January/February 2016
Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication
Content Groundhog Days A conversation with Alison Denham Page 2
Dance Sovereignty Introducing Mique'l Dangeli Page 7
Coming to Stay A conversation with Helen Walkley Page 10
Welcome to Dance Central In this issue, the Thinking Bodies series continues with a conversation with Alison Denham, and in the Critical Movement department, we feature an inter-
Groundhog Days
view with Vancouver-based dance artist Helen Walkley. This issue is also published a day after we received confirmation that for 2016/2017 publishing year, First Nations dancer, dance scholar, and The Dance Centre artist in residence Mique'l Dangeli will join us in an ongoing project to present some of the more than thirty First Nations dance artists and troupes working in the region. Having recently completed her doctorate at UBC, Dr. Dangeli will be contributing regularly to Dance Central as part of her Dance Sovereignty project, to create awareness and new points of connection between the different facets of the Vancouver dance community. This brings me to a point that touches on the timeline of Dance Central. In its historical role as a newsletter, DC was published at the beginning of every second month, to provide scheduling and event information and advertising to members. These functions have long been shifted to The Dance Centre's website, E-Central mailout and blog. The opportunity for a publication such as Dance Central lies in the fact that it can focus on artists' voices and on critical reflection on events as they occur. This doesn't always fit a rigid schedule, and while we make evey effort to publish within the first week of the calendar month, the working schedules of our contributing artists sometimes require us to give priority to an event such as this one. As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed to contribute and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send material by email to members@thedancecentre.ca or call us at 604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation! Andreas Kahre, Editor 2
Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
AK: Thank you for finding the time to meet, given that you have a fifteen month old daughter and you are working on a new project. I imagine living with Zoya is a mixture of Groundhog Day and a glimpse of a completely new universe every day. AD: Exactly. Some days she really needs routine, and some days are different, and when we started this project I was thinking about that. I was also a little hesitant at first, because I feel quite disconnected from my art practice, and from dance itself, but then I thought, maybe that is interesting in itself. AK: That transition is the interesting aspect. I don’t know whether you still identify primarily as a performer, as a dance artist, or if dance is
Thinking Bodies: A conversation with Alison Denham
now just one aspect of a larger configuration, but I am curious
I received a research grant. A few years ago, when I was in
how you experience life in the middle of changing relationships,
Berlin with Billy I had an idea: One day, on our way to a tech-
and especially with a child coming into your life.
nique class, I realized that we were on the same time schedule every day, and as I looked around me on the subway, I
AD: Small person, big change. And it changed even before that
saw the same people on the same schedule every day, and
happened; my experience of what I was doing with my danc-
I began to think about how we are all doing the same mun-
ing was shifting. I used to really identify as an interpreter, as a
dane activities every day, without thinking about them, and
performer. That became clear to me about ten years ago, when
perhaps without feeling them in our bodies. So I wanted to
I dabbled in choreography, but I didn’t feel that it resonated as
create a project with dancers where I make them act out the
clearly to me as working as a collaborating artist. It shifted again a
same day over and over again. We repeated the same day for
couple of years ago, and now I am in a place where I really don’t
four days.
know what I am doing, but I am still working. I just finished a project a couple of days ago, my first research project for which
AK: To what level of detail? Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
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Thinking Bodies:
A conversation with Alison Denham
very supportive, and let me move in with my brother, in the city, because I realized how much bigger a community I needed. AK: Were you a bun–head?
AD: As much as they could, at least physically, remember. They didn’t have to speak the same thing, but they tried to eat and act physically the same as much as was possible. We filmed them every day, and getting this information and looking at film footage comparing how they were acting while being filmed every day at the same time was fascinating. It was my first grant, and Zoya was brand new. It was the first time that I felt again that I wanted to work on a new project, and attempt to create, or at least investigate what it was like to be a performer or a witness of your own physicality. I am interested in that, but I don’t know yet what that means and what I am going to do with it. AK: The witnessing part reminds me of SLOWPOKE (A performance created with Billy Marchenski in 2014), in that it tries to articulate how something unseen irrevocably alters you. It also reminds me a little of the dinner party project, of which you are a part. AD: It’s true. When I wrote the research grant I said, I am thinking about these things because of these projects, and the original plan included Justine and Aryo as part of the project. The research we were doing was research about gestures of eating, and I wanted to try something new. Justine has definitely inspired me. AK: Do you still work in a black box? AD: Yes, the last two shows I did were black box shows; the remount of SLOWPOKE and Lexicon at Dancing on The Edge. But I developed a frozen shoulder during the time Zoya was born, so I haven’t been able to fully raise my arm for almost a year, and having a physical dance practice has been more about the rehabilitation of my body for the past year.
