oh yes, one of the only Futurist dances was based on pretending to be an aeroplane. AK: The cookbook has about fifty recipes, and Marinetti started a campaign against pasta, which he claimed made Italians slow, fat and dull. This made big news, of course, until one day a press photographer discovered him in a restaurant, sitting in front of a big bowl of pasta and took the photo that ended Marinetti's nimbus. I figured you might have followed suit. JC: I didn't get around to that... AK: Where are you at with trans–humanism now? JC: I have been taking a break from it, but the underlying interest in technology, and the fear of it, is a lifelong thing for me. That ends up being part of making work for contemporary artists, including what we think of a documentation and advertising. One of the things I have done is to program a twitter bot that does my promotion for me, it is kind of tongue in cheek, but it has a vocabulary based on my body of work and posts what I might be doing every day. AK: How does Future Leisure relate to your individual practice? JC: Most of the work is done through the company at this point. Potentially, some of the work I make in the visual arts community might be easier to negotiate as an individual artist, but a lot of the work I do involves other artists, and there having the company structure makes it easier to engage a lot of people. AK: Crossover between disciplines hasn't always been easy, especially when it comes to developing audiences. Do visual artists actually come to the dance performances, or do they wait for you to show up in a gallery? JC: There has been a lot of crossover, with dance people going to galleries, visual artists coming to theatres. That is part of my motivation in working between those worlds, because they are still separate in a weird way. I have a lot of friends who are visual artists, and I spend a lot of time going to openings where I think 'everybody here would love to see many of the dance performances in Vancouver if only they knew about them.' 14
Dance Central Summer 2019
AK: With all these points of departure, does Future Leisure present itself as a dance company, or as interdisciplinary? JC: I call it 'interdisciplinary performance'. One of the things we do is to present a series called Shooting Gallery, which happens twice a year and is curated by a guest, and presents any kind of experimental performance. That is a place where we often bring people together who are more dancebased, theatre-based and performance art-based, and show in a mixed bill. And we do it at places like the Flower Shop or Left of Main, so it is not in a black box serious theatre environment, and so maybe some audience members might graduate to a bigger theatre if they enjoy it. AK: This is you and Caitlin Brown? JC: Yes, and the most recent event was in March, guest curated by Sydney Southam who is a great visual artist and works with movement a lot, but is totally separate from the contemporary dance world, and it was great to have her perspective on what performance is. AK: What is her perspective? JC: We do an open call for submissions and we ask for an example of past work. She found the writing of contemporary dance artists 'incomprehensible', and thought it all sounded the same, so her picks were more from the performance art world, which is also her background, but from my point of view, everything that happened in the show could have been present as part of a 'dance' festival. AK: Critical theory is, of course a central dimension of visual art, and that has sometimes made dance audiences become confused. They said 'if I can't experience it in an embodied way, then how can I engage with a theory?’. Also, dancers, unlike now, rarely wrote. That has changed, of course, but while the worlds have grown closer together they still don't communicate well, even with people who are not separated by the traditional idea of 'disciplines'. JC: For me, training as a dancer was difficult because I was always interested in making work, but the training that is out there is generally physical practice and technique toward being a dancer in someone else's work, and there isn't an education around conceptual practice, and often there is no education around history. Compare that to my husband who went to UBC and his art degree is only theory. He says he
didn't learn any technique, and that is a big part of it. AK: How do you talk to each other about your practice? JC: I read a lot, I am self–taught in critical theory and art history, and what writing there is on dance history. That kind of more academic discussion is really interesting to me, but there are problems with that work, as with any art world where there is a barrier to entry, such as going to university, which I didn't do. AK: How did you train? JC: I did ballet growing up, and some jazz and modern dance, and went to Langley Fine Arts school, but I ended up being a music major, because the way dance was being taught there didn't interest me at the time, and, likewise, after graduating, I studied at Modus Operandi for a year, but again it was more of a training program to be a dancer, and so I didn't continue but ended up shadowing choreographers I was interested in, making my way by doing it, talking to people, reading books, and dabbling in all sorts of weird other things — like the circus. AK: What kind of music training did you get and how does it influence your work with sound? JC: I studied classical music and jazz, voice training, guitar, and also theory and history. I make a lot of the soundscapes for my work now. I am not exactly using my classical training. AK: That makes you kind of unique — there are very few dancers who work on their own sound, nearly all of them collaborate. JC: I do, too, sometimes, but I often envision the piece so fully formed in my own head that explaining it to someone else to execute is as much work as figuring out how to do it by myself. And
"Talking in terms of performance as opposed to 'dance', to me all these elements are
as important as the choreography so
even if I am collaborating, I find myself directing the whole scene, so I often do the lighting or video, sound or costumes myself."
