BIODANCE Artistic Director Missy Pfohl
Smith describes the company’s upcoming 12th anniversary event as a celebration
of life, of collaboration with different artists, and of the audience. The
contemporary repertory dance company this week will mark a dozen years with
four concerts at Geva Theatre Center’s Fielding Stage, featuring a world
premiere, two Rochester premieres, and revival works from their repertoire.
Known
for their use of multi-disciplinary art and expressive performance style,
BIODANCE, which translates to “life dance,” is described by Smith as “art that
has an overwhelming sense of humanity.”
Through
the years BIODANCE has presented performances with themes of social,
political, and environmental issues; and conducted workshops, performed benefit
concerts, and offered interactive lecture-demonstrations and classes at various
venues in town. These performers don’t shy away from
expressing life through art — social justice is a frequent theme, and pieces in
the upcoming concerts tell stories about technology, nature, and the 1940s ban
on dancing in cabarets.
“A
lot of our dances are a reflection of what’s going on in life,” Smith says.
“It’s coming out of our relationships, concerns, things we voice together. It’s
a way to express life and concerns, but also prompt thought.”
Current
company members Jeanne Schickler Compisi, Sarah Dearstyne, Sarah Johnson,
Natalia Lisina, Nanako Horikawa Mandrino, Alaina Olivieri, Julie Schlafer
Rossette, Jean Michael Rubingu, Missy Pfohl Smith, and Courtney World all come
from different backgrounds, from professor to world-renowned choreographer, and
they each work to bring those experiences together into one exciting and raw
body of work. Plans for the 12th anniversary celebration showcase this
diversity and acknowledge the community that supported them through grants,
donations, and the support of local organizations.
“Each
of the pieces is different and there’s something for everyone,” Smith says.
“We’re celebrating not only our progress, but the way the community has
contributed to us. It’s also a celebration of our audience.”
The
12th anniversary was chosen for the big celebration because prior anniversaries
simply did not leave organizers enough time to put everything together. The
concerts will include a number of dance and visual art collaborations. Heidi
Latsky, renowned choreographer and founder of Heidi Latsky Dance (a
mixed-ability company that works to empower people with disabilities in New
York City) will revisit “Solo Countersolo,” in which Smith as the soloist
and an ensemble will create a weaving, moving landscape of bodies set to
composer Chris Brierley’s lively score.
Digital
media artist W. Michelle Harris, who has worked with Smith on past performances
“Anomaly” and “Labyrinth” for the Rochester Fringe Festival, will premiere a
new collaborative piece, “Loom,” which features motion-capture technology and
live music by composer and Eastman School of Music graduate Garret Reynolds.
Also
commissioned for a Rochester premier is “That’s All Folks,” a memory- and
community-themed work by Maine-based emerging choreographers Flannery
Black-Ingersoll and Johanna Hayes. Smith discovered the piece while at a New
England dance conference and says it “had the entire audience, and myself, in
tears.”
Other
performances will include the repertoire works “I.T.” and “No Dancing Allowed,”
choreographed by Smith and featuring live music by Mark Olivieri; and “Possible
Side Effects,” choreographed by Jeanne Schickler Compisi.
“We
just express things with live music and art,” Smith says. “And this art has
never existed in this combination. We took some time putting this together
because it certainly feels like 12 years of work.”
This article appears in May 16-22, 2018.
