Going solo

The Center for Dance Development allows Lawrence Keigwin to take flight

By Tanya Whiton

Lawrence Keigwin performs at Ram Island Studio One, March 31, at 7:30 and 9 p.m. Call (207) 780-0554.

Making new dances requires three things many performing artists, even those working with established companies, don’t have access to: uninterrupted time, a rehearsal space, and a little mad money. Lisa Hicks, director of New Dance Studio, and Laura Faure, director of the Bates Dance Festival, created the Center for Dance Development three years ago so that emerging choreographers could have all that, and test their wings in a safe and supported environment.

Each artist selected for the program is given a two-week residency, per diem pay, and use of New Dance Studio’s space in the Calderwood Bakery Building. Ordinarily, the dancer in residence teaches and choreographs a piece for local students or conducts a workshop, and at the end of two weeks, premieres the performance of a new work.

Hicks confesses, however, that her motives in founding the Center aren’t entirely selfless. Her own teaching, creative work, running a studio and coordinating the residencies keep her tied to Portland, where the dance community is fragmented and, well, small. Very small.

“I don’t get to see a lot of material,” she says. “[This way] I get to see the shows, and keep in touch with what’s going on. It improves our quality of life here, as artists living on the fringe who have only the New York Times - thank God - to read to find out what’s going on. It makes Portland feel connected to a larger community, infuses us with new energy.”

Faure, who is often on the road, travelling to see performances and recruit dancers, works with Hicks to find emerging choreographers for both the Bates Festival and the Center for Dance Development. “I’m seeking out people who have an understanding of the art form and something to say that I think is relevant, and the ability to say it.”

So far, the Center for Dance Development has hosted four dancer/choreographers: beginning in October 1998, they’ve sponsored Karinne Keithley, Sarah Sweet-Rabidoux, Carol Sommers, and currently, Lawrence Keigwin is in residence at Pleasant Street, working on his new solo, “Empathy,” to premiere Saturday, March 31, at Ram Island Dance Studio.

Keigwin, who has danced for the last five years with Mark Dendy Dance and Theater, is a serenely confident mover who incorporates elements of pop culture and drama into his dances. He is equal parts nightclub celebrant and smooth technician, and in 1997 Keigwin was awarded New York’s prestigious Bessie Award. Making the transition from working with Dendy, one of contemporary dance’s most gifted and eccentric choreographers, has it’s challenges, but Keigwin is ready to try and strike out on his own. The Phoenix caught up with him during one of his rehearsals.

Q: How is making your own work different from working with a company?

A: The difficult part is saying, “This is my work.” In modern dance it’s always been collaborative, and [lately] I see my vocabulary as a way to say what I want to say, not what the group wants to say. The difference is [being in control of] the idea. From the initial seed to the final performance.

Q: How has Dendy responded to you going out on your own? Are you discovering real aesthetic differences?

A: He’s been supportive of it — he gave me my own choreography on his program. I think the difference is I approach dance as a more humanistic expression, rather than a narrative with a plot. [My pieces] are about highlighting an emotion. I think I’m more of a dancer’s dancer — I’ve worked with a wider range of aesthetics — I’ve never really been attracted to classical modern dance.

Q: Why?

A: There’s not an opportunity to be yourself, you’re a dancer before you’re a performer. And I’m a performer before I’m a dancer. I don’t think I’m a descendent of a traditional company, and Mark is a descendent of [Martha] Graham [a pioneer in modern dance]. Still, there’s that element of drama that’s lingering in me, I get that from him.”

Q: What have been some of your influences outside of contemporary dance?

A: Well, I’ve worked for this entertainment company called Chezzam [pronounced Shazam, and initially spelled that way, until the company was sued]. I do dance performances and musical reviews for them, bar mitzvahs, mostly. For a while I was really embarrassed about that, because I was supposed to be this modern art dancer, but lately I’ve thought I should just own up to it. I put it in my bio now. Chezzam. That’s the campy influence. They’ll have ten dancers interact like a human party favor.

Q: And what about the piece you’re premiering this week?

A: I wanted to do something with water, and also counting, a sort of study of obsessive compulsive behavior. And I’ve been reading a lot about Ecstasy, how it’s the drug of the moment, and I wanted to do something about that. It’s really kind of a lonely drug - it builds a false sense of relationship - so I chose the song “Last Dance” by Donna Summers, because I wanted something really familiar, not the techno house stuff that’s usually associated with Ecstasy, I can’t get into that. It’s also the last song played at EVERY bar mitzvah.

Q: What do you think you’ll be doing a year from now?

A: I want to build theater experiences that are reality based, go to different cities and work with dancers and performers, just recruit people that interest me. I don’t think we take the time to look at the present moment, and I’d like to take what’s obvious and not-so-obvious about a community and make pieces about that, right there in the moment.

Gibson Fay-Lablanc can be reached at riverbetweenus@hotmail.com.