talking in terms of performance as opposed to 'dance', to me all these elements are as important as the choreography so even if I am collaborating, I find myself directing the whole scene, so I often do the lighting or video, sound or costumes myself. AK: When I looked at examples of your work, I wondered how you think of the internal and external components of a performance, and whether you experience dance and visual performance as separate or linked, or perhaps as the same? JC: I do experience them as different, especially in cases where you perform the same work in different spaces. That transition is really Dance Central Summer 2019
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Thinking Bodies A Conversation with Juliane Chapple
by sitting on the sidelines with me, but eventually he started moving and improvising with the dancers, and by the time we got to the performance I said: 'You are a dancer, and you have to be in the piece.'
important for me. For example, the trio I did at EDAM was based on that particular space, and every time we have done it somewhere else, parts of it had to be slightly rechoreographed because the relationship with the space is more important than specific moves. With Suffix, we really wanted to give the theatre more of a gallery feel by setting it up in a totally different way, and making the audience feel safe, so when you walk in and it's not what you expected, and you don't know where to go, and if performers will talk to you. So we established a procedure for the piece, where you would be greeted at the top of the stairs and you were told what would happen — there was even an orientation video— so that when you went in you knew exactly what your options were, whether you wanted to move around or just observe from the sidelines. That breaking down the difference between inside and outside of the theatre is really important to me. AK: In Suffix you dance with objects. How do you interact with them? Do you become part of the object, is it a backdrop or a set piece? What kind of relationship do you have with them? JC: Those objects were performers in the piece and there were sections were each dancer had a duet with a specific object and either merge with them, or dance in an interactive duet, where you trade off control. So it was all of that and playing with the idea of performers as objects. For example, Ed was in the piece but he remained static through most if it like some of the sculptures, and that was something I got a lot of comments on. AK: Does he have a movement role in the work or does he just supply the sculptural objects? JC: That piece was the most intense collaboration we have done to date. After we discussed the ideas, when he started designing and building the sculptures, I wanted to be a part of it and learn how to construct them and be involved every step of the way, and when I started working with the sculptures in the studio I invited him. He began 16
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AK: A lot of people work in an interdisciplinary way, but you seem to have more scope in some ways, perhaps because you have more avenues to explore. In the context of the artistic community in Vancouver, do you perceive yourself as part of a movement, or are you a maverick, or does the community matter to your work at all? How do you fit? JC: That's a good and scary question. When I look to people for inspiration, there are dance companies that I admire and love, and then there are visual artists who are working in performance or video who are doing things that I consider similar in spirit to my work. I also think that the way you are perceived is kind of arbitrary, based often on where you were educated, or with whom you are working, or where your work is being shown. I am having a fun time negotiating it all. AK: How do you negotiate it? JC: The Dance Centre has been very supportive of me, which is exciting and gives me a home in the dance world, but I also feel comfortable in artist-run centres and galleries. I have also had good experiences in those, and it feels very freeing to feel like all of those places offer possibilities. AK: You are based in Vancouver, but you have been moving around a lot in the past year. JC: Yes, especially with this duet with Maxine. We performed some excerpts in Toronto and New York, and in Ireland, and we got to do a residency in Northern Ireland, so it has been a really fun year. Next month I am heading to Eastern Canada, but beyond that I don't know what will happen exactly. Into the void... AK: If there is anything you wanted to say to your community, or communities, what would the message be? JC: Future Leisure hosts classes and workshops that are open to anybody and not targeted to professional dancers, like contemporary dance for beginners. I also have a circus coach I work with a lot and she does things like an introduction to
handstands and we are teaching partnering for beginners for people who are adventurous. And I would encourage everyone to check out art outside their own little bubble. If you normally go to dance festivals, go to galleries or to see installations. There are so many great things happening in Vancouver, go and explore! AK: Thank you!
