WITH RONN STEWART
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SFR: As artistic director of Moving People Dance Theater, how do you divide your time between the creative and administrative work?
RS:
About 40 percent teaching. Then 40 percent collaborative work: choreography, fundraising, I would throw all that into a creative pile. And then the other 20 percent is leadership. It's something I have to practice. I love to teach; it's really my main calling. But I think I'm learning more and more how to be an artistic director. I'm starting to have the confidence; it's this weird balance of vanity and humility and you have to do it right. Once you have a vision, you have to announce it and you have to stick with it. And that's the part that's sort of exciting.
What kind of dance do you teach and perform? Modern, jazz?
Both. And ballet. Layla [Amis, co-artistic director] and I teach all three. We were so passionate about it and we were doing it all the time and I think both of us started to really create our own teaching philosophy. And I take the best of all those worlds, all those worlds of social dance, and try to create as wide a vocabulary as I can. As an artist you have more colors to paint with.
What does that look like?
Well the best thing about ballet is the strength. The intensity of it. The place you have to go to do it right, and the fact that ballet is so cut and dried. You're either doing it or you're not. Your knee's either straight or it's not. I don't love the history of it; I don't believe that we need to celebrate it. I think it's sexist; pointe shoes are horrible! The idea of the paper doll cutout, that everyone's supposed to be the same size and color, and what it does to them. So let's just take the good part and leave the crap.
So tell me how you would characterize your company.
It's just beginning its sixth year, so it's five years in the making. The history of it is interesting because Moving People was just a show we did when we were passing through here. We're passing through, we'll do a little show, we'll call it Moving People, we'll be on our way. So that was the idea. I've realized that the best thing for Moving People is to continue to prove to Santa Fe why we're good for Santa Fe. I have a half-million dollar budget now and I pour it right back into the company. Money's just energy in green pants, right? And it flows. So you do the work and you build something and the flow keeps happening. It's a very expensive art form. I'm lucky also because I think the rep that we pick attracts great dancers.
The rep that you pick?
People know that we're doing hot, cutting-edge, fresh choreography. As a dancer you're going to be fulfilled if you work with Moving People. You're going to work with great choreographers. You're going to do a little comedy, you're going to do cutting-edge ballet and jazz stuff, you're going to do some old-school modern, you're going to do some sort of indigenous trance dance thing, you're going to have a nice variety.
Where do you start with a new dance?
I think intuition is my biggest motivator. If it feels like something, then I trust it and if it doesn't feel right I say no. And I learned a long time ago not to choreograph to the music because then the composer becomes the artist. No. I always create the dance first.
How do you find the music? Do you just show it to a lot of people and they say, 'sounds like…'
No. Technology helps, you know. I've got my iPod, I've got my on-the-go playlist. I've got a list of maybe songs that have touched me in some way. I like to collaborate a lot, it's kind of the soul of what I'm doing. I worked with a man named Joe Cox a few years ago. I created a whole 15-minute dance in silence and then he videotaped the whole thing, took it home and composed a score. And then we collaborated for another month or so, going back and forth.
You do quite a bit of collaborative work.
It's a small town. Santa Fe forces you to be creative; that's what's great about it. If you want to build a company here you can't do it the traditional way. And who would want to? [Laughs] I wouldn't.
How much does the history of this region and your physical location in space influence your dance?
There's a lot there and there's a reason I'm here. It's helped me find my own voice. Whereas when I'm in this urban environment with 50 other choreographers and you're watching everybody every night…I tried to do that in Chicago and every time I tried to do something I would say, "Oh, that's so Ginger Farley," That was among the reasons I wanted to get away. I wanted to find my own voice. And I think it will definitely benefit me one day. In fact, it's what I'm counting on. I'm going to choreograph for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet one day. I'm just going to get big enough to where they have to ask me.
Can we print that?
You can print it. But I'm not just a dancer who goes on to teach dance because I've been a dancer and I know dance. It can be so insular, you know? You're a dancer, but do you have any regular life experience to share? Anything for the audience to take away? You've got to go out there and experience life. You've got to get in there a little to have something to say.
Moving People Dance is holding its second annual Santa Fe Dance Festival through June 24, with upcoming performances June 17, 18 and 24. For more info and tickets call 438-9180.
