Momentum Primer

Almost a year after announcing the four local choreographers commissioned by the Walker and the Southern theater, Momentum: New Dance Works is opening tonight!

Here is a little primer for the two weeks of premieres:

Written by the choreographers themselves, here is a list of adjectives they use to describe their new work:

– Justin Jones: complex, strenuous, corporeal, electric, distal, fast, rigorous, polyrhythmic, surprising, elaborate

– Cathy Wright: raw, real, potent, provocative, mythological, primitive, timeless, psychological, tragic, hopeful

– Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig of Off-Leash Area: kinetic, unbound, colorful, open, emotional, moving, entertaining, visual, physical, collaborative, interdisciplinary

Maggie Bergeron chose to list adverbs instead to describe her process in making work: quietly, methodically, instinctually, hopefully, searchingly, inquisitively, openly, introspectively, collaboratively, collectively

Jones continues by describing his favorite moment in his piece, the SCREEN/the THING: “ Anna Shogren stands alone on stage with her arms up. Pause. She steps forward, and spirals. Pause. She is lost in the cosmos, she is looking up, she is pondering how she will die and if it will matter. Billions of years of dust have settled, and organized into this one ponderous pause. The base movement of this moment is part of a larger movement phrase. I isolated this one bit of movement and stretched it over time. I love this moment because it reminds me of time I spent alone as a child shining flashlights up to the stars hoping to communicate with them somehow, wondering if I mattered to something as far off and imponderable as a star.”

Bergeron shares her inspiration on making House/Home: “ This work is inspired by my experience growing up on a very small farm in rural Minnesota. I never really felt like I was in a community that supported my ambitions. I had to destroy my home in my mind in order to be able to recreate who I am and how I interact with the world. I am still learning about who I am, and how I find support in what I do. This idea of destruction, then using the pieces that result to make something new has laid the framework for the concept and much of the movement for this work.”

Wright breaks down the potent metaphors and symbols in Return: “ Hair because of identity and how it is viewed in different cultures (ethnic, gender, socio-economic) and how it connects and disconnects us from animal species. Also, hair has a personal significance in most of my own life experiences from childhood to present. A box for its containment and mystery. Animal “ shape shifting” in the movement vocabulary to make the story universal in all levels of species and to explore the question of nature vs. nurture. What is instinct and what is learned? Repetition for ceremony – of cleansing, death and rebirth, and cycles. ”

Off-Leash Area looks back at how Our Perfectly Wonderful Lives has changed since they began making it: “ It has become less about Warhol’s art ideas and more about people whose desires overwhelm them.”

This year’s Momentum artists along with previous Momentum participants Noah Bremer, Vanessa Voskuil, and Megan Odell of Live Action Set will post their observations on the series’ performances. You can read their words on this blog as well as join in the conversation.