Tag Archives: danspace project

TWI-NY TALK: FAYE DRISCOLL

Performers come together in unique ways in Faye Driscoll’s THANK YOU FOR COMING (photo by Maria Baranova)

THANK YOU FOR COMING: DANCE
Danspace Project
131 East Tenth St. between Second & Third Aves.
March 6-8, 11, 13-15, $15-$20, 8:00
866-811-4111
www.danspaceproject.org
www.fayedriscoll.com

In her bold, innovative works, California-born, New York–based choreographer Faye Driscoll explores ritual and relationships between the performers themselves as well as the audience. Anything can happen in Driscoll’s pieces, which have included such successes as You’re Me, 837 Venice Boulevard, and There is so much mad in me. Her latest work, Thank You for Coming, which makes its debut March 6–15 at Danspace, is the first of a trilogy — the working titles are “Dance,” “Play,” and “Space” — that continues her examination of the mind and body as well as society’s interconnectivity. An early version of “Dance” was presented last year as part of the 92nd St. Y’s “Stripped/Dressed” series, and it featured five performers locked together for much of the time; they also interacted with the audience directly.

Driscoll is also a master collaborator, working with a wide range of musicians, visual artists, designers, and theater directors. Last year she choreographed Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin’s “A Marriage: 1 (Suburbia),” and this year they return the favor by contributing their unique visual design to Thank You for Coming. “Nick and I have absolutely loved Faye’s work for a long time, and getting to collaborate with her on this process from such an early stage in development has been a pretty amazing experience,” Margolin explained. “It’s a process unlike any we’ve been a part of before and has led to some really unexpected and exciting stuff. It has been really eye opening in terms of what a process can be and what it can look like. It’s been inspiring watching as Faye unflaggingly chases rigor and perfection in material that still manages to feel spontaneous and organic.” (Nick and Jake’s new exhibition, “A Marriage: 2 (West-er),” runs March 8 – April 12 at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn.) Driscoll discussed her process, collaboration, fundraising, and more a few days before Thank You for Coming was set to open.

twi-ny: You presented an early version of this work last year at the 92nd St. Y. How has it changed since then? I see that the dancers now include Alicia Ohs, who worked with you on You’re Me, and Sean Donovan, who made a guest appearance in Nick and Jake’s “A Marriage: 1 (Suburbia).”

Faye Driscoll: Yes, it’s funny because for me in some sense I think the Y version was complete in and of itself. But the cast shifted, designers got involved, and new ideas emerge and old ideas either went deeper or got thrown out. So you will still see the Y material, but hopefully it is also a totally new work. What’s exciting to me about this project is that it reflects my process of generating a lot of ideas and then evolving them into each other and making new iterations and offshoots that will continue forward into my next work — because it’s an interconnected series. With Thank You for Coming (the series) I have set up a process of producing work that reflects my process of creating work — which is often making things in excess, and with many possible versions — and in the meantime I am building a company of performers and designers around a long-term project.

twi-ny: Thank You for Coming continues your very direct relationship with the audience and your exploration of social experience and interconnectedness, both in title and execution. Why do you think you are so drawn to this aspect of performance?

FD: I think I have always been interested in performance as a ritual of expression, protest, transformation, and basically one gigantic act of mirroring with the performers and audience. I don’t buy this idea that in order to be socially engaged you have to adapt to a certain way of being; I think we are all socially engaged whether we like it or not — or maybe whether we choose to deal with it or not. I am not saying I am totally dealing with it in this work, but I am trying. I am trying through my own formal and aesthetic experiments to expand my perception of this interconnection, and maybe others will feel that or maybe they won’t.

Choreographer Faye Driscoll continues down her creative path, one that leads to Danspace Project this month (photo by Hedia Maron)

twi-ny: In 2009, you were one of fifty artists chosen by the New Museum for its “Younger Than Jesus” triennial, and just recently you were named a Guggenheim Fellow. What was it like when you found out about the latter? What kind of impact has it had on you?

FD: I have been blushing all year from having gotten the Guggenheim. I feel so honored. It just makes me want to make my work stronger. There can be some internal pressure involved. But I have always felt pressure when I am making things; it’s just that I feel a little bit more visible now.

twi-ny: Like so many choreographers, you have turned to Kickstarter to help finance projects. What has that experience been like? Are you a good fundraiser?

FD: Please donate! That is what Kickstarter has done to me! Which maybe is an essential trait of a good fundraiser? The willingness to ask and keep asking without shame. Being a choreographer, you have to be it all — grant writer, fundraiser, administrator, stage manager, public speaker, floor sweeper. It’s truly exhausting. I think I am a better choreographer than I am any of the other hats I wear, but I try hard because it’s what the work needs. And I have more help now than I ever have and I am super grateful for that. Even though Kickstarter is extremely stressful, it’s also really amazing. We have more than two hundred people backing us — that feels pretty good. It takes the power out of some monolithic “funding entity” and into our own hands. But doing a Kickstarter campaign can seriously consume your life. I really want us to reach our goal — please back us! See, I’m obsessed.

twi-ny: You have collaborated with a wide range of artists, from Young Jean Lee and Nick and Jake to Taylor Mac and Cynthia Hopkins. What are the secrets of being a strong collaborator?

FD: I love collaborating with these people. I learn so much and it keeps me on my toes. I think being a good collaborator is having the willingness to serve the project, not just your ideas and tastes.

twi-ny: Do you have a dream collaborator?

FD: I am dying to work with Ann Hamilton.

twi-ny: In 2007, you told Feministing that in fifty years, you’d like to be remembered as a rebellious, honest, dangerous choreographer who had a lot of fun. How do you think you’re doing so far?

