MOVING WORDS: A Conversation with Sara Draper and Elizabeth Gilbert

Sara Draper and Elizabeth Gilbert in Body/Soul
Photo by Jim Caldwell

Sara Draper and Elizabeth Gilbert were destined to work together. Draper, who is also a writer, has been drawn to using text in much of her work. Gilbert, a poet and playwright, creates work from a deeply embodied sensibility. Draper and Gilbert discuss their upcoming collaboration, Body/Soul, slated for the Big Range Dance Festival in June.

How did your artistic paths cross?

SD: I was facilitating Fieldwork, a workgroup for artists, when Liz joined the group, so we got to know each other’s aesthetic while in the workgroup. Liz then invited me to show two of my works in the annual Women's Works production, so we performed our respective works in that show together.

Both of you focus in on the “body” as subject. How do you approach this theme with your own form of reference?

EG: These poems came from my own attempts to understand myself through the healing process. The body and soul, in my mind, make up the “self”. In this performance, my character’s connection with soul, or spirit, becomes the source of healing. This provides the requisite strength and support for confronting the difficulties of dependence and limited mobility.

SD: I often meditate on a body part as a starting point for a dance, and it always leads me to issues of the psyche and of culture. In this case, I started with the poetry and by getting to know Liz’s physical movement range. For me, the body always leads to the psyche, and that is the essence of this work; it reveals the inseparable relationship between the body and the soul.

Liz, you have always had an interest in modern dance. Did you ever think you would wind up sharing the stage with a modern dancer?

EG: Actually, my becoming a playwright began a long time ago when I studied dance at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to my accident, I had begun to connect with dancers because I was writing a play about Pushkin. I envisioned this as a text based performance with dance. Then, I crossed paths with Sara. So, finding myself on stage with her in a modern dance performance seems almost premeditated. If anything, it's certainly not surprising.

Tell me about the rehearsal process. How did you avoid clichés and other pitfalls?

SD: There are nine poems in this work, and they are approached in eight different ways. We wanted to include mood changes and to explore lots of different approaches. In one rehearsal, Liz and I spent most of the time on the floor together, getting into different positions and simply exploring physical possibilities. One day a week, I take Liz’ wheelchair to the studio during a time she doesn’t need it, and play in it and choreograph myself into it. We didn’t want Liz to be seen as always/only in a wheelchair, so we tried other options. In fact, Liz is only in her wheelchair for three of her poems. This is dance theatre, so we are looking for what works theatrically, and don’t feel compelled to have lots of movement every second. There are dramatic points of stillness. Liz and I also stay focused on the meaning of the poems, including the relationship between the body and the soul.

EG: Collaboration is always an intricate dance of communication. I approach my work from the perspective of the writer and actor and try to communicate my needs without constricting Sara's needs as choreographer and as a dancer. We have had, as all collaborators do, difficult moments. Since we share a common goal, however, we have not reached any barrier too difficult to overcome.

I just wrote a piece about a dancer who uses a wheelchair and learned that there is whole world out there on mixed ability dance. It has its own history and legacy. Did you feel it necessary to visit this already established world?

SD: I was introduced to this particular world of dance by some dancers in Utah in 1990, and what I saw was beautiful, but it was very different from what Liz and I are doing. One of the magical things about this collaboration is that Liz and I had the idea of working together on this project at the same time, while we were each respectively watching the same PBS show about Detours Dance Company, whose artistic director uses a wheelchair. I immediately started imagining collaborating with Liz, and she had the same thought, which we discovered soon after. So we knew we weren’t going to re-invent the wheel, but we wanted to explore what we could do with it.

What I think is unique about this collaboration is that this is not simply a dancer choreographing on someone who uses a wheelchair. Liz is a talented, seasoned performance artist who brings a whole history of aesthetic sensing, writing, directing, and performing to our work. So this is a true collaboration between two artists, one of whom happens to be using a wheelchair at this time.

EG: I am uncomfortable with the term mixed ability -- to me it implies one person's ability is better than the others. In this piece, I am not on stage dancing, I am performing my writing as an actor portraying the character and Sara's body represents my character’s desire to connect to her spiritual side and move about freely without the constraints of her physical condition.

How were you challenged in creating this piece?

EG: For me it was confining myself to the time limit. I see more to this work both in movement and text, but the time constraints of this particular show would not allow that.

SD: Collaborations are always a challenge because two artists, each with a well developed aesthetic sense, have to agree on the process and the product. But I also think that challenge is what can make a collaborative work really powerful. Liz and I have worked at communicating with each other, and have helped each other see new possibilities when one of us felt momentarily stuck.

Transitions between poems are a creative challenge, and we’ve experimented with approaching them in various ways. Ultimately, I think the transitions and the caretakers who help with them are reminders of the earth-bound details of the physical reality, always present, yet remaining in the background of the more important issues of body/soul and self.

Liz, in one of your poems you ask the question, “Why can't I understand that difficult is merely different?” It’s a statement that reveals a deeply nonjudgmental view of the healing process. Can you speak to how the ideas in this statement fueled your creative process?

