Critical Correspondence
The Glass House: Ivy Baldwin in conversation with Michael Bodel
Choreographer and dance theorist Michael Bodel talks with choreographer Ivy Baldwin on the occasion of a premiere of her new work, “Ambient Cowboy,” at New York Live Arts, May 2-5, 2012. They discuss the architectural qualities of Baldwin’s choreography and what happens when you remove the “safety nets.”
Jillian Peña in conversation with Marissa Perel on The Guiding Light
Jillian Pena investigates “light” as a concept, belief and pop symbol with CC co-editor, Marissa Perel. Pena’s new work, The Guiding Light, premiers at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, [BAX] on Friday, April 27 and runs through Sunday, April 29 2012. “My mom was agnostic. She was like, ‘Just hide when they all pray. Just hide.’ They would tell us that our bodies were vessels for Jesus…I like the idea of the vessel, but when you really believe in something it’s like emptying out in order for that to fill you, which is sexy. So, I am interested in that physicality. Religiosity in a physical sense. What that means. What that looks like.”
All Things Seen: Claudia La Rocco in conversation with Marissa Perel
Renowned dance critic Claudia La Rocco discusses her journey into the profession, the culture clash between the dance and visual art worlds, her hunger for discussion about performance and the invention of P-Club, and why the starving artist model is gross. “I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky to have stumbled into performance and the way in which the field has activated my writing and changed it… I think that that doesn’t get acknowledged enough by writers, how there is an immense debt that you owe your subject.”
Katie Workum in conversation with Katy Pyle
Katy Pyle discusses the research, process and ideas behind “Fruitlands,” Katie Workum’s performance at the Chocolate Factory Theater April 18-21 2012. “As a choreographer, I seek to create something new, something free if you will, but how do I direct and apply rules, subjecting my dancers to my orders, and keep a feeling of freedom? I do not think that I have solved this question.”
The Swedish Dance History: Moriah Evans & Emma Kim Hagdahl in conversation with Milka Djordjevich
Milka Djordjevich speaks with Moriah Evans and Emma Kim Hagdahl, who help organize the production of the Swedish Dance History, a book “creating history right now, right here: across nations, styles and cultural policies.” The all-inclusive collective book is 1,000 pages, distributed for free, and will be produced for 20 consecutive years. The first edition was made in 2009, with subsequent editions in 2010 and 2011.
Take-Out Performance: Minouk Lim in conversation with Jody Wood
Artist Jody Wood talks with video/performance artist Minouk Lim at a cafe near Minouk’s studio in Seoul, South Korea. “We are all born into a theatre. I even consider the womb to be a stage–a liquid theatre,” says Lim in their discussion of art, politics, and the notion of video as a “take-out performance.” Minouk Lim’s upcoming solo show at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis runs from May 31 – September 2, 2012.
Performing Black: Thomas DeFrantz in conversation with Michael Bodel
Choreographer and dance theorist Michael Bodel talks with Thomas DeFrantz, a performer, writer and Professor of Dance and African American Studies at Duke University. DeFrantz is a featured artist in the “Parallels” Platform at Danspace Project, curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones, which explores notions of blackness and postmodernism “in the age of Obama,” as Houston-Jones has written in the “Parallels” catalogue, for which DeFrantz was a featured essayist. On March 27, DeFrantz will present his “Performing Black” lecture at Danspace Project as a part of an evening titled “This & That.”
Stephanie Skura in conversation with Lana Wilson, Part Two
In Part Two of this two-part interview series, Stephanie Skura and Lana Wilson discuss the making of “Cranky Destroyers” (1987), Skura’s seminal work set to the music of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and “Two Huts” (2010), an experiment in collaged language and movement.
Stephanie Skura in conversation with Lana Wilson, Part One
Filmmaker and Performa curator Lana Wilson talks with Stephanie Skura, a Seattle-based choreographer whose new work “Two Huts” is being shown this weekend (through March 18, 2012) at Roulette. This engagement marks her first return to New York in 20 years, which Critical Correspondence is celebrating through this two-part interview series. In Part One, Skura and Wilson discuss Skura’s influences as a choreographer, including early exposure to body-mind technique, a well-timed call from Pearl Lang, and collaborations in the early 80s with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Yvonne Meier.
Yve Laris Cohen in conversation with R.E.H Gordon on Coda
R.E.H Gordon interviews Yve Laris Cohen on his current installation and performance, Coda, presented as part of In Practice: You never look at me from the place from which I see you, curated by Kristen Chappa at SculptureCenter. Laris Cohen explains, “I list my body as a material whenever I make a piece in a visual art context that calls for wall text…I include “transsexual” among materials such as plywood, vinyl and sweat…”
Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner (Kathleen Keogh and Rikki Rothenberg) in conversation with Lydia Bell
CC Editor Lydia Bell talks with two members of the Portland, Oregon dance collective Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner, Kathleen Keogh and Rikki Rothenberg. They discuss making work for “places where we don’t have to behave,” including bars, sheep farms, and public parks.
Queering the Point(e): Katy Pyle in conversation with Marissa Perel
Katy Pyle’s, The Firebird will be presented as part of the Brink series at Dixon Place, curated by Kimberly Brandt, February 28-29th. “I like playing with people. It’s almost like a place in a person that resonates. It’s like an intersection of fear and excitement, to me, laughter. And, confusion and not knowing! There’s a lot of emotion in there. When you hit that chord, something’s actually happening. There’s a real response that’s coming out.”
Priss-pot: Regina Rocke in conversation with Marissa Perel on “Boy Troubles”
Boy Troubles runs February 23-25th, 2012 at Danspace Project in a shared evening of work entitled, “From the Streets, From the Clubs, From the Houses,” as part of the Parallels Platform curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones.
Curating Valeska Gert: Ana Isabel Keilson in conversation with Wolfgang Muller and An Paenhuysen
“In 2010 I began my PhD in the History department at Columbia University, focusing on intellectual history and performance during Weimar Germany. While researching in Berlin, I met An Paenhuysen, a former visiting scholar at Columbia, who had just curated ‘Pause. Valeska Gert: Bewegte Fragmente’ at the Hamburger Banhof with Wolfgang Muller. In addition to co-curating the exhibition, Muller published Valeska Gert: Asthetik der Prasenzen (2010), which includes a reprint of Gert’s memoir, Mein Weg (1931). I was eager to talk with them about this important yet relatively obscure artist.”
Dancing in Palestine: Samar Haddad King in conversation with Katie Baer Schetlick
Katie Schetlick interviews Samar Haddad King, artistic director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, a New York dance theater company. They discuss King’s exploration of Palestinian identity and family history in her new work, which is being made with a group of dancers at the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in Palestine. This is the third and final interview in a series initiated by Schetlick, documenting her experience at the festival.
