Critical Correspondence
Neil Greenberg in Conversation with Biba Bell
As Neil Greenberg prepares to premiere his latest work, This, at New York Live Arts the first weekend of December, he discusses his motivating questions as well as the shifts in his choreographic concerns during the four years since his last piece, (like a vase). Citing Susan Sontag’s “Against Interpretation” as an enduring theoretical […]
Leyya Tawil in Conversation with Linda Weintraub
Bay Area based choreographer and dance artist Leyya Tawil, also known for her extensive collaborations with composers Christopher Keyes (1999-2008), Mark Gergis (2009-2010), Lars J Brouwer (2011-2013), and Mike Khoury (ongoing), has been traveling the globe touring her current project Destroy// since its inception in San Francisco in 2012. Performed internationally in 19 cities thus […]
Dr. Sally R. Sommer in Conversation with Abigail Levine
Sally Sommer has a unique eye on the history of post-modern dance. Arriving in New York in 1967, she fell immediately into the post-Judson scene, writing criticism and reviews for the Village Voice through the 70s and 80s. With a doctorate from NYU’s Performance Studies Department just as the discipline was forming, she went on […]
Dance and the Museum: More than Incidental Choreographies by Danielle Goldman
On September 28, 2013, Danspace Project hosted its latest Conversations Without Walls, a series of panel discussions co-curated by Danspace Scholar-in-Residence Jenn Joy and Executive Director Judy Hussie-Taylor. This particular conversation provided an opportunity to reflect on Ralph Lemon’s Some sweet day–a recent three-week performance series at MoMA–as well as the broader convergences between dance […]
Jeanine Durning in Conversation with Lightsey Darst
Last December I went to Minneapolis’s Soo Gallery to watch New York-based choreographer Jeanine Durning’s inging. I didn’t know what to expect. The past weekend I’d seen Durning perform in two of Deborah Hay’s brainy, unpredictable, ultra-detailed dance works, and my circuits were accordingly rewired. From her performance of Hay’s dances I knew Durning was […]
Rashaun Mitchell in conversation with Ryan McNamara
Choreographer Rashaun Mitchell talks with Ryan McNamara about his history with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and his transition to developing his own work. They discuss his research of psychosomatic networks, his belief in the audience as collaborator, and his process of rendering emotions physical using the face as a visible and manipulable means of expression. Mitchell’s work Interface premieres March 14-15 at Baryshnikov Arts Center.
Chris Aiken in conversation with Kinebago’s Sara Smith
Critical Correspondence is pleased to share with you an excerpt of a conversation from Kinebago, a magazine created to foster the documentation and contemplation of dance and movement-based practices in New England. Here, improvisor/dance maker/teacher Chris Aiken talks with Kinebago founder Sara Smith about the ways in which what he calls an “ecological practice” transforms his perceptual, aesthetic and relational capacities as a performer.
Miguel Gutierrez in conversation with Marissa Perel
Miguel Gutierrez talked with Marissa Perel about his life transitions, the healing work of Feldenkrais, and his artistic process in the making of “And lose the name of action.” The piece had its New York premier Dec. 4-8 2012 at BAM’s Next Wave Festival and recently toured the MCA stage in Chicago. Gutierrez reflects, “I had been researching the brain, watching boring DVDs, reading books and so much of that research was dry. I suspected that the piece would have a dryness to it, or a kind of rationalism to it, like a powerpoint piece, or the lecture-demonstration-performance, where there’s an overheard projector, everyone’s wearing regular clothes, the house lights are on, and that’s it. What I did not expect to make was a big ole’ mutha-fuckin’ spectacle.”
Maggie Bennett & Liliana Dirks-Goodman in conversation with Jeanine Durning
Choreographer/performance artist/dancer Jeanine Durning speaks with artist/designer Liliana Dirks-Goodman and dancer/choreographer Maggie Bennett about their collaboration at FACADE/FASAD. They discuss shifting perceptions of space and time, labor, value and compensation, desire, utopia, and the “practice of artistic practice.”
Adrienne Truscott in conversation with Marissa Perel on “…Too Freedom…” premiering Dec. 8 2012 at the Kitchen
Choreographer and performer, Adrienne Truscott, talked with CC co-editor, Marissa Perel while driving to help with Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in the Rockaways. They discussed Truscott’s LMCC residency at Governor’s Island, being alone in the studio, working with jornaleros, and the trials and travails of being a Wau Wau Sister. Truscott premiers “…Too Freedom…” at the Kitchen Dec 8-9 & Dec 12-15 2012.
Kariamu Welsh in conversation with Laura Katz Rizzo
Kariamu Welsh is a choreographer, educator and founder of Umfundalai Technique, a movement vocabulary that incorporates steps, rhythm and sensibility from a range of African dance traditions, which has been taught for over 40 years. Welsh developed Umfundalai, which means “essence” or “essential” in Kiswahili, after studying with Pearl Primus and Katherine Dunham and traveling to Africa to study and perform. She speaks with fellow Temple University faculty member and ballerina Laura Katz Rizzo about the process of codification and integrating the Western versus African attitudes about technique.
Aretha Aoki and devynn emory in conversation with Tara Sheena
Aretha Aoki and devynn emory presented an original duet as part of the Movement Research Festival Spring 2012 event, “stillness-action-sweat-effort.” This marked the first time they shared the stage in a work they collaboratively conceived and choreographed. Touching on themes of restraint and limitation such as financial woes and scheduling conflicts, they performed a score of improvisation and personal e-mail exchanges. In another e-mail exchange, CC intern Tara Sheena engaged in a dialogue with the artists on the process and experience of their collaboration.
William Forsythe in conversation with Zachary Whittenburg
In the second of two wide-ranging interviews exclusive to Critical Correspondence, choreographer William Forsythe discusses his movement language, cataloged in a 1999 toolkit called Improvisation Technologies, and how he defines and organizes dance geometries and architectures, both temporal and spatial.
Lisa Nelson in conversation with Nita Little
Tuning Scores We take the opportunity of Lisa Nelson’s upcoming Tuning Scores workshop to publish a public interview with her conducted by Nita Little during the Side Step Festival of 2005 in Finland. Lisa’s own remarks on Tuning Scores is also published. The fifth international Side Step Festival was held in January 22-30, 2005 at […]