AD: Yes, at least to some degree. I did the Arts Umbrella program and went through the mentor program at Ballet BC. I wasn’t a full-blown bun–head, but I did ballet for years. AK: If Zoya wanted to dance, would you support it? AD: She likes to groove, but she is more in her voice. She sings all the time. I would support it but I would see it from the ‘other end’. AK: Do you feel you are on the ‘other end’ of dance? AD: I feel like I am on the other end of making it my main priority. I teach Pilates, and workshops, and I do other things more than I dance now. It was great when my body could handle it, and when I could handle it financially, but now it is a part of me, and it used to be all of me. I was in Dancemakers for five years, and I had a very stable situation, but even that really was only six or seven months a year, so I was still working independently, in Vancouver and Toronto, and since coming back to live in Vancouver in 2005, it has been a scheduling nightmare. AK: How did you manage to keep connected in both Vancouver and Toronto? AD: There were a few Toronto choreographers I had been working with and I went back and forth quite a bit. And then Billy and I both went back to work with Peter Chin. I had met him and Peggy Baker and Andrea Nann at Dancemakers, and I left when some projects were still ongoing. But I haven’t gone back to work in Toronto for some years. AK: Do you distinguish between dance, movement, and performance in your own work? I am thinking of SLOWPOKE, which has formal movement aspects but is not a dance piece.
AK: How did you get to dance? AD: I have been dancing from the age of about ten. My older sister was dancing, and my mum, being practical, took me to the same school. I didn’t like it at first, but then I took to it, and when I was fifteen I got very serious about it, and moved from my hometown in Sechelt to the city. My parents were 4
Dance Central January/February 2016
AD: It depends. If I work with Alvin Tolentino, for example, it is very much a dance show, and even if there are theatrical elements, the overall sensibility is very much dance. With Justine Chambers, even if it is very experimental, the work is coming from a dance place. I don’t know if I can define what that is; I am still trying to figure that out, and the labeling is shifting around in the community. Perhaps people who are primarily creators find it easier to be clear about it. There is so much crossing over
with media and other elements, that nothing is just one thing any more. AK: Some people make a hard distinction between creator and interpreter, while others think of that as overlapping, and it matters whether it is thought of as dance, or performance art, or contemporary performance. Does your training include theatre? AD: Very little. Some bouffon workshops and things like that, but I do love it. I actually prefer working on text-based works. When we remounted SLOWPOKE, I was given some pretty heavy text parts, and I loved approaching text through dance movement, images and ideas of how to approach it. I find that very enjoyable. Probably because it is still new to me. AK: What is it like to be working with your partner? AD: We work well together, as long as we have a clear boundary of who does what. When we tried to co-create we fought the entire time, because we didn’t know who had the final say. In SLOWPOKE, Billy directed and I collaborated, and that really worked well. When he performs for me that also works well. The one time I have felt successful in collaborating with someone from inception to performance was in working with Mitch Andersen for Brief Encounters. AK: If you imagine yourself when Zoya is older, do you have a sense how the different parts of your life might come together in a different configuration? AD: I don’t right now. I am trying to figure out how to heal my body, and how to have more movement in my life. I want to be dancing again, but I am not sure I want to work for anybody else. I am quite picky now. I would love to be involved with people that I was really excited about and that are excited about working with me. But there is also the aspect of making a living, and gigging is hard. Billy is more into that and it’s enough if one of us is doing it. AK: In talking to people who identify as performers, by the time
"I want to dissect movement right down to what is going on deep inside, more than I am into dance teaching, which I have done and will do again. I learned through my body’s training and teaching that there is this ability to heal through awareness and understanding."
