FUTURE OF DANCE
Get ready to vote — don’t worry, it’s nothing political. The Milwaukee Ballet’s “Genesis” competition is about to put new works by three of the world’s up-and-coming choreographers on the Pabst Theater stage.
Not only were these works created on Milwaukee Ballet dancers, the winner of the competition will be back next year to create another new piece. As to the voting, pay close attention to the performances of the three pieces, because your opinion matters in the Audience Choice Award.
This biannual international competition gives each of three choreographers three weeks and eight randomly chosen Milwaukee Ballet dancers on whom to create a work that features or blends any styles of movement.
Milwaukee Ballet artist Rachel Malehorn spoke recently about the joys and challenges of being part of the creation of a new work, as opposed to learning a great piece of the classical ballet repertoire, such as “Giselle” or “Swan Lake.”
“In classical ballet, the challenge is using a very specific technique that has been around for centuries, but still finding a way to use it as a tool to tell a story,” she said. “It’s a mix of finding expression while still honoring these steps and styles that have been around for so long.”
“The challenge of contemporary works is that they encompass all styles of dance,” Malehorn continued.
“Each choreographer has their own vocabulary of movement,” she said, adding that she loves working with different choreographers on new pieces because “I have the opportunity to learn a new language.”
“Like the romance languages that
Choreographers pair with ballet for ‘Genesis’ competition of new works
share a common root,” Malehorn said, “A lot of contemporary choreography shares the common root of classical ballet.”
Malehorn explained a bit of the history of modern dance, saying, “People began to break away from the classical ballet traditions because they wanted to find news ways of moving and expressing themselves.”
“Choreographers today have the opportunity to develop vocabularies that can help them express whatever they envision for their pieces,” she said.
For Milwaukee Ballet artist Lahna Vanderbush, “It’s usually fun and exciting, and a little bit of nerves, when you first meet the choreographer. You don’t know each other and you may not know their vocabulary of movement.”
Although she enjoys working in both styles equally, Vanderbush said, “When you dance a ballet that been performed many times, you have a standard and expectations that you have to meet. The benefit of a piece that is created on you is that you have no standard or expectations,” she said.
When learning the “Genesis” pieces, the dancers are effectively the first people in what will, hopefully for the choreographers, be a long line of people creating the standard and expectations for the work.
All choreographers work differently, just as all composers, authors, painters, sculptors, and so on, work differently.
For Brazilian choreographer Mariana Oliveira, the London-trained founder of the New York’s The Union Project Dance Company, creating a new work begins with a concept, which is then followed by “obsessing about it.”
“I try to find everything I can in cinema, visual art, theater and literature that’s related to the concept,” Oliveira said, explaining that she’s particularly fascinated by silent films because they, like ballet, are silent communication.
The actual choreography, Oliveira explained, goes on in her living room.
“I actually create the piece in my living room with a cup of coffee, writing with a pen on paper like I’m writing a book,” she said. “I hardly move at all.”
“I was a classically trained dancer (the Royal Academy of Dance in London). Although my work is contemporary, it is really well informed by classical technique,” she said.
That training meant spending countless hours taking class and rehearsing, always in front of mirrors and always watching her reflection to memorize and internalize the feel of every step and movement, explains Oliveira’s stationary method of choreography: those movements are as natural as breathing for her.
But even after she gets into the studio with dancers, with the piece created in her mind, she said, “It’s “almost like a little puzzle — seeing how the dancers move and fitting the piece to them.”
“I use their input and we create something together,” Oliveira said.