Conversations with 'Chemistry': revisiting the classic work of Stravinsky and Balanchine

by Rossi Lamont Walter, 9 January, 2014

“Oh heyyy!” giggles Betsi, as she inches her little car through a large traffic intersection. With stop lights all broken and a car full of tired dancers, all eyes were peeled as she motored safely across the lanes. We all laughed. “That is so something you would say Betsi.” “Oh? Well, what’s a new word I can use?”

That was Tuesday night, the week of the debut of Chemistry. Though quaint, this short narrative embodies rather well the entire process of making the dances for the show, which will premiere on Saturday night at Jordan Hall in Boston. In the story there is the nucleus, or the dancers and their director; the mode of transportation, in this case the legendary score from Stravinsky; fatigue and yet focused attention from all; laughter; distinct personality; new vocabulary. All of these features reflect the ambition and hard (and fast!) work for Chemistry.

Some background: Chemistry is a collaboration between Urbanity Dance, a contemporary dance company, and A Far Cry, a string ensemble, both Boston-based and highly acclaimed. Featured in the show are historic works from two musical powerhouses Johann Sebastien Bach and Igor Stravinsky. Although all the choreography for the evening is original, developed by Betsi Graves, founder and artistic director of Urbanity, in close collaboration with the dancers, the Stravinsky work has some weight on its shoulders-- Balanchine did it first. Yes, it was 1928 in Paris when George Balanchine, a celebrated choreographer for the New York City Ballet, with a legendary repertoire that is fiercely protected by his ballerinas as well as his posthumous foundation, a man for whom the rights to the now-famous score were in fact reserved by Stravinsky himself, premiered the ballet Apollon Musagète. But, in the new year 2014, what is all that when the score is on the table and a dance must be made? With only a month to work, some might call the project insanity. Instead, Graves called on Urbanity. Wasting no time, Graves gathered a cast of four dancers, set steps and offered ideas--taking breaks only to fly across the country to host auditions for the highly-anticipated Urbanity Summer Intensive--all while pouring over Stravinsky’s music, which she describes as simply “hard”.

The story of Apollo evolves over a tableau of ten dances, from the birth of the ignorant divinity to the lessons of the muses and finally the apotheosis. In Balanchine’s ballet blanc, Apollo (Ayako Takahashi) receives guidance from three muses, Calliope the muse of poetry (Rossi Lamont Walter), Polyhymnia the muse of gesture (Brian Washburn) and Terpsichore the muse of dance (Ryan Valente), who together instruct the young divinity in art and art-making. In a way, the story is one to which most of us can relate. We realize our creativity, we struggle with it, suffer because of it, learn to cultivate it and ultimately, on the best of days, transform it into something tangible and meaningful. For Graves and cast, however, there is much more at stake. “Why are muses never male?” demands Graves, who finds it irksome that muses, which are magnificent sources of knowledge, insight and inspiration, are not only always depicted as female but also as airy, whimsical and incorrigibly passive. “To give inspiration takes work,” Graves insists “and no one said that muses cannot be male.” 

Rossi Lamont Walter in the dance of Calliope, the muse of poetry.

Other big ideas inform the work, too. Traditionally, the ballet is performed with three female muses and a male Apollo, and different performances can ignite very different perceptions of gender-dominance on stage. The reversal of gender roles in Graves’ vision prompts not for the first time questions about gaze (what is gaze? what does it mean to gaze?) and, more specifically, the male gaze, thus welcoming into the conversation the remarkable tradition of feminist literature to-date, from legends like Sylvia Plath to contemporaries like Clare Pollard, including modern advertisements made to counteract the so-called “leering male gaze” in India.

And so it was: Graves sought to build new muses, muses that were male, strong, courageous and yet somehow vulnerable. “There is a certain softness, a tenderness to you all,” Graves reminds us in rehearsal, “You are working hard to inspire Ayallo [Ayako and Apollo] but ultimately this is her struggle.” This is one of many lessons in the show, that inspiration does not come easily, and, when it does, that it will not take away struggle-- so if you have it, then you had better work hard to use it. (Twyla Tharp would agree.) In Urbanity’s main studio at 280 Shawmut Avenue, Graves puts this philosophy to practice through how she works with the four dancers. She offers steps and “wonky angles” but, much like Twyla Tharp, that historic American choreographer, Graves expects the dancers to offer something in return. As a result, Graves’ choreographic process is as much an invitation to the dancers to work as artists as it is pre-arranged steps. This process, however, does not come without pressure. As for any practicing artist, there is the fear of of failure. Fortunately for the dancers, one of Graves’ biggest successes as a choreographer is her ability to cultivate an environment where one feels safe to fall down, safe to take risks that really might not work-- precisely because much of the time they do. The entire show, then, is a culmination of fierce steps and daring leaps as well as wonky angles, vivid personalities and sincere contributions to a larger social and philosophical conversation about gender roles, gaze, suffering and inspiration.

Four days before the premiere, in a studio flooded with sunlight and filled with artists working in anticipation for a full house this Saturday evening at Jordan Hall, Graves encourages her dancers. “Get to the ‘oh yay’ moments faster-- those ‘oh yay I’m dancing in space, whoa!’ moments”. The room laughs. That is so something she would say.

Get your ticket here: http://www.afarcry.org/chemistry/

Click here for a sneak peak of the show.
Check out the Urbanity Summer Intensive here: http://urbanitydance.org/Urbanity_Dance_Summer_Program.html