Romance & Reality: Partnering Place

Abstract

Romance & RealityPartnering Place Pearsonwidrig Dancetheater Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig (bio) ________ Creating site-specific dance performance is a love affair, beginning with a profound connection to the heart of a particular place. Whether it be dancing throughout a historic coal processing plant turned UNESCO World Heritage Site in Essen, Germany, on the grounds of a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, or in rowboats in New York City’s Central Park, the first date, the first step in our creative process is to listen deeply in stillness. What history and poetry resonate within the site’s architecture? What unique attributes of light and color and sound break our habitual ways of seeing? For us, creating choreography in any setting is our response to, and a duet with, the essence of that particular place. The first three days of rehearsals are the romance. We fall in love with a particular stairway or beech tree, or the way the light creates shadows along a particular hallway. Our dancers and musicians—always our creative collaborators—begin improvising and choreographing intimate moments of relationship. An exquisite, rarefied atmosphere permeates the space, and there is nowhere we would prefer to be than right here, right now. On the fourth day the world’s realities set in: it rains and we lose a precious week of work; or the bees or mosquitos or gnats arrive; or it’s so hot the dancers are in danger of getting sunstroke; or the powers that be decree that half of our fabulous ideas are not allowed; or days of dancing on decades-old concrete takes its toll on the body and spirit. So we must listen to these things as well: how to respect and honor whatever the present moment gifts us? If we are fortunate, we make it through that dark night of the soul. As the dancers find their way back, bonding more deeply with each other and the space, our new work is realized shortly before the first performance. We—and hopefully the audience—enter a state of kansha (a Japanese expression for simultaneous appreciation and gratitude). And, as C. S. Lewis once said, we become surprised by joy. [End Page 63] Click for larger view View full resolution Previous spread: Graham Brown, Mirah Kellc Esteva, Rodrigo Esteva, Sebastian Esteva, Tzveta Kassabova, and Connecticut College students (clockwise, from top) in A Curious Invasion / Connecticut College. Connecticut College campus, New London, Connecticut, May 2011. Photograph by Patrik Widrig. [End Page 65] Click for larger view View full resolution Dancers Nicole Turchi and Bethany Disque (left to right) in A Curious Invasion / Chatham. Community Bank, N. A., Downtown Chatham, New York, August 2013. Photograph by Jonathan Hsu. [End Page 66] Click for larger view View full resolution Patrik Widrig and Tzveta Kassabova (left to right) in A Curious Invasion / Connecticut College. Photograph by Sara Pearson. [End Page 67] Click for larger view View full resolution Facing page: Jason Akira Somma in A Curious Invasion / Wave Hill. Photographs by James Murphy. [End Page 68] Click for larger view View full resolution Breezy Berryman and Katherine Helen Fisher (left to right) in A Curious Invasion / Wave Hill. Wave Hill Estate, Riverdale, New York, July 2011. [End Page 69] Click for larger view View full resolution Tzveta Kassabova, Stephanie Miracle, Candace Scarborough, and Connor Voss (left to right) in A Curious Invasion / Zollverein. Zeche Zollverein, Essen, Germany, June 2017. Photograph by Jonathan Hsu. [End Page 70] Click for larger view View full resolution Tzveta Kassabova, Stephanie Miracle, and Candace Scarborough (left to right) in A Curious Invasion / Zollverein. Photograph by Jonathan Hsu. [End Page 71] Click for larger view View full resolution Nejma Larichi and Stephanie Miracle (left to right) in A Curious Invasion / Zollverein. Photograph by Jonathan Hsu. [End Page 72] Patrik Widrig sara pearson and patrik widrig, artistic directors of PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER, have gained an international following for their concert stage choreography, site-specific dance installations, and community performance projects since 1987. Supported by numerous national and international institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts, USArtists International, the Rockefeller and Harkness Foundations, the American Music Center, the Asian Cultural Council, and the Maryland and New York...