By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
Cleveland Public Theatre’s Big Box 14 includes 2 dance programs so we made a few phone calls to find out what to expect. Listening to the Artistic Directors and Choreographers of both programs, we were reminded that dancing is not always about how fast, how high, and how many turns.
For all their ballet training, The Movement Project and Marquez Dance Project have conceived and choreographed from a modern dance perspective.
Sisters Megan Lee Gargano and Rebecca J. Nicklos of The Movement Project, for instance, immediately revealed their modern dance perspective when they spoke of their interest in existential questions.
Cool Cleveland: What should our readers expect at your show?
Gargano and Nicklos: This show really examines the complexities of the human spirit and everyone’s individual search for the meaning of life.
We hear you’re using innovative lighting.
In one of the scenes, we have table lamps, head lamps, and automobile work lights providing all the light on the stage. The dancers manipulate the lights and it totally changes the perspective. With the movement and the music it takes you to a different place.
The dancers move the lights. Is that an example of what you refer to on your website as “redefining the dancer and what dancers ought to be capable of doing”?
We don’t mean just the technical part of the program. We really push the choreographic possibilities of the body. Also, we’re redefining what a dancer should look like; it doesn’t matter how tall, how short, or how thin you are.
So you’re not going for standards of appearance identified with big ballet companies?
Exactly.
On the other hand, we can’t help but notice that you’ve both received a lot of excellent ballet training.
Our ballet training has helped us, but we think modern dance helps bring the audience closer. All our dancers are highly trained. Practically every one of them holds a bachelors or a graduate degree in dance performance or choreography or they’re on their way in pre-professional training. But the thing that distinguishes our dancers is their participation in our highly collaborative choreographic process. That collaborative process brings an organic connection to the dancers’ lives which results in a much richer experience for the audience.
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So, dear reader, the dancers and choreographers of The Movement Project are tackling the big, existential questions, redefining dancers and dancers’ roles, and restructuring the choreographic process. If all this sounds overly ambitious, remember with us what a potent mix youthful ambition can make with advanced dance skills. This could be a synergy well worth watching.
The Movement Project’s Two Kinds of Light includes 10 Dancer/Collaborators and 3 Supporting Artists, Lighting Design by Lauren McMichael, and Music by Blithe Field. http://themovementproject.org. Week 2 of Big Box, a double bill with Funnel Cakes Not Included on Thu 2/13 – Sat 2/15.
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Talking with Jennifer Sandoval Eccher we were immediately struck by her concern with women’s issues, long a subject in the mainstream of modern dance.
Cool Cleveland: What’s the premise of your piece?
Directing La Femme I asked myself what it means to be a woman in today’s society. I touched on discrimination, violence, sexism. I asked how society views women, how society and media objectify women.
The teenage years are a developmental cusp in anybody’s life, so we’re working on a section on teenage girls danced by teenage girls. Sexism is something they deal with on a daily basis. Consider, for example, the hours of television and social media that young people typically consume. Even in some of the shows on Disney, women are portrayed as objects.
You articulate concerns many of us share. We’re wondering how you’re going to dance this.
We did a lot of writing and a lot of dialogue and the movement developed from that. In one solo the dancer is in boxing trunks, battling the male gaze. To succumb to the male gaze means buying into the idea that I have to look and behave in a certain way in order to be noticed. But “male gaze” is actually a misnomer, because women as well as men project expectations on women.
There’s spoken word in La Femme?
Yes, there’s spoken word in some sections and the movement is abstract rather than literal. Again, it’s something we’re working on. Our hope is that La Femme will be entertaining and that it will make the community more aware and involved. I hope that small changes in individuals will lead to big changes in society.
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La Femme is Conceived & Directed by Jennifer Sandoval Eccher, with Choreography by the Performers of Marquez Dance Project; Music Composed by John Osburn; Lighting Design by Julie Ballard. http://marquezdanceproject.com. Week 4 of Big Box on Thu 2/28 – Sat 3/1.
Big Box 2014 runs at 7 pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2/6 thru 3/22 @ Cleveland Public Theatre’s James Levin Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave., Cleveland 44102. Tickets $12 – $18.
Every Friday is Free Beer Friday! Stay after the show to mingle with artists and friends while enjoying a drink or two on CPT.
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 were both English Majors, giving them liberty to write about almost anything. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.