Dancing in a New Relationship -By Sarah Kennedy

Image from SFU Dance Instagram Page

Dancing in a New Relationship  

The environment is a location the dancer chooses to perform their choreography. It has a unique influence on a dancer’s movement. The dancer may have a physical, emotional or psychological response to their surroundings. Using film editing techniques to support this relationship, the dancer can create an alternate reality for the viewer. An alternate reality transports the viewer to another place in time. The choreography, location of the performance and editing techniques capture an alternate reality. This was prominent in the SCA Student Choreography show In the Meantime… that took place virtually between February 13th and 14th as a two-part series. I will be focusing on show two that included eight performances that each used various environments to influence movement. Artists in the show that will be focused on are Camryn Frisk, Teighan Hauff, Tara Macgregor, Mikela Vuorensivu, Roya Pishvaei, Andrea Isea Galindo, Natalia Martineau and Brooklyn Fowler. All of these artists made their debut for the first time as choreographers in this show. Each of them used a different environment that created a connected relationship between themselves. My review will determine the relationship between the dancer and environment, their response to their surroundings, and how this creates an alternative reality for the audience. 

The dancer creates a relationship between their environment and choreography that is an integral theme of their performance. The theme in this performance was restlessness. In her rapid. eye. movement, Frisk uses a bedroom to capture the restless activity one may feel when going through insomnia. Her bed is of utmost importance because of its connection to a nighttime routine. Frisk will often toss and turn in her bed as if trying to become comfortable but is never successful. She is trapped in her bedroom and will exaggerate her movements to demonstrate her claustrophobia and insanity that is present in her piece. She covers her face and shakes her head aggressively, trying to escape the world she is trapped in. This uncomfortable relationship Frisk presents between her bedroom and herself has the viewer questioning whether Frisk is caught up in a dream or reality. Frisk’s use of overlay of black and white and dimly lit bedroom effects support her psychological response to what many insomniacs deal with daily. In this piece, the dancer clearly creates an alternative reality with her location and editing techniques to support her relationship with her environment. 

Dancers choose an environment that impacts their theme and message to the audience. Similar to Trisha Brown’s Man Walking Down the Side of a Building (1969), the choreographer chooses the environment to determine the relationship between the dancer and itself. In the show, Hauff and Macgregor demonstrate a relationship in their chosen environment with their theme of growing up. Hauff and Macgregor use their living room in a performance that looks at Hauff’s relationship to her mother in Left Alone. The audience is brought into Hauff and Macgregor’s home creating an intimacy between the two. The living room is a very intimate space in the home that is often the main room used for entertainment. People, in general, use their living room to gather and talk; however, Hauff and Macgregor use their living room as their dance space. As Hauff is dancing, behind her are pictures of her younger self and pictures of her mother representing who she may become. She uses various parts of her living room as props while she's moving, such as a coffee table to rest her arms and a couch to lay down. Both Hauff and Macgregor use simple movements such as circling their arms over their head or interacting with the camera. They both choose to use a hand or foot over the camera to transition between the two of them dancing. These movements demonstrate a slow passing of time as the shots move in and out of Hauff and Macgregor (Hauff’s mother). These transitions in such an intimate space show a metaphorical relationship as Hauff grows up into her mother. Not many dancers will choose to highlight their home in a performance, Hauff and Macgregor were able to show their authentic selves in this piece. The choice of location demonstrated here connects the viewer to the intimacy demonstrated in this piece.   

