Author:
Ariana Mah
Jan 19, 2012, 1:07 pm
Cutting Edge: A conversation between Grete Gryzwana and choreographer/educator Melanie Rios Glaser
The term "cutting edge" is often used to describe and promote dance companies and choreographers. Companies tout their guest choreographers as "cutting edge" and independent artists describe themselves as such. What do artists, critics, and producers mean when they use this term? Do they mean that an artist has achieved the highest level of development; that he/she is at the forefront of an art form; in accord with the most fashionable ideas or style; on the edge of a new wave; or, simply sharp as can be? What might the criteria be for defining a dance work as "cutting edge"?
I’ve set out to ask several dancers, dance makers and producers to expound upon their understanding of what the term "cutting edge" means, what they’ve seen lately that fits the description, and what the criteria might be for called an artist or dance work "cutting edge" today.
Our series begins with a response from Melanie Rios Glaser, the Executive and Artistic Director of The Wooden Floor. Melanie, a prolific choreographer and dance educator of international repute, received her BFA from the Juilliard School. Named a Kennedy Center Fellow in 1993, Melanie was a Fulbright Scholar in Paris in 2003, and in 2005 became the Artistic and Executive Director of The Wooden Floor.
The Wooden Floor is "an organization that gives 375 underserved youth the tools to live fuller, healthier lives through a unique approach grounded in dance" (www.thewoodenfloor.org). Each year The Wooden Floor engages contemporary choreographers to develop a new work for the students. Each year Melanie attends performances views, and considers the work of numerous choreographers in search of an ideal artistic partner for The Wooden Floor students.
I personally appreciate Melanie’s curiosity and openness to new ways of thinking about dance. While grounded in a classical training, she maintains a fierce interest in a variety of compositional and improvisational practices. Melanie is always searching for each person’s unique artistry. I knew she would take the topic of "cutting edge" to heart and give us all something to think about.
Melanie Rios Glaser, October 24, 2011
GG: How would you define the term "cutting edge"?
MRG:
Note: I thank Karinne Keithley Syers, choreographer, dance artist and writer currently living in Orange County, for her conversation with me about "cutting edge work" and her influence on this piece. Most of my references are New York based because I am not yet familiar enough with the work that is happening in the Southern California area.
"Cutting edge" generally refers to work that is pushing or nudging the boundaries of what until now has been accepted into the mainstream as the "right" way to make dance.
Work in this vein provides a new experience to those engaged. The term "cutting edge" has a tone of aggressiveness that implies that artists trying to find the porosity in the imagined edges are doing so with antagonism--or a chip on their shoulder--while the opposite might be true. Avant garde doesn’t work much better as it derives from the front line in battle and is now a term most frequently applied to the modernists. Experimental, although a clumsy label is a word I like. Picasso though rejected the term as he claimed he didn’t research he simply did. Quite imperfect but acceptable to me is the term "new" if we keep in mind that not all new work pretends or even wants to innovate. I think Karinne Keithley Syers describes "cutting edge" best when she says: "...sometimes I think that new work -- and not just novelty but work that finds a new field of action or a new kind of pleasure -- is work that manages to tune into intelligences, or systems, or forms (whatever term works most imaginatively and freely) that haven’t been present before." When enough people are pushing in one direction you may call it a trend at which time producers, critics and others might define it as what is "in" or the latest.
GG: What, if anything have you seen that you consider cutting edge for today, and ushering in the next wave?
MRG: There are many streams in many directions right now; there are artists that are still interested in movement material, others that are more conceptually based and multimedia continues to play an important role. I offer only a partial opinion, as what is evolving is still being articulated. In one direction there are people with formal choreographic training that are abandoning this formalism in favor of work that finds its own form inherent in the material they are working with. To quote Karinne "-- not being constrained by what is held to be sophisticated, or intelligent, and instead being able to sense the intelligence and formal coherence of either materials or structures outside the gates. I often think about these people as having a kind of radical plainness, not dressing ideas up in the signals of art education." Cleverness or the desire to appear urbane or even setting out to be "cutting edge" will curtail what is begging to be made visible. Tere O’Connor and Jeanine Durning to name a couple are pushing in this direction. What tends to be true of people that are drawn to making adventuresome work is that they are willing to set aside what is commonly accepted as having value or being correct to try out new paths of doing and perceiving. This requires accommodating the dualities of courage and vulnerability, self-confidence and doubt, openness and conviction.