they get into their thirties, many are reporting that their bodies are beginning to break down. AD: When you are dancing for other people, you are always doing new movement patterns and repetition, and they are not necessarily your own. Even though people are using a lot of improvisation they still take your improvisation and then make it their own, they tweak it or they make it with their impulses. If you are only doing your own work you can probably dance forever, Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
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Dance Central The Dance Centre Scotiabank Dance Centre Level 6, 677 Davie Street Vancouver BC V6B 2G6 T 604.606.6400 F 604.606.6401 info@thedancecentre.ca www.thedancecentre.ca Dance Central is published every two months by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements. Editor Andreas Kahre Copy Editor Hilary Maxwell
Thinking Bodies:
A conversation with Alison Denham you can have longevity because you can work with your own patterns, or challenge it, but fitting yourself into someone else’s patterns makes your body break down sooner. AK: Do you experience yourself as part of a cohort? AD: A little bit, there is a common thread and we are at a similar place in our career, and we teach, so we feel that the
Contributors to this issue: Dr. Mique'l Dangeli, Alison Denham, Helen Walkley Photography: David Cooper, Mique'l Dangeli, Josh Hite Dance Centre Board Members Chair Beau Howes, CFA Vice Chair Josh Martin Secretary Margaret Grenier Treasurer Matthew Breech Past Chair Ingrid M. Tsui
younger people are helping us to evaluate what we have
Directors Carolyn Chan Angeline Chandra Eve Change Geoff Chen Susan Elliott Kate Franklin Anndraya T. Luui Starr Muranko
right down to what is going on deep inside, more than I am
Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Jennifer Chung Directors Trent Berry, Kimberley Blackwell, Janice Wells, Andrea R. Wink
how performers experience the dance world differently from
Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Venue and Services Administrator Robin Naiman Development Director Sheri Urquhart Technical Directors Justin Aucoin and Mark Eugster Accountant Elyn Dobbs Member Services Coordinator Hilary Maxwell
to teach and to offer. I am interested in teaching from the Pilates-based work that I do. I am developing a workshop with Kate Franklin about the integration of the pelvis with the thighbone and the spine, speaking specifically to helping understand that interaction; I want to dissect movement into dance teaching, which I have done and will do again. I learned through my body’s training and teaching that there is this ability to heal through awareness and understanding. AK: Part of the Thinking Bodies series has been to explore choreographers, especially given that so many artists now work collaboratively, or generate movement in improvisation. It still appears sometimes that their presence is critical to the work without being acknowledged. AD: I remember that while I was on the board of The Dance Centre, I was realizing that I was defined as an interpreter, and that interpreters were not being seen as vital as the choreographers, but most processes that I was in were very dependent on who the dancers were. You couldn’t just switch Josh Martin for someone else. So I asked why weren’t we on the posters sometimes, or asked questions at the talkback. I found that frustrating, and I wanted to be an advocate for some kind of change.
The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible bynumerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, community peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.
AK: You teach, for example with Modus Operandi. How do you experience the students? AD: They are amazing; they are a lot more mature and have more knowledge than I had at their age. In part, they are learning earlier and they are able to assimilate information faster. I watch people go through a dance program and quickly become very organized and intelligent in their body,
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Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
continued on page 16
v
Dancing Sovereignty Introducing Dr. Mique'l Dangeli We are delighted to welcome Northwest Coast First Nations Art Historian, Leader & Choreographer of the Git Hayetsk Dancers and The Dance Cente's artist in residence Dr. Mique'l Dangeli to Dance Central for the 2016/2017 publishing year, where she will be a regular contributor writing about First Nations dance. For an introduction to her project, please go to https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXXeegrjwfo
For more about the Git Hayetsk, go to http://www.githayetsk.com Twitter and instagram: @githayetsk Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GitHayetskDancers
Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
