Project Objectives:
Support the restaging of Brisk Singing (1997) by the London-based choreographer, Richard Alston, the Department of Dance’s first Power Center guest artist from beyond the United States;
Provide opportunities for UM Dance students to experience British dance forms and culture both theoretically and physically;
Support the new 3-credit Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals course which takes both a transhistorical and transnational approach to the study of 19th-21st century dance history. The course draws upon Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘cultural capital’ and ‘fields of production’, and introduces students to the interplay of both local conditions and international trends in the creation of choreography and dance companies;
Foster collaboration between Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals and the Friday Ballet Lab (DANCE 127-427 Section 002);
Expose BFA and MFA Dance students to a web of international examples and experiences.
Project Achievements:
The Transatlantic Connections project achieved its stated objectives and also others that were unforeseen initially. Brisk Singing was restaged in November 2014 by Martin Lawrance, Rehearsal Director of the Richard Alston Dance Company, and another former RADC dancer, Francesca Romo, assisted for one week of the restaging. (This was especially valuable when teaching the complex partnering in Brisk Singing’s central male-female duet.) Both taught masterclasses within the Department’s weekly dance technique schedule and, along with the British dance-music scholar, Stephanie Jordan, Lawrance and Romo participated in a public panel during the November residency. Twenty students were cast in Brisk Singing and Lawrence returned in late-January 2015 to rehearse them. Alston himself oversaw the transition of the work from the Dance Building to the Power Center stage and he attended all four performances (February 5-8). He also participated in a pre-performance panel discussion which was very well-attended.
Brisk Singing was subsequently performed at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts in March 2015 and the leading couple (BFA female dancer and MFA male dancer) went on to perform the central duet in London in June 2015 as part of RADC’s 20th anniversary season at The Place Theatre.
The new Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals course featured Alston as a case study in Fall 2014 while in the Friday Ballet Lab, students learned sections of Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée – Alston acknowledges Ashton’s influence on the development of his choreographic style. Dancing Cities was offered again in Fall 2015, Fall 2016 and Fall 2017, and enrolment has increased year-on-year. London as a 19th-21st century ‘dancing capital’ continues to be one of the case studies and close collaboration continues with the Friday Ballet Lab regarding the choreographers and repertory studied across both courses.
Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals introduced a new theory-practice dimension to our BFA dance history requirement and it continues to integrate masterclasses and lectures by international guest artists. The range of ‘dancing capitals’ chosen as case studies has expanded over the past four years. Some are strongly influenced by the Department’s choice of guest artists for our annual Power Center concert and also by the choreographers and companies presented by the University Musical Society. For example, our 2018 Power Center concert featured work by the Israeli choreographer, Ohad Naharin. As part of the December 2017 restaging residency, BFA alumna, Catherine Coury, led a masterclass in Dancing Cities entitled ‘Dance in Israel: working with Ohad Naharin’. Similarly, as a precursor to UMS presenting Romeo and Juliet by the British choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan, in February 2018, both the Fall 2017 Dancing Cities course and my new Writing Dancing course in Winter 2018 included an in-depth study of MacMillan’s choreographic career, while in the Friday Ballet Lab, students learned sections of two of his ballets, Concerto and Elite Syncopations.)
The Fall 2015 run of Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals had to be significantly re-thought because there was no studio available to accommodate guest artist masterclasses. Hugely dispiriting initially (especially after the successes of AY 2014/15), our physical space problems forced a new component within the course. Detroit as a ‘dancing capital’ became a major case study, thus further reinforcing Bourdieu’s idea of both local and wider socio-political conditions in the production of dance works and institutions. We spent Saturday, November 14, in Detroit and the day included time at the Detroit Historical Museum; a class taught by SMTD Hall of Fame awardee, Harriet Berg, on the history of dance in the city; and an evening performance at the Music Hall by Shen Wei Dance Arts. A BFA alumnus, Austin Selden, subsequently led at seminar at UM on working and touring internationally with Shen Wei (choreographer of the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games).
In Fall 2016 and 2017, Detroit was again a popular case study within the course and our day in the city has expanded to include the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Institute of Art and a technique class at ArtLab J (directed by Joori Jung from South Korea). In Fall 2017, Harriet Berg led a class at UM on the history of dance in Detroit which was open to all faculty and students within the Department.
The Transatlantic Connections project undoubtedly ‘internationalized’ the Department’s BFA and MFA programs. It served as a model for integrating international guest artists within various areas of the curriculum and the Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals course particularly has provided opportunities for students to experience history as both a scholarly and embodied dance practice.
Continuation:
As noted above, the Department of Dance’s 2018 Power Center concert featured the work of a second international choreographer, Ohad Naharin, and the guest artists involved in that restaging contributed masterclasses to a range of BFA and MFA courses, including Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals.
Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals was introduced to the BFA curriculum as a Special Topics course. Following Department and School of Music, Theatre & Dance approval, it became a 300-level dance history course in its own right from Fall 2017: DANCE 347-002. Importantly, the course is now supported in part through the Department’s guest artist budget and it has a designated studio within the Fall teaching schedule for masterclasses. The course also benefits from SMTD’s new EXCEL initiative which supports returning alumni sharing their expertise with our students. To-date, three Dancing Cities classes have been funded by EXCEL: Catherine Coury in Fall 2016 and again as part of the Naharin residency in Fall 2017; and Alex Springer and Xan Burley (former members of Doug Varone and Dancers) also in Fall 2017.
The Department has also benefitted from the expertise of a new faculty hire, Emily Wilcox, in the Department of Asian Languages and Culture who specializes in Chinese Dance. She and a doctoral student there have contributed classes in Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals on contemporary Chinese dance in Beijing and Hip-hop in Kumming.
Dissemination:
The project was featured in the Winter 2014 issue of the Michigan Muse: ‘Transatlantic Connections: Restaging Richard Alston’s Choreography’, pp.8-9 and the article included interviews with several students cast in Brisk Singing. The June 2015 performances in London were reviewed widely, including by The Evening Standard, The Financial Times, The Guardian, and several online publications.
All publicity for the 2015 Power Center concert; the Berman Center performance; and the RADC season in London acknowledged funding from CRLT.
Student interest and increased enrolment in the Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals course has definitely occurred through ‘word of mouth’ and the Fall 2017 run included three non-major students. Additionally, the alternative approaches to studying dance history which the course fosters has helped to attract students to my new Writing Dancing course, which was offered for the first time in Winter 2018 and included seven students from the Fall 20167 Dancing Cities course.
Advice to your Colleagues:
Transatlantic Connections benefitted enormously from having a detailed structure and timeline mapped out for the entire project. However, flexibility – having to accommodate unforeseen problems but also happy coincidences – undoubtedly enhanced both the project itself and some of its ongoing iterations. New initiatives such as EXCEL; new faculty hires; capitalizing on guest artist residencies across the curriculum and for public events have been mentioned above. RADC’s 2014/15 full season was unknown when planning the project but serendipity brought additional funds subsequently: Lawrance was setting an Alston work on the New York Theatre Ballet immediately prior to our November 2014 residency and, similarly, Alston oversaw the final rehearsals and opening performances of one of his works by Miami City Ballet immediately after our Power Center performances. Both companies agreed to a 50/50 cost-share for their international travel.
Another happy coincidence that has benefitted Dancing Cities: Cultural Capitals has been the availability of international colleagues undertaking research in the United States. For example, one of the case studies in Fall 2016 was Dance in Melbourne since Professor Rachel Fensham (University of Melbourne) was on sabbatical and working in two dance archives in the mid-west.
