Video Interns Heather O’Neill and Sharon Keenan

“Not only am I learning valuable in-class skills by observing such incredible teachers, but I am also thinking more holistically about arts education. It takes a village to raise an artist… I am so proud to spend my time here at Bates! I feel like new doors are opening for me here. By being around so many experienced artists, I’m learning every day how much I don’t know about dance or learning and how limitless my creative future can be. I will bring forward with me a freshly fueled passion and inspiration for the arts, along with new collaborators and support networks.”

Olandra Lickter is a 2016 Education Intern. A UC Santa Cruz graduate she lives in New Orleans, where she works for an arts enrichment program providing quality arts education for all regardless of financial hardship.

Education Interns Timna Naim, Olandra Lickter, Gavin Scheurch, Woods Fairchild, Jazmine Taylor-Hughlett, and Laura Pietropaoli

“Everyone here has been so lovely it’s amazing that everyone working here is a dancer so there’s something that bonds us all regardless of our current roles here.”

Blake Caple is a 2016 Arts Administration/Photography Intern. From Somersworth, NH, Blake is entering his senior year at Goucher College where he studies Dance and Business with a concentration in Arts Administration.

“Being able to hold real responsibilities directed toward keeping the incredible dance education and live performance alive at BDF has reminded me of the important value of a strong community…At every step of my journey as an intern at Bates, I’m constantly grateful to be a part of an actively dance-driven and kind-hearted community of people who give back to the primary foundation and mission of the organization: to be a place where dancers come to connect and be together.”

Hailing from Santa Cruz, CA, Gracie Winston is a recent graduate of UCLA. Gracie is a 2016 Arts Administration Intern.

Tech Interns Rebecca Brill-Weitz, Liam Shaffer, Jason Ross, Joanna McLarnan, and Robin Ediger-Seto

“When I heard about the Bates Dance Festival, the first thing that was said to me was “You will feel like you have a family.” I dare to say that is the most truthful statement that has ever been said to me, coming back this summer felt like I never left. It felt like coming back home!”

Originally from Ecuador, Fernando Chonqui is back for his second year as an Arts Administration intern and manager of the BDF store. Fernando is entering his senior year at the University of South Florida.

“Bates provided the perfect balance of service work, art making, dance training, and intellectual discussion. I have been supported from day one by caring staff, other interns, and dancers. Bates provided an intimate and safe, accessible learning environment that has helped shaped my artistry, goals, and ambitions.”

Arts Administration Interns (left to right) Nolan Hoppe-Leonard, Chava Lansky, Gracie Winston, Sydney Burrows, Blake Caple, and Fernando Chonqui

Jazmine Taylor-Hughlett is a 2016 Education Intern. Originally from Milwaukee, WI Jazmine is earning her BFA in Dance from the University of North Texas.

This post was written by Chava Lansky. Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer. 

Leigh Lotocki

BDF: Can you tell me a little bit about your dance background?

LL: I did ballet almost exclusively growing up, and then when I went to college I switched to modern. It seemed kind of like a natural progression but it was a big shift for me – I didn’t really know a ton about contemporary movement, but I had the sense that if I chose contemporary work or modern dance or even more experimental work I’d be dancing a lot longer than if I pursued ballet.

BDF: How did you hear about the Bates Dance Festival?

LL: I went to Ohio State University and I heard about BDF from everyone there. A bunch of my classmates had already been here and a lot of the BDF staff today were working at OSU or were there as grad students. Carrie Cox (Festival Production Manager) was our Production Manager at school, so she pulled me in. I ended up with a production work-study position my first year here in 2008. I had a blast — I was really busy, I had a full schedule of classes and I was working, but I got to see all of the shows from backstage which was a really interesting way to experience the Festival for the first time. I felt then a bit like how I feel now which is that I was meeting a lot of new people and also surrounded by some familiar faces, and it was a great experience. Bates has been a really comfortable network of people that both support and challenge each other, and it’s always really felt like a family atmosphere. I really like that BDF doesn’t have a competitive edge – it’s just not there, and any sense of competition is just from people seeing each other and saying “oh I can do that” or “now that I’ve seen someone do this I’m really inspired to do this other thing,” etc. That’s something I’ve always appreciated about Bates as opposed to other dance festivals.

BDF: What classes are you taking and what have you learned from them?

