School of Dance
Amount Awarded: $8,243.10
Awarded for 2016-17
Title: Gender/Power Workshop and Performance Project
I propose to bring New York artists Maya Ciarrocchi and Kris Grey to conduct their Gender/Power workshop and performance in Fall 2016. Gender/Power is a collaborative working methodology in which the artists use discussions and interviews with participants to weave together a final performance/video installation/collaborative artwork centered on how the group experiences power and authority based on their perceptions of gender.
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Well-known New York City performance artists Maya Ciarrocchi and Kris Grey came to the School of Dance for a 10-day residency in which they worked with 12 of our modern dance majors and minors on their Gender/Power project. The project involved the group working together intensively in a workshop setting, first telling stories about their own experiences of perceptions of gender in relation to power structures, and then setting these stories to movement. The result was an evening-length work that was performed for the public on November 19, 2016.
The residency was tremendously beneficial in numerous ways:
1). Our students had exposure to a very different working methodology than many of our guest artists bring. Most of the time we have guest choreographers/artists come in to set fairly traditional contemporary movement pieces, that begin with movement generation in the studio. This process began “from the ground up,” from the students own stories and ideas about gender in relation to the power structures in which they reside (the first three days of the process were spent taking in a round table format). Students involved in the piece reported profound transformation in sharing stories in public, in having ownership and agency in the very creation of the piece, and in being able to process very deep issues surrounding experiences of how ideas of gender intersect with the social power structures surrounding them.
2). Ciarrocchi and Grey also shared their knowledge with all of our student body, by guest teaching in a class, holding open rehearsals for anyone to come to (most of their rehearsals were open to the public), and by holding a lecture on their process for the entire student body. The final public performance was met with overwhelming support—countless audience members wanted to see the performance repeated throughout the Salt Lake Valley, and reported being transformed by the performance. I have to say, the final performance was powerful beyond words, was transformational, and left a profound impact on the cast members and audience members alike.
3). This kind of residency, in which our students work with renowned artists intensively on choreographic issues, have now been twice supported by the Dee Fellows Grant (we had a similar residency with Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargione in 2014). I am extremely grateful, and these opportunities have given us a model for how to continue offering choreography-based residencies (students working on choreographic issues) that offer transformational experiences for the students.