ChoreoFest Interview: Jessica Chang and Jennifer Roberts!

by Nicole Harris

Photo courtesy of Jessica Chang

ChoreoFest starts TODAY!! We are just 2 brief hours away from the start of ChoreoFest, and we're down to our final three choreographer interviews. Introducing two wonderful co-choreographers, Jessica Chang and Jennifer Roberts!
 
Nicole Harris: What made you want to make the move from being a dancer to a choreographer?
Jessica & Jennifer: We felt the pull toward choreography because we want more freedom to carry out our own choreographic visions, not only serve as tools for other choreographers. We want to move in the specific ways that delight our bodies, and to embrace the movement idiosyncrasies specific to us.

Nicole: What are you most nervous about regarding ChoreoFest?
J &J: Producing quality work in such a short amount of time!

Nicole: Since this is a very controlled creative space (in terms of time and topic) where do you see yourself starting when you get in the space? 
J &J: The selected topic will be an obvious impetus for our initial movement ideas. Since time is a huge factor, we want to draft a first score quickly. The more time we have to play and edit within that initial structure- the better. 

Nicole: In creating a new work, what in the relationship between you and your dancers? Do they participate in the creative process? If so, how? 
J &J: We’ve been dancing together for years but only recently started choreographing collaboratively. We’re familiar with each other’s movement aesthetics but are still in the process of learning how to make space for both our strengths.

Nicole: Knowing that Karen Krolak will be on hand as "choreographic guru", what things do you hope she can help with in the overnight process? 
J &J: We’re excited to critically engage with someone with such vast experience in movement, costuming, text, and production. And we look forward to Karen pushing our work in new and interesting directions.

Nicole: Who are some of your favorite choreographers?  
J &J: Andrea Miller, Ohad Naharin, Zoe Scofield, David Dorfman

Nicole: Who are your mentors? How are you paying forward the things your mentor gave you? 
J &J: We both attended Mount Holyoke College and were molded by the great teaching artists of the Five College dance department including Terese Freedman and Jim Coleman, Cynthia McLaughlin, Katie Martin, and Peter Jones. Thanks to these and other faculty we were introduced to a wide range of contemporary movement styles.

Getting to Know Kayla Feist

This fall we presented Project 7.19 under the direction of Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch. She partnered with costume designer Kayla Feist. Here are Kayla's thoughts on why she wanted to work on this project and how she developed her designs. - Nicole

by Kayla Feist

I am working with Nikki on this project because of my personal interest in the witch trails, spirituality, and feminism. I consider myself a pagan; therefore the stereotypical assumptions associated with witches directly affect me. I practice the Wiccan tradition, blended with some shamanic traditions to form my own spiritual practice that feels scared and whole. While teaching myself about the traditions of pagan spiritualities and developing my own practice, part of my research during my first semester at Goddard College was looking into the witch trials. The sheer number of women accused, and the torture they were put through is a prime example of sexism and white male domination in the country. Though we do not currently hang and burn witches today, this domination still exists and the sensitivity remains.

During our first meeting I measured the dancers wrists and necks, not their waists. It was important for me to create costumes that not only conveyed the symbolism of restraint within the piece, but to name that female body image had and still has a direct reflect on de-humanizing and victimizing of abuse against women. I hope that when the dancers put on the costume pieces and perform with them that they will convey the message of struggle that women went through during the times of the witch trails, as well as the struggle that women still face today being dominated by men, the government, and pressures of the media.