LL: I’m taking Paul Matteson’s technique (Modern V). I actually took his technique the first time I came as well and I just knew there was a lot there to work with and I had liked that class a lot. It was a cool realization to come back to it and remember how different my body was the first time. I’m also taking Pilates which again is something I’m kind of coming back to from old areas of training that I’ve since kind of moved away from. I’ve been really craving a mat practice I can do at home, so Pilates has a lot of utility for me in my life as a dancer in New York, not really having a lot of space in my apartment I can noodle around in or do a warm up in. In the afternoons I’m taking Doug Gillespie’s technique (Modern IV) and Kate Weare repertory. Doug’s class is all about physicality and finding clarity in your movement and a sense of movement initiation. I feel like I’m really finding power in my movement. Kate Weare’s rep class has been awesome and I’m learning a lot about her work with a great group. I’m really pleased with my classes.

BDF: What’s next for you in the dance world?

LL: I’m living in Brooklyn. I moved there a year and a half ago from Columbus, OH to start a new chapter. I make dances and I also still really enjoy performing for people. I’ve been interning at Center for Performance Research which has been a great experience with a small tight knit team with similar values to this place and a supportive environment focused around dance and art making. I moved to New York in part because I was really craving a community where I could have more dancers’ eyes on my work, and I wanted that kind of electric sense of inspiration from being among lots of dancers.

BDF: Why did you choose to come back to BDF this summer?

LL: For kind of similar reasons as to why I moved to NY. I knew this was a place where I have friends and I would make friends and more importantly it was a time that I knew I could really focus inwardly on my dancing and reinvigorate my physical practice. Anyone especially who’s in NY knows that dancing can get diluted by other things we have to take care of, especially for people doing contract based work. When you’re a freelance artist you really have to carve out time for your dance process and technique. I wanted to get a kick-start this summer in a supportive environment with a lot of good friends and have a really great time.

BDF: Can you share a stand out moment from your time at the Festival so far?

LL: I think what stands out is mostly the feeling that everyone at the Festival is really present, both on a day when they feel really great and are loving the class and on a day when they’re injured or frustrated. So many little moments stand out here in a way they don’t in my “regular life” – I really get more out of each day here at BDF.

This post was written by Chava Lansky. Chava is the BDF Social Media intern for the 2016 summer. 

Movement in the Moment came into being in the early years of the Bates Dance Festiva (now in its 34^th season.) Since it’s founding, contact improvisation has been an integral part of the Festival. BDF Director Laura Faure remembers the showing gradually developing from humble beginnings as an in-house jam into the public event that it is today.

Youth Arts Program campers and counselors

Yet despite a larger audience, the event remains highly informal and free to the public, encouraging members of the local Maine community to attend. For the past number of years the evening has included a pre-show performance by campers in the Youth Arts Program, Bates Dance Festival’s community outreach program that brings local campers aged 6-17 together to explore art of all kind. On Wednesday, half an hour before the show began, Youth Arts Program families, BDF students, and general audience members gathered outside on Bates College’s idyllic campus. The roughly fifty campers stood in a clump on the end of a stone path cutting through a grassy field across from Youth Arts Program musicians Terrence Karn and Rob Flax, their instruments in hand. Guided by their counselors and staff the young students began their improvisational score. Every time a certain whistle was sounded, they all froze. The score focused on mimicry, including a mirroring activity done in pairs, and a walking game where the campers exaggerated the movements of one student. The campers concentrated fiercely on the tasks at hand, foreshadowing the show to come.

As they entered the Bates College Alumni Gymnasium audience members were approached by the dancers and asked to leave their shoes in a taped out region of the floor adjacent to the marley, and take a seat in the bleachers on either side of the dance floor. The fifteen dancers included many members of the Festival’s faculty along with select staff and community members. Festival lighting designer Greg Catellier sat ready at his board next to the eight world-class festival musicians, poised in a sea of instruments. Lighting and music allowed the evening to function as a fully improvised show as opposed to a jam – all of the converging aspects of theatricality executed simultaneously by practitioners at the very top of their game. Faculty members and practiced improvisers Angie Hauser and Chris Aiken introduced the evening. “The movement you’re about to see doesn’t exist,” said Aiken, and the show began.

