Dance
The impetus for this series of conversations between a visual artist and a choreographer comes directly from my recent collaborative work with a choreographer as part of Norte Maar’s CounterPointe10. In this unique project a choreographer is paired with a visual artist to create together over two months a dance performance that integrates the two disciplines into a cohesive vision. Here is the conversation between artist Sarah Pettitt and choreographer Shannon Harkins.
Tell us about your collaborative process.
Sarah: I was so excited to be asked to collaborate on a dance piece but also terrified! I am such a fan of the collaborative passion at the heart of CounterPointe and Norte Maar and hoped I could do it justice. I reflected on dance which continues to influence haptic, emotive or constructive qualities in my own work. Things like Samuel Beckett’s Quad, amazing Yvonne Rainer performances I saw performed in London at Raven Row or the raw creative energy of Pina Bausch. After a great conversation with Shannon I shared these references along with some moods, words and actions. My aim was to find a central path without either of us being prescriptive—something which echoes the often chance based nature of my own practice. Personally, I wanted the work to hover between the future and the past and be a little bit frightening, full of kinetic potential.
Shannon: Thrilled and nervous all at once, I had no idea what to expect heading into this process. I was overwhelmed by the possibilities that could from of collaborating with an artist as incredible as Sarah. This being my first collaborative work as well as my first time choreographing outside of a school/assignment-based project, I had to break away from a lot of stress-inducing creative habits that were hindering me. I accepted that this was going to be a completely new experience with no final evaluation of any sort. Other than the work being danced on pointe, there were no rules, so I trusted the process and its short timeframe. Since I often start developing work with descriptive words and imagery, Sarah’s outpouring of ideas gave me so much depth and texture to explore and play with. With our intentions of immersing the audience, we looked toward creating an environment and setting a scene.
Sarah: Talking to Shannon had confirmed that we were both interested in environments, perhaps time travel or displacement and the idea of overlapping realities. This was my first opportunity to work with light as a material. I focused on how light would hit a variety of surfaces and used different textures to evoke time / speed / structure / permanence / collapse. Where possible, I used found materials. I discovered the best source of quality cardboard is the Post Office. I was able to scavenge vinyl and fabric from an upholsterer and someone kindly fly-tipped a load of polystyrene. These materials, along with a small maquette, allowed me to begin to create continuity between the costumes and the set. I was inspired by the carnivalesque energy of the Ballet Russes—Picasso and Jean Cocteau along with Sophie Tauer Arp’s Dada costumes. Responding to Shannon’s whirling choreography, the circular form of the tutu seemed to make sense. Initially I had made props which could be activated but time and rehearsal constraints also controlled the process and afterall, it was a collaboration.
The costumes became my favorite element because they activated the static set and linked the bodies of the dancers in a physical way. I was a bit worried they wouldn’t like them or be able to move freely, but they received them with such joy when they put them on. They intuitively knew which one was whose in relation to Shannon’s spatial choreography—it remains a powerful moment in the experience for me.
Shannon: Sarah provided me with multiple models of what the set would look like. The variation of color, shape, and material essentially formed the atmosphere of the work. I wanted this dance to travel through time and for the choreography to reflect the artwork’s active presence in the space, so each piece of the environment loosely represented a region of what could be a city. Maintaining a natural and relative connection between the dancers was effortless, considering I was dancing beside my close friends, Rosalia and Jaya. Much of the work’s movement patterns stemmed from us navigating the set together; maneuvering through archways, swirling in and out of speckled screens, and reacting to light changes and silhouettes. As Sarah mentioned, the costumes are what connected the bodies to the materials in the set. The tutus brought out the texture differences and generated an individual dynamic for each dancer. There were so many wonderful elements that I think involuntarily transformed the stage into a playground.
What is your takeaway from this collaboration?
Sarah: That dancers are amazing! Choreography is mathematics physicalized in space – successively remembered and revised in rehearsals and even in performances. The communication between the dancers was intense and I was humbled and relieved to go back to my studio and just make stuff. I felt awkward being around a new situation—one of rehearsal studios and feet and warm ups but Shannon and the dancers, Rosalia and Jaya, were so generous. As someone with Ehlers Danlos it was a reality check to witness a dancers’ physical experience. It helped me recognise our universal fragility, which was really empowering. Would I change anything? Of course! Maybe we could have commissioned a score to add to the collaborative and creative continuity or I could make Norte Maar’s life easier by keeping it simple! Maybe we could have created more speed variations within the piece. For me, working with light was even more fascinating than I hoped. I was interested in an otherworldly combination that oscillated between the unreal and the uncomfortable. I think we managed to achieve this quite successfully, and stage light, it turns out, makes everything look amazing. Even rubbish.
Shannon: Rhythm and motion constantly flow through visual artwork, and there is so much information behind static structures. Performing the work made it a treat to revel in Sarah’s work while expressing the joy and quirks of my movement style. Sarah and I complemented each other so well; though terrified at first, we shared an eagerness to dig into each other’s work. As a recent college graduate, I’m so inspired to find more ways to approach choreography, and I feel like CounterPointe served as the kickstart of a personal research journey. Visual influences stimulate my physicality, so I hope to continue incorporating art media into my works.
About artist: Sarah Pettitt is a British artist living and working in New York. Her research includes examining pre-modern artistic modalities and the notion of the absent body. Tentatively exploring failure, Pettitt layers fragments from everyday life with historical and material research. Influenced by the parallels between archaic and minimalist aesthetics, recent work focuses on cycles and collapse in terms of belief and site, attempting to trigger an affective charge through material anecdote. Pettitt studied MFA Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art and subsequently developed the research project The Tyranny of Surface at University College London. She has been resident artist at the Vermont Studio Centre and participated in PRAKSIS OSLO’s residency Out Looking Inwards, a practical investigation into the concerns of contemporary painting. Her most recent solo show was Out to Sea, curated by Jason Andrew, Norte Maar. She has exhibited across the U.K and the U.S including the Jerwood Gallery, UCL Museum, ATP London, SPRING / BREAK, Mana Contemporary and The Art Complex Museum Boston.
About choreographer: Shannon Harkins is a New York City-based dance artist. She began her dance training at The Washington School of Ballet, where she performed in Septime Webre’s world premieres of The Great Gatsby and Alice (in Wonderland) at the John F. Kennedy Center. She trained at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and has attended summer programs at Ballet Austin, Charlotte Ballet, LINES Ballet, and Arts Umbrella in Vancouver. Shannon graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, where she performed works by Norbert de la Cruz III, Hannah Garner, and Maurya Kerr. Her choreography was featured in the Young Voices in Dance program at Battery Dance Festival in 2022. She strives to create work that combines enhanced classical technique with added nuances, theatrics, and humor.