Moses readies new dance full of big ideas
Choreographer turns to his own short story for inspiration
Robert Moses has been challenging the dance scene and audiences for over three decades. And he definitely has plans to continue on that path when his company, Robert Moses' Kin, celebrates its 28th season at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco Friday through Sunday.
Moses, both as a performer and choreographer, has been on the radar of this writer and other dance fans for more than 30 years. As a dancer with ODC and during the early years of his own company, his highly personal style of movement evoked something akin to a dive-bombing pilot. He propelled his body and expression to extreme limits, giving the impression that he would go to any length to ensure his intentions were clear, just short of annihilating himself.
Once his performing days were over, his choreography did not lose any of that electrifying power to engage.
Much of his work boldly addresses provocative political and social issues, particularly as a Black artist in today's polarized environment.
In a recent interview, Moses talked about the progress on his latest dance piece, the state of the world and how the two intersect.
He definitely is not of the “I'll put on some gorgeous music and make a beautiful ballet” school of choreography. Instead he often immerses his works in a huge volume of words (both his own and others), visual stimuli, visceral movement and music, then lets them marinate.
For the moment his premiere is titled “How Does One Arrive at Short Story Technique,” but that's subject to change, as is true with many other aspects of the production. Moses works organically and always looks for ways to enhance his work as it evolves in the studio.
“I'll tell you what I'm chasing down, trying to communicate,” he says. “I wrote a micro story six or seven years ago, but it's been sitting around and I've been adding to it a little bit at a time. Essentially it's the story of an idea.”
In the story, Moses explains, there's a child who is sad because he has nothing. An “idea” comes along and says that it will introduce him to all these other “ideas,” with the boy eventually meeting ideas called Freedom, Choice, War, Peace, Truth and more.
Moses shared this snippet from the text of his story.
“The child met so many of the first idea's friends,
that their journey expanded, got bigger and bigger and it occurred to the child that
all ideas were related in some way.
That they all were something more than a notions, that all ideas were kin.” Moses also is intrigued by another very timely topic he hopes to bring to the dance piece. He describes it as “all the things that have to do with the history of education for African Americans. What it means to be someone who is searching for knowledge and what it means to be denied the ability to access learning.”
“What about fugitive (slave) literacy?” he added. “Being literate and being an outlaw at the same time, that's where the new piece is going. The tension between Black aspiration and doctrinaire notions that keeping your access to areas of knowledge means you're doing something wrong.”
The topic arises at a time when some conservative lawmakers are challenging aspects of Black history courses they find too political.
Bringing a dance company out of the COVID-19 lockdown has had its own difficulties, Moses says.
“We lost years and I'm less tolerant of not getting straight down to work. How much is backlogged in your creative impulse by not having a outlet?”
At the same time, the performance level of the dancers has also suffered. Moses noted that dancers can't keep in shape “making TikTok videos that last one minute. That doesn't help you get back on stage and perform an entire evening of moderately challenging contemporary dance.”
As for other production aspects, starting with costume design, Moses offers, “it will probably be me. Some bought, some made. Even before the pandemic, it's always been a cult of collaboration. A lot of it has been about me doing many things. I'm creating some of the music and writing most of the text. Also doing the sound and lighting the stage. How do I adjust? I think I'm doing that with the dancers.”
Despite Moses' wellknown collaborative nature, what it comes down to is “not only having a performance driven by my vision, but, by me, literally.”