Hometown: Copenhagen, Denmark
Current city: Salt Lake City, UT
College and degree: London Contemporary Dance School and the Laban Center in London - BA
Graduate school and degree: Tisch School of the Arts, MFA (age 23)
Website: www.now-id.com
How you pay the bills: I have worked professionally as a choreographer/dancer/ teacher almost non-stop since graduate school.
All of the dance hats you wear: Choreographer/dancer/teacher/designer/video/music editor/writer/project developer…
---------------------
Can you write a little about your work as the Artistic Director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City? What was a typical day’s schedule? How did you balance the artistic side of the job and the business side of the job?
A typical day while I was at Ririe-Woodbury was teaching class and then rehearsing. At times I was creating a work and at other times, I coordinated with guest choreographers to create new work on the company. I wanted to stretch the company’s repertoire and challenge its aesthetic history and strived to bring in choreographers whose work is at the forefront of contemporary dance internationally. Wayne McGregor, John Jasperse, Susan Marshall, Bill T. Jones, Johannes Wieland, John Utans, and Karole Armitage were just a handful of those artists.
Building a repertoire of my own work and others, that would challenge and engage our audience, was my main focus. I felt a strong responsibility towards our audience and our dancers to provide both with extraordinary, moving, inspiring experiences.
I also helped in the writing of grants if it involved any of the contemporary work, and in the design look of the company together with the PR director. I worked closely with the educational director on scheduling, and with the booking manager on the touring residencies.
The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard. How many times have you attended? What was your experience at this iconic place?
I only attended The Yard once, as a choreographer, and it was fantastic. I was 26, had just completed a year’s work in Singapore at Lasalle-Sia, College of the Arts and with Singapore Dance Theater and was in dire need of 3 weeks on Martha’s Vineyard and the opportunity and the freedom to create whatever I wanted. There was an enormous generosity and trust from the founders to facilitate an atmosphere of creativity and fun, and I formed some great relationships there.
Fulbright Scholarship…. where did you go and what did you do?
I got a Fulbright Scholarship from Denmark to go to Tisch when I was 23.
Do you still perform?
Yes.
Photo: NOW-ID from "The Wedding"
Describe your latest project, NOW-ID. What’s on your calendar with NOW-ID for the new year?
NOW-ID is an interdisciplinary contemporary dance company with an amazing board/network of collaborators consisting of varied creative, supportive, established and driven professionals. Our goal is to push the envelope artistically and collaborate with local as well as national and international artists in site-specific venues.
NOW-ID has only been around since May 2013, and in that short period of time we have done a significant amount of work, and most importantly our creation, “The Wedding,” staged at Salt Lake City’s Masonic Temple in July. For this event, we brought local artists together with artists from Copenhagen, NYC and Chicago. Amongst the collaborators were a dj, an architect, a film production designer, a sculptor, a composer and of course dancers.
I both taught and created work in several residencies over the fall, and we are currently planning a fundraiser/announcement event we are calling “A Muse Bouche," to take place February 8th. Besides a few residencies in the spring and this event, our energies will be focused on our next show “FEAST” to be staged in late May. This project will bring together local theater artists, Andra Harboldt and Robert Scott Smith, an experimental/experiential lighting design group, 2 dancers from NYC, 2 local dancers and a musician from Copenhagen. We are staging this production in a very unexpected, mystical place (We spill the beans on where at February’s event).
Beyond that, we are in discussion about a project for the summer at a Castle in Copenhagen, another in collaboration with a local tech company, and yet another for Salt Lake City’s design week. For updates, please visit our website: www.now-id.com or to our Facebook page to get more detailed information about all of these events.
What do you look for in a dancer?
I look for someone who is interesting, egoless and has curiosity. Attention to details, technical skills, fearless physicality, maturity of expression and experience are also important features. I look for dancers who want to take a journey and who trust and are excited by that journey. The “right” dancer can elevate and transcend your material in a way that you never expected.
It also helps to have a sense of humor…
What are 3 pieces of advice you want to give to aspiring choreographers?
Be resilient, true to yourself, curious and courageous. Sorry, that was 4!
Photo: NOW-ID from "The Wedding"
How do you receive feedback about your work? Do you have a mentor?
I have had several “mentors” over the years; their roles weren’t necessarily defined as such but their feedback was/is tremendously important to me.
I am always more interested in hearing what people see as opposed to whether or not they like something that I have done. Because, what they see tells me if I am being clear.
You have done multiple choreographic commissions, as well as creating many works for R-W over the years. Can you talk a little bit about “ownership” of these pieces? Do you have the rights on some of this work still?
I have intellectual ownership of all of my work BUT I have to say that I am not so interested in looking back and redoing what I have already done. I always felt and still feel that a contemporary arts organization has to be current and push the envelope all of the time. That was my main incentive in creating NOW-ID.
Having said that, my work is so personal to me, as I am sure it is for all choreographers.It feels good to know that I still have control of the artistic intention of all of my work and that that intention and format is protected and cannot be altered in any way unless I approve it.
Current passions and curiosities:
Design, Architecture, Film, Art, Fashion, Music/Music/Music, Travel, Bookstores, Coffee, Magazines, New ideas, etc.
How do you stay current with trends, choreographers, and performances?
I watch a lot of work when I am back in NYC and Europe. Trends are a strange thing in art – I think as long as you push against what was, you are on trend… that doesn’t mean that one discards what was - you have to know your history in order to remain current. Fundamentally, I am interested in choreographers whose voices are unique, captivating, transformative, intriguing. I look for an original movement language that is brilliantly and surprisingly threaded together.
Advice to young dancers in general:
Don’t get complacent. Always remain agile - intellectually, creatively and physically. The three go hand in hand.
---------------------------------------------
Comments