Building a House of Culture
SB: So, to address the preamble to this interview, what have you found so far? TJ: In New York it feels like dance and danc- ing are tied up with people’s sense of sur- vival. Dancers go to New York often to be in companies, to “be” dancers, and do “the great work,” whatever that means to them. I’m still new to the scene in the Bay, but I haven’t experienced this sort of soul survival tied up in dancing here. It’s probably true for people here in different ways, but to me there is an urgency and a hunger that feels different. When young dancers go to New York, I think many of us are asking, “Do I have what it takes?” The Bay Area is no pic- nic and it has its own questions to wrestle with, but it doesn’t seem to me to be a place dancers go to find out whether they “have what it takes.” SB: Can you describe any material differ- ences between teaching or taking class in New York vs. here? TJ: Terrible overgeneralization: classes in NY tend to be harder—technically harder, longer phrases, longer classes. And people want the hard classes. Something about the culture, the density, the intensity. SB: I can tell it’s hard to talk about. So let me ask you instead: What perspective do you want to offer In Dance readers? What would you like them to know about you? TJ: Right now I’m curious about what I could possibly share of my experience in New York that would feed or spark people here. How can I give the people that are hun- gry a little more momentum or support for their hunger? SB: I don’t know if this is still true, or if it was ever true, but they say the Bay Area has the largest number of choreographers per cap- ita in the world. Did you choreograph in New York, or did you come here to don that cap? TJ: In New York I was really focused on my work with Bill’s company. I experienced
myself as continuing to train to be good enough to do the work while I was doing it. I didn’t have very much time or energy to be focusing on making my own things. Then as I started to settle and felt like I was good enough inside of the work to turn my atten- tion to mine, I started to make solos and would make about a solo a year. I did a couple of group things. I enjoy dancing but my aspiration has always been towards choreography. One of the reasons why I was so satis- fied with being in Bill’s company for so long was because, at the point of the com- pany’s history that I was engaged with it, a large proportion of the movement material was being drawn from the dancers through tasks. Another large portion was drawn from phrases Janet Wong would make or she would give a seed phrase and then dancers would manipulate it in various ways. And then Bill might give a phrase or we might draw material from one of his past works into a new piece and either put it in whole or manipulate it. So there was always a pro- cess of being creatively involved in shaping what was happening. It was not a choreogra- pher’s mind that we were being asked to step into but a material technician’s mind, a com- poser’s mind in terms of the language of the movement. And then inside of that we were being conducted by Bill’s amazing, richly stocked mind. When they took me on it was a risk, an investment, and a generosity.” —TALLI JACKSON SB: So it quenched your choreographic thirst to an extent. TJ: Yes, but it was not my vision. With cho- reography, there’s a whole right-brained shift where you’re half in dream space, trying to convert impressions of emotion and image
into something that can be actually practiced and refined, and we were not asked to do that. But one of the reasons I stayed so long was that being in the company was a master class in creative process. SB: What have you been up to since you got here? TJ: I’m preparing the soil. That soil prepara- tion has involved organizing and assisting in NVC trainings, volunteer work, reading, learning what it means and what it takes to be a loving presence in my partner’s life, and trying to learn from, without collaps- ing under, the many failures inherent in the attempt to grow. SB: But you’re teaching dance too. TJ: Yes. My most consistent teaching has been at ODC in their Hot Spot, but I’ve also been lucky to have the opportunity to teach at Shawl Anderson, Lines, the Berkeley Rep School, and Marin School for the Arts. TJ: The role that I want to play as a teacher is an encourager and instigator, someone who offers a space and a structure that says, Here—don’t you just want to step into it and play? I find effort exciting: you sweat a lot and you breathe heavy and your body’s working, and you’re exploring the edge of what is possible. Isn’t it fun to strive and fall and not really know, to just be on the edge of the thing? It’s a question of sharing delight. SIMA BELMAR, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the Depart- ment of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Oakland Tribune, Dance Magazine, TDR, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, Per- formance Matters, Contemporary Theatre Review, and The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies. To keep up with Sima’s writing please subscribe to tinyletter.com/simabelmar. SB: How would you describe your pedagogy?
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Aztec” dance, and I ask him to elaborate on what constitutes Contemporary Aztec. Jesús explains that as a Mexican, he wants to “honor the indigenous cultures, and I feel that when it comes to those dance forms, if we aren’t doing them in the sacred spaces, it’s almost disrespectful if we do the dance as a ceremony. So, I research all the different aspects of the ceremony and the dancing and from those traditional steps and movements.” He says he creates “new movements based on the movements in an Aztec ceremony, but it’s not an Aztec ceremony, and I don’t claim that. You can see Aztec dancing in the streets because those groups have elders who form a circle and make it a ceremony. We don’t dance in the circle. We are putting on a show, and that makes it Contemporary Aztec. I also ask permission and talk to people and ask them for their advice to make sure I am respecting their culture. It’s a challenge for anybody who wants to do it, because you can cross the line very easily, most people won’t even notice, but the people who know will always let you know.” We end our conversation by discussing the different staging possibilities available in the Rotunda’s space, and as he describes the pos- sibilities, it appears that Jesús is staring into the wall beside us. I know he’s seeing a set of movements that will take place in the space of the Rotunda. He is dreaming of what a community looks like coming together in movement.
ROB TAYLOR is a writer who lives in the Bay Area.
Rotunda Dance Series presents Cuicacalli Dance Company: Sep 6, City Hall Rotunda, SF dancersgroup.org/rotunda
workshops to inspire & improve teaching practice Dance & Early Childhood Education Dance in TK: Sept. 28, 1-5pm, $125 Dance in ECE Level 1: Nov. 16, 9:50am-5pm, $185 Dance in ECE Level 2: Dec. 7th, 9:50am-3:30pm, $125 Motivation & Creativity Workshop Examine human motivation theories & their relationship to creativity, cultural relevancy, & social-emotional learning: Oct. 1, 6-9pm, $75 Documentation: Making Dance Learning Visible Explore methods of recording & sharing to help you capture, observe, assess, & communicate dance learning Nov. 12, 6-9pm, $75
ODC Theater Presents Àse Dance Theater Collective Have K(NO!)w Fear: A Bluessical October 17-19, 8 PM
odc.dance/bluessical
605 Addison St. Berkeley, CA | lunadanceinstitute.org 10% Dancers’ Group/NDEO/CDEA & 50% Student Discounts
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in dance SEP 2019
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