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Raised on the Annette Island Indian Reserve, Dr. Mique’l Dangeli is of the Tsimshian Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska. She belongs to the Lax̱sgiik (Eagle Clan) and carries the Tsimshian name Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm (cherished more than any other person) and Tlingit name Taakw Shaawát (winter woman). In 2015, Mique’l received her PhD in art history from the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory at the University of British Columbia. She is the first Indigenous person to earn a doctorate in the study of Northwest Coast First Nations art history. Mique’l was groomed from childhood by leaders in her community to be a dancer, caretaker of songs and dances, and person responsible at potlatches. Throughout primary and secondary school, Mique’l traveled with Tsimshian dance groups, Git Lax Lik’staa Dancers and the Fourth Generation Dancers, to share songs and dances at ceremonies, cultural exchanges, and other events across the US and Canada. Witnessing and participating in these types of gatherings, as well as studying her language, preparing traditional foods, creating regalia, and spending time with elders, inspired her to study Northwest Coast First Nations art history. After graduating from high school, she moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. In Seattle, Mique’l danced with two Tsimshian dance groups, the Tsimshian Hayuuk and Git Hoan, and performed with them in many major cities throughout North America. After graduating with her Bachelor’s degree, she returned home to Metlakatla to teach Tsimshian Studies in the local high school and take on the leadership of the the Git Lax Lik’staa Dancers. Since 2003, Mique’l and her husband Nisga’a artist and carver Mike Dangeli have shared the leadership of Git Hayetsk (People of the Copper Shield), an internationallyrenowned Northwest Coast First Nations mask-dancing group based in the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples—known today as Vancouver, BC. Git Hayetsk means “people of the copper shield” in Sm’algya̱x, the language spoken by the Nisga’a, Tsimshian, and Gitx̱san Nations. Members of the Git Hayetsk are bonded by connections to the Sm’algya̱x speaking peoples with distinction in their family ties to the Haida, Haisla, Tahltan, Tlingit, and Musqueam Nations. They are dedicated to carrying on the high standards of artistry embodied by the copper shield—one of their most powerful and sacred forms of ceremonial wealth— through dance, song-composition, choreography, masks, and regalia. The Git Hayetsk perform ancient songs and
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D a n c e C e n t ra l J a nu r ay / Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 6
dances that have been inherited through their families as well as continue their peoples’ ancient practice of creating new songs and dances to reflect and record their experiences as First Nations people today. They have performed, given lectures, and held workshops throughout Canada, the US, and abroad including Austria, Malaysia, Germany, and Japan. Mique’l has choreographed a large body of dances for the Git Hayetsk to accompany newly composed songs by her husband Mike Dangeli as well as for ancient songs whose dances were lost through cultural oppression enforced by colonial policies, residential schools, and other means. Her work with the Git Hayetsk led to her research to focus on the processes through which Northwest Coast First Nations dance artists assert, negotiate, and enact protocol as a part of their process of creating new songs, dances, and collaborations. In doctoral thesis, Mique’l demonstrated the ways in which these complex and political processes can be viewed as Indigenous practices of sovereignty that affirm Aboriginal land rights, epistemologies, and hereditary privileges. In addition to being an artist-in-residence at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Mique’l currently serves as a Protocol Consultant for the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance in Toronto, a sessional instructor in both Art History and First Nations and Indigenous Studies at UBC, and a curator-inresidence at Full Circle First Nations performance. For more information on the Git Hayetsk see: www.githayetsk.com https://www.facebook.com/GitHayetskDancers/ Mique’l has also published an article on the Git Hayetsk with Bard Graduate Center. See: Mique’l Askren. “Dancing Our Stone Mask Out of Confinement: A Twenty-first-Century Tsimshian Epistemology,” In Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast, Edited by Aaron Glass, 37-47, Bard Graduate Center, New York and Yale University Press, London, 2011. Her dissertation can be found on most university thesis databases under the following: Mique’l Dangeli. “Dancing Sovereignty: Protocol and Politics in Northwest Coast First Nations Dance” Doctoral Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015.