Autumn Eckman and Robbie Cook

A complex four page long score was posted around the room for the dancers and musicians to reference, encouraging contrast in both movement and music. Taking note from the Youth Arts Program dancers, mimicry played an interesting role throughout the evening. A particularly poignant recurring moment came when one dancer would raise their arm and others would slowly follow either in a clump around the leader or scattered around the stage. This simple gesture felt powerful both in juxtaposition to the otherwise near constant individual movement and in the coming together of the dancers almost in protest or solidarity, particularly moving in light of the country’s polarizing climate this summer.

Paul Matteson and Michel Kouakou

At one point BDF faculty member and former Bill T. Jones dancer Paul Matteson left the floor and walked over to an usher leaning against the doorframe on the far edge, arms crossed. Matteson stood closely next to him and took on his stance, provoking laughter from the audience members who’d watched him walk away. Moments like this pushed against the boundaries of the metaphorical fourth wall erected even in such an informal setting.

As a group ran past BDF jazz teacher Autumn Eckman’s head was lightly knocked by another dancer; instead of reacting against the interruption she let it lead her into new movement. This shows the necessity of improvisational skills for all dancers – anything can happen in performance, and the ability to think on your feet and take cues from others is crucial. This show provided an important opportunity for dancers of all generations in the audience to be reminded of this aspect of their training.

Midway into the show the dancers unrolled tech tape on the floor, creating a smaller square and pulled rows of audience members onto each of the four sides to create a more intimate boundary line. The dancers casually inserted themselves into the audience, reentering the performance one at a time. The first out was veteran faculty member Andrea Olsen. Olsen performed a largely gestural solo, finding stillness in balance and falling gently off of it to lyrical piano music. She was joined in sequence by Angie Hauser and Doug Varone dancer Xan Burley. These three unique dancers spanning multiple generations moved individually but in reference to each other, their personal styles speaking clearly in complement to one another.

Angie Hauser

Moving in the Moment ended with the dancers moving one at a time into the neighboring collection of shoes. They found their way to standing and helped each new arrival into the fray. Once the last dancer arrived, they all stood still, staring ahead for a number of seconds before the lights went dark. The show was a reminder of the importance of creativity, concentration, collaboration, and also of finding playfulness and joy in dance. These are key tenets of the Bates Dance Festival, and the evening as a whole spoke to the uniqueness of this historic summer community.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

Photography by BDF Intern Blake Capel. 

Jill focusing during barre in Martha Tornay’s ballet class

The Young Dancers have the option of attending a forty-five minute warm up class each morning, lead by counselors. I met Jill in between her warm up and ballet classes. “Warm up was really fun,” Jill told me while stretching on the studio floor. “I’ve been to every single one so far… we did actual jumping jacks and crunches and stuff like that, which I really like.” I asked Jill what she thinks of her ballet class. This summer she worked with Martha Tornay, but her first summer at the Festival Jill took Shonach Mirk-Robles’ more placement and anatomy-focused class. “Martha’s different from Shonach, but I started last year to understand what Shonach wants us to do with placement and everything. I feel it’s definitely making a difference.” Next I asked Jill what it was like coming back a second year.

BDF: Coming back last year, what were you most excited about? What changes have you noticed in your dancing since last summer?

JS: I came back this year because I made a lot of good friends, and my teachers at home said I improved so much when I came back. And I’ve been most excited about meeting new people and seeing the teachers again. I’m taking hip hop this year which I took last year, but I decided to take improvisation this year because I can’t do that at home. Last year I took Modern Repertory with Sean Dorsey. It was awesome, but this year I wanted to do something outside of my comfort zone.

Modern teacher Tristan Koepke instructs Jill and her fellow students

After ballet I watched Jill fly across the floor and find a sense of groundedness and continuum in Tristan Koepke’s modern class. The next time we touched base was during lunch in Bates’ renowned Dining Commons, home to an incredible array of culinary choices.

BDF: Tell me about your morning!

JS: In ballet I really liked the waltz that we did across the floor, just because I like combinations like that and feeling the movement. And in modern I loved the improvisational warm up that we did this morning, it was so different from tendus which we usually do, and I got to really feel my body.
BDF: And how was lunch?

Jill enjoys lunch with her friends in Bates College’s Dining Commons

JS: The food here is amazing! There’s nothing like food from home, but you get amazing meals every single day here.

