It was only appropriate that I caught up with Dance Alloy’s two newest choreographers on the move during a rainy afternoon. Gwen Hunter Ritchie was driving to rehearsal with the company at the New Hazlett Theatre and Pearlann Porter was waiting for a bus after her class at Point Park University (no driver’s license and it’s a lifestyle choice).
They are the Alloy’s first local artists to choreograph on the city’s oldest modern dance company and may share a multi-media approach in their premieres, but the women are anything but two peas in a Pittsburgh pod.
Gwen. Hunter Ritchie has been a staple of the modern dance scene for a number of years as a veteran of the Alloy itself, the artistic director of an Alloy offshoot, LABCO, and a respected independent artist. She is also the mother of two.
Her piece, “Look Me in the Eyes,” will feature video by Stacy Pearl that will add to the sensory experience of the dance. Artists often convert their lives into abstraction. Hunter Ritchie has been immersing herself in Asperger syndrome or autism that was discovered in her son.
“In society we generally expect someone to look you in the eyes when you’re talking with them,” she explains with the sound of windshield wipers in the background. “For people who have sensory issues, it is hard for those individuals to look and hear at the same time.”
Often it hinders any kind of communication. Those who are affected are thought of as ignorant or rude. That idea served as a springboard for the piece.
The movement “came out very easily” for Hunter Ritchie. “The things we do are really the body telling us what it needs, like tapping the foot or twirling the hair. We worked to find those movements and where they came from and what they do for us. It was a natural path for me.”
Pearlann. Porter might considered the outsider who established an experimental enclave at Construction Junction in a rather remote neighborhood (at least from Downtown), Point Breeze. There she began staging art “happenings,” with a multi-media community of young artists.
Much of Porter’s choreography is based on an improvisatory process that marinates over a long period of time. But the Alloy dancers wanted more specific instructions from her given a few time constraints.
What emerged was “The Itch of the Key,” a “neoclassic thriller” that tells “an epic story of love or terror depending upon the audience perception.” Using musical elements of Phillip Glass’ “Dracula” film score and the Kronos Quartet, she wanted to tap into the “lost romance of voyeurism” through the use of projections, where the movement is enhanced, defined or inspired by them.
But Porter and the more classically trained Alloy dancers were testing the choreographic waters. Porter usually works through a jazz-oriented philosophy at her company, The Pillow Project. During that process she’s usually “exploring the daylights” out of the movement and building a solid, yet flexible relationship with the music.
The Alloy dancers wanted more specifics, more crafting from the diminutive choreographer. What emerged was a “very interesting journey, very rewarding in a different way,” according to Porter.
See the results this weekend at the Alloy’s “Unlocked.” Check the Listings for more information.
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