The Production Machine

John MacLean setting up to record Elizabeth Shepherd for Time Now in the Dancemakers studio, Toronto.

There is a network of artists working underneath the lights and glamor of the mainstream art world. The ones producing indie shows in the small theatres off the beaten path. The dancers, choreographers, visual artists, film makers, musicians, directors, the list goes on, who are passionate about what they do regardless of popular response. We work tirelessly. I believe we are the soldiers of the arts, the ones who make sure that the arts and culture of our country has a thriving pulse. We are always pushing the edges of reality, raising questions, lighting inspiration by daring to create.

Last week I was listening to Lucy Rupert, artistic director and visionary for Blue Celling dance, discuss her work at, Dance Made in Canada. Lucy spoke about the validation of art, and how the presentation is the validation, similar to thoughts from my mentor and choreographer Tedd Robinson of late. As the weeks count down to the opening night of my show Stages and we get closer to full-time rehearsals and in the midst of the tail-chasing frenzied of ever the growing production to-do list, I am reassured by comments like Lucy’s.

I am fortunate to live and produce art in a country where I have a community of supporters. As more and more people come forward to offer time, finances and other resources to Stages I am reminded of one of my most passionate interests and the subject of several of my dance works, the power of the collective, The Community.

Between writing press releases, editing posters and flyers and hashing out ideas with my fantastic production assistant Susan Kendal of Pocket Alchemy I am grateful for my community and for the drive to birth Stages. There is no mistaking that I hope for, dare I say I deserve, press coverage and many bums in seats. I suppose all of this proves I am ready to validate years of work, so that I my move onto the next set of mountains and valleys. The artist’s path is undetermined, it is fluid if we let it be. For now in all the hectic moments I am enjoying the thrill of production. - JD

Buy Tickets for Stages

Support the production of Stages | Indiegogo

STAGES

September 18-21, 2013 | 8pm nightly

The Winchester Street Theatre, 80 Winchester Street, Toronto

Tickets $15/$20 | Gala performance September 18th, tickets $40

kemiprojects.ca

Music - Elizabeth Shepherd

The seed for Time Now (a new work for Stages) came from my interest in Duke Ellington's music. Some of you may have see the first incarnation of the work in 2011. When I revisited the work in 2012 I felt the music was not a good marriage with the dance. I approached Elizabeth Shepherd, asking her to use specific Ellington tunes as a starting place for an original score for Time Now. The results give me goose bumps. Elizabeth was willing to step out of her comfort zone to create a score that marries Time Now beautifully. Here are some thoughts from the Canadian great who I am honoured to have worked with and to know.

I've never really seen a huge difference between dance and music. It's not that one is done to / for the other. To me, both are movement in time, using the confines imposed  by time to make something out of space, something out of nothing. As a musician who hasn’t really grown up around contemporary dance, I have to admit, I never fully "got" it, but I understood that we were related, somehow. I guess I liken it to poetry – it’s not literal, and it moves you even if you can’t name the ways in which it does so.

Years ago (oh yeah - YEARS), I used to play for dance classes. We weren't equals. I knew my job was one of a support role: to lay down the ground for the dancers to move over.  And this was safe for me; from my vantage point where there was no risk, with the added benefit of being consistently moved by what I witnessed. But I never felt that it was a true exchange of voices. The stakes were low, and I knew that I didn’t really have to step up and be present in the way that, say, improvising or parenting or cooking require. Confessions best aired out years later ...

Working with Jen for the ‘Time Now’ project was my first ever opportunity to do just that – to step up and be fully present, to put some music out there and have something come back at me in the form of movement. I responded in kind, and was swept up in a dialogue as it unfolds, without really knowing where we were going. The only thing I can liken it to is to playing jazz with truly great improvisers, or taking the plunge into a body of water and just trusting in both your own ability and that the ‘other’ will hold you up. Time stops being relevant and all that matters is what comes next. It’s hard to explain, but in situations like these - when you're playing with masters of their craft, there's no shortage of ideas and all the time in the world. And when we're freed up from all the ego nonsense and fully committed to that moment, then the exchange brings us each a little closer to some intangible, the one that moves through us all, that is always there even when we forget it. Simply put, it’s spiritual.

Like I said, contemporary dance is not a language I know, but as I found out, you don't really have to know it to play together. Like kids in a playground, or like making your way in a new country where you can't even read the characters of the language, you rely instead on instinct, on your senses, on reading body language, gesturing, smiling a lot and always above all, remembering to be playful.

Thank you Jen for trusting me, for showing me another side of play. I'm honoured to work with you and be included for a brief moment in time, in your language. It's a beautiful and unique one. It was fun, it was terrifying. But most of all, it was exhilarating. - ES

Buy tickets for Stages

Support the production of Stages | Indiegogo 

STAGES
September 18-21, 2013 | 8pm nightly
The Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto
Tickets $15/$20 | Gala performance September 18 Tickets $40

kemiprojects.ca