The Modern Dance Legacy Continues: Buglisi /Foreman Dance

Buglisi Foreman Dance
Photo by Kristin Lodoen.


Buglisi/Foreman Dance is a small modern dance company with big ambitions, gorgeous production values, and a deep heart. Known for their lyrical and highly theatrical work, Buglisi Formean Dance is proof that modern dance is continuing its astonishing tradition. “Dance sends a tremendous energy into the world,” says Jacqulyn Buglisi, the Artistic Director. She should know; she brings decades of dancing with several dance legends, most notably, Martha Graham.
Buglisi /Foreman Dance are not strangers to Houston audiences. The company appeared in Dance Salad in 2001-2004 and several of the members performed in the Graham company during their Houston performances. Buglisi also has family connections here.

Jacqulyn Buglisi, Donlin Foreman, Terese Capucilli and Christine Dakin, all leading dancers the Graham company, founded Buglisi Foreman Dance in 1994. “We were all had a common philosophy,” says Buglisi. “We felt so deeply about our commitment to the artform.”

Since then, the company has amassed a large repertoire of works that not only embrace the Graham cannon, but move it forward. “I very much continue the basic elements of Graham’s legacy,” says Buglisi. “I have also furthered the technique. I use tension, release, and opposition to illuminate the dramatic moment. I also use a heightened theatricality like Graham. I like to bring all the elements of staging, the lighting, costumes and sets together.”

Buglisi graciously acknowledges Graham’s tremendous influence, but was destined for a path of her own making. “Martha was my mentor,” she says. “I danced with other companies but my destiny was to work with her.”

Buglisi has selected a quartet of works to demonstrate the enormous range of their repertoire for the Houston show. Sand is part of a trilogy of works concerning the environment. Venezuelan artist Jacobo Borges created 26 panels that literally drape the stage in a desert world. He is known for his environmental landscape painting. Buglisi traveled to the cloud forest while creating the work and spent considerable time visiting the great deserts. “You never forget those experiences.” Sand was recently presented at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC with a live performance of the Philip Glass String Quartet.

Against All Odds, a moving exploration of Sarah Bernhardt’s exotic life, was created especially for Terese Capucilli. “It takes a great dance actress to do a work like that,” says Buglisi. The work entails Bernhardt playing many different characters from Joan of Arc to Napoleon. Capucilli, one of the most renowned Graham dancers of her time, is known for her captivating rendering of Bernhardt colorful life.

Next on the program is Requiem, a work that started out being an exploration of the work of baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi Buglisi was working on the piece in late August shortly before 9/11. Afterwards she visited the site at ground zero and the work grew to mean something else. “For me it was a sacred ground. It was filled with white dust, the white dust and these huge flood lights over this cavern, like a cave; it was like an open heart,” she says. “It was like a huge cathedral. That experience fell right into the work.” Audiences have found the work to be a healing experience. “It’s a big prayer to peace.”

Costuming is crucial in all of Buglisi’s works. The women in Requiem are wrapped in 10 yards of silk. She works with the costume ideas right from the start. “The fabric becomes an extension of your inner landscape,” says Buglisi. She credits her know-how with fabric from her time dancing the work of Ruth St. Dennis and Ted Shawn while with the Trisler Danscompany.

The closer, Donlin Foreman’s Mean Ole’ World, shows off the company’s versatility in an uplifting piece set to an original score by Lisa DeSpain. This very serious dance company finally lets their hair down for some jitterbugging fun in this playful piece. “The program starts with something stylized and ends with a piece were we are able to burst out,” says Buglisi. “We take you through the whole spectrum of humanity.”

S.P.A. presents Buglisi/Foreman Dance on Saturday, April 8 at 8 p.m. in Worthan Center's Cullen Theater. Call 713-227-4SPA or visit http://www.spahouston.org/.

The Dead Can Dance: Bobbindoctrin's Danse Macabre

Bobbindoctrin's Danse Macabre
Photo by David Brown

Joe Orr recalled a slightly macabre childhood memory of a plate he made that depicted him vandalizing his house. He then knew that he possessed an off-kilter sensibility. He’s finally putting it to good use as the mastermind behind Houston’s underground legend, Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre, (BPT). Don’t stress over the name; it’s a made-up word and is just supposed to sound like it has deep meaning. Seems fitting, as puppets are made up people.