After lunch students can be seen lounging on the grassy fields outside, relaxing in the sun before starting afternoon classes. Just before 2:00pm Jill walked with friends over to Heidi Henderson’s improvisation class. Throughout the three weeks Heidi covered all different kinds of improv techniques both individual and collective, including contact improvisation skills and how to follow an improv score. Heidi worked to create a community of trust among the dancers, which allowed them to follow their instincts. While observing Jill in class I watched the dancers practice an activity where they stood shoulder to shoulder up in a row while individual dancers took turns diving into the others arms, learning how to be vulnerable and share weight.

Jill practices contact improvisation skills in Heidi Henderson’s class

For her last class of the day Jill headed to Shakia Johnson’s fourth period hip-hop class. Though energy can wane after a full day of dancing, Shakia knows how to pump everyone up. She teaches a full range of hip-hop styles including nineties, house, breaking, and popping and locking. Each class ends in a cipher, encouraging dancers to try out new moves and develop their own creative voice as the rest of the class cheers them on.

I touched base with Jill later that night for her hall meeting. Every evening the Young Dancers meet in their hall clusters at 9:00 pm to come together as a group and debrief their days. Their counselor asks them the “question of the day” and they each go around and answer. Jill’s counselor Mary Anne Bodnar asked the girls what their funniest memory so far was. They repeatedly erupted into laughter trying to get their stories out. After the meeting Jill showed me her room, and I sat with her and her roommate, Clare Moberg, to talk more in depth about their time at the Festival. Clare is 15 and comes from Athens, Ohio.

BDF: How do you think the social life at the Young Dancers Workshop impacts your experience?

JS: Hugely. And the dancing makes us closer, so the first day when we didn’t dance we were kind of skeptical, but then after we danced together we were ten times closer.

BDF: Have you been to other intensives or dance camps? How is Bates different?

JS: I haven’t been to any but this one, but I don’t think any of them are this supportive and collaborative, and everybody’s friends with each other. I feel like other ones are really competitive, so I feel like this is really unique.

CM: I feel like it’s really great because people make connections and it’s not just about dancing all day. It’s about why you’re dancing all day.

Jill and her hall mates celebrating a birthday in their hall meeting

BDF: What’s your relationship with your counselors like?

JS: These counselors are so different. They dance with us! When I went to another camp I didn’t really know the counselors because I didn’t see them at any time throughout the day, but here I feel like they’re part of the community.

BDF: What’s the atmosphere in your classes like?
JS: It’s super positive always, we ask so many questions and the teachers are always there to help, it’s not stressful at all. It’s different from how I learn at home but they’re super good at adjusting.

Next I asked the dancers about seeing performances. Each week at Festival the dancers see a professional show. This summer they saw DanceNOW, a show presenting many of their faculty members, and Dorrance Dance, the New York based tap company that’s been making huge waves this year.

JS: I’m really glad that we get to do that, there’s one thing to be in the classroom and be dancing in performances, but it’s a whole other experience to watch real shows that’s just as important. As performers you never get to watch shows, and it’s great to see faculty in a whole new light. The Q&A session after was cool too, because you watch dance and sometimes don’t understand all of it and it leaves you with questions.

Jill and Clare in their dorm room in Rand Hall

Jill is known at BDF for her jar of memories – when good things happen she writes them down on little pieces of papers and puts them into a glass jar to look through and share with her friends and family during the year. On her desk this summer stood the full jar from last year next to a new jar, rapidly filling up. I asked her if there were any memories that made her really want to come back. “When I got home I remember saying ‘I just want to go back!’” she told me. “I just remember having so much fun with everybody and improving so much.” Clare added, “The experience in general, it’s very comfortable, you feel very content – you love the feeling and you want to come back.”

Clare is planning on visiting Jill in Connecticut this winter – she’s never been to New York City, and they’re hoping to go together to see shows and take classes, tapping further into the dance network they’ve started to build here during their time at the Bates Dance Festival.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

The event opened with introductions by BDF Director Laura Faure. Faure stressed that the evening was the first collaboration between these two Maine art organizations since 2000. Next Michel Droge led the audience through a slide show of her work, describing her research process. Each collection of paintings stems from a different inspiration: her Requiem series was built on the “liminal spaces” of sunset and sundown she witnessed while walking the coast of Maine. The collection Tiny Catastrophes came from climate change and the aurora borealis. Droge’s influences extend beyond nature to Greek philosophy, poetry, and more.