I like to think that The Wooden Floor is commissioning work from choreographers who are shaping the genre of contemporary dance today such as Chris Yon, Susan Rethorst, Nami Yamamoto and Sally Silvers. Not all the work we do at The Wooden Floor is "cutting edge" because our constituents have a wide range of risk tolerance and the nature of the organization calls for us to respect that. However for an artistic organization working with youth, we are at the front of what is new or adventuresome art making.
I can loosely group another consortium of choreographers like Sarah Michelson, Luciana Achugar, Rachid Ourandame and Pavel Zustiak whose work I would take the risk labeling as neo-minimalist. There are some strong symbolic gestures in the form of visual images or props (an enormous swinging light, a suitcase with a bird, a bearded man looking like a dungeon guard) and visual and movement themes are repeated often through the piece. The work seems premeditated and the actual "setting" of the piece appears to be only the execution of the initial idea rather than an exploratory journey that reveals and speaks back to the choreographer during creation which allows for the work to unfold in the process. Despite the attention to neo minimalist traits, like the work of other current innovators, it is interested in complexity.
According to Karinne "There’s another modality that’s very experiential-earnest, and interested in state-based complexity - trying to activate through somatic practice a really wild place (again it can be quiet, but wild in terms of not looking like dance vocabulary) -- Deborah Hay is the ongoing guru of this, and people like Miguel Gutierrez take it forward, BMC (Body Mind Centering) is important to this track." The continuing evolution of contact improvisation and improvisation in general can piggy back on this trend. As improvisers take on other modes of performance they are becoming less adherent to what was considered trademark improvisational performance structures. Here too there is an earnestness that comes from an attunement to the living body. People like DD Dorvillier, Vitali Kononov, KJ Holmes and others are working in this field with the highest level of kinetic awareness while encouraging a sense of rawness.
GG: Is there a criterion that deems work cutting edge in 2011 and beyond?
MRG: The criteria to deem work cutting edge is always the same. Is the work relevant? Does it offer new modalities of engagement and perspective? Is it attuned to the world we are living in now? I have met people in their nineties that continue to be "cutting edge". What distinguishes them is their insatiable curiosity and open-mindedness. They work to understand the changing world around them and the new generations. They continue to evolve and have an instinct for smelling out what is yet forming. They are comfortable contradicting themselves, evolving and existing in states of ambivalence and uncertainty.
It seems that during my formative years in dance in the early 90’s there was, at least in my training; still a reinforcement of the traditional choreographic tools for owning craft. In addition, technically virtuoso dancing was at its peak. Downtown dance in New York saw the explosion of the release based "big dancing." These included people like David Dorfman and Doug Varone. The 2000’s showed echoes of the Judson Church era and shifts toward conceptual pieces that were less interested in movement per se. We moved from people fully invested in physical dancing to work that was more conceptual and now a return to the pleasure of the body and expressivity. What’s different than the large dancing of the nineties is that now it is less about "dance steps" or virtuoso movement and more about finding extreme or intense modes of experimenting or being with the body.
While many dance makers label their work "cutting edge" it is important to ask the question, compared to what? Are you straying away from neo-classical ballet? Are you a modern company doing work that is highly theatrical and has some elements of shock? Unless you are contributing new modalities of experience and are well aware of what else is out there you are probably still in the safe zone. Presenting it to a conservative audience--in which case you are taking some form of risk--does not make it cutting edge. Maybe it’s important to consider whether you really want to be "cutting edge" and if it’s the best way to market your work. After all it has to come from an irrepressible need to create new modalities to understand and give expression to the world around you. It is not a mandate. You have to have a strong stomach.