Mique'l Dangeli
Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
9
Coming to Stay
Contemporary dance artist Helen Walkley has created, performed and taught throughout North America and Europe for thirty-five years in diverse populations and contexts. Recently, she directed studio research together with composer James Maxwell and dancers Josh Martin and Olivia Shaffer and is moving towards the next development of this work. There are multiple meanings in any given moment, dependent upon the point of view of the experience. This is the pathos and beauty of our existence and can render any heart and mind tender. It is this which compels me to create my work, and it is with this that I go out the door every morning to meet all the incidents of a single day. Everyone’s story meets— sometimes colliding and careening—in unarticulated moments as simple as being jostled on a crowded bus. This layering and cross-referencing exposes humanity and is heartbreaking and mind opening. In this sense my work is transpersonal. My story, if you will, is everyone’s story. Through a layering and crossreferencing in my processes there is an energetic transmission through space and time in performance, and each viewer receives his/her own story. Their hearts and minds are touched in a way unique unto themselves, and there is the potential for a sharing of experience. www.helenwalkley.com
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Dance Central January/February 2016
Central November/December 2015
Photography by Chris Randle 12 Dance
Critical Movements:
A Conversation with
Helen Walkley
AK: Your website emphasizes your interest in somatic prac-
where I stayed for a year. I came back to the US, because
tice, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of your work. You are
that’s where I had previously been, and then subsequently
among the first group of artists who went through the interdis-
lived in Amsterdam for four years. So by the time I came
ciplinary MFA program at SFU, at a time when a new discourse
to Vancouver, I had lived and worked in Seattle, New York,
was developing between the definitions artists used to position
Berlin and Amsterdam. In Seattle, I had definitely set up
themselves— some identified as ‘interdisciplinary artists’, while
shop; I did an enormous amount of work, at a time when
some challenged the very terminology and remained based in an
On The Boards was becoming On the Boards. By the time I
established discipline. Were you always a dance artist first, or an
got here, I wasn’t prepared to just move somewhere willy
interdisciplinary artist, or did these questions matter?
nilly, and it took a while before I stopped questioning my choice. I first arrived in 1994, and up until about 2000 I was
HW: I would say no, they didn’t. I began to make work with text
gone for a significant amount of time every year; I went
in the very early eighties in my first seven years as a professional
to Europe for a fall, and to the United States for a sum-
in Seattle. I simultaneously worked with Pat Graney, and she was
mer, Cape Breton Island for a summer, etc. There was a lot
making text-based work back then. I was also in a duet company
to learn when I moved here, because I was raised as an
with Christian Swenson, who was trained in theatre and mime and
American artist in my formative years. Basically I thought
dance, and had a propensity for working with voice and words
more like an American artist, and that is a very different way
and sound and song. So voice came in very early, and often there
of being.
has also been a set element in my work. I have always been curious about light. While still living in Amsterdam I researched a
AK: How does an American artist think?
number of masters programs and I was drawn to SFU because it is interdisciplinary, but also because of its structure, in that there
HW: Your life as an artist is organized very differently in the
were only a few required classes, and then you did directed stud-
United States compared to Canada. There is very little fund-
ies or studio courses with faculty supervision, which to my mind
ing in the US; for example, it isn’t the norm to be paid an
meant that I could structure what I was doing myself. I was in my
hourly wage for rehearsing, even to this day. American art-
late thirties by then and had been working for a significant number
ists who come here and hear that people are being paid $25
of years. I also chose the program because I thought it was in my
or $26 an hour for rehearsing are astonished. And there is a
neck of the woods; I was born in Nelson, B.C. and came to Van-
specific, defined relationship between the artists, the fund-
couver a lot as a child, so I thought I was returning home.
ing bodies and the presenters here. Young artists learn from early on what steps to take, what being an artist in Canada
AK: Did it turn out that way?
means: You apply for funding, you get non-profit status, and operate in a mechanism that just doesn’t exist in the United
HW: No. It was a new culture. I had left when I was fifteen and I
States, where I would say the initiative, or the impulse that
returned when I was thirty-nine, after living in three other coun-
the work springs out of, comes from a different place, and it
tries, so it did not immediately become home.
isn’t as regimented.
AK: What was the journey that brought you back to BC?
AK: When you found yourself back in Canada, in this milieu, how did you manage to make it work?