Requiem #1 by Michel Droge

Next Varone joined Droge, and reminded the audience how hard it is for artists to talk about their work. He spoke of dance as an abstract form, and said that he too feels like a painter, using bodies architecturally to tell a story. Yet he differs from Droge and other visual artists in that his art form constantly regenerates itself. He spoke about the contrast of dances in his canon as painting with different palates and colors. Like Droge, Varone went through examples of his work and spoke on the many influences that spark his creation. He showed clips of two pieces, Carrugi (2012) and Rise (1993), and what influenced them: fiction, music, etc. Next he moved onto ReComposed, a work that premiered last summer at the American Dance Festival, which he’ll present here at BDF this coming weekend. ReComposed, Varone explained, differs from his other works in that it’s a piece of art based on another artist’s work – Joan Mitchell’s complex and abstract pastels. In many of the works parts are smudged out; Varone explained that once Mitchell was diagnosed with cancer she slowly erased parts of her drawings to reflect her own life.

To create ReComposed Varone and his dancers looked at sections of their favorite pastels and created written phrases from which they made movements. On Friday Varone was joined by two of his dancers, Xan Burley and Alex Springer. Burley and Springer demonstrated this process. Varone read some of the phrases they’d created: “chronicle, sanctuary, allude most bare, defiant yet lyrical, holding attention, edges unfinished, awkward and open, interior weather, unruly precision, etc,” while Burley and Springer enacted the gestures in movement. Next Varone placed them close together, so they were forced to weave in and out, improvising partnering as they danced. Next, the spirit of community and collaboration shone in earnest: Varone invited the audience to make a dance.

Varone called on a number of audience members at random to pick their favorite part of a Mitchell pastel. Each participant saw something different: two yellow lines that look like French fries, seagulls, Winston Churchill, a needle. Varone summarized what each person said into a concise phrase, and both Burley and Springer turned it into a movement until the two dancers had accumulated a rough minute long duet created through improvisation. Burley and Springer moved in a full and liquid way; they express perfectly Varone’s signature juxtaposition of looseness and control.

The pastel created by audience members.

For the next step of the project, Droge and her assistant taped a huge piece of white paper to the floor. Five volunteers chose pastels from a box, and then they were instructed to draw what they saw while Burley and Springer went through their duet. A second group was called up to add to the drawing. At this point, they’d created a pastel based on a dance based on a pastel. And it wasn’t over yet.

Varone and Droge held up this new drawing for the audience to see then taped it back to the floor. Lastly, Varone asked his dancers to improvise for one full minute based on what they saw in the drawing, and then to do the same for five seconds. At this point, as Varone said, the process had come full circle: pastel to dance to pastel to dance.

The Inspiration of Abstraction gave audience members a deeper understanding of the split second, impulse decisions that turn into art. Varone closed by saying that his dances are never done; that the ephemerality of dance is both what he loves and hates the most.

This is just the beginning of Varone’s residency at BDF. This summer marks his tenth at the Festival. See Doug Varone and Dancers perform ReComposed and two other works this Friday and Saturday at the Schaeffer Theatre.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

Last week I was able to further investigate and dig into parT III, my duet with Meghan Carmichael. I was grateful to have her here as I was able to further refine/define our relationship. Over the past few weeks, I have stripped away much of this duet.  The original duet had dialogue between me and Meghan. Feeling like the text was not supporting the movement, I removed it all from the piece. In doing so, the piece felt strange; strange in that I was not sure what the duet was saying anymore. The text had done it for me. With it cut from the piece my task was to make the movement and gestures inform the viewer… What remains feels more authentic and intentional.  By adding slight gestures and delineating the space the duet has shifted and feels like an entirely new piece. Some of the movements are the same but the intention and movement quality has changed. It now feels like it occupies a specific moment in time, that these two women have a specific relationship that unfolds.

Ali Kenner Brodsky and Meghan Carmichael in parT III in DanceNOW Last Week

This final week for me has been about processing.  Processing the work that I made with my company the first week, the changes in the duet last week and where I see the work and myself headed as I prepare to leave Bates.

I have also been playing around in the studio and generating more material to pull from. I have some solo work that I am interested in expanding and have been noodling around in the studio working out some new movement phrases.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

Tristan introduces the Young Dancers Workshop faculty during their Final Showing

BDF: How long have you been here at Bates, and how did you originally find the Festival?

