Spectrum Dance Theater’s Fall Studio Series Starts Friday

Donald Byrd

Of the many gifts that choreographer and SDT artistic director Donald Byrd can be said to possess, the one that charms me most off-stage is his inquiry-fueled motormouth. Dancers (and ex-dancers) as a rule are not the most loquacious people to begin with, but Byrd stands out all the more for his insistent, in-public theorizing. Reading his blog over at Spectrum’s site is a bit like nipping ’round to Roland Barthes for a chat.

There’s not much time left for blog reading in advance of this weekend’s first installment of the Fall Studio Series–Drastic Cuts: Duet, Sentimental Cannibalism, Soap Box, and Conte Fantastique–but in advance of next weekend’s studio series at SDT, “Peering into the Ballroom” (October 15 to 24), Byrd is busily interrogating (his word) his earlier works that uncritically used the proscenium aesthetic as a frame.

When he presents La Valse, Act 2 from Bristle (1993), Longing (2005), and Le Bal Noir (2006), he wants to:

…draw attention to what is most obvious about these works: they are meant to be seen from a front, there is one ideal vantage point, the images fit within conventional stage pictures, the viewer’s attention is clearly focused (with the things that are most important taking place center-center), and there are no decisions to be made about what is to be watched.

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In typically Byrdian fashion, he has formulated a detailed plan for just how to do this:

For “Peering Into The Ballroom” we will divide our Studio Theater in two. On one side will be the audience/viewer (A/V), on the other the dancers/performers (D/P). Between them will be a frame – like a picture frame or a window frame – that would demarcate the two spaces. On the ‘D/P’ side a beautiful, velvet draped, chandeliered room suggesting a late 19th Century ballroom or salon will be installed and in which the performance of the three works will take place; on the ‘A/V’ side, chairs rowed for the patrons to sit and view the illusion on the other side. The effect will be very much like a 19th Century diorama.

Now, if you want to know more about the inspiration for these pieces, and not just their frame, I can direct you to Byrd’s disquisition on Balanchine’s genre of “le bal noir.” I can also recommend this video preview which illustrates why I usually mention that Spectrum is adult dance fare.