HOUSTON DANCERS PUT BIG IDEAS IN TINY SPACES
Connor Walsh’s new dance starts with as ccrrrriiitt tc chh sound, the noise of utility tape being pulled from a roll.
It looks like the Houston Ballet principal is repairing a concrete floor with his girlfriend Chae Eun Yang, a member of the company’s corps. They’re wearing street clothes and socks, putting down a very precise square of tape a few steps from the kitchen counter of their condo in Houston’s East End.
The square measures 4 feet by 4 feet. That’s regulation size for the Ten Tiny Dances format, an endearingly odd performance concept created in Portland, Ore., 18 years ago that challenges choreographers to invent short dances within what used to seem like a ridiculously small footprint.
Walsh’s “Etude #1 (at home)” is the first release of “Ten Tiny Dances in Ten Days,” a series of new videos uploaded at noon daily through May 1 on the CounterCurrent 2020 Festival website.
If April had unfolded without a pandemic, Walsh and Yang would have performed their piece live, on a raised cube in a large hall, most likely before a large audience. All of CounterCurrent 2020’s live events were canceled, including lectures, site-specific installations and other performances.
The live “Ten Tiny Dances” was to have been a “best of” edition, because festival organizer Karen Farber is putting CounterCurrent on haitus. (As the director of the University of Houston’s Mitchell Center for the Arts, she said before the shutdown that she was ready to shift her focus.)
Walsh originally presented “Etude #1” in 2017, but re-creating it for video, in his home, made it something else. He doesn’t just choreograph and dance; he also videotaped his piece, and it’s not just a simple balance-the-phoneon-a-book job.
After the introductory setup, the dance unfolds to staccato-ish, contemporary violin music by
Nadia Sirota. The first steps are wary, as if Walsh and Yang are trying to social distance. Then, the yearning comes through.
In this new context, “Etude #1” is a poignant gesture for a surreal time, when performers everywhere are turning their living rooms, bedrooms, garages, windows, balconies and yards into makeshift studios and stages.
In more ordinary times, Walsh moves exuberantly, eating up space across the stage. He thought choreographing for a 4-by-4-foot stage was a fun challenge a few years ago. “Little did I know how closely it would relate to my experience with dance years later,” he posted this week on Instagram. “I’m looking forward to the day I can dance as big as I can again.”
Laura Gutierrez, Nick Vaughan + Jake Margolin, Courtney Jones and Kayla Collymore have also created new videos for the CounterCurrent project. The second week’s videos, from archives, are by Alde Lewis/A.L. Efficacy Movement, Marisa Jahn, Harrison Guy, Sixto Wagan and Jasmine Hearn.
See “Ten Tiny Dances in Ten Days” at countercurrentfestival.org. Connect with Connor Walsh @connorlwalsh and Chae Eun Yang @chaechae91 on Instagram.