Orr, a soft spoken and gentle fellow, appears to be one serious theater guy. One would hardly guess he got his start with his one-of-kind puppet shows at Zocalo’s 1995 Self-Indulgent Crapfest. Orr created Punchface, a play about the general uselessness of his education. He had few plays under his belt, but it was his puppets that caught the audiences’ attention. “People asked me when my next puppet show was, nobody asked about my straight plays,” remembers Orr. Bobbindoctrin was born shortly after the première of Punchface.

BPT landed on the radar by opening for rock groups such as Little Jack Melody and Miss Murgatroid in clubs, not the usual venue for even off beat theater. The plan was to go where people were already. Since then, BPT has been seen at DiverseWorks, Atomic Cafe, Taft Street Coffee, Mary Jane's, and Rudyard’s. Currently, there are no plans for a permanent theater. “We are completely portable and self-sufficient,” says Orr.

Mixing shadow, rod, hand, string and tabletop puppetry, as well as masks, they experiment with the varied traditions of puppetry. Audience and critics have been responsive to Orr’s approach. “Puppets require a little extra work to make it real,” says Orr. “The audience finishes the scene and I find that people like being engaged in that process.” Puppetry creates a world independent of reality. “The vocabulary is borrowed from other art forms like sculpture and theatre,” says Orr. BPT’s puppets are constructed from dow rods, paper mache, and neoprene. Sometimes, the actors double as puppetmakers. “They come in bringing one thing to the show, and end up with other opportunities to get their hands dirty.”

Actors morph into puppeteers without problems. “Knowing music makes you a better puppeteer,” says Orr. “Everything gets funneled into the puppet. We need to remove it from our own space and body and put that into the puppet. I have developed a shorthand process in training actor, and I know how to get what I need.” In Orr's world puppets and actors never interact. "That's creepy," says Orr. "I don't ever talk to puppets; that's unnecessary."

Orr does most of the writing with the exception of Tolstoy’s Ivan the Fool. “There's not a lot of material out there to choose from, but scripts do exist,” says Orr. “Our main goal is to keep the audience's sophistication in mind and play to that.” He’s attended several puppet festivals and his show, Free Advice, landed him in Edward Albee’s Playwright’s Workshop. BPT was awarded DiverseWorks residencies in 1999, 2001, and 2002.

Collaborations with Infernal Bridegroom Productions and Arts Lyrica ended with favorable reviews. At the moment, Orr is at work on the third installment of Danse Macabre, his joint effort with fellow “A” list indie group, Two-Star Symphony. Camille Saint-Saens’ symphonic poem, Danse Macabre, provided the inspiration. “This is a collaboration process that comes out of the music,” says Orr. “I figured by the third show we would know what we were doing.” The first piece dealt with the isolation of death, the second, death on a mass scale, while the last installment concludes with the climactic Saint-Saens piece, Danse Macabre. The piece will be played in its entirety, with a new arrangement by Two-Star’s Margaret Lejuene and an expanded Two-Star Symphony.

The story goes that a man has been buried alive on the fateful night when the dead rise to dance out their tragic tales. Their last memories are revealed in a grave-to-grave romp. Don’t expect the muppets; Orr’s puppets even scare adults. For the actual dance section, BPT turned to Rebekah French of Frenticore, who is well versed in multi media performance. "I've loved Bobbindoctrin ever since I saw them performing at parties about a decade ago. I've really enjoyed watching them take on larger and more sophisticated projects and collaborations over the years,” says French. “I thought the first two parts of the Danse Macabre series used film and live music very well, so I'm really excited to help to add another layer--live dance, to the final installment.”

In addition to Two Star, Orr has amassed an impressive list of artists for this production. Aaron Jackson, technical director and scenic designer, has created a marvelous graveyard filling the entire Talento Bilingue stage. New tabletop and rod puppets have been crated by Orr and Jackson. (BPT rarely reuses puppets; Orr imagines an exhibit of retired puppets.) Frequent BPT player Atton Paul gets high-tech with stunning pixelvision videography, using racy new techniques of stop- motion animation. Francesca Marquis joins BPT for the first time and has deigned shadow puppetry. Actors Melissa Winter and Walt Zipprian head up the cast.

