“There is no such thing as ‘women’s dances,’” Julia K. Gleich recently told Observer. “We happen to be women. We’re not trying to convince everyone that our work is better or different or special, just that we need space and time to make it.” She’s the creator and curator of CounterPointe, an annual performance series dedicated to female-led collaborations in dance and visual art that returns to Brooklyn tomorrow (March 7). She’s also the co-founder of Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts (which produces CounterPointe along with other projects) and founder and artistic director of Gleich Dances. Creative collaboration is her thing.
CounterPointe was born in 2012 from a desire to support ballet by women dancemakers working with the pointe shoe. “We wanted to make it a little bit easier for women to get their work seen and produced,” explained Gleich. “And then we realized that it’s more than that. It’s about the opportunity to focus on the process, not just the product. It’s about feeling like you have the opportunity to make something in the first place.”
Here’s how it works: a choreographer and a visual artist are paired up and asked to create a new work together. They have about two months to do it. Gleich encourages them to meet and discuss their ideas and esthetics, to experiment and take risks and to avoid using visual art as “set dressing.” The creative team collaborates on all aspects of the performance, including the costumes and lighting design.
The performance series, which this year will take place in the Mark O’Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn, is extremely popular. The call for choreographers and visual artists is always competitive, and the shows tend to sell out quickly. The appeal, Gleich believes, is the opportunity to peek behind the curtain and into the artists’ studios, so to speak. “You get to see the backstory of art-making,” she said. “I think in this kind of event, you have more to think about—more to see, more to watch, more to ponder—because you already know that this is a dialogue that’s ongoing in front of you.”
What’s behind the curtain
Gleich invited Observer to a rehearsal of her work-in-progress, which she is collaborating on with sculptor and mixed-media installation artist Nicole Cherubini. The day before, the theater had been cold, so Gleich and her five dancers had sat around discussing Surrealism and André Breton and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (the main inspiration for the new piece). This is a part of CounterPointe’s ethos that is so special: dedicated time to focus on the ideas and philosophies behind the work.
But the next day, everyone was deep in the physical process. Cherubini was traveling, so three of her assistants were busy carving shapes into large cardboard structures. Across the room, the dancers were practicing a tricky unison sequence. “It’s tombé, cut, down-up, sous-sus,” Gleich instructed. “No, don’t chassé. It’s plié, relevé, sous-sus. That’s it.” On the other side of the room, an assistant said, “We don’t want it to peel. Some friction is good, but we don’t want peeling.” A dancer stepped away to sip some water, lifting her leg in a back attitude as she bent over.
Scattered throughout the space were several movable cardboard walls to create “sitting rooms” and “revised sitting rooms,” a painted golden drop, a clay cherub and pot and fluorescent pink benches on wheels. The moveable walls will remain bare, which Gleich likes because, as she shared with great excitement, the costumes (screen-printed unitards with slinky animal print slip dresses) are “riddled with texture.”
SEE ALSO: On Artists’ Potential to Change the World
After the assistants were done, Gleich set up for a run-through and FaceTimed Cherubini so she could see what was happening. “Move the diamond next to the door,” Cherubini suggested. “Even more, so it’s not even.” It soon became clear that the piece is interested in asymmetry, in fighting the classical impulse in both ballet and visual art.
When Cherubini was satisfied with her structures’ placements, the dancers began. They were gathered around one of the pink benches, making small gestures with their hands. Then they rotated around themselves, back to the beginning position. “Connect into ecstatic,” Gleich said, and knowing exactly what she meant, the dancers’ movements lengthened and deepened. The piece eventually broke into solos and duets. Later, the music changed to bagpipes, and the dancers slapped the floor with their feet like little war drums. “Don’t be gentle with the pointe shoes,” Gleich urged. “Use the heel.” Bang. “That’s right!”
Gleich eventually paused the run-through to read over Cherubini’s text message suggestions, nodding in agreement with them all. It was creative collaboration in the 21st Century at its best. Cherubini told Observer later that she has loved every minute of the collaboration with Gleich and the dancers. She feels a great amount of trust, enjoyment and patience in the process. “I have learned so much about movement, space and time.”
What to expect from this year’s performances
Along with Gleich and Cherubini’s piece, six other new works, created by collaborators ranging from emerging to established artists, will be presented in CounterPointe. While the choreographers are all rooted in ballet, the visual artists work in various mediums: sculpture, installation, paint and mixed media. There will be solos, duets, a quartet and larger group works.
Choreographer Deborah Lohse and artist Micki Watanabe Spiller will present a 7-minute Swan Lake. Juliette Rafael’s dancers will move inside Christina Massey’s spiky aluminum sculptures. Gleich said of the line-up, “There’s some pretty ballet, there’s some comedy, there’s some character-driven work. There’s even one that seems, potentially, ritualistic!”
“What I love about CounterPointe,” Gleich added, “is it’s a place to see work at play. We usually think about rehearsing a dance until it’s perfect. The dancers who come in are experts. They’re trained. The goal is not to make them perfectionists. The goal is to create an environment where we can see them in new ways and see dance in new ways.”
CounterPointe12 opens at the Mark O’Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn on March 7.
