From left to right: Fatima Logan-Alston, Bryan Knowlton, and Erinn Liebhard. Photo: Jan La Salle
On April 30th Jazz Choreography Enterprises held the second performance of its spring concert, which was followed by a talkback with Fatima Logan-Alston, Artistic Director of VashtiDance Theater. A dancer, choreographer, and teacher, she is also an alum of past JCE concerts and was part of the jury that selected the pieces for this spring concert.
Five of the choreographers on the panel—Bryan Knowlton, Erinn Liebhard, Lauren Pagano, Robert Redick, and Leah Suskind—were first-time choreographers for JCE. Dancer Adrienne de la Fuente spoke on behalf of Taylor Gordon, another first-time choreographer. Veteran JCE choreographers Bobby Morgan, Michelle Isaac, and Cory “Nova” Villegas were also present.
Logan-Alston began by recognizing that April 30th is International Jazz Day, the last day of Jazz Appreciation Month. She had prepared a slate of questions so that each choreographer could share some insight about their piece or creative process.
She started by asking a couple of the choreographers who head dance companies about their pieces and working with their students.
Michelle Isaac’s piece, “You’ve Got to Be Seen,” was performed by dancers in her adult company, Eden Brooklyn Dance Theater, and its junior company, IFE Youth Dance Theater. She said it was “interesting to see collaboration” across the age groups and pointed out that some parents from the adult company were having the opportunity to perform or work with their children in the youth company. She felt that this cross-generational collaboration strengthened the piece and gave it a unique energy.
“The emphasis is on who you are, what you believe in,” Cory “Nova” Villegas said about her approach to working with the dancers in her Beacon Dance Company (students from The Beacon School in NYC). “My approach is come in and be yourself,” she said. She’s found that her dancers are more open to trying different things because she lets them be themselves and doesn’t try to mold them into something specific.
Some of the choreographers were asked about their music choices and how that inspired their work.
Lauren Pagano said that she had begun working on her piece, “Gallimaufry,” when she was studying dance at Ailey, but while she had ideas on what she wanted to do, she didn’t have any music to match. “I struggled to find music that would go with the idea initially,” she said. That was until a friend introduced her to Leroy Anderson’s work, and then something just clicked.
“I was listening to a lot of Snarky Puppy,” Erinn Liebhard said. This was what led her to creating her piece, “Feist(meist)er.” She let the music guide a lot of her work, saying “I’m driven by how the players in the music interact with each other.” How the musicians play off each other in the song not only informs the choreographed movements of the dancers, but also when they should improvise. Liebhard said that around 40 percent of the piece ended up being improvised.
Logan-Alston asked the other choreographers to touch on what inspired their pieces as well.
“I had this on my checklist for about four years,” Bobby Morgan said of his piece, “Saturn.” He said that he grew up around house music and wanted to choreograph a piece that spoke to that. He also spoke about his style, which is very free flowing. He explained that it used to be even more so, but that studying ballet gave him more structure as a dancer. As a choreographer he draws from that, his love of music videos, and inspiration from Debbie Allen, among other things.
“I was watching this documentary on Arctic wolves,” Bryan Knowlton said of his inspiration behind the piece, “A Vigilant Harem,” which he choreographed for the Steps on Broadway Conservatory seniors. “I’ve always been inspired by animals,” he said, and he felt that the camaraderie of wolves was similar in some ways to the camaraderie of his students.
Dancer Adrienne de la Fuente spoke on behalf of choreographer Taylor Gordon about her piece, “Running Local.” She explained that the piece was meant to be an “ode to New York” and the experiences people associate with the city, especially pre-pandemic. She also said that despite the piece being choreographed to “Take the ‘A’ Train,” the group filmed a video of the piece under the 1 Train line.
Leah Suskind said that she came into her piece, “VII,” with a basic idea of the concept and what she wanted to do with it, but that she wanted to work collaboratively with her dancers and let them have input into the piece. “It’s allowed the dancers to take more ownership of the movements and feel like they’re part of the creative process.”