(Terasem Movement Transreligion, Inc. (TMT), incorporated in 2004, with locations in Melbourne Beach, FL and Bristol, VT, is the third and youngest of the Terasem projects and is a 501c3 not-for-profit religious organization. Its mission is to build a collective consciousness consisting of joyful immortal extensions of each of its joiners. Though Terasem considers all humans as ‘Joiners’, after receiving inquiries about how one may formally ‘join’ Terasem, TMT provided a ‘Joinership’ application and induction on its site.[12]
Dance Central Summer 2019
17
A conversation with Davida Monk
continued from page 6
" There is no greater pleasure for me as a lover of dance than to be swept up into a complete choreographic world. I experience a gratifying disorientation as I experience a convincing, surprising and unfamiliar choreographic vision. I am always on the lookout for the places where beauty is found."
Allan Bell as your husband and collaborator, you have ac-
lowed by a change of instrumentation, and a long diminu-
cess to it, even if, as in this case, the music is added after
endo. How do I deal with all that dynamic and expressive
the choreography has been completed.
information without making the dance read as a reaction to
DM: I have worked with prerecorded music, of course,
the music? Or to step back from that to a deeper question:
in some cases it has been Allan’s music and some cases
What can I as a choreographer learn about time by study-
not. There is a wealth of contemporary music in Canada, a
ing what composers do? For me, there were two basic
super richness. In the case of For Antigone, Allan discussed
approaches to the study: to learn how to achieve the same
the sound palette with Paras, then proceeded to view video
or similar effect in movement, and to find movement solu-
sketches of sections of the work in development. He then
tions that provide expressive counterpoints. Both of these
provided numerous sketches of his own in response. Paras
routes provide ways of addressing temporal and dynamic
made choices within what Allan provided, and then the
problems that composers deal with all the time. As dance is
process continued back and forth for a bit.
partly a temporal art, I embraced these temporal challeng-
In my own choreographic development, when I made
es. My way is to work with demanding music while keeping
the decision to take music seriously, my choreography
the attention in the dance meaning that the rigour of move-
improved. I chose contemporary art music; music that
ment language must at least match if not exceed that of
demanded attention, that you had to really listen to in order
the sound language because my job is to keep the viewer’s
to appreciate. And as a choreographer I immediately ran
attention on the dance. I must convince the viewer that the
into problems. For example: the composer introduces and
dance is the reason for the music. These things point to re-
develops a theme, which then becomes a huge climax, fol-
ally important choreographic craft questions, and
Critical Movements A conversation with Davida Monk questions that I have benefitted from. Whenever Allan and I work together we are both conscious of the need to keep the music and the dance separate from each other, by which I mean, that if the dance is doing one thing, the music has to do something else. We are really careful not to assume that they are the same thing although each contributes to the overall impact in the meaning of the work. There is a huge world of study there and I really encourage younger choreographers to listen beyond their playlist. AK: You work with younger choreographers much of the time. How do you see their work develop? DM: Some individuals will always distinguish themselves as curious, hard workers who are ready to address the things they must address in order to advance their craft. I have collegial relations with several in Calgary who are of this calibre and there is a great excitement for me there. I take any invitation to provide critical comments very seriously. I always encourage younger creators to look to the craft of what they are doing because the art form is concerned with how we say a thing. Of course, what we want to say is also extremely important, but discovering, controlling and saying something of value is not just a matter of craft but of life experience. So young choreographers need to make lots of work, over a period of personal development. The way I see it, it takes serious time. There is no way around it. It is heartening to me that even in a community the size of Calgary, there is a group of young choreographers that really seriously wants to develop and will suffer many difficult lessons to learn the next step. It is what we all have to go through. Aside from the challenges of craft and artistry, young choreographers must face the fact that their opportunities for development will be largely self-motivated and hard–won. AK: Coming from the vantage point of another city and province, what do you observe in the Vancouver community that is similar or different? DM: Although Calgary’s dance community is small it is home to significant resources: two large dance institutions, one of Canada’s few undergraduate dance programs, two pre-professional training programs, a long-established organization dedicated
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"If a choreographer is really interested in a topic there is no better place to go than to the poets.
