NextMove Dance is bringing acclaimed and award-winning choreographer Doug Varone and his dancers to town for a performance representing the company’s past and present, Jan. 18-22.
The company will perform three pieces: 2015’s “Recomposed,” last year’s “Folded” and 1994’s “Possession,” which is considered one of Varone’s masterpieces.
Varone said he is looking forward to presenting more recent works alongside a piece from his past.
“We’re celebrating our 30th anniversary so it’s given me an opportunity to look back on the work and see where I am and want to go, and figure out how those are all connected,” he said. “‘Possession’ was created in 1994 and it in many ways is a nonlinear narrative work. It uses images from source material to invoke emotion. It has a sense of implied nature to it. I haven’t created work like that in a very long time.”
Over time, the nature of his work became more specific, Varone said.
“The recomposed work that we are doing based on Joan Mitchell’s is about that,” he noted. “Here’s a much more specific approach to those visuals that feels much more pointed. The newer ‘Duet’ is in many ways about finding my way back to the original impetus of the type of work I used to create when I was creating ‘Possession.’ I feel like ‘Possession’ is the past, ‘Recomposed’ is the present and in many ways ‘Folded’ is the future — but it forms a circle all the way back to the beginning.”
“Recomposed” is a work inspired by the artwork of abstract expressionist American artist Joan Mitchell set to Michael Gordon’s score “Dystopia.”
Varone said certain works of Mitchell’s had an uncanny similarity to his own choreography.
“I had known her oil paintings but I had never seen her pastels before,” he said. “I saw them at an exhibit in Chelsea and remember looking at them on the wall and thinking, These are my dances. This is exactly how I build my sense of choreographed chaos within my larger dances. So I began doing a little bit of research. The way she began speaking about her vision of drawing theses is identical to the way I speak about my work. It was that point that I decided I was going to use them as the inspiration for creating the group work. I joked that I feel like we’re separated at birth in a way. The visualizations that I place on stage are almost identical to the visualizations that she builds in her pastels. The sense of structure that is underneath all the chaos is keen as well in my work. There’s a sense of form that pushes everything forward but it’s disguised in a way that allows you to feel as though the stage is being pulled apart.”
“Folded” is a duet piece featuring either two male or two female dancers, set to the music of Philadelphia-born composer Julia Wolfe. The abstract dance explores relationships and the intimate interactions between two dancers falling in and out of sync.
“I’ve always been drawn to creating same-sex duets,” Varone said. “It’s certainly part of my nature. This work is part of a suite of dances entitled ‘In the Shelter of the Fold.’ Each dance shares a different perspective on the concept of belief and faith, and how by challenging that, you are either elevated or defeated. The duet itself for me is very much a personal dialogue between self. The concept of having it performed by the same gender is for me really important.”
When dance pieces have a strong underlying message or inspiration, there always is the chance that it won’t be fully appreciated or comprehended by the audience. But Varone said he isn’t too afraid of that happening.
“I love that fear. We’re in the middle of this winter intensive with young artists and talking about the difference between narrative work and abstract work. I am a real firm believer that within abstraction is the imagination and allowing people access to that part of their imagination is more valuable that spoon-feeding them a narrative. I try to find ways to create work that allows people the access to that part of their imagination and empower them in some way to believe that whatever they are seeing is right, whether it has anything or nothing to do with the work that is on the stage. That is what art is about. It certainly is what abstract dance is about.”
By presenting past works alongside current pieces, Varone gets to see the evolution of his choreography over the last two decades.
We asked him if he had an idea of where his choreography will go in the next 10 or 20 years.
“The larger question is, Will I be making dances in 15 years?” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to create work over 30 years and to watch that process and the evolution of the art form within my imagination change and shift. So I never try to predict where I’m headed or where I’m going. I’m constantly inspired by things that are going on around me. There are certain things that I want to achieve before I stop creating or don’t have the urge to create anymore. That for me is a driving force and I feel as if I’m constantly trying to reinvent what I know, whether I succeed or not. Sometimes that is about looking back to the past and relearning those skills and tools and putting them back into a work that you are making as an artist who has 30 years of experience. So I feel like it’s constantly a filter and re-filtering of the knowledge that I have and hopefully taking that into new territory.”
NextMove Dance presents Doug Varone and Dancers through Jan. 22 at Prince Music Theater’s Main Stage, 1412 Chestnut St. For more information or tickets, call 215-422-4580 or visit www.princetheater.org/next-move.