Dancers often overlook the outdoor environment as a meaningful place to express their ideas. For example; the surfaces can be uneven and a challenge when moving on and off the ground. This was not the case in Vuorensivu, Pishvaei and Isea Galindo’s The Sun, The Star and The Moon. These choreographers decided to use beautiful landscapes including mountains, rivers and fields as their background in their performance. Movements consisted of key themes related to feminism, braiding and orbiting. Each dancer represents the sun, star and moon and so dancing in these outdoor landscapes made the most sense. Each dancer has an emotional relationship with each other and this is prominent in their theme of orbiting, which displays to the audience their strong bond. Dancers are connected to their environment as they dance in the water and pick it up in their hands through a physical connection. In this piece, the audience is transported to the beautiful landscapes of BC all from the comfort of their home. The use of landscapes creates an alternate reality for the viewer. When watching from home the audience can feel like they are in the space with the dancers. Vuorensivu, Pishvaei and Isea Galindo make the audience want to immediately jump through the screen and into this scenery with them. It is their warmth and energy that radiates through the screen to the audience that I find the most striking and leaves me wanting more. All three dancers use the environment to their advantage by taking the audience on a journey.  

Dancers are often great actors demonstrating emotional expression and connecting to an audience in an intimate way. In If I concentrate, the self-loathing almost feels like love Martineau brings us into her personal world and shows the audience the disguises and habits she encounters that shape her identity. This is evident in her many gestures often occurring around her face and chest. She pulls her hair in frustration and rubs her chest using this as a way to represent a cathartic feeling. Her direct stare into the camera creates an unsettling feeling for the viewer. Her space is small and minimalistic so a greater focus is put on her dancing. However, the two doors on either side of Martineau intrigued me. They appear as if they could be a door to her past and future, she never enters them but dances in the middle of them as if indecisive on which one to choose. Martineau’s intimate performance demonstrates how powerful a dancer’s physical and emotional expression is through her close-up shots. This is noticeable when she brings the audience into her space and connects with you through the camera. Her emotional response to her surroundings and movement creates a relationship between herself and the environment. 

The response a dancer has to their environment impacts their performance. In particular, there can be a psychological response to the surroundings that the audience sees in a dancer’s movement and expression. In Fowler’s, The Internal Game the use of a chair and gestures that resemble rock, paper, scissors establishes her eventual acceptance of imperfections. This is her psychological response to her surroundings. As she sits in the chair she draws the audience into a game of rock, paper, scissors against herself. The chair acts as grounding support, making sure she does not get carried away in her thoughts. Fowler must accept her imperfections and not let her surrounding thoughts weigh her down. As she plays this mind game with herself she uses small gestures to represent what happens in her mind. She will kick her legs on the chair or lift her arms one at a time increasing the speed as she continues. Sometimes she dances around the chair and other times she is sitting on it as she gestures in her game of rock, paper, scissors. The Internal Game exhibits a psychological response that many can connect to often going through this struggle on a daily basis. The transition from inside to outdoors portrays Fowler feeling trapped in her mentality but finally relieving herself from her imperfections and a world of possibilities as the vast outdoor landscape opens up. The dancer connects the psychological response to her surroundings when moving in her space.  

Theme development is further enhanced in these performances. The environment tends to be simple or detailed depending on how much of the dancer’s movement they want to be highlighted. Despite all of these pieces being different they became unified through their use of the environment and this was prominent in the overall theme of the show; exploration and perspective.

Therefore, the environment is significant to any performance as the dancer responds to it in various ways. These can be physical, emotional or psychological responses and a clear relationship is visible between the two. The audience can often see this relationship with the environment through a dancer’s movement patterns. The environment creates an alternate reality for not only the dancer but the audience as we are transported to many places. The editing techniques also help transport the audience to an alternate reality often being brought into many intimate spaces as noted in this show. In the Meantime… is an excellent example of a virtual show that uses environmental spaces across Canada to demonstrate creativity beyond the performance stage. Given the current situation with COVID-19, will the environment and site-specific performances become more prevalent and necessary in future dance works?

Works Cited

Pishvaei, R., & Vuorensivu, M. (2021, February). SCA Student Choreographers: In the meantime... SCA Student Choreographers: In the meantime... - School for the Contemporary Arts - Simon Fraser University. https://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/events/sca-student-choreographers--in-the-meantime---.html.  

Thompson, MJ. “Doing Your Thing? Trisha Brown’s Object Lesson.” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 14:1, 2008, pp. 153-163. Performing Arts Periodicals Database, doi:10.1080/07407700408571446.