Asked about the costumes in his piece, “Progress,” Robert Redick said he based them on “that funky ass shirt” worn by one of the lead dancers in the piece because he felt it went well with the vibe of the music. He went on to say that he considers all aspects of a performance to be of importance to a dance piece. “I really want to…marry the movement, music, lights, etc.,” he said, about how he conceives stage performances.
After each of the choreographers had spoken, Logan-Alston opened up the talkback to audience questions.
An audience member asked if the choreographers learned dance because they knew they wanted to eventually choreograph pieces, or if they became interested in choreography through studying dance.
“I went to Joffrey to train,” Redick said, and explained that he got a chance to choreograph a piece in his third year in the program. “As soon as I did it, I knew it was what I wanted to do.”
Redick did lament some of the challenges facing younger choreographers. He said that the belief in the dance world is that you’re supposed to have a dance career before you move into choreography and that it can be difficult for younger choreographers to find opportunities to show their work.
Morgan echoed Redick’s point about there being a “dancer career path” that people are supposed to follow, but said it was important for him to find creative outlets for his own ideas, which is how he started choreographing. “I was bored a lot,” he said of having to follow the career path outlined for most dancers.
“It was a necessity from not seeing the work I wanted to be performed,” Liebhard said of why she decided to start choreographing. She explained that after one of her favorite dance companies shut down, she decided to start making her own work instead of relying on others to provide opportunities to perform the type of work she was interested in.
The next audience question was whether the performers saw themselves primarily as jazz dancers and choreographers or if they felt they fit into another category.
“I think jazz influences our work all the time,” Knowlton said of himself and all of the choreographers present. But he explained that he has studied many styles throughout his career and that everything that he has learned has gone into developing his “voice” as a choreographer.
Redick said that jazz has been an influence on all of his works. He learned jazz dance starting at six years old and after that every other style he dances comes out a little bit jazzy.
“I think I’m a jazz person, but it took me a long time to figure that out,” Villegas said. Being a salsa dancer, she didn’t feel like she was really part of the jazz world. She explained that salsa and other social dances are often considered lesser and not held in the same regard as styles that are stage-performed. For a long time she didn’t consider herself a jazz dancer, but that’s changed now. “I’m a jazz choreographer, y’all,” she said in closing.
“The dance world loves to put labels on things,” said Isaac, who doesn’t like to label her work. While she certainly has jazz influences in her work, she sees dance styles as interwoven and building on each other over time and across styles.
Liebhard built on Isaac’s comment saying that “jazz is a lot of things” and that she enjoys exploring the intersection between jazz and other styles and seeing how far she can push the boundaries of the genre.
The last audience question came from an aspiring choreographer who wanted to know how the choreographers dealt with the tension of creating dances that were accessible to a mainstream audience versus creating pieces that were perhaps more creatively fulfilling.
“For me as an artist the most important part is the experience,” Villegas said. She acknowledged that there can be tension between the types of pieces she wants to choreograph and what might appeal more broadly to audiences, but she tries to focus on what she and her dancers are getting out of the work and views that as more important.
“Go out and live life, and the ideas will come to you,” Morgan added as well, some sage advice for any creator.
Pagano approached the question from a different angle and pointed out that sometimes a fulfilling part of being a choreographer is not just creating a piece but also changing how things are done.
“How can I change the rehearsal process?” is a question she asked of herself. She wanted to create a more positive and collaborative space for her dancers and not recreate some of the toxic practices she had endured as a dancer in other people’s work. She felt that kind of change behind the scenes can be just as important as putting a new creation out into the world.
If you want to see the talkback in the future and ask your own questions of the choreographers, please join us at the next JCE Jazz Dance Project. Check out our website, follow us on social media, or join our mailing list to learn about our events.
