  |
| |||||||
 |
||||||||
| |||||||||||||
|
The Night Before Christmas Viewer's Guide Excerpts from an interview with choreographer Daniel Ezralow I understand how I create confusion in a group. And if you ask any company across the boards they'll say, "Oh Danny? Yeah, he's a little difficult." Because what I do is I come in and I try to stir things up. But I don't tell them I'm stirring it up. I'll be very open, yet I'll be almost to the point where they're at sea with no boat and they're sort of fishing for...where do they hang on? There's a frustration that arises. I use that frustration in the creative process because I think, I seriously think, that if you don't get lost, you can't find. I seriously think that the problem with so much creative work today is it doesn't start from a creative point of view. It starts from a point of view that "I've gotta make this, this is my business, this is what I do, I make art or I make dances or I make music, so therefore, I'm going to make it." And so few people wander, just let it wander. So I have a job to come in and make Christmas stories, but I came in, effectively, what some people may say is, very unprepared. Yet I know that the preparation is every day of my life, so that I'll know when the connections are coming. The process of creating a work is ultimately more important than the end, in the sense that [the process] matters more. So I care very much about the end, but the process is key to getting to a good result--an organic process where you listen to the things you're hearing - you listen to the responses. We're in a situation here where there is a lot of crazy...kind of exterior problems that came in. You just keep going and say, "OK, what is this telling me?" Where do I turn? Stay flexible. Watch the next thing that's coming. That's what I'm supposed to do, go over here. Uh huh... It's changing. Come on back to here. Ah ha! This is where I'm going. And all of the sudden, if you keep flexible like that, a bell will ring. BONG! Really loud and clear and it will reverberate and you'll realize "That's the direction I'm supposed to go. That's the piece." And then you start focusing in. I think it's key to stay involved in that process. So what is this about? Christmas is in all of our blood if we're American. We all see it all around us. Other countries in the world don't all see it in the same way. But here in the USA, we see Christmas as a time for all of this to happen. Santa Claus, St. Nick, Christmas Tree, Presents, etc., etc... I call [this piece] the XMAS PHILES. Meaning they're files about Christmas, they're impressions of Christmas, both good and bad, both camp and serious. It sort of spans the gamut. ... I think it's important to show the light side, the sort of flavorful side. In that way, this piece is a bit of a potpourri. I've scanned Christmas songs ... from all different sides, from Rudolph sung by 15 different cover artists that sang it, to...strange versions of Deck the Halls with Boston Charlie, you know, "fa la la la la la and cauliflower, too." There's many different versions, and what I've decided to do is put them together in kind of a snippet form, vignette, a form that you can get an impression of what Christmas might be, what it might not be. ... I'll throw everything up in the air like the I Ching sticks and see where they land, and then start to read them. And sometimes they tell me what I need to say. This particular piece, I am sort of following a Christmas theme, but obviously I am not doing "T'was the Night Before Christmas," I'm doing the XMAS PHILES. So already we're a little bit skewed. And I like that askew-ness. This is not the holiday where people go deep into their soul. In fact, every day of the year you go deep into your soul and it wouldn't change that much on Christmas. What would change is that you're gathering together with friends and family, which...sometimes is wonderful, but sometimes creates gross problems. I mean, not to be negative, I'm trying to be a little bit camp, I'm trying to be a little bit irreverent with it, a little bit fun...play with it a little bit...I'm not trying to be holier-than-thou and say this is the thing that must happen, this is the show. One piece I'm doing to...Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer, I'm doing a women's section. At first I thought it was just a women's section to this piece. And then I thought, "well, let's make it about Rudolph." Then I said, "...let's make it about reindeer", and then I said, "Well, what would reindeer do?" And, I said, "well, I don't want the dancers to be reindeer, so what do I do? Well, maybe I put them in heels. Well, OK, now they're hoofs. Now, if they're in hoofs, how do they act? If they stop still, what do [they do]?" Well, reindeer freeze when a car comes, so there's a moment where they stop and it's a headlight, and they freeze. There's another point where reindeer sometimes scratch and so there's this movement...where they're sort of scratching themselves. I found one song, Silent Night by a group called Low. It's a very slow, sensitive version of a song. What I had thought was I wanted to express the relationship of two people just coming to each other and supporting each other or giving into each other...So I tried to create a piece around this concept of just meeting, greeting and releasing. Like we all do everyday. When two bodies come together and they hold each other, and they connect via the eyes, and then one lowers the other to the ground, and they release each other, and they go on, what you'll find is that there is an emotion that's conveyed. And that's the emotion, basically, of bodies, coming next to each other, supporting each other, caring for each other, and then separating from each other. Returning to pick each other up, and lie back down, and support each other. I tried to create a piece all about that... They asked Balanchine...what's your dance about, and he said, "It's about ten minutes." I think that's the key. Here I am blabbering on about what I do and, in the end, I really don't want to tell you. It's the dance. The dance will speak for itself. It's movement. I talk concepts and ideas, but in the end, [talk is] not anything about my dance, the dance will be what it is. I believe that from the start. I come into the room and I actually tell dancers the first day of rehearsal, "The dance is here, it's here in this room, right now at this moment, it's just for us to find it. It's not like I've brought anything here that you didn't have, or you're going to give me anything that I didn't have. We're all together going to find out where the dance is. But it's sitting right here in the air." I seriously believe that. |
|
