Too often in constructing and pondering artistic criticism, I find myself hesitant or outright balking at the prospect of reviewing or discussing dance. Academically trained to understand and espouse an informed passion for film and theatre, I felt that the understanding of style and nuance I possessed and could easily build upon was in no way transmutable to dance performances. Dance occupied an untouchable space (ironic given the kinetic nature of the art) that I felt, despite my Stendhalian reverence and adoration of it, I could never adequately or properly review or critique. I thought my interpretations were boorish, and my words were cursed with two left feet.
And yet, despite my predispositions and misconceptions about my ability to be the appropriate or even adequate critic of dance, I have recently found myself feeling more akin to the art through my growing familiarity with three premiere dance companies–CorningWorks, Exhalations Dance Theatre (EDT), and Attack Theatre–as part of my exploration into the exhilaratingly thriving and dynamic world of dance in Pittsburgh. Through their artistic choices, the viscerally intimate and strikingly familiar subject matter of their productions, and each companies unique articulation of the deeply experiential basis that drives their dancers, these three companies transcend the barriers unduly placed on certain art.
Exhalations Dance Theatre represents a myriad of things, but it should be most recognized as a company that represents an impassioned refusal to abandon one’s dreams. EDT’s founder Katie Mann was stymied by the realization that in her academic and vocational pursuits as a pharmacy student at Duquesne, she had missed opportunities to engage with her love of and extensive background in dance. In 2010, as a way of satiating her fervent need to return to her craft as well as fill a void in the artistic community, Mann started EDT. As Jenny Altman, EDT’s Public Relations Chair, described “despite a wonderful dance community, what Pittsburgh didn’t have at that time was an outlet for non-professional dancers to not only continue dancing, but actually put on full-scale professional stage productions on a regular basis.” This push to create a dance company that not only fostered creativity regardless of one’s day job or professional affiliation (or lack thereof) with the arts naturally generated a company that was hospitable and encouraging to individuals of all ages, body types, and experiences. Along with her friend, former classmate and fellow dancer Lea Fosbenner (who serves as EDT’s other artistic director) formed Exhalations as a venue for individuals of any profession—whether they tech-folks, Like Fosbenner; pharmacists; teachers; stay-at-home-parents; PR professionals; or, as many of the members of EDT are, full-time professional dancers—be able to perform together and stage professional productions in Pittsburgh. EDT also allows for several apprenticeships at any point in time that are filled by gifted high school artists seeking to further cultivate their skills.
Furthering the careers and reinvigorating the drive of many seasoned and unseasoned dancers alike, EDT stages two productions per year, which are currently brought to life at the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre. Each production combines the experience of EDT’s choreographers, the thematic vision and narrative for the production (collaboratively borne by Fosbenner and Mann), and four months of contemplation and rehearsals that involve the dancers selected by Fosbenner and Mann and the rest of the creative team. EDT’s forthcoming production, Equinox , will open March 23rd and will epitomize the spirit of rebirth that is central to the the time of year (the Spring Equinox is March 20th), and central to the essence of the dancers giving new life to their creative fervor. “Exhalations dancers represent duality in that they’ve trained their whole lives in dance and continue to perform while also pursuing and excelling at a multitude of other non-dance careers in the region…Exhalations has [also] allowed many of our company dancers to have a rebirth for their passion of dance,” Altman explains. This breathtaking and thoughtful piece will feature pieces from eight choreographers–including Jake Casey, fresh off his Metropolitan Opera stint–performed by sixteen dancers, all channeling the rapturous renewal of passion that is EDT’s mission.
EDT is in extraordinary company with two other Pittsburgh dance giants, CorningWorks and Attack Theatre. Attack Theatre is self-described as “a company of artists, doers, thinkers, risk-takers, dancers, administrators, entrepreneurs, and makers” and this panoply of identities testifies to the inherently prismatic nature of Attack Theatre. While Attack Theatre is comprised of an occasionally-rotating team of professional dancers, the emphasis and mission of Attack has been and continues to be an excavation of self and identity through the lens of dance. As such, the foundation of Attack Theatre, both creatively and professionally, incorporates and uplifts every facet an individual can conceivably encompass. The result of this ethos are productions which present dance as a performative link to the thoughts, words, and a sense of self that exist within us but are otherwise inaccessible or inexpressible. Past productions like last year’s Some Assembly Required illustrate the model of dance and performance that Attack espouses: combining art, audience interpretation and input, musical and physical improvisation, and innate talent to create an experience that speaks to everyone and every sensibility that leaves the audience as edified as they are entertained.