HW: That’s a question with a long answer. I did my first seven years of work in Seattle, and then I was on the East Coast for
HW: I was fortunate in that the first time I applied to the
about a year and a half, first as artist in residence at Virginia Com-
Canada Council and the BC Arts Council I received funding,
monwealth University in Richmond, VA and then in New York City.
which seemed like an auspicious beginning. I went back
At the end of that time I received an invitation to work in Berlin,
and forth for numbers of years about whether I should get Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
11
Critical Movements:
A conversation with Helen Walkley
Coming to Stay
which influences my continued shaping of it—or it may not, dependent on how I receive that information. I think my relationship to that question would be mainly related to maturation and the sense that I feel my experience is not that far
non-profit status or not, and decided not to do that. My work
removed from anyone’s experience, so when I am creating
life has always been a combination of teaching, perform-
something out of my experience I feel that it will be acces-
ing, and creating work, and I felt that non-profit status has
sible in some capacity to a public, and the things that touch
sometimes focused artists more narrowly, while I have really
me in life are the things that touch other people in life, so I
enjoyed that diversity in my focus. I also didn’t really want all
feel a connection that way.
the administration of a non-profit organization, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a substantial amount of administration
AK: How has the Vancouver community changed in your
in my life.
experience since you came back?
AK: How did you decide to stay?
HW: My work is based in improvisation and yes, I feel that the dance community in Vancouver has changed significantly
HW: It happened over time. My family was in Spokane,
in the time that I have been here. When I came here I didn’t
Washington, and when I first came back here after so much
feel that there was a lot of work that had a somatic base, or
time away, I was very glad to be close by my aunt and uncle.
was embedded in improvisation, or sourcing the work from
I also had close friends in Seattle, so proximity was a factor,
improvisation. That has changed significantly, and as that
and then over time there were certain advantages to being
changed, my relationship to being here, and to the public has
here; for example, at this point in my life I wouldn’t want to live
changed.
somewhere without health insurance, and I have received an amount of funding as well as support from The Dance Centre
AK: It is curious that Vancouver became known international-
that has allowed me to make work that if I was living in the
ly in the late 70s and early 80s as a centre for improvisation,
United States I would not have been able to realize to the same
particularly in music, and of course Contact Improvisation,
extent, such as the work with composer James Maxwell, which
but dance didn’t begin to embrace it until much later…
has been an incredible relationship since the mid late 1990s. Being in Vancouver has supported the kind of relationships I
HW: It is a very interesting question to wonder around in.
have developed and the kind of work that has grown out of it.
Having gone from Seattle to New York to Europe, I was part of a milieu in New York and in New England where people
AK: Has your work changed as a result of living here, as com-
go back and forth, and spend significant amounts of time in
pared to Europe or the United States?
Europe, or relocate to Europe. For example, I taught at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, which is
HW: No. If I think of myself as a young artist and as I am today,
an international and a very progressive school, and the milieu
I think I have very much the same concerns. There has been a
that I worked in was very different from not only Vancouver
process of refining and focusing my relationship to those con-
but the Canadian dance scene.
cerns, to what they mean to me and how I am able to express that in my work. However, living in different cultures has of
AK: What initially took you to Berlin?
course influenced my work. HW: I did the Laban training in Seattle in 84/85. Antja KenAK: Does the cultural difference between audiences in Van-
nedy, one of the founders of the Tanzfabrik Cooperative, did
couver and those in other locations affect your work?
the training at same time. She was going to New York City for a year, and she invited me to go to Berlin to do her work
HW: A public certainly informs what I am doing, and the mo-
while she was gone, so I lived in her flat on the Hasenheide
ment my work goes to a public I receive information back
and worked at the Tanzfabrik.
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Dance Central January/February 2016
" m y a I v s T a r f r t t m a a e m
"If I think of myself as a young artist and as I am today, I think I have very much the same concerns. There has been a process of refining and focusing my relationship to those concerns, to what they mean to me and how I am able to express that in my work."