TK: I came as a Young Dancer. Twelve years ago. Some of the students at my small studio in central Wisconsin found the Festival through Dance Magazine, sort of randomly, and they really enjoyed it, so I came a couple of summers later. I came back the next year, and since then I’ve been here in many different capacities… this is my tenth summer! Total.

BDF: And what roles have you played here?

TK: Young dancer, general participant (of the Professional Training Program), I was a counselor, then head counselor… and now co-director and teacher of modern dance technique.

BDF: Can you give a short bio of your dance experience as influenced by BDF?

TK: I can say when I first came here I only had a couple years of formal training under my belt, I was pretty new to dance. Not new to movement because I’d practiced a lot of taekwondo as a kid, and then I found tap and then eventually ballet, modern, etc. But coming to BDF was the first time I saw professional dance companies.

BDF: Do you remember the first show you saw here?

TK: Larry Keigwin, Keigwin and Company. Back in one of its original incarnations. Larry and his dancer, Nicole Wolcott, together taught repertory, so I was able to work in this immersive way with this exciting company. I made some of my best friends and I started collaborating with them right then. It’s been a really great home-base check in. I came a bunch before college, and then I went to school and didn’t come until I was finished with university, it was a really nice bookend to kind of be back in a similar place and see what had shifted. I’ve probably found my biggest dance mentors here. Karl Rogers mainly, he’s a big friend/mentor of mine, someone I’ve worked with for many years. Jobs I’ve gotten from here, best friends I’ve gotten from here… it’s home.

BDF: How have the relationships you’ve made at Bates impacted your experience in the dance world?

TK: I wouldn’t be where I am professionally, beyond this role and in the dance world at large. I’m currently doing some work for Doug Varone, who I met here. I’ve made specific relationships here, but I also learned an approach for building relationships in dance; in every city around the country are people from here that I’ve taken class with and shared intimate community space with, that I feel I can trust and rely on if I’m visiting or touring, or can call up if I’m coming through town — and I’ll both have a place to stay and they’ll say, “oh do you want to teach a master class while you’re here?” and that sort of thing. Just about everywhere.
BDF: How has the Festival changed during your time here?

TK: My experience has changed more than the Festival has. What’s so great about the community is that a lot of people return, so a lot of people feel like this is home in a lot of ways. I’ve definitely gotten to know it in so many different capacities, living in an immersive way (as a counselor). And now I’ve gotten a bit more space and I can see it all with a bit more clarity. I think it’s been interesting as I get older and step into different positions here to see people coming in for the first time, and have their eyes widened so quickly. I always experience that with Young Dancers, but now with more space and experience I see that in the Professional Training Program too. I come to the Festival as a dancer or a guest or I’m working, etc., and I see all these college students or just recently post-college students just suddenly being exposed to so much outside of their comfort zone. So my relationship to that has changed, but I think that’s what’s so special about being here, that eye opening experiences are really fostered and created in a non-competitive space.

BDF: What do you think it is specifically that opens people’s eyes, that seems new?

TK: I think that sometimes just simply that dance can be supportive. That dance is many different languages, but culminating in this one idea, this texture of life that we’re all working with, that we’re using as a means to build community and healthy relationships with each other. That dance can be a tool for that, not just a tool for wanting to one up or each other, or get the job, or do the trick better than anyone else. But that we can really find value in other people’s skill sets, artistry, approach, philosophies, in movement and life, etc.

BDF: Building on that response, how does the Festival differ from other places you’ve been in the dance world?

TK: I think that its focus is less on who’s the latest voice within the dance community at large that’s getting the most attention; we’re less focused on that and more on who are the best teachers, who is really going to offer people the best training and cultivation of self, how do we cultivate these dancers that come here to empower them to go out into the world and do what they want to do, either in the dance world or not, and our focus isn’t on just promoting trendy artists to seduce more people into coming. Which is not to knock other places or say there isn’t value in giving platforms to cutting edge voices. But what we really excel at here is long-term cultivation of community and artistry through dance. And following artists consistently through the trajectory of their careers, not only at the moment when they’re “hot.”

BDF: Can you describe the ethos of Bates in one or two sentences?

TK: Development of community by exploring dance and artistry in a nurturing environment.

BDF: Any favorite memories from your time here?