---
Grete Gryzwana is a Los Angeles based choreographer, dance and Pilates instructor. Grete holds an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Seminary, and is the founder and principal choreographer for Epiphany Dance Company. She has trained and taught throughout the United States and Europe. Currently, Grete teaches at The Wooden Floor.
I’ve set out to ask several dancers, dance makers and producers to expound upon their understanding of what the term "cutting edge" means, what they’ve seen lately that fits the description, and what the criteria might be for called an artist or dance work "cutting edge" today.
Our series begins with a response from Melanie Rios Glaser, the Executive and Artistic Director of The Wooden Floor. Melanie, a prolific choreographer and dance educator of international repute, received her BFA from the Juilliard School. Named a Kennedy Center Fellow in 1993, Melanie was a Fulbright Scholar in Paris in 2003, and in 2005 became the Artistic and Executive Director of The Wooden Floor.
The Wooden Floor is "an organization that gives 375 underserved youth the tools to live fuller, healthier lives through a unique approach grounded in dance" (www.thewoodenfloor.org). Each year The Wooden Floor engages contemporary choreographers to develop a new work for the students. Each year Melanie attends performances views, and considers the work of numerous choreographers in search of an ideal artistic partner for The Wooden Floor students.
I personally appreciate Melanie’s curiosity and openness to new ways of thinking about dance. While grounded in a classical training, she maintains a fierce interest in a variety of compositional and improvisational practices. Melanie is always searching for each person’s unique artistry. I knew she would take the topic of "cutting edge" to heart and give us all something to think about.
Melanie Rios Glaser, October 24, 2011
GG: How would you define the term "cutting edge"?
MRG:
Note: I thank Karinne Keithley Syers, choreographer, dance artist and writer currently living in Orange County, for her conversation with me about "cutting edge work" and her influence on this piece. Most of my references are New York based because I am not yet familiar enough with the work that is happening in the Southern California area.
"Cutting edge" generally refers to work that is pushing or nudging the boundaries of what until now has been accepted into the mainstream as the "right" way to make dance.
Work in this vein provides a new experience to those engaged. The term "cutting edge" has a tone of aggressiveness that implies that artists trying to find the porosity in the imagined edges are doing so with antagonism--or a chip on their shoulder--while the opposite might be true. Avant garde doesn’t work much better as it derives from the front line in battle and is now a term most frequently applied to the modernists. Experimental, although a clumsy label is a word I like. Picasso though rejected the term as he claimed he didn’t research he simply did. Quite imperfect but acceptable to me is the term "new" if we keep in mind that not all new work pretends or even wants to innovate. I think Karinne Keithley Syers describes "cutting edge" best when she says: "...sometimes I think that new work -- and not just novelty but work that finds a new field of action or a new kind of pleasure -- is work that manages to tune into intelligences, or systems, or forms (whatever term works most imaginatively and freely) that haven’t been present before." When enough people are pushing in one direction you may call it a trend at which time producers, critics and others might define it as what is "in" or the latest.
GG: What, if anything have you seen that you consider cutting edge for today, and ushering in the next wave?
MRG: There are many streams in many directions right now; there are artists that are still interested in movement material, others that are more conceptually based and multimedia continues to play an important role. I offer only a partial opinion, as what is evolving is still being articulated. In one direction there are people with formal choreographic training that are abandoning this formalism in favor of work that finds its own form inherent in the material they are working with. To quote Karinne "-- not being constrained by what is held to be sophisticated, or intelligent, and instead being able to sense the intelligence and formal coherence of either materials or structures outside the gates. I often think about these people as having a kind of radical plainness, not dressing ideas up in the signals of art education." Cleverness or the desire to appear urbane or even setting out to be "cutting edge" will curtail what is begging to be made visible. Tere O’Connor and Jeanine Durning to name a couple are pushing in this direction. What tends to be true of people that are drawn to making adventuresome work is that they are willing to set aside what is commonly accepted as having value or being correct to try out new paths of doing and perceiving. This requires accommodating the dualities of courage and vulnerability, self-confidence and doubt, openness and conviction.