AK: Have you gone back since then? HW: Yes, all the years I lived in Amsterdam I also worked in Germany, in Bremen, Münster, Hamburg, Köln, Konstanz and Berlin. The last time I was there was in the fall of 2000, between Valencia, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Konstanz. AK: Are there people in the Vancouver community who share your sense of being suspended between different worlds? HW: I probably share the most with Peter Bingham, because of his relationship to the North American contact improvisation world, and beyond, so while my work isn’t Contactbased, I moved though that arena a lot, and we know many of the same people. AK: Is location a significant influence on your work? HW: It is significant. I was born in BC, and my family moved to rural Northern Idaho when I was fifteen. That was a radical shift. I moved to Eugene, Oregon which in the seventies was very progressive and still is, for my undergraduate degree in dance. I know the Pacific Northwest of the US like the back of my hand, and I don’t have that same relationship to British Columbia. I am not a car owner. When I first moved here, after finishing my MFA, I made a point of doing work in outof-the–way places. I went to the Queen Charlotte Islands two years in a row. I found an address for the QCI arts council, wrote them a letter and asked if they would like me to come perform and teach, and they did. I also worked in Courtenay, Nanaimo, Victoria, Salt Spring, Hornby, Lasqueti, Nelson— as part of locating and integrating myself here. I couldn’t immediately fit into the system here, into the mechanism. I feel that the pace at which I make work is much slower than is the norm here, with the push around the funding timelines. I have not subscribed to that, which has sometimes been hard, but ultimately I really appreciate the work I have made, and I can see and feel a progression and a development in it, and I value that and I have performed and taught across the country. AK: How long does it take you to create a work? HW: I don’t have operating funding, so I usually apply for research funding one year, creation monies the next, and then I make the work. It is a two to three year process, and in the Dance Central January/February 2016
13
Critical Movements: A conversation with Helen Walkley
"I feel my experience is not that far removed from anyone's experience, so when I am creating something out of my experience I feel that it will be accessible in some capacity to a public, and the things that touch me in life are the things that touch other people in life, so I feel a connection that way."
case of a solo I performed in 2010 it took four years to
HW: That goes way back. In 1983, I did my first meditation
make— not necessarily because I wanted it, but also
training and in 84/85 I did the Laban training, so those be-
because of the funding. I like to work slowly, and I don’t
came the ground, and throughout the course of my career
organize my rehearsal schedule as most people do.
I have continued to study and weave other things in, but
Typically, I work in the studio three, sometimes four
working with my mind is also a process of maturation, as
days a week, and unlike most people, I like to work in
well as the degree to which I can move around a studio
the morning. This means that rehearsal periods extend
at sixty is different than at age twenty-five. This makes it
over a longer period of time. I work a lot with my mind.
more complex to work with other dancers, as they have to juggle things in their schedule in order to be available.
AK: How do the mental work and the somatic practice intersect?
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AK: How do you work from improvisation?
HW: For example, with my solo How is sleep beautiful? I
had written, and I have given that a lot of thought; there
would go into the studio and improvise and notice over time
is an ‘if’ quality to it, because I am not a writer— for
what was repeating, then use that as a structure/score and
example I just started to read a novel by Wendell Berry
refine it. Then as I began to understand relationships between
and I mean in the first paragraph I was in love with the
the parts that were repeating I would consciously bring in ma-
language; there was such a beautiful cadence to it, and I
terial that fit together. There are three solos I made in a row;
thought — woe, dare I? So I want to work with that more,
Aunt Norma and Uncle Bill: I recorded a conversation I had
and understand that question more and figure out how
with my aunt, who had Alzheimer’s and a very loopy, wonder-
to understand, what’s going to give me that information?
ful mind, and my uncle whose voice was very small and raspy.
Part of it is conversation with people. And it’s a consid-
James Maxwell edited the conversation and wove in a violin
ering of the practice, how to shape the practice, how to
part to create a score. Another solo I made in a residency at
shape the language, and how dedicated to that would I
the Shadbolt Centre, in collaboration with James Maxwell and
be, and how does that dedication weigh in, in terms of
James Proudfoot, which was a tribute to my mother, called
what I am making.
and what hearing is and seeing, and the last solo I made arose out of a lot of my childhood experiences. Family has
AK: Do you also create work in which movement is less
been a big thing for me in my work. On the other hand, in
dominant than other elements?
the trio I created with Deanna Peters, Bevin Poole and Olivia Shaffer, the initial research revolved around bringing impro-
HW: The piece I made on Billy Marchenski and An-
visation into performance, as to my knowledge they had not
drew Olewine was not as ‘dancerly’, and I am intend-
previously performed improvisation. When we went into the
ing to work more with the research that I did this fall; I
creation process, I chose to work from text; not to be spoken,
am curious about the weight of the parts and how they
but using images from the text as scoring for them to derive
interrelate, so could a section be simply sound and text,
movement material from.
with no movement, or could a section be sound— either live or electroacoustic—and light, with no movement? I
AK: What interests you now? What is next?