FD: Oh wow. I’m not sure. OK, I think Fun is my F word. I think it can be a big no-no in the avant-garde world. And honestly sometimes in my personal life I have a hard time relaxing. But in my work I have a lot of fun. Maybe because then I am taking fun seriously? Not sure. I think there is something in fun and play that is a kind of key to all transformation. And isn’t really good fun also a little bit dangerous?

(Ed. note: Advance tickets for Thank You for Coming are sold out, but there will be a wait list before every show beginning at 7:15. You can contribute to the production via Kickstarter here.)

COIL 2014

Multiple venues
January 3 – February 1, $15-$20
212-352-2101
www.ps122.org

PS122’s East Village home might be under renovation, but that isn’t stopping the organization from presenting the ninth annual incarnation of its winter performance festival, Coil. This year’s festivities comprise nine cutting-edge works in various disciplines, with tickets for all shows only $20, so there’s no reason not to check out at least one of these unique, unusual productions. Reid Farrington stages the ultimate heavyweight match in the world premiere of Tyson vs. Ali at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (January 3-19), in which live action and multiple screens pit Mike Tyson against Muhammad Ali. Mac Wellman’s Muazzez at the Chocolate Factory (January 7-17), from “A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds,” transports the audience, and actor Steve Mellor, into outer space. Heather Kravas’s a quartet at the Kitchen (January 8-12) consists of four dancers performing four dances in four parts each. Director Phil Soltanoff, systems designer Rob Ramirez, and writer Joe Diebes boldly go where no one has gone before in An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk at the New Ohio Theatre (January 9-12), creating a hybrid work highlighted by humans interacting with video clips of words spoken by Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek but strung into new thoughts and statements. Tina Satter’s highly stylized House of Dance at Abrons Arts Center (January 9-13) investigates a tap-dance contest and the relationship between a teacher and his student. The performance series CATCH 60 celebrates its tenth anniversary with the one-night-only CATCH Takes the Decade at the Invisible Dog Art Center (January 11), with works by Cynthia Hopkins, Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, Anna Sperber, Ivy Baldwin, and others. Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo Bronx Gothic at Danspace Project (January 14 – February 1) is a song-and-movement-based coming-of-age story about two eleven-year-old girls. All three parts of Jeremy Xido’s solo piece The Angola Project will take place at the Invisible Dog (January 14-17). And family tragedy lies at the center of Brokentalkers’ Have I No Mouth at Baryshnikov Arts Center (January 14-26), with company director Feidlim Cannon and his mother trying to put things back together. In addition, the Red + White Party will get folks mingling as SPIN New York on January 12 ($30 and up) with Elevator Repair Service, and the SPAN conversation series will be held at NYU on January 18.

JANIS BRENNER & DANCERS: 5 DECADES II

Janis Brenner & Dancers will revisit the 1920s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and present a 2011 world premiere at Danspace Project this week

Danspace Project
St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th St. at Second Ave.
April 7–9, $15-$20, 8:00
212-674-8112
www.danspaceproject.org
www.janisbrenner.com

For more than twenty-five years, Janis Brenner has been choreographing works that explore the mind-body connection, set to a wide range of music by such composers as Meredith Monk, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Pat Benatar, Eddie Money, the Beatles, and Marianne Faithfull as well as Dvorak, Schubert, Bach, and Mozart. Last year the choreographer/dancer/artistic director, who established Janis Brenner & Dancers in 1989 after working with the likes of Michael Moschen, Annabelle Gamson, and Murray Louis, staged 5 Decades, featuring works from five different decades celebrating the history of dance. She is now back with the sequel, 5 Decades II, at Danspace Project April 7-9, consisting of the world premiere of the site-specific The Mind-Stuff Variations, with live music by Jerome Begin and his ensemble; duets from Louis’s 1976 ballet, Cleopatra, and Brenner’s Pieces of Trust (1987 & 1989); Brenner performing two 1929 pieces by Mary Wigman, Seraphic Song and Pastorale; and a revival of Brenner’s 1998 signature work, heartSTRINGS. The works will be performed by Brenner, Kyla Barkin, Esme Boyce, Sumaya Jackson, Luke Murphy, Christopher Ralph, Aaron Selissen, and Chen Zielinski, with lighting by Mitchell Bogard and costumes by Ramona Ponce, Susan Soetaert, and Frank Garcia.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Danspace Project will offer tasty Food for Thought Nov. 4-6 (photo by Victoria Lam)

Danspace Project
St. Mark’s Church
131 East Tenth St. at Second Ave.
November 4-6, $5 with two cans of food or $10
212-674-8112
www.danspaceproject.org

Danspace Project’s annual Food for Thought benefit, in which attendees are asked to contribute ten dollars or two cans of food and five dollars, with food proceeds going to the St. Mark’s Church Food Program, features three nights of special performances at the church. On Novembber 4, Ishmael Houston-Jones presents “One of These Is Not Like the Others,” with works by Kyle Abraham, Will Rawls, Regina Rocke, and Samantha Speis. On Friday night, Iréne Hultman presents “Friends Two,” a series of duets pairing Andrew Robinson and Gabrielle Malone, Vicky Schick and Susan Rethorst, and Colin Gee and Judith Sanchez Ruiz. And on Saturay night, Jodi Bender curates “Groove Things,” comprising works by Lindsey Kelley and Mindy Upin; Kyli Kleven, Steve May, and Tess Dworman; Ryan McNamara; and Jillian Sweeney. Food for Thought always offers an exciting look at up-and-coming dancers and choreographers, but be sure to get there early, because tickets are not available in advance, only at the door the night of the show.