Dance COLEctive comes to University

Merging the many different forms of art is becoming a popular challenge in the world of artistic expression, but UA professor of dance Sarah Barry said the concept isn't as new as it seems.

"Collaborations of dance and mediums such as film have been around for many decades," Barry said. "Now, more than ever, these collaborations are becoming popular."

For the next two days, members of the Chicago professional dance company The Dance COLEctive will be bringing some of the ideas surrounding collaborative works to the Capstone. Their visit to the University wraps up the end of an 18-day tour the Dance COLEctive has done throughout the state.

The Dance COLEctive will present the dance "Written on the Body," as well as others Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Morgan Auditorium.

Artistic Director and Dance COLEctive founder Margi Cole said she started the company as a way to help fund various dance projects she and others were working on.

"At the time, I was self-producing different pieces and pulling the money from my own pocket," said Cole, who graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. "I started the company to act as an umbrella for myself and others to be able to produce works and have the monetary means to do so. Since then, it's grown into a company that teaches and trains professional dancers."

According to The Dance COLEctive's official Web site, The Dance COLEctive began in March in 1996 to preserve, advance and strengthen the art of contemporary dance in Chicago and Illinois. In the past 12 years, The Dance COLEctive has contributed to the support of 13 choreographers, 43 dancers and 50 collaborating artists, many of whom are Illinois artists.

"Over the years, I've grown as a teacher and mentor," Cole said. "The Dance COLEctive is a training ground for dancers and has become a vehicle of showing my own works that I've created."

"Written on the Body"

Choreographed by Cole, "Written on the Body" presents ideas about the isolation and imaginations surrounding famous Victorian writers and ladies Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.

"This particular dance explores different ideas of artistic genre," Barry said. "It is a collaborative piece that features both dancers and film."

Cole's research for "Written on the Body" is substantial, consisting of everything from music and funerary customs of the Victorian period, as well as a trip to the Bronte home in England. She also had each of her dancers read a book by the particular Bronte sister they portrayed, as well as the Bronte family biography.

"'Jane Eyre' is one of my favorite books," Cole said. "It wasn't until I started researching the book that I discovered its author, Charlotte, wrote the book under a masculine pseudonym. Once I found this out, I was hooked."

All three Bronte sisters' lives were constructed with a defining duality - women writing under a pseudo-masculine voice.

"The writing space men and women were allowed to write under during the Bronte sisters' time was very different," Cole said. "Men could write prolifically about romance and relationships, while women wrote about what it meant to care for a governess, sewing and manners. For the sisters to be able to write like they did under a masculine name says a lot about them."

"Written on the Body" debuts three female dancers as each respective sister and three male dancers as their alter egos - Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, the names under which the women wrote.

Tonight at 7 in Morgan Auditorium, Cole will lecture on The Dance COLEctive and "Written on the Body."

"This lecture will be very interactive with examples of the work she's talking about being performed live," Barry said. "This is more than just listening to someone talk and will help people understand what went into creating particular moments in the performance."

Cole said the lecture will inform the audience on the importance of modern dance, as well as how she developed "Written on the Body."

"The lecture will be very informal, as will examples of the dances that will be performed," Cole said. "The whole purpose is to explain how the dances came to be."

Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Morgan Auditorium, The Dance COLEctive will present "Written on the Body," as well as four other dances, including a work that reflects three generations of movement phrases and two duets from a dance titled "Reel to Real" which explores female body image in the media. Cole will also perform "Channel," a solo piece choreographed for her by Elli Klopp, the former artistic director of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco.

"I'm very interested in the role of the women in such a masculine-driven society," Cole said. "I reflect that idea throughout most of my work."

Fresher perspectives

Introducing students, particularly dance students, to other dance companies gives them a new perspective on other forms of dance, Barry said.

"Being able to experience groups like Dance COLEective shows students what type of dance is currently in the market," Barry said.

Collaboration projects like The Dance COLEctive present good examples of how much research should be put into a project, Barry said.

"People don't go into the studio and start making up movements," she said. "People take the time to research literature, music, film and other backgrounds that might be important for the piece. Dance COLEctive is an example of the beautiful marriage of that research."

Incorporating many collaborative elements, like film, on stage may seem to take away from the dancers, but Barry said that isn't the case.

In her experience she said most choreographers try to be as careful as possible to equally convey the dual interaction on stage.

"The main focus should always be on the dancers," Barry said. "Choreographers work to develop a way that both mediums work on stage."

Modern dance, according to Cole, is often underappreciated. One reason for this lack of appreciation may be that many people aren't familiar with it, Cole said.

Cole calls it her responsibility to educate people about modern dance and give them the confidence to enjoy it.

"When you don't know a lot about something you tend to be afraid of it," she said. "My experience is that if you give people insight on a subject, you'll turn their head and capture their attention. That's what I hope our presentation will do."