EG: That line came from a journal entry and really reflects what was troubling me that day. One element that Sara contributed so brilliantly to this collaboration was selecting the order of the poems for performance. The poem using this line is when the character is just beginning to understand her role in the healing process. In order to heal she must focus less on the difficulties of her day-to-day existence and more on the pleasures of being alive.

Sarah, you are an old hand at working with text, what was it like to work with text that came from someone else?

SD: I’ve used text that was not mine before, but this is a special situation because the author is right here with me in the process, a part of the process, and I can ask her questions. I can ask, “Who is ‘the other’?” for instance, and Liz can just tell me what she was thinking when she wrote that. I’m getting much more in-depth understanding than with, for example, a four thousand year old text that I’ve used in past works. Liz’s poetry is deeply moving to me, and I feel privileged to get to share the space in her head and heart, so to speak, by focusing on how to embody the words.

How does Liz’s poetry weave into the work? It’s a large body of work, and doing anything with poetry and dance is tricky business. Fill me in on the text factor.

SD: Liz performs her poems live. She speaks accompanied by recorded music during some, and by silence or sound effects with others. She sometimes uses gestures while remaining in place as she speaks, with the dance following, or with me dancing while she performs the poem. The poetry is definitely the core of the work, and I feel like everything else – the choreography, sound, transitions – is really woven around the poetry.

What do you love about performing this work?

SD: I love being the character that I dance in this work, and I love experiencing the relationship connection and the affection in the dance. I love the emotional space that I’m in when I dance the piece.

EG: The term “love” connotes choice. I approach creating new work and performance as a necessary act which requires examination of something pulling me, whether deeper into the self, an attachment to an issue, or an inflated emotional response. This examination results in the performance, which then allows the audience (individual members within the community) to contribute with their own response, and on their own terms.

Do you think you two will collaborate again?

EG: I hope so.

SD: Liz and I have talked about creating more works in the future. We’ll take a break in the fall months while she is out of town, and then we’ll revisit that possibility when she returns. We already have another gig for this work in the spring, so this is definitely not the end of our artistic partnership.


Dancepatheatre presents Body/Soul and other works as part of the Big Range Dance Festival on June 15-17 at Barnevelder. Call 713-529-1819 or visit http://www.bigrange.org/.

Dancing Shakespeare: Dominic Walsh's Romeo & Juliet

Domenic Walsh and Paola Georgudis in Romeo & Juliet
Photo by Jim Caldwell

Dominic Walsh is about to take the “theater” part of Dominic Walsh Dance Theater (DWDT) to a new level. This May, Walsh tackles Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare’s classic tale of troubled families, adolescent love, and deadly miscommunication. Walsh enlists a synthesis of all the arts to create his most ambitious dance/theater piece to date.

Walsh is no stranger to Romeo & Juliet; at 16, he played the incense holder in Ben Stevenson’s production with Houston Ballet. He might have been an extra, but he was paying attention. Walsh rose through the ranks and ended up in the dancing Mercutio and the coveted Romeo role. “Each time I played a major role I re-read the play,” says Walsh. “I was always thinking what I would do with the piece.” The stirrings of creating his own ballet have been in the works for a more than a decade. “When ideas come to me they never leave me alone,” says Walsh. “I have to do them.” Romeo & Juliet was that kind of relentless, creative urge.

Walsh’s approach emphasizes the complexity of the human relationships. “Its Juliet’s story,” says Walsh. “In the course of the story she goes from a teenager, to a woman, to a widow. Her maturity is remarkable.”

Walsh is one studious choreographer; he spent amble time in the Verona library researching the story. He saw every film version several times and spent months pouring over the text. He knows Ben Stevenson’s ballet inside and out, and is also familiar with the Kenneth MacMillan and John Cranko versions as well. Walsh wanted a fresh approach. “I asked myself what art form best conveys what this character is all about,” says Walsh. The decision of whether each role should be danced, sung, or spoken depends on their role in the story. For example, Paris is played by the young actor, Brandon Hearnsberger. “Paris cannot communicate in Juliet’s language, so he speaks instead of dancing,” says Walsh. “They have no chemistry.”

Walsh has amassed an impressive team of collaborators for his multi-disciplinary approach. Working with Walsh is a participatory activity; his tight team of dancers enjoy Walsh’s democratic method of dance-making. “How my dancers integrate their bodies and style of movement into my approach is what is fascinating and gratifying for me,” says Walsh. “They also understand and help me develop the emotional manifestation of the story within the body.” Veterans Paola Georgudis (Juliet) and Lindsey Wagner (Rosalyn/Muse) will be joined by Domenico Luciano (Tybalt), who is completing his first season with the company. New comers Andrea Shelley (Lady Capulet) and Spencer Gavin (Mercutio) have recently re-located to Houston from Miami (Maximum Dance Company) to dance with DWDT. In addition to directing, Walsh gets a yet another chance to dance Romeo. Walsh insists that the dancers learn several parts as a way to both cover each other and deepen their experience. According to longtime company member McGill, Walsh allows the audience to see different sides of the characters. “Dominic doesn’t unload all of his ideas and interpretations on us,” says McGill. “He gives us just enough information to see how we respond, and then shapes it.”

