6 minute read
Body Work
Body Work
CONVERGE INVITES KC TO UNDERSTAND AND APPLAUD LOCAL CONTEMPORARY DANCE
By Belle Yennie
“Never miss a chance to dance.”
But only until you’re 18, and only if you’re in a coastal city.
Dancing in the Midwest isn’t easy, but even more so for contemporary performers. It’s difficult to gain support for an art form that can’t actually be defined. Ballet dancers strike their arabesques with grace, holding their chins high. The tappers shuffle and scuff around the stage while their arms float for balance. Even cirque performers receive jaw-dropping reactions for their splits and contorted shapes.
With contemporary, every movement with a technical name is scrapped. Using an arm, they slice, and their chest clicks with an audible exhale. In another moment, dancers swoosh their upper bodies in a circular motion. And soon after, they explode in a jump. Unique to the other art forms of dance, anything can happen, but we are still afraid of what we cannot define.
We don’t have to be.
Co-directed by individual dance company owners Tristian Griffin and Regina Klenjoski, the Converge dance performance featured a combined showcase of five stand-alone pieces on togetherness. They say most dance companies operate independently, but the two unite their connections to maximize the show’s quality. Newman University, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Arts, and Lawrence Arts Center hosted the combined dance performance. Converge already plans to return next year for additional shows.
“We heard comments like, ‘I don’t have to go to New York because that’s here now,’” says Klenjoski.
With limited dance opportunities in the Midwest, Converge meshes efforts to provide an artistic performance with “big city” quality and open the door for more contemporary dance opportunities. The show included pieces by the two directors and university dance instructors Gary Abbott, Sabrina Vasquez, and Chad Michael Hall. At the end of the show, choreographers bridge the gap between performers and audience members with a discussion of their pieces. By highlighting the diverse dance backgrounds and educational approach choreographers bring, they are raising the expectations of the Kansas City stage.
“We’re pulling from the different things that are in each work in correlation with the themes of Juneteenth, like freedom, celebration, diversity, identity,” says Griffin. “We’re giving a moment to discuss those points so it’s very clear for the audience to understand how ‘Pale Blue Dot’ relates to identity or ‘The Art of Letting Go’ is about forgiveness and moving forward.”
Some dancers and choreographers received training in Nebraska, Ohio, and other locations that aren’t heavily known as dance-centered areas. Some others include experience in larger cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. Rather than two Kansas City companies competing, Griffin and Klenjoski prove how sharing connections and ideas benefit dance performances.
“As a small, contemporary company, we have to have a limited capacity to what we can do with venue selections and who we hire in,” says Griffin. “With us coming together to share our resources, it’s starting to become possible.”
Dancer Josué Villeda traveled from his home country of Guatemala to search for more dance opportunities in the United States. Before Griffin’s request to perform in Converge, Villeda heard of KC but never imagined himself dancing here. However, he didn’t know about the hidden dance opportunities it held. After receiving positive feedback from several sold-out shows, Villeda says it’s up to the support of the people to continue the spark in KC.
Contemporary dance is a misfit among other forms of entertainment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t thrive. It just needs the applause from its audience.
“Dancers don’t have to leave for New York or LA or other places to try to find a job. They can have it there if there are people supporting,” says Villeda. “Converge, for me, was a magical experience.”
Villeda provides contemporary dance instruction and master classes for dance competitions, recitals, and smaller contemporary companies. In Guatemala, fierce, talented dancers stop dancing right before college because of their lack of dance opportunities. Despite living in the U.S. for only eight months, he says the Midwest has many great choreographers and artists. He expresses his gratitude for Converge, but making a space for contemporary dancers could help further their momentum.
“I think there are so many people that have cool ideas, but there’s no place,” says Villeda. “If you want to perform or create something new, you need to pay for a theater or a space. And I think it is important to have spaces where people are just starting.”
When Katilyn Gardner informs others she’s a contemporary dancer, people often ask her what that means. To explain, she compares The Office and Friends to Interstellar and Black Mirror. With other dance genres, a storyline or plot is provided for entertainment. With contemporary, the more engaged the audience is, the more they will receive from its message. In addition to this, contemporary dance audience members can interpret their own meaning with no correct answer.
“I think what drives people away from contemporary dance is the audience not knowing that whatever words or feelings that pop into their head while watching it—that is what it’s about,” says Gardner. “I think they feel out of the loop sometimes. So then it’s up to the choreographer to make sure there is some sort of loop to be in.”
Contemporary dance may not be everyone’s favorite entertainment, but Gardner advises audiences to return for more.
Contemporary choreographers’ crafts are completely different from one another, and the same individual can present a performance that is nothing like their previous show. In addition to her performance career, Gardner is also a dance teacher at Stars Unlimited in Liberty and Dance Fit Flow in the Crossroads. In her classes, Gardner helps both children and adults express themselves through improvisational dance, connecting them with movement language.
“We don’t open our mouths and say any form of language, but our body is speaking it,” says Gardner. “A performance could be loved by many but also hated by many. It’s so subjective, so they have to keep coming and seeing it.”
The five pieces in each show included Klenjoski’s “Rank of Angels,” Griffin’s “The Art of Letting Go,” Vasquez’s “Pale Blue Dot,” Abbott’s “Tarantism,” and Michael Hall’s “Uncanny Valley.” Next year, different choreographers and artists will bring pieces for the second Converge performance.
Contemporary dance is a misfit among other forms of entertainment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t thrive. It just needs the applause from its audience.
“Dance is underrepresented in this area, especially in the middle of the country. And if there’s anything I can offer to your audience, it’s that you will not be disappointed,” says Klenjoski.