When a BPT show starts, something happens with the audience. According to Orr, the reptilian part of your brain activates by making the puppets seem real. "We move a degree beyond the usual suspension of disbelief to a yearning to disbelieve," says Orr. "It's like the audience is getting this itch scratched that they didn't know they had."

BPT celebrates their 10th anniversary this summer. Initially he gave his company a 10-year commitment. Recently, he renewed for another five year. Orr landed a CACHH fellowship for 2006. He’s planning on a one-man puppet table-top show on street corners called Satisfaction Survey. It should be suitably strange.

Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre and Two Star Symphony present DANSE MACABRE PART III: THE DANCE OF THE DEAD, The Last of Three Puppet-Orchestral Collaborations, on Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 8pm, March 17, 18, 24 and 25 at Talento Bilingue, 333 S. Jensen Drive, Call at 713-526-7434 or visit www.bobbindoctrin.org.


Reprinted from artshouston

Rethinking Strings; Two Star Symphony

Two Star Symphony
Photo credit Sarah Prikryl

Two Star Symphony is not your average string quartet. The fearless foursome is breaking new ground in reframing the “what, where, and how” of string music. The renegade quartet has charmed audiences at Rudyards, Helios, M2 Gallery, and Super Happy Fun Land. Recently. they opened for Jose Feliciano at a benefit for Texas Children’s Hospital.

Two Star members include Jo Bird (viola/toy piano), Margaret Lejeune (cello/harp), Debra Brown (violin/percussion), and Chenoa Mauthner (violin). Their eclectic training encompasses just about every musical genre. John Duboise, Cathy Power, and Kirk Suddreath join the troupe for special projects.

Two Star writes all of their own music. They function artistically and administratively like a collective. Bird is the PR queen, Brown, the onstage talker, Lejeune, the financial whiz, and newcomer, Mauthner, books their gallery performances.

Known for their collaborations, Two Star has performed with some of Houston most noteworthy artists and troupes. Two-Star composed the music for Dominic Walsh’s Dance Alchemy, which he set on ABT Studio Company in 2004. Two Star traveled to New York to rehearse with Walsh and the company. “Having them in the studio with me almost every day as I created the work was wonderful,” Walsh said. “Not only are they gifted composers and musicians, but the intensity behind their playing has such a palpable energy that I felt we were truly telling the same story through dance and music.”

Two-Star is also a frequent collaborator with Houston’s notorious puppet troupe Bobbindoctrin. “We fell in love with Bobbindoctrin; Joel Orr functions like a muse for my writing,” says Lejeune. So far, they have composed music for first two sections of Danse Macabre and will continue this collaboration this March in part three.

“We write visually. I have a story in my head when I write a piece, which makes our work perfect for film scores,” says Lejeune. “We want to be the next Danny Elfman; he scores Tim Burton’s films. We would love to score The Passion of Joan of Arc or Haxen-an old silent Norwegian film on witchcraft,” say Lejeune. Marian Luntz, Curator of Film and Media at the MFAH, thought Two Star would be a perfect match for UNSEEN CINEMA, a set films surveying American avant-garde films from 1894-1941. “I thought the creativity of Two Star would work well with this particular program and I was totally delighted with what they came up with,” remarks Luntz. “It was imaginative, absolutely appropriate for the different types of films, and completely engaging for the audience.”

Two Star is consistently gathering momentum with audiences often yelling for an encore. “Stringed instruments are sexy,” says Houston Chronicle blogger Sara Cress after attending one of their Helios shows. “I can only tell you that they sound like thunder and violence, Tim Burton, corsets, red fingernails, and just the slightest rays of sweetness, like actual music,” writes Cress.

Bird, Lejeune, and Brown all live together so their 4-times a week rehearsal schedule is convenient. “We’re in a partnership for life. We have all played in other bands but this one just seems right,” says Lejeune. Two Star has built a growing fan base; audiences seem to love what they do. “We get lots of people at our shows because we answer all of our emails.”

Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre and Two Star Symphony present DANSE MACABRE PART III: THE DANCE OF THE DEAD, The Last of Three Puppet-Orchestral Collaborations, on Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 8pm, March 17, 18, 24 and 25 at Talento Bilingue, 333 S. Jensen Drive, Call at 713-526-7434 or visit http://www.bobbindoctrin.org/. You can contact Two Star at twostarsymphony@yahoo.com or visit http://www.twostarsymphony.org/.

Reprinted from artshouston and Spacetaker

Tamarie Cooper Tackles Chekhov

Charlie Scott in IBP's Uncle Vanya


Infernal Bridegroom Productions cut its early teeth on some mighty heady material. Keeping that in mind, Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya seems like a natural fit for this always bleeding-edge troupe. Houston’s favorite actor, director, choreographer, song and dance lady, vintage clothes maven, Tamarie Cooper, has a new challenge at hand. She’s directing Vanya, with a stellar cast of IBP veterans. Cooper fills us in on this new IBP production.

Tamarie, you have such a wild and ravishing stage persona. When I think of you, many words pop into mind. Chekhov is kind of far down the list. What put this baby on your lap?

I knew I wanted to direct another play, so I began reading all the plays in my house and at the office, and stumbled across Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. IBP had done The Cherry Orchard many years ago, and I remembered being crazy about that play as well. I think Uncle Vanya is simply a beautifully written play. People think Chekhov is just about boring, complaining people--not true. The characters may say they're bored, but inside they are suffering, aching, plotting, laughing, screaming, baiting, breaking, enduring, and living! What vitality! How wild and ravishing...

I know IBP has a long history having their way with classics. What's your stamp on Vanya?

TC: No stamp. We are approaching the material sincerely and honestly.

Usually you are on the other side of the stage. What challenges you about directing?

TC: I hope to create a safe, supportive environment for the actors and learn how to communicate with each actor. Many of our actors come from different training backgrounds and different approaches to acting. I’m looking for a common language.

This is a dance blog, and you are a dancer, therefore, I am obligated to inquire as to your approach to movement in the show?

TC: I think my dance background comes into play regarding staging. My sharpened spatial awareness helps to create stronger, interesting pictures.

When I read the cast list, it just seemed to be a perfect Chekhovian fit. Was it that way for you too?

TC: One of the main reasons I wanted to direct this play is because of the actors available to me. Charlie Scott leapt out of my mind and into the pages of Vanya. I firmly believe that a large part of directing is in the casting. This a great group of actors.

What about this piece that makes sense for today?

Everything. Living one's life can be terrifying at times. Heartbreak, feeling stuck, failure, loss, regret, shame, betrayal--all relevant.

What's next on your artistic burner?

I will most likely be performing in some of IBP's future productions, and I am creating a variety show, of sorts, to be performed in September. Yes, there will be dancing. As a matter of fact, I see this variety show as an opportunity to present some choreography that's been kicking around in my head for quite sometime, without a venue. Of course, Tamalalia was all about the choreography, but it was usually limited to a very silly, cartoon-like, 1950's grand musical style. This stuff may be a little weirder.

Uncle Vanya continues at IBP until March 25th, at the Axiom, 2425 McKinney. Call (713)522-8443 or visit www.infernalbridegroomproductions.org.

Powerful People: Miguel Gutierrez Talks about Retrospective Exhibitionist

Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People

Just when I think we have hit a slow dance decade, someone like Miguel Gutierrez comes around to shake me out of my dance-watching coma. He directs Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People and is widely known for creating thought-provoking, visceral and challenging work. I saw Gutierrez dance with Joe Goode and John Jasperse and was suitably impressed, but it was his own work that really caught my attention (by the neck so to speak). This summer at ADF I saw Retrospective Exhibitionist and was thrilled to hear that Sixto Wagon was bringing him to DiverseWorks.

