Insite

At recent performances of Bill T. Jones’s Story/Time, we asked audiences to participate in the storytelling via a Twitter feed that was projected in the lobby. See what our audience members had to say, both about themselves and about the performance, after the jump!

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Story/Time. (Photo by Paul B. Goode.)

As the neon green strobe lights dotted the smoky dance floor, I stepped away for a moment and took a sip of water. On the opposite side of the dance floor, the DJ leered from beneath the brim of his baseball cap and monitored the perimeter of the room from behind his turntable, nodding to the beats of the music approvingly while facing the crowd of dancers. I was just busting a move at a warehouse party in Baltimore when—strangely—I was reminded of John Cage. 

Although Cage’s music doesn’t sound like Aphex Twin, John Cage and his compositions have influenced the course of electronic music, dance music, classical music—pretty much every kind of music—for the past 50 years. Read more »

Ann Sheridan, circa 1938. (Photographer unknown; graphics by Floodesign.)

Student Forum’s first installment of the 2011–12 season offers three variations from a “behind the scenes” perspective, by theater students Jordan Anton (below), Jeremy Landes, and Esteban Cremona. These three acting majors recount their experiences on the costume run crew of the Department of Theatre and Dance’s recent production of the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman classic Stage Door. Thanks to our collaborators at Montclair State’s Creative Research Center for sharing these unique “reviews.” And for more, don’t miss Jennifer Wilson’s dramaturg’s blog. 

As the house lights dim and the characters enter the stage, there is another performance, a hidden one, that is about to begin. Behind the black, wall-like curtain of Alexander Kasser Theater—lit only by an eerie blue lamp—are four people on the edge of their chairs. Startling in appearance, they appear to be waiting for someone…anyone. Finally, a foreign body can be seen nearing the area they are bound to. As predator to prey, they rush to the newly arrived body, rip off the victim’s clothes, and squeeze them into new attire. In a matter of seconds, the body is gone, and the four people who make up Stage Door’s quick-change costume team are beckoned back to the chairs, where they thrive. Any individual who witnesses the surreal, manic nature of the crew in their natural environment would need to pinch themselves to make sure what they glimpsed was real. Read more »

As part of Montclair State’s Creative Campus project, members of the UK-based dance company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance visited Montclair State for a series of discussions and workshops centering around the company’s “choreographic thinking tools,” culminating in last spring’s Brainstorm symposium on creative thinking.  In October, Wayne McGregor continued the conversation with the campus community, in conjunction with the company’s performances of FAR. Below, Brandon Monokian shares reflections inspired by this informal Q&A session; for more, read reports on the initial workshops, by Brandon and Sara Wintz. 

“Be wrong, be strong” is a philosophy I adopted about two and a half years ago. I was about to enter the professional world of the arts with four and a half years of theater school behind me and a degree about to be placed in my hand, and my confidence in my work was at an all-time low. Throughout my years studying in school, I had unwittingly become so obsessed with a perfect final product that I had forgotten the importance of the process, and the result was a series of safe and lackluster theatrical endeavors I’d rather forget. So I started being wrong and being strong and, in turn, learning from my mistakes. 

I took this attitude with me into a workshop with two members of choreographer Wayne McGregor’s company, Random Dance. With a virtually nonexistent dance background, I was skeptical of what I would be able to achieve in the course of a two-day workshop, but I threw myself into the experience. The workshop was life changing, and, as a result of what I learned, I gained a plethora of new techniques and tools I could use to generate ideas, communicate with others, and understand my own sense of self as a theater director and actor. Months later, I was ecstatic to learn that not only would Peak Performances host the American premier of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance’s FAR, but they had arranged a discussion with McGregor himself. Read more »

Wayne McGregor. (Photo by Nick Mead.)

“In flesh and blood lay the self and its articulations. With its own elaborate sign language of gesture and feeling, the body was the inseparable dancing partner of the mind or soul; now in step, now a tangle of limbs and intentions, mixed emotions. Organism and consciousness, soma and psyche, heart and head, the outer and inner—all merged, and all needed to be minutely observed if the human enigma were ever to be appreciated.” 

—Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason 

In rehearsal for Wayne McGregor’s latest work, dancers from his company perform extraordinary motions. They throw themselves into whiplash spins, let waves ebb through their necks, build counterintuitive curves and angles into limb and spine. No other contemporary choreographer has developed such an instantly recognizable range of movement—familiar yet dazzlingly novel, giving bodies new things to do while speculating about the minds that inspire them. Read more »

(Photo by Kauhilonohonua Padilla.)

  This just in: Hula dancing is not just about undulating hips and swaying arms and gentle voices intended to lull you into a catatonic stupor following a pig roast and poi platter. Neither, apparently, does it necessarily include grass skirts and coconut bras. 

My singular experience with hula dancing and Hawaiian culture, prior to Saturday night’s performance of Kūlanihāko‘i: Living Waters in Montclair, was at a luau at the Polynesian Resort Hotel in Walt Disney World when I was twelve. Can you blame me for my preconceptions?

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Valda Setterfield in DANCING HENRY FIVE. (Photo by Paula Court.)

The moon, Los Angeles, the Arctic Ocean, the hood, California wine country: all awesome places to be (well…some of them, anyway). In addition to being a collection of random places of debatable awesomeness, they are all untraditional settings for Shakespearean plays. Actors from Patrick Stewart to Anne Hathaway have taken turns portraying the classic characters we have come to know, love, and miscast. There have been adaptations with music and modern twists. From film to television to Amanda Bynes, Shakespeare’s work has been shredded, beheaded, and put back together again many times. We see these unique approaches so often that the untraditional has become the traditional. And, in the tradition of the untraditional, Peak Performances audiences were lucky enough to experience a revival of David Gordon’s DANCING HENRY FIVE. Read more »

As I watched the six pianists of Piano Circus take the stage for Trilogies last Saturday evening, their fierce bows and strong stage presence told me they weren’t ordinary. 

The opening of the show was unique, to say the least. The members, two of whom had their backs to the audience, sat in a circle. My immediate thought was, “This is poor stage presence,” but I continued watching eagerly for their next moves. The pianists began striking keys, the sounds ranging from deep tones to high-pitched shrills. In this first piece (Sguiggle Zipper) of a trilogy by composer Colin Riley, the sounds were abstract and had no particular form. Members took turns playing short, choppy notes. The composition of the music was similar to human dialogue in the way that each pianist took turns playing, like they were communicating their thoughts, one by one, through the music. 

The music reminded me of a soundtrack to a horror film. It was alarming, striking, and even dangerous. Visual images were used throughout the performance to depict the emotion that was enveloped in the music, and they certainly captured the audience’s attention. I found the image of the grazing cows the most memorable, because the cows’ movement mirrored the gentle sounds of the music. The images of the cows transitioned the daring introduction to a lackadaisical and tranquil scene. This sudden transition to a serene ambiance during the second Riley piece (Ebb Cast) kept me on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what the musicians would throw my way next. As the performance progressed, I was taken by the physical appearance of the pianists as they gathered around the instruments to play in unison for Double Trio. Playing both inside and outside of the piano created extended chords and dense harmonies that were very pleasing to the ear. 

The second half of the performance was more traditional, similar to what I had originally expected to hear. The six pianists played three pieces by composer Graham Fitkin (Log, Line, and Loud) on grand pianos, creating a classic acoustic sound. The music was much less chaotic and had a continuous flow. I was moved by this portion of the performance, and I admired the musicians’ talent as they played in harmony. I was astounded by the pianists’ ability to play so vigorously throughout the entire piece. 

The drastic differences in style throughout the performance demonstrate how talented Piano Circus is. The performance was unusual in its subtlety, yet it was expressive throughout. The music was tied to emotional states, as if the musicians were trapped in a “sonic dream” in which they were submerged. Piano Circus unveiled a new meaning of music to me, and I am so pleased to have witnessed such a remarkable performance. 

Jamie Lynn Wisniewski is un undergraduate student at Montclair State University.