Read the
poets
on that . subject If you do that
you are reaching out, your world enlarges and as a you do that, everything lifts up.
to the development of dance artists and an annual three-
work of art. I am sensitive to several dangers of this approach.
week dance festival that presents local and international
It encourages a literalism in the creation and appreciation of
artists. These resources serve to support a certain number
art, which denies one of art’s most important values; that it be
of serious choreographers and performers, and to stimulate
open to rich interpretation, suggestive rather than prescrip-
interest and activity for the community and the theatre-
tive. It carries with it an implication of moral superiority by
going public. However, many Calgary dance artists travel to
association to the relevant cause on the part of its creators.
enrich their training and to gain greater experience. Often
It encourages creators to justify and pursue their work in
these artists make their way to Vancouver to fulfill their
easily graspable other-than-artistic terms. It discourages the
professional aspirations. I see Vancouver’s dance com-
rigourous pursuit of the limitations of a form in terms of the
munity as very rich in aesthetic variety, broad in its range
form itself. I think there is a province for the imaginative work
of activities, blessed in its resources, training programs
of art that nothing else can do as well. I think we serve our art
and support systems, and notably mature in its multigen-
form best by being there.
erational membership. It strikes me as a community that has both the weight and the critical mass necessary to be
AK: Your description brings to mind poetry, which is in a simi-
a hub, a true dance centre. Over the last three decades,
lar, difficult position, between collapsing into a polemic, or a
I have been a frequent visitor to Vancouver where my
formal exercise.
works have been presented, and where I have rehearsed, performed, created, studied, debated and taught. My
DM: Yes, the poets are really important, and their work nour-
numerous Vancouver dance colleagues include those I first
ishes all of my work. In creation I am never without some
encountered as a young dancer with Le Groupe Dance Lab
poetic source. I think of the Canadian poets Robert Bringhurst,
as well as those met through associations with my work
Tim Lilburn, Don McKay and Jan Zwicky, all of whom I have
as Artistic Director of Calgary’s Dancers’ Studio West, as
read closely. I did a large work based on Jan Zwicky's Lyric
Associate Professor at University of Calgary and as Artistic
Philosophy, and a solo on Tim Lilburn’s Moosewood Sandhills,
Director of M-body.
and performed in Robin Poitras’ Ursa Major for which Robert Bringhurst wrote the multi-language poetic text. Poetry con-
AK: To return to the question about the past, present and
siders image, rhythm, and vision in ways that I find promote
future of dance, what concerns or delights you?
choreographic thinking. If a choreographer is really interested in a topic there is no better place to go than to the poets. Read
DM: These delights and concerns arose in the past, arise
the poets on that subject. If you do that you are reaching out,
in the present and will arise in the future. I don’t see them
your world enlarges and as a you do that, everything lifts
as indicative of a particular period, but rather simply as
up. The thing I loved about working with Jan Zwicky's Lyric
points of view. Who can really say what art is or should be?
Philosophy for example was that it felt like having her great
We can only do what we feel called to do. I am delighted
mind in the studio. I had chosen areas of her work from which
by choreographic works that express an uncompromis-
I felt I could draw movement and imagery and I kept her text
ing commitment to defining values, particularly aesthetic
close by as a companion to the process. It was remarkable.
values. There is no greater pleasure for me as a lover of
All creative processes are strengthened by opening to great
dance than to be swept up into a complete choreographic
minds. So if you ask where we are now, I think we shouldn’t
world. I experience a gratifying disorientation as I experi-
pull punches, and we should challenge our young artists. If
ence a convincing, surprising and unfamiliar choreographic
we don't, we aren't showing them the respect they deserve.
vision. I am always on the lookout for the places where beauty is found. I am concerned about the often expressed
AK: Thank you!
need to be relevant and the temptation to make a polemic, a didactic rather than an artistic work. It is as if the socially relevant topic is used to give weight and importance to a
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Dance Central Summer 2019