Attack’s forthcoming Spring production will carry on this standard of rumination and exploration of self that appeals to a myriad of sensibilities regardless of an individual’s exposure to or understanding of dance. In April, The Rube Goldberg Variations will be brought to life as an interdisciplinary project that traverses and combines the worlds of animation, storytelling, classical music, creative vitality, and, of course, dance. Scored by the incomparable pianist Nathan Carterette as live piano accompaniment, Variations is an ingenious hybridization of an animated quarrel between neighbors inspired by the disarmingly real cartoon creations of Rube Golberg that are paired with the strikingly meta-composition Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. Variations is a brilliant examination of juxtaposition and dichotomies–contemporary and classical; sparring neighbors who see their interests diametrically opposed–and the undeniable unity that lies beneath the friction of disputes that is revealed through the physical articulations and choreographed vignettes. Variations will run April 25th through April 28th at New Hazlett Theatre.
Beth Corning is a seasoned veteran of dance who unfailingly manages to breach uncharted territories and embody rejuvenation year after year. With an impressive resume of created and self-produced works numbering over sixty, Corning settled in Pittsburgh in the early aughts after years of national and international touring with her solo repertory projects second take and corning dances & company , and helming fascinating cross-disciplinary pieces like her choreography for the feature-length Swedish film adaption of Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress.” After serving as the Artistic/Creative Director for Pittsburgh’s elite dance company Dance Alloy, Corning launched CorningWorks in 2009 to serve as a vehicle for her project The Glue Factory, an annual full-production designed to showcase and celebrate the talents of nationally and internationally renown dancers over the age of 40. CorningWorks has evolved into an indomitable force in the past decade, consistently providing dance experiences that topple the barriers of time, age, bodily limitations and expectations, and what it means to be an expressive, emotive body.
In this vein, CorningWorks will stage with a shadow of… March 27th-31st at New Hazlett Theatre that will mark not only CorningWorks decade anniversary in Pittsburgh, but also Beth Corning’s 40th year as a “professional artist.” with a shadow of…, which will feature fellow dance luminaries Janis Brenner, David Dorfman and Catherine Meredith, is more of a phenomenological inquisition put into movement than a dance performance. The piece will pull the audience into the realm of liminality–the hazy peripheral line that straddles conscious and unconscious; the amniotic dream-space where an individual simultaneously can speak to their truest, most primal self, and yet cannot be certain of anything. Every movement is a haunting, transmutating metaphor that will speak to our relationships with our disembodied, limitless selves. Corning is a creator that draws upon every dimension of a space and every type of stimulus, and with a shadow of… will be a symbiotic project with her longtime collaborator and lighting designer Iain Court that will ecstatically enliven surrealistic geographies that dwell inside all of us where all logic and narratives dissolve.
Catherine Meredith
Janis Brenner
When speaking about her creative journey when bringing her productions to life, Corning remarked, “The creative process is endless – rarely a tangible time, moment, incident, or place where the original seed for a work get’s planted. Or frankly even how the work ultimately gets nurtured. Most works simmer over a period of years. Often multiple works are being conceived at the same time as others being cooked . Bits being added, bits taken away, some blooming organically, some bits pushed and prodded until something suddenly takes root and becomes clear enough to me – for me to understand what it is becoming. Not unlike a child. We continue to grow – what transpires is such a mix of ‘nurture/ nature’.” Her eloquent assessment strikes me as a unifying testament for companies like EDT and Attack that strive to foster and produce art that is organic and ever-growing, that implores a shattering of barriers and limitations on what bodies and minds are supposed to do and how they are supposed to relate to one another. These three companies are boldly redefining the standards of performance and urging the hitherto uninitiated spectator of dance performances to liberate themselves from misgivings and misconceptions to engage with the language bodies can convey.
For more information on Exhalations Dance Theatre and Equinox details, visit their site.
For more information on Attack Theatre and details on Rube Goldberg Variations, visit their site.
For more information on CorningWorks and with a shadow of…. details, visit their site.
Photography credit for Janis Brenner and Catherine Meredith photos: Frank Walsh
Eva Phillips is celebrating her third year in Pittsburgh, third year writing for PGH in the Round, and twenty-seventh year not getting murdered (shockingly, despite all odds). She relocated to the brittle Steel City from Virginia to pursue her Masters in Literary and Cultural Studies at CMU (with a concentration in film theory and film criticism, and intersections with feminism and gender), and has spent the past few years in Pittsburgh cultivating her writing career, developing her blog https://www.tuesgayswithmorrie69.net/, raising two show cats, and widening her perspectives on the ever-evolving spectrum of theatre. She only has one Les Miserables tattoo out of her 32 tattoos, and she finds that morally reprehensible.
Categories: Feature