Fri 5/3 @ 7:30pm
By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
Dancer/choreographers Tom Evert and Susana Weingarten have been back in Northeast Ohio for a while but now it looks like they’re bringing back their company, Dancevert, as a concert group. We sat in on a rehearsal recently and caught up on Evert and Weingarten’s plans for their upcoming concert and beyond.
The evening concert is titled Geometry In Motion and the dance we watched in rehearsal, choreographed by Evert, certainly emphasized the line and curve, shape and angle that’s an inescapable aspect of any dance, even when the dancers weren’t using red elastics to form cubes and other shapes. But it’s an entertaining work of art rather than a dry abstraction — the dancers maintained their humanity and their physicality, they made eye contact with each other and, for example, took partners in a ballroom dance quartet.
Weingarten, who wears a number of hats for this production, talked us through the show; she has choreographed a new solo for herself, “Raying,” in which she embodies the concept of rays, lines radiating from a central point. “That central point is my dancer’s center,” she said, gesturing from her rock-hard abs.
Another dance on the program is chorographed by Evert on eight University of Akron Dance students.
Weingarten seemed particularly excited about a new duet she and Evert have co-choreographed for themselves featuring video projections prepared by Da Plastique. “We’re working to make the auditorium here at Shore Centre more of a black box,” she explained.
Music for this concert is mostly electronica, Booka Shade, Tortoise, Frakkur, Helios and similar groups, all selected and mixed by Weingarten.
We caught up with Evert later by phone.
Cool Cleveland: So, you’re back in NE Ohio again. Why did you leave, what did you do while you were gone, and why did you return?
Tom Evert: We saw a lot of opportunity in D.C. We had been working with Kennedy Center, doing professional development with teachers and working on their Partners in Education roster and we found a lot of doors open there. We did concerts there, small, gallery-sized productions, and improvisational performances with musicians in a series called Facing East. Susana was teaching at the Washington School of Ballet. At the same time, I was doing residencies all over, including Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet, so we were doing a lot of the same things we had been doing in Cleveland but with a lot of changes and opportunities to explore. Then, starting to rebuild the company, we thought, ‘Why D.C.?’ It’s not really where our roots are. So we came home.
What are you doing now?
We’re focusing on arts in education, a focus on the schools, and I believe that our program, Geometry in Motion, is getting an unprecedented result; kids are learning geometry quickly and scoring better than ever on tests. So it’s very impactful work and we’re really invested in it. Thinking ahead in terms of wishes or goals, if the Geometry in Motion program continues to be successful, then let’s do it more and train other people to do it, the dancers in the company for instance, and grow it that way.
Often during these residencies, the kids will say, ‘We want to see you do it!’ so we really wanted to develop a Geometry in Motion lecture demonstration, which led us to consider a company work, a fine art concert work that would appeal to adults as well as children. So it’s really a chicken-and-egg thing, a whole life cycle, from a focus on the schools to bringing back the company.
Yes, you show how working in the schools starts a very natural progression to a concert format. So, you’re continuing as a choreographer and a company director. But think of the stress! Running a dance company is a tough row to hoe. What can you tell us about your motivations?
Fortunately, it’s not all on me. Susana is my spouse, co-director, and partner. She’s a choreographer and a beautiful teacher, so passionate about this vision, spreading it through her marketing efforts, selecting beautiful images, making musical choices. We’re a fusion of two artistic voices.
As for myself, I have experienced a big shift in my outlook. Artistic temperaments are generally discussed in terms of ‘self expression’ and ‘individual vision,’ but I’ve found that doesn’t really describe what I feel or what I want. I don’t particularly want fame and fortune, nor do I anticipate getting it. I just want to serve, and it’s changed my whole outlook.
Even when it comes to the choreography, I don’t even feel like I own it. You’ve heard about artists ‘getting out of the way’ or ‘channeling’ but that is happening. In someways it’s self-effacing, a form of service, but at the same time it’s empowering, so it’s a big paradox. Even the content of this work quickly goes beyond lines and angles to touch on concepts like ‘infinity’ and how can you wrap your mind around something like that? So the academic becomes universal and all-encompassing.
We’re waiting for you to say “sacred geometry.”
That is a codified and studied aspect of geometry in that these profundities are ancient, thousands of years old. For instance, one of the most well-known images in sacred geometry is called the flower of life, a daisy-like pattern which grows exponentially. If you spend a little time with it (laughs) your head starts spinnin’. Other simple formulae generate a cube, a tetrahedron, and a decahedron, platonic solids. It’s exciting stuff but I don’t go there so much with the elementary school kids; it’s more of a high school or college level encounter.
We’ve always held your dancing and your choreography in high regard and you are in great shape, but you’ve been doing this a long time. Do you ever think about stopping?
You’re asking about a holistic approach to dancing, and why we dance. Why do anything at any age? (laughs) To me, dancing means to be conscious of your movement and in that sense I think we should dance all the time. In my case, sure, I’m aging and I can’t do everything i used to do — I can’t jump as high and my toes are kind of stiff — but I can still do some things better than anybody, so why should I stop? There’s the promise and carelessness of youth and the fear of old age, but when I ask myself what I should do, the answer always seems to come up that dancing is what I’m supposed to do, and I still have a lot to offer.
On Fri 5/3/13 DANCEVERT presents Geometry In Motion, a student lecture demonstration at 1pm introducing new educational programming followed by a 7:30pm concert premiering the newly titled work at the Shore Cultural Centre, 291 East 222 St., Euclid 44123. Tickets $5 for the 1pm lecture demonstration and $8 for the 7:30 pm concert. (1 adult ticket purchase will include 1 complimentary children ticket.) To purchase tickets go to http://ShoreCulturalCentre.com or phone 216-289-8578. http://Dancevert.org
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.