Recently, Gutierrez was named as one of "25 to Watch" by Dance Magazine, and "2005 Artist of the Year" by New York's Gay City News.His works, enter the seen (2002), I succumb (2003),and dAMNATION rOAD (2004) have made him an in-demand artist. He has toured internationally to the Open Look International Summer Dance Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia, TOUCH 2005 Festival in Archangelsk, Russia, London Calling (to the faraway towns) Festival in Bologna, Italy, the Hong Kong Fringe Club, and to the dialogue/preview program at Springdance in Utrecht (in April 2006). His work has received support from the Trust For Mutual Understanding, Arts International, Pro-Helvetia (Swiss Arts Council), American Music Center, Meet the Composer and he received a 2004 fellowship in choreography from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Gutierrez is active in the supporting the work of other artists as a curator for Dance and Process at The Kitchen and the monthly performance party, SHTUDIO SHOW, at Chez Bushwick. He's danced with Joe Goode, Jennifer Lacey, Jennifer Monson, Juliette Mapp and Ann Liv Young and is currently dancing in Deborah Hay's O.O. In 2002 he won a Bessie for his work with John Jasperse Company from 1997 to 2001. He is on faculty at the American Dance Festival, teaches regularly around the world and was a Movement Research Artist-In-Residence from 2001 to 2003.

Gutierrez lands in Houston this week and brings us into the process of his latest work.

What got Retrospective Exhibitionist off and running?
MG: After my last show, dAMNATION rOAD, I felt confused as to why the hell I was performing. Is it for the fame? The money (Ha ha)? For love and adoration?
I had done a little piece for a loft showing here at the end of 03' and I liked some of the material that I was exploring in that. It was hyper-personal and more process oriented and more experiential than declamatory. A few months after dAMNATION rOAD I decided to continue working with that material and then I just basically got underway.

I realized that I had never given myself the opportunity to really think of my work in the context of a long-form solo. I was interested in the idea of excavating into my performance history and giving myself permission to do anything that I wanted, whether or not it had been done before. In fact, it had been done before and that was all the more reason to do it again. Because it had stayed with me meant it was me also.

The beginning is fantastic; it's a bit like a steam roller. The music is blaring and you come storming in, naked except for those red sneakers, caring a ton of stuff. (You nearly clobbered one of my fellow dance critics at ADF). It's one of the most potent attention-grabbing beginnings I have seen a long while. There's a kind of "what is this guy going to do next" feel to it. You absolutely commandeer the attention of everyone in the room. Can you speak to the scene you are setting?
MG: I am creating the space. I am bringing my studio into the theatre. I am the performer/stripper/crew member/working choreographer. I am ripping off my friends' Heather Kravas and Beth Gill who also have made pieces where they create the space at the beginning of their work. I am wearing the outfit (sans the wig) that I used to wear when I as a J/O stripper in San Francisco in the early 90's. It is the promise of sex with none of the follow through. It's ridiculous.

Artists often have a love/ hate thing going with talk backs and/or panel discussions. There's a hysterically funny part in the piece where you mouth the words of yourself in one of those after performance Q & As. It really points to the idea of both elevating and dismissing artists as alien. What's that section about for you?
MG: I looked at that video of a show we'd done at Jacob's Pillow and just laughed at how I sounded like a retarded valley girl. How can anyone (including me) believe any of this shit? It suddenly occurred to me that artists' ideas are so important and meaningless at the same time.

Speaking of Q & As, at ADF you were remarkably forthcoming about all the research that went in the piece. Can you share some of that process?
MG: During the summer of 2004 at ADF I decided to treat my time there as a residency with a minor teaching component. So I worked there and showed and early version of the solo. Then I went straight from there to Vienna's Impulstanz and saw a lot of work and great art. After that I went to a two week cultural exchange project in Moscow where Jeremy Wade, Heather Kravas and I spent time in a studio for two weeks with four Russian dance artists. Some things like the initial mic/amp stuff and the obsessive self portraits came out of that.

I had a residency in Lexington NY, which was totally incredible. I worked in a cabin for a week and felt like a weird art-driven Ted Kaczynski. I also developed a mentor/friend-to-the-project relationship with Heather Kravas. She helped me to articulate things about the piece while completely letting me go into the places that I wanted to.

There is a virtuosic bit of dancing in the middle. It's a bit like a tease. There's seems to be a joke embedded that alludes to dancer as "Shamu" the whale. Can you comment on that observation?
Shamu has to put on a show and he is trapped in that tank. As a dancer you are expected to be heroic, you are expected to deliver the goods. Everyone has paid their money and goddammit there had better be a dance show at a dance show. That dance is the reference dance where I string together bits from everyone I've worked with as well as pieces that I've seen. I use myself as an artifact of all that has come before me and all that is trapped inside of me. It's the burden of history, the pressure of having to "do."