really like that idea. I attended one of the Music on Main shows for the winter solstice at the Heritage Hall, and I
HW: This fall I did some studio research with James Maxwell
found it absolutely beautiful. Three different poets read
and Josh Martin and Olivia Shaffer. I was moving with them,
poetry, there was a piece by James Maxwell that was a
and I had done a substantial amount of writing, some of which
combination of electroacoustic and live sound, with harp
I then chose to use as text, which James recorded Alex Fergu-
and cello, there was a solo piano piece, and one for viola
son and myself speaking, and we improvised to it. We finished
and a singer; it just kept changing. They weren’t long
with a studio showing where we improvised for twenty min-
pieces, and the performers were just walking on and off
utes in silence and twenty minutes with text, looking for an-
the stage, moving instruments, and I found it absolutely
swers to what the basis of the research had been, which was
beautiful, and my mind was so clear from listening, and
in part ‘How do a younger and a more senior artist meet in an
that was a joyous feeling. I don’t feel that I often leave
actual movement process; we are significantly different in age,
the theatre with a clear mind and a joyous feeling, and
and we have significantly different aesthetics, so how do these
I must admit that influenced my thought about the po-
things meet? I had intended to write in this project, but didn’t
tential shaping of a next work that I would make—not so
know I would use it as text in performance; this gave the work
much in whether or not it creates a joyous feeling, but in
a turn I didn’t expect. When I have worked with text, it has
the way the parts interrelated, and the way they moved
typically been in smaller bits. Or, for example, with the trio, I
in and out of the space. That was very interesting to me,
had read a beautiful book called The Snow Child, and I went
and perhaps that is even more interdisciplinary.
through the book and sourced any phrase with the word snow in it, so I had four pages of phrases about snow. I improvised
AK: Thank you!
and James recorded it, and we made a snow language. With the current project it felt like a different choice to use what I
Dance Central January/February 2016
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Thinking Bodies: A conversation with
Alison Denham
"...I realized that I was defined as an interpreter, and that interpreters were not being seen as vital as the choreographers, but most processes that I was in were very dependent on who the dancers were. You couldn’t just switch Josh Martin for someone else. So I asked why weren’t we on the posters sometimes, or asked questions at the talkback? I found that frustrating and Iwanted to advocate for some kind of change." 16
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and develop an artistic voice very fast; most of them are quite mature. Maybe when I was younger that’s how other people saw me, but I’m not sure. I find the dance community quite exciting, the new, younger dancers. They approach things in a whole new way. AK: Speaking of young dancers, there is always a kind of dance going on between you and your daughter. I have heard Billy refer to how different movement systems appear in her development. AD: Watching her do all the things you learn in school, how to roll over, to push and pull, how to crawl and stand; watching her organize her pelvis has been really cool while Kate and I have been developing this workshop. Zoya has an incredible squat, she is extremely strong, she is this little tiny person that is new still. We are generally on the floor with her all the time, romping around, and as much as I am not going to dance class I feel like I am dancing with her all day. Being pregnant was like having someone dancing inside of you all day. AK: How do you think movement will fit into what you will be doing in the long run? AD: I am very curious, but I am not sure. I think it will influence it, but right now I focus on what I can make with what is at hand. Most of what I make right now is simple and light, and easy to wear and quite long, so it kind of dances around on the body, but not as a deliberate choice. There are a lot of unknowns at the moment but I am enjoying that. I am sometimes cynical about being in the contemporary art and dance world; there is a lot of shit, and I have danced in some work I am embarrassed about. I began to feel like I didn’t want to do these things for money any more, and I feel that I am branching out into my life and into other things: Having a child, having another type of career, doing other things. I have had a pretty good career, and I feel I can move on. AK: You also design jewelry? AD: Yes, I have been doing that for the last five years, about the same time that I stopped being interested in choreography; it was a better fit for my own conception of creativity, and I love doing something meditative with my hands. I can spread it all out; I can fail and start again. AK: Is that a fair way of describing how you work generally? AD: At the moment yes, because I don’t have training yet, but I do want to go to design school, I am interested in chain, which takes learning and equipment. It is a future project I would like to embrace.
AK: Thank you! Dance Central Januar y/Februar y 2016
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Dance Central January/Febraury 2016