“Searching for vocabulary by pushing furniture around in the studio” or my summer intensive with Trisha Brown Dance Company

Every July, I travel to NYC from Sydney to continue my exploration of dance. This trip, in addition to working on my House Dancing skills with Ephrat Asherie (B-Girl Bounce), I continued collaborating with Doug Elkins on a long-term project. But it turned into a summer of Trisha Brown, the high priestess of post-modern dance.

 

Keith and Charemaine

It began in my second week here, when I took a class at DNA with Keith Thompson, former member and rehearsal director for Trisha Brown.  We worked on phrase material from Newark.  Keith, who was wonderfully welcoming to me, mentioned that this was the first piece of Trisha’s where she actively sought out new vocabulary that would represent movement generated for male bodies. Her method of discovering this new vocabulary was to “push furniture around her studio” for hours at night.

And Trisha mentions this in her writing, the famous  “I began my search for vocabulary by pushing furniture around in the studio.”  

I had my own week of personal “furniture pushing” at the Trisha Brown Dance Co Summer Intensive. http://www.trishabrowncompany.org/

We investigated dance phrases from Trisha Brown’s 1981 work Son of Gone Fishin. Irene Hultman and Eva Karczag, longtime Trisha dancers, led the sessions held in an air-conditioned (phew) studio at New York City Center. This summer in NYC, temps have been in the high 90s.

Irene H began each day with a deep warm up incorporating elements of Qi Gong, Zen imagery, and release-style exercises. Extending the durations between exercises, she allowed us time to find ourselves inside our bodies and introduced the concept of movement having a definable cellular existence. Cellular or not, it was a fab warm up!

Irene then transmitted from memory and research, a long and bouncy Trisha movement phrase.  

We chewed it up, molded it, danced it again and again—the exact same phrase or incarnations of it—every day. We transposed it to the left side, reversed the sequence of events…even running the movement initiations backwards like reverse film footage. It was a delicious and rigorous game for intellect and body, something I have missed in my recent dance work…the luxury of investigation.

One moment on day 3…Prostrate, staring up at the rows of lights on the ceiling while trying to locate the “flow of energy” through my spine and left thigh … Irene was instructing in languid but focused tones…I was struck – what an f’ing privilege it was to be here…now.

What a privilege to be receiving this information through Irene, who has a long history with Trisha, a deep knowledge of the body, funny and profound anecdotes, warmth and endless enthusiasm. “There is a big difference between describing movement and inhabiting movement in dance,” was one of my fave insights from Irene.

Irene and Eva generously shared their experiences in the company, showed rare footage of Trisha’s transition works, which gave me even more insight into Trisha’s artistic processes and her idiosyncrasies.  Their stories were humanizing and humorous and were offered with deep affection and respect for the great choreographer.  

Incidentally, Irene also mentioned the “pushing furniture around” quote, brushing it off a little. “I never heard Trisha speak about this in person, but it has appeared in her writing”.  Just like the dancing get digested and reinvented, history morphs too.

Trisha’s iconic movement style exemplifies all that was lush and intelligent about dance in the 1980s. And it’s still beautiful to dance and to watch today. 

Irene and Eva, wonderful veteran women dance artists, inspired me with their sustained fascination with movement and their excitement to rediscover Trisha’s work alongside novices like me. In fact, Irene is planning to be a participant in next week’s sessions being led by Carolyn Lucas and Laurel Tentido. That’s how open and generous she is to the muse of dance.

Irene Hultman and Charemaine

In the afternoons, Eva Karczag led the composition part of the sessions, illuminating further Trisha’s groundbreaking working methods.

I was transfixed watching Eva Karczag dance. At times, she was like flowing lava, at other times translucently light. Then an unexpected whip-like action would erupt from her core. I want to dance like her when I grow up!

 

(TBDC classes continue through the summer until September at DNA. Catch Irene Hultman there if you can!)

 

Eva Karczag and Charemaine