Rob Bundy, artistic director of Stages, is serving as the dramaturg. He has been working for months helping Walsh pull selections from the Shakespeare text. Bundy has directed Romeo & Juliet before but this time around he is here to serve Walsh’s vision. “I live to do this kind of stuff,” says Bundy, a frequent collaborator with DWDT. The piece contains two actors who do not dance or sing. Walsh and Georgudis will also be speaking. “I’m scared,” Walsh admits. “But I’ve been practicing on the airplane.”

In order to get a truly fresh approach, Walsh decided early on not to use Prokofiev’s famous score. Instead, Antoine Plante, founder and director of Mercury Baroque, is arranging selections of Vivaldi. “I listened to my entire collection of Vivaldi trying to match scenes with the music,” says Plante. “From there, Dominic and I met and merged our two visions to create the score. I think that the result is amazing.” As always, Mercury Baroque will be playing live on their exquisite-sounding period instruments.

Jorge Ballina, a Gold Medal award winning Mexican set designer, enjoys working with choreographers who know how to use space. “You can still dance with a set,” says Ballina, “Dominic understands that.” Ballina has developed a framed scrim that changes as the locations shifts and a flexible stage piece that serves as the balcony, bed, and grave.

Nicholas Phillips, the prodigy lighting designer and frequent collaborator with Walsh, will be drawing from period art works, images of Italian architecture, and history. “I take inspiration from Dominic, combine them with the work of the costume and scenic designer, and form my own idea of what the dark and light of this work is going to be,” says Phillips. “The same can be said for the projections I am doing on Ballina's scenery.”

Fabio Toblini, a native of Verona, Italy, had designed five Alley Theatre productions and will return next fall for Much Ado About Nothing. Toblini, an award-winning designer, also designed the costumes for Alchemy, Walsh’s work for the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. “Fabio’s work has that same organic quality that I use in creating movement,” says Walsh. “He suggests a period of time without being specific. His costumes are more like clothes—very natural.”

Down the road, Walsh has his eye on another Shakespeare play, Titus Andronicus. “I thought I would break myself in with a more familiar play,” says Walsh. Still, Romeo & Juliet is a mammoth project for a small, but highly ambitious, dance company. Walsh has never been one to shy away from large-scale productions. “I’m just a challenge junkie.”


Dominic Walsh Dance Theater presents Romeo & Juliet on May 19 & 20 at Cullen Theater in Wortham Center. Call 713) 315-2525 or visit http://www.dwdt.org/.

Dancing in the Shade: Quick Questions for Paula Sloan

Houstonians remember Paula Sloan as the co-Artistic Director of The Texas Tap Ensemble. As much as Sloan loved running a tap company, she has moved into new territory—musical theater. Most recently, she choreographed the TUTS production of 110 in the Shade. She caught us up on her recent successes.

Congratulations on your work with 110 in the Shade. How did you get involved with this production?
PS: Several years back TUTs had approached me about choreographing another show for which I was unavailable, due to the fact that I was choreographing elsewhere in the country. However, I told them I was very interested in a future project. Frank called me last year to ask if I was interested in choreographing 110 in the Shade. I was, and said "yes.”

Who choreographed the original show and were you able to view the choreography?
PS: Agnes deMille did the original; unfortunately, I was not able to see it.

I just love the scene at the picnic where all those handsome cowboys start stompin' their boots. It's a terrific part of the show. Is there a cowboy form of tap dancing?
PS: Yes, it’s called clogging. American Tap Dance has its roots in Irish Step, Lancashire Clog and African rhythms, all brought to this country in one way or another by some form of immigration. American Clogging must be related to one or two of these forms just by the mere fact of the way our country was settled.

What has the most fun part of choreographing this show?
PS: Working with all the wonderful people here at TUTS...both cast and production team.

Tell me about the transition from Artistic Director of the Texas Tap Ensemble to Broadway bound choreographer?
PS: Choreography is about being able to share my love of dance with the dancers who are then able to project it to the audience. I am thrilled to be able to work in any medium and any venue.

Does all this fame mean that Houston is a no longer your home?
PS: Houston will always be my home no matter where I am working.

Do you think another tap dance company will ever find its way back to Houston?
PS: Absolutely!

Tell us about the show you are currently on tour with?
PS: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a national tour which has been on the road since January 2006 and will be completed the beginning of May.

What other shows have you worked on?
I choreographed Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Crazy for You.

What’s next for you?
PS: I will be leaving for NY on Tuesday to hold auditions for the upcoming 2007 Urban Cowboy Tour which I am directing and choreographing. I will also be checking in on the Camelot tour which I am choreographing in Sept of 2006.

Theater Under the Stars presents 110 in the Shade through May 21st at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Call 713-558-8887 or visit www.tuts.com.