Collaboration in dance

OLGA LIVSHIN

Whatever their chosen media, artists search for ways to portray life around them, to find their place in it. This is the theme of we all know Jane, which premières June 21 and 22 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. It features three pieces created by three local dancers and choreographers: Anne Cooper, Vanessa Goodman and Ziyian Kwan.

“In the new show, I present a duet, ‘the long indoors,’ I choreographed for Ziyian [Kwan] and Jane [Osborne], my co-director of the Contingency Plan [dance collective],” Goodman told the Independent in an interview. “The idea for my work appeared about a year ago. Amelia Epp, my artist friend, makes amazing sculptures from paper, abstract shapes, very small. I saw her works, and we started talking about her sculptures, about the possibility of making them on a larger scale. I was fascinated by the notion of scale – the scale in the arts, the scale of movements. We decided to collaborate on a dance project, with Amelia’s sculpture, a huge one, hanging from the ceiling, and two dancers, Ziyian and Jane. They are both such amazing dancers…. I see the entire theatre – the stage, the dancers, the music, even the audience – as the inside of a body. Everything is a part of the whole.”

The two other pieces in the show are “the neck to fall,” choreographed and performed by Kwan, and a solo choreographed and performed by Cooper. “Ziyian’s piece is an ode to one of the most famous Canadian modern dancers, Amelia Itcush,” Goodman explained. “It’s a very beautiful, artistic dance and a very personal one – very Ziyian. In Anne’s solo, she created a fictitious ‘Jane.’ All three pieces are our exploration of what it means to be a woman and a dancer in the modern world. Through dance, we try to figure out where we are, each of us, today. It’s about our identities.”

The show’s title reflects the creators’ concept of the entire presentation. “We came by this title almost by accident,” Goodman said. “We talked with friends about our ideas, and someone joked: ‘Well, we all know Jane.’ And it fit. It’s a bit cheeky, but it encompasses a very broad spectre, like an umbrella for different works. It’s about a woman we all know.”

To depict that woman on stage, Goodman invited her dancers’ input. “For me, choreographing is a collaborative experience. Dancers’ opinions have as much weight as my own. It’s important to have an open dialogue. Sometimes, I come up with a concept, and the dancers explore it. We move forward together.”

Even her audience participates. “I want to engage the audience, want people to reflect on their daily lives and the movements that compose it,” she said.

Perhaps such an collaborative attitude comes to Goodman from her work with students. “I love teaching,” she said about the pilates classes she leads. “It helps me maintain balance in my life. I apply what I learn in dancing to my lessons and vice versa. Sometimes I do three or five different things a day: a dancing class – one or two hours every day – a pilates lesson, rehearsing, choreographing. It involves lots of scheduling and multitasking. That’s the hardest challenge of my career: scheduling and management.”

Fortunately, her commute time is usually short. Most of her engagements take place in or around Downtown Vancouver. The majority of rehearsing happens at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. “We’re all so lucky to have the dance centre,” she said. “They have everything under one roof: the rehearsal space and the show space. They provide administrative support too. It’s a hub of contemporary dance in B.C.”

In Goodman’s opinion, contemporary dance is thriving in the province. “Of course, the funding cuts in the last few years made it more challenging to create. The situation is not easy in the arts, but people I work with are committed, and there are still grants and projects, otherwise dance wouldn’t have survived. An average modern dance show costs between 40[,000] and 60,000 [dollars] to put up, and the ticket sales, even full houses, would bring in maybe five or six thousand.”

Despite the financial difficulties and the injuries inevitable for a dancer, Goodman and her colleagues persevere in creating. “People need art. Where would we all be without art? And I love challenges, love working with people, constantly learning new skills,” she said.

For more information and tickets, visit weallknowjane.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

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