TK: Here’s one: that time that I ugly cried during the Young Dancers showing when they took their first port de bras because I was so moved by the work and the passion and eagerness they had. Another favorite memory, those times when I step outside the dorm and I find one camper who plays the fiddle, one camper who plays the guitar, and two campers having an improvisation contact jam on the lawn in front of these musician friends. Little magical moments like that don’t happen everywhere. Sometimes I think this is like a collection of the best freaks. We find kindred spirits here, and especially for teenagers, for young dancers who live all over the country, the world, etc., it’s so special for them to find one another here. There’s common ground. At least there’s dance, even if it’s not the same kind, or the same training, there’s one commonality in our activities, but it goes beyond just being in the activity of dance. People who find dance often have a similar approach to life, or how they want to live, or how they engage in their interest, and I think that’s why a lot of dancers become tight friends with other dancers, and there are these little webs of community. It’s not just because we like to dance, that’s part of it, but it’s a philosophy of living that draws us to dance, beyond making shapes with our bodies.

BDF: Do you have a piece of advice for someone who would be coming for the first time?

TK: Stay curious about as much as possible for as long as you can.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

For many audience members, the show began before they even arrived. Half an hour before curtain, choreographer Heidi Henderson and her company member Christina Jane Robson performed nowhere going quietly on a lawn next door to the theater, foreshadowing much of the movement that would be seen in Henderson’s piece Leslie later in the show. Impervious to the chilly, damp weather, the dancers held long balances and gestural, shape based movements. The piece was the perfect next step in a long history of site-specific work at the Festival, and whet audience members appetites for the proscenium show to come.

Long time BDF community member and current Young Dancers Workshop repertory teacher Danté Brown opened Joe’s Babel with his back to us, arms flapping furiously, rocking from front to back foot, his body cloaked in a dark hooded sweatshirt. Dancing to a steady percussive beat, Brown dove into turns and slides on the floor with a weighted-ness, as if his upper body yearned to take off while his legs acted as stubborn roots. As the energy of the dancing wound down Brown painstakingly crawled on hands and knees to a microphone stand on the other side of the stage. Using it like a rope he pulled himself to standing. The music faded out as he scanned the audience, seemingly on the verge of speaking. Softly, all he uttered was “hello” before the stage went black. In a Q+A session following the show, Brown spoke about the piece as an externalization of his introversion, evident in his struggle to bring himself to speak.

Next came BDF emerging choreographer Ali Kenner-Brodsky performing an excerpt called parT III of the longer work parT she’s been working on during her residency at the Festival. The curtain opened on a set stage: three café tables with accompanying chairs, Kenner-Brodsky seated at one while her dancer Meghan Carmichael stands on the opposite side of the stage, bobbing her head in an up and down “no” motion while taking in her surroundings. Though a duet, the two dancers never truly interact with each other – Carmichael looks at Kenner-Brodsky, but she never looks back. Their dance reads like a conversation; as one dancer starts moving, the other pauses, her movement shrinking. A soundscape by composer MorganEve Swain creates an atmosphere of domesticity: kettles hissing on the stove, children (Kenner-Brodsky’s own) playing in the snow, humming, and more.

Moving away from the category of modern dance came Shakia Johnson’s Playing Games. The Young Dancers Workshop hip-hop faculty member, Johnson’s solo was playful, performed to a series of excerpts of songs interspersed by a recorded voice telling her to quiet down, giving the illusion of being let into Johnson’s late-night private dance party. Johnson gestured to the audience to interact by clapping and stomping, engaging them in an exciting contrast to the rest of the performance.

Jane Weiner’s Called Back featured members of her company Hope Stone Dance including Courtney D. Jones, jazz faculty member at the Young Dancers Workshop. The trio opened with the dancers standing in high heels and long tan trench coats with glittery wings on the backs under a large black umbrella, holding an old-fashioned leather suitcase. Dancer Candace Rattliff Tompkins was the first to take off, stepping out of her shoes to leap and run through space. She rejoins the group with a spool of masking tape, creating a circle on the floor around them – a recurring moment throughout the piece. Called Back moves from The Supremes-style background dancing to huge, technical contemporary movement to complex partnering. At the end of the piece the stage is littered with props: the suitcase lies open, pairs of shoes spilling out and lined up across the stage, umbrellas scattered, and tape circles crowding the stage, the dancers back in their trench coats, standing calmly in the chaos.

