How did you and your work benefit from being in residence at the Penasco Theatre?
Being in residence at the Penasco Theatre was a gift to me and my work. Having unfettered, intensive, and unlimited time and space for the entire week in the theatre was an experience I have never had before as a working artist. As a choreographer, I have only experienced making work within 3-5 hour long rehearsals once or twice a week. This has constantly put me in a position to be highly prepared, productive, generative, and efficient before and during each rehearsal. The pressure under that system eventually had an immensely stressful affect on me which initiated my move out of the city setting. The time I spent in Penasco with my fellow dancer broke the bars of this typical creative rhythm; the only rhythm I’ve ever known. It forced me to realize that I needed to let go of the habit of working under the pressure to produce. I was finally able to become drenched in what I had always dreamed about: freedom from time. We were able to spend hours theorizing and discussing ideas, images, and topics without any pressure to “put something together.” We could spend hours (I mean like 8 hours) trying out different iterations of one single topic. We could get exhausted by rehearsing, instead of wishing we had more time. We could go into the theatre early in the morning or in the middle of the night; whenever the creative spark was nudging us to go. This freedom to relax, to take charge, to take our time, and to imagine led us to some major realizations within the work we were doing. For one week, there was no clear separation between “life” and “dance.” It was all one thing. We had a lot of material to work with coming into the residency collected from 9 dancers across the world, and we were able to create an hour long performance based on our investigation of this material. We had no expectations about creating anything while we were in Penasco, and I am convinced that the hour long piece we created came to fruition because of the unique environment we were in. The residency was truly reaffirming in so many ways. It gave my dancer and I a glimpse at what a space for dance could look like in a non city-centric setting, and it gave us an idea of what it could feel like as creators to have access to space that is not consistently pinned down by the ticking clock.
Would you recommend a residency to someone? How would you describe it to someone who was interested?
Yes, I would absolutely recommend this residency to others (I already have!). I would describe it as a beautiful historic theatre in an unassumingly beautiful rural setting with warm and welcoming people who are there to give you unfettered time and space to explore. It’s a place where you can become completely immersed in your work without the typical pressures that come along with creating. The unique environment at Penasco reveals an entirely new puzzle piece of your artistic self. You will see yourself working in a way that you did not know existed.
How was the housing experience?
Was there any thing that would have made it better for you?
I can’t think of anything! The housing experience was wonderful. The best part was that it is directly connected to the theatre.
Did you feel like you had enough time in the theatre?
How was it to share the theatre with the PTC events?
Yes, we felt like we had enough time in the theatre. It was fine to share the theatre with PTC events, and we enjoyed seeing the community and classes surrounding the theatre. It was also fun to be a part of the open mic.
Any other thoughts you would like to share with us so we can continue to improve the residency experience?
I think the residency was set up in a really great way. We felt very at home and the environment felt super conducive to creativity. I especially loved how “hands off” it felt. There wasn’t pressure to make anything, which seems to be a big part of many residencies–that they must culminate in something. I liked that we had the option to perform or not. I think the fact that we had the option is what made it such a profound experience for us. I also enjoyed that the space we had was an actual theatre–not just a studio. It does something special to your brain when you are rehearsing inside a theatre. Afterwards, I did have the thought that if there had been other artists in residence living in the house at the same time as Emmaly and I, it may have made things more difficult. There was something about having super flexible time and space, and being able to feel totally comfortable in both the house and theatre that made the whole experience really groundbreaking (i.e. being able to stay up late talking and working, etc).
One last thing…
Thank you so much for providing this wonderful platform and for giving Emmaly and I the opportunity to come to the theatre. It was really inspiring for us to talk with you and Rebekah as well. We would love to come back in the future, and we would love to try to perform the piece we made. Maybe we can talk about that at a later date if you are interested. Also, I am planning to make a little collage of experts from Emmaly’s performance–would you be interested in having/using that?
Warmly,
Malinda
Malinda LaVelleDirector, Project ThrustWebsite: www.projectthrust.com
Youtube: www.youtube.com/lavellemalinda
Resident Artist/Faculty: SF Conservatory of Dance
Faculty: Ballet Durango