Photo credit: Rachel Keane

ABOUT

‍John Jasperse Projects will premiere a new evening-length work that is built around a collection of real-life, intergenerational mentor/protegé relationships that exist within the team of collaborators. This celebration of the arc of life in dance and the generosity of the act of transmission is at the heart of the work. In many ways, dance has often been denigrated through sexism precisely because it is linked to sensorial, intuitive, empathetic, and responsive processes–attributes that are typically thought to be feminine. By centering the voices of women and femmes in this work, we’re also centering and celebrating these ways of being. In the case of these particular performers, there is an indisputable thread connecting back to the post-modern experiments of the 1960s and to Trisha Brown, in particular, with whom both Vicky Shick and Jodi Melnick worked directly, and within whose company, Cynthia Koppe recently performed. Brown’s work was also profoundly inspiring to Jasperse, particularly in his early career. These strands transfer through Melnick and Jasperse to Maria Fleischman and Jace Weyant, both former students of Melnick and Jasperse. As time has passed, these influences have been troubled–some might say corrupted–contradicted, and cross-pollinated with many other influences to form an evolving rhizome of styles. Rather than mourn a loss of purity, the work celebrates this diversity of sensibilities as fundamental to dance as a living, growing art form. It has been the choreographer’s experience that these relationships of mutual support are a crucial underpinning, without which it would be nigh impossible for dance artists to sustain a presence and an artistic life in the field in professional conditions that are, more often than not, extremely challenging. This act of defiance in coming together across generations to support one another–to dance together–in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds is a useful skill that perhaps dance can teach us in this moment.