Close to the end of the piece you burn your ass with a candle on a stack of books that grows steadily higher. I recall that the actual books were significant. How many these days? Is this section a cover or quote from a performance artist?
MG: This part isn't a direct quote of anyone, or at least it wasn't when I made it up. I've since heard of several folks have done fire-related thing (Gina Payne is one). I usually use four books, but at ADF I got cocky and used five, and never practiced---SHIT! During the performance I was like, 'Oh my god my ass is burning." But the show must go one and now I have that scar. Perfect. As to which books, I will assemble that in Houston and let the meaning find me.

Retrospective Exhibitionist seems like a work that possibly put some closure on an area of exploration for you. Is this true? If so, where did the piece leave you?
MG: I no longer feel like I have to please everyone. I trust myself more. I also perform from a place of love rather than from a place of having to prove something to someone. During the process of making the piece I was released from a lot of my desire to "get gigs," or rather I moved away from my ambition and moved closer to a commitment to my own work, finding out its intricacies, idiosyncrasies and mysteries. Ironically, now the phone is ringing.

As to where it's left me, I'm not sure yet, I'm still finding out. At first I was apprehensive about rehearsing this show again to come to Houston. I thought, "ugh, those feelings are dead for me now." But I have found that I love rehearsing the piece, that it's become its own performance practice (a la Deborah Hay) and that it's an experience that allows me to continue to deepen my consciousness as a performer.

How does Difficult Bodies connect to Retrospective Exhibitionist?
MG: In a way it's a dream of the solo, or I guess the dance that I didn't let myself make in the solo. It uses movement specifically to embody the questions that emerged for me through the making of the solo, and yet at the same time it is its own beautiful, curious beast. It's similar to the solo though in that its about offering something and then taking it away, and then being yourself, and then having to negotiate the reality of others. It's about activating the power of the kenetic/sensory body, releasing me exclusively from my "self," and offering it over to three incredible women, whose dancing I just adore.

It is the respite and diffusion and empowering and vulnerability again. How do you outwards from yourself? How does your moving/dancing get to "mean" anything. There are my guiding questions.

What have you taken from your days with John Jasperse and Joe Goode?
MG: I learned that creating work is about asking yourself complex questions and trusting that the space of dance/theatre can house these questions. I appreciated the meticulousness with which both of these men work. With Joe it was about an authority and a steady hand. With Jon it was more about subversion as an invitation of insecurity and instability.

You are dancing in Deb Hay's new work, O,O Tell me about your time with Hay? Was that an easy choice to work with her? Have you incorporated her methods into your own performing?
MG: I told her after The Match that I was interested in working with her. Basically it's been one of those serious life-changing events of my life. Deborah is brilliant and so committed to her experiments and questions and her process that it is a gift to spend time with her. I appreciate that she has never "institutionalized" her work, which she's kept it close to her. It's coming directly from her. I feel completely and utterly changed as a dancer/performer as a result.

Do critics know what to do with your work? I notice that they tend to default to the list of what you did as a way of writing about the piece.
MG: I hate the descriptive/cliff notes school of dance criticism. Why are people afraid of talking about ideas, imagination, and context?Critics get afraid because they could be wrong. (Hey, I have to stick up for my people.) Certainly someone has gotten your work.The most satisfying review I've read of my work is by Eleanor Bauer, a very young dancer/choreographer. Her review of Damnation Road was descriptive and complicated.

What's on your mind these days dancewise? Otherwise is fine too.
I am just continuing to figure out what my work is. I am happiest when I am creating. I am interested in creating experience that can be personal and super emotional without being like a Spielberg movie. I am playing with layerings, punk expression, sex differences, my body, the visual vs. the aesthetic, the genuine, the fake, helping people to feel things, permission, permission, permission, going into any direction that strikes me, not worrying about "dance" and knowing that it's still the place form which I outward into other spheres. I want to continue to make art from the very center of my heart.

Learn more at www.miguelgutierrez.org.

DiverseWorks presents Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People on March 3 & 4th at 8pm. Call 713-335-3445 or visit www.diverseworks.org.

This interview was commissioned by Dance Source Houston.