The second act featured two pieces very different from each other. The first was Awassa Atrige/Ostrich, choreographed in 1932 by Asadata Dafora and performed by Garfield Lemonius, modern faculty member for the Young Dancers Workshop. The program notes for the piece read, “This groundbreaking solo was one of the first modern dance compositions to fuse African movements with Western staging. A warrior imitates the graceful but powerful movements of the ostrich, King of the Birds.” Lemonius strutted onstage in a skirt of feathers, upper body coated in oil and glistening, his arms articulating from the shoulder, movement rippling through. Regal and strong he fully embodies the historic role. This piece provided an important glimpse into the depths of modern dance history and as a grounding for the more contemporary work shown.

Lastly was Young Dancers’ improvisation teacher Heidi Henderson, back again performing Leslie, a trio danced by herself, Christina Jane Robson, and Tristan Koepke, Associate Director and modern teacher of the Young Dancers Workshop. The piece builds on the movement vocabulary Henderson and Robson set up in the site-specific work that opened the show. Leslie was divided into three sections. In the first, the three dancers sat with their legs stretched in front, moving slowly upstage wearing white socks with their costumes, high-waisted colorful pants and short sleeve turtleneck tops, introducing the audience to a series of gestures while classical piano music plays. They lay on their backs to slither back down, moving their ribs and knees like inch worms. The second section was in silence, the dancers moving bigger; Koepke and Robson broke off into a duet complete with gentle lifts and weight sharing. In the third section seven dancers dressed similarly in pants and turtlenecks joined the trio in neat rows onstage as a Justin Timberlake played. The group was made up of many of the performers from the show as well as other Festival staff members. The whole group stared passively at the audience, executing a routine in unison with moments of individuality. Henderson writes, “the work is exact without being virtuosic… There is no message.” This sentiment rings true – though this ending to DanceNOW feels on one hand like a funny finale for the talented and diverse cast, it is ultimately more a feat of exactitude and randomness, the perfect postmodern ending for a show spanning the gamut of dance “now.”

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

The first week was filled with feverish creation! I used my previous material as a jumping off point for the creation of the current piece. I took phrases and/or specific movements from the previous material and worked to shape it. A lot of material was “left on the cutting room floor.”

Ali performs for the Young Dancers during an open rehearsal.

How I work:

I made a bunch of phrase material, taught it to the dancers and then manipulated it. I am interested in gesture and how to use it so it feels like it is integrated into the movement rather than placed on top. I am very specific in how the movement is performed and how it is shaped.

My goal for the week with my dancers was to dig and craft. It was important to me that I walk out of the week with the piece structured and the work developed. As the piece developed the story started to emerge. I found it difficult to be in it and direct it so I ended up taking myself out of much of the group work. What unfolded was that I became “other” to the quartet. I am now working on how I relate to the others, what our relationships are, what I am to them and vice versa. This is inherent in the piece already but I am going to work on further defining it and figuring out some transitions. Meghan comes back on Thursday. We will be working on further refining the duet for DanceNOW.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.

Q: You’ve made it through the first week! What’s something that you learned this week, were surprised about, or was unexpected?

• Aya: Before I felt like each time they told us to improvise I was dreading it, but now I’m used to it and I’m surprised that I actually enjoy it.
• Jordan: I’m not as sore as I thought I was going to be! I’ve learned different ways of taking care of my body, which stretches are good and which to stay away from, how to tell if something is soreness or injury.
• Aislinn: I came in with a preexisting injury and everyone’s been really supportive and helpful in how to treat it.
  

  Students enjoying lunch in our fabulous dining hall.

• Gabby: As it’s my second year here it’s very different from the previous year… In the past year I’ve worked on how to balance more and keep myself aligned, and feel my body all in one piece.
• Ethan: I’ve been challenged physically, mentally, and artistically.
• Mai-Leah: I’ve never sweat so much that I’ve had to wring out my clothes!
• Isabelle: I’ve met all kinds of people here that have the same level of technique as me but very different choreographic inspiration.
• Carlos: This is actually a great opportunity for dancers who haven’t had a lot of experience and training. I’ve been able to just come and join in and be a part of something.

This post was written by Chava Lansky.  Chava is the BDF Social Media Intern for the 2016 summer.