I like to think that The Wooden Floor is commissioning work from choreographers who are shaping the genre of contemporary dance today such as Chris Yon, Susan Rethorst, Nami Yamamoto and Sally Silvers. Not all the work we do at The Wooden Floor is "cutting edge" because our constituents have a wide range of risk tolerance and the nature of the organization calls for us to respect that. However for an artistic organization working with youth, we are at the front of what is new or adventuresome art making.
I can loosely group another consortium of choreographers like Sarah Michelson, Luciana Achugar, Rachid Ourandame and Pavel Zustiak whose work I would take the risk labeling as neo-minimalist. There are some strong symbolic gestures in the form of visual images or props (an enormous swinging light, a suitcase with a bird, a bearded man looking like a dungeon guard) and visual and movement themes are repeated often through the piece. The work seems premeditated and the actual "setting" of the piece appears to be only the execution of the initial idea rather than an exploratory journey that reveals and speaks back to the choreographer during creation which allows for the work to unfold in the process. Despite the attention to neo minimalist traits, like the work of other current innovators, it is interested in complexity.
According to Karinne "There’s another modality that’s very experiential-earnest, and interested in state-based complexity - trying to activate through somatic practice a really wild place (again it can be quiet, but wild in terms of not looking like dance vocabulary) -- Deborah Hay is the ongoing guru of this, and people like Miguel Gutierrez take it forward, BMC (Body Mind Centering) is important to this track." The continuing evolution of contact improvisation and improvisation in general can piggy back on this trend. As improvisers take on other modes of performance they are becoming less adherent to what was considered trademark improvisational performance structures. Here too there is an earnestness that comes from an attunement to the living body. People like DD Dorvillier, Vitali Kononov, KJ Holmes and others are working in this field with the highest level of kinetic awareness while encouraging a sense of rawness.
GG: Is there a criterion that deems work cutting edge in 2011 and beyond?
MRG: The criteria to deem work cutting edge is always the same. Is the work relevant? Does it offer new modalities of engagement and perspective? Is it attuned to the world we are living in now? I have met people in their nineties that continue to be "cutting edge". What distinguishes them is their insatiable curiosity and open-mindedness. They work to understand the changing world around them and the new generations. They continue to evolve and have an instinct for smelling out what is yet forming. They are comfortable contradicting themselves, evolving and existing in states of ambivalence and uncertainty.
It seems that during my formative years in dance in the early 90’s there was, at least in my training; still a reinforcement of the traditional choreographic tools for owning craft. In addition, technically virtuoso dancing was at its peak. Downtown dance in New York saw the explosion of the release based "big dancing." These included people like David Dorfman and Doug Varone. The 2000’s showed echoes of the Judson Church era and shifts toward conceptual pieces that were less interested in movement per se. We moved from people fully invested in physical dancing to work that was more conceptual and now a return to the pleasure of the body and expressivity. What’s different than the large dancing of the nineties is that now it is less about "dance steps" or virtuoso movement and more about finding extreme or intense modes of experimenting or being with the body.
While many dance makers label their work "cutting edge" it is important to ask the question, compared to what? Are you straying away from neo-classical ballet? Are you a modern company doing work that is highly theatrical and has some elements of shock? Unless you are contributing new modalities of experience and are well aware of what else is out there you are probably still in the safe zone. Presenting it to a conservative audience--in which case you are taking some form of risk--does not make it cutting edge. Maybe it’s important to consider whether you really want to be "cutting edge" and if it’s the best way to market your work. After all it has to come from an irrepressible need to create new modalities to understand and give expression to the world around you. It is not a mandate. You have to have a strong stomach.
---
Grete Gryzwana is a Los Angeles based choreographer, dance and Pilates instructor. Grete holds an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Seminary, and is the founder and principal choreographer for Epiphany Dance Company. She has trained and taught throughout the United States and Europe. Currently, Grete teaches at The Wooden Floor.
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