Performance artists are trying everything to stay limber during the coronavirus shutdown.
The D.C.-based Chamber Dance Project is certainly not immune to the situation, recently having to cancel its big gala at the Capital Yacht Club at The Wharf on March 29.
“We got out front and said this is not going to be good for our artists or our patrons,” artistic director Diane Coburn Bruning told WTOP. “We also had to cancel some of our ‘Evenings with the Artists.’ … And I thought, why don’t we pivot to virtual?”
So, the group will hold its first Zoom rehearsal on Tuesday night in a public livestream.
“Everybody will have their laptop facing them, standing in whatever room they can find,” Bruning said. “We’ll be in eight remote locations, so we’ll have two people in Milwaukee, two people in Columbus, three separate people in Pittsburgh and I’m in Alexandria.”
That’s right, Bruning will virtually direct the rehearsal remotely across four states.
“I’m going to be choreographing it, watching them, giving them notes, altering it, creating movement on the spot,” Bruning said. “Then I’m going to hand it off to one of our other dancers who choreographs, so we’re going to create probably a two-minute little ballet.”
She doesn’t expect it to be perfect. Come what may, technical difficulties and all.
“It’s probably the most risky thing we’ve done in front of an audience online,” Burning said. “One of our taglines is ‘get people closer to the art,’ so that’s what we’re doing. We always open up rehearsals, so this is going to be on their screen instead of the studio.”
The piece combines Iron & Wine’s “The Shepherd’s Dog” and Samuel Barber’s “Adagio,” which will be performed by remote musicians in various locations during the livestream.
“The four musicians are individually rehearsing it and they’re each going to play their part with their iPhone,” Bruning said. “Our editor is going to bring them all together, so in addition to seeing the musicians in their separate places playing, we’re going to take what we do in the rehearsal Tuesday of the dancers and overlay it to make a video mosaic.”
Bruning is no stranger to dance on film. In 1995, she was invited to Sundance to film a dance piece edited by Howard Smith (“The Abyss”) under mentors Stanley Donen (“Singin’ in the Rain”) and Michael Kidd (“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”).
“They were like Mutt and Jeff,” Bruning said. “They were a hoot, irreverent, and I learned a heck of a lot. … What they taught me is you have possibilities with the camera that you will never have on stage. You have possibilities to direct the eye exactly as you wish. … Look at what we’re doing with these virtual chats! We’re putting dance on film.”
After Sundance, Bruning founded Chamber Dance Project in New York City in 2000.
“A lot of ballet dancers have a very long summer layoff period from what I call their ‘Nutcracker’ companies,” Bruning said. “So we started in New York every summer bringing together these fabulous ballet dancers and musicians in creating new work.”
She relocated the group to D.C. in 2013, opening at the Kennedy Center in 2014.
“Chamber Dance Project is D.C.’s premier contemporary ballet company,” Bruning said. “We work entirely with live music, so when you come to a performance, you see living choreographers, new works and contemporary composers, dancers and musicians.”
Today, the elite company consists of eight dancers and a string quartet.
“We attract dancers from all over the country,” Bruning said. “This season we’re having dancers from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, from Milwaukee Ballet, from Ballet Mat in Columbus, and we usually have one or two Washington Ballet dancers as well.”
Typically, the group performs in residency at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre, which is closed until at least July 5. The group also had to cancel its summer trip to Jacob’s Pillow, the Tanglewood equivalent of dance in Becket, Massachusetts.
Now, Chamber Dance Project hopes to return July 23-25, depending on COVID-19.
“Hopefully we will be a big breath of fresh air at the end of July,” Bruning said.
Until then, the group is sticking to virtual chats every Tuesday. So far, they’ve held three virtual chats on various disciplines, building up to this week’s big Zoom rehearsal.
“The first week I did a historical lesson on Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, the second week we had one of our dancer-choreographers … and [last] Tuesday we had our costume designer. … My assistant tells me we’ve got a huge list of people joining us Tuesday.”
The livestream event is open to the public, but you must RSVP first by calling 202-499-297 or emailing rsvp@chamberdance.org. Find more information on chamberdance.org.
