Today’s featured artists is a group of artists that collaborated together to create an interdisciplinary piece called Re:New for Ignite! a theatre festival in Calgary. In this blog you will read how these artists created a work of art online in a pandemic. This is a sharing of how two dancers Cindy Ansah and Stephanie Jurkova-Abaco, a pianist Daniel Szefer and videographer/dancer Alyssa Maturino came together to make this enriching piece.

Re:New

As we pass through time and space, we leave imprints of ourselves. Do we dare strip away from stasis and embark into the unpredictable? At a physical distance, Cindy Ansah and Stephanie Jurkova-Abaco contemplate the confines of negative space and how to distort it – attuning to the most nuanced body parts and allowing impulses to reach the furthest expanse of the kinesphere. In collaboration with pianist Daniel Szefer and Alyssa Maturino bringing the work to life for the screen, the pair present Re:New, a multidisciplinary dance film that is at once gradual, gentle, violent, and chaotic. With a rich movement and musical language shared between performers, Re:New attempts to bridge our collective consciousness to the uncomfortable stillness that perpetual change disrupts.

The Journey of Re:New.

What was your original plan for re: new before it went online? And how did guys kind of handle turning your original content into an online platform? What inspired you to continue it online?

Cindy: My role was co-choreographer along with Stephanie, our original idea for the work was the idea of cycle and continuity and renewal that comes with regeneration. It was interesting when the pandemic came along, but our central idea did not change as much. We wanted the work to be as interdisciplinary as possible, we wanted sound creation as movers, and we wanted Daniel as a composer. When we were revisiting the work to make space for something that people can visualize with the 2-meter guideline, we wanted to highlight the cycle and how the whole world is going through renewal and a collective of re-imagining what the future holds.

Stephanie: I knew it would be very sad not to take this opportunity during this time, and it was helpful for my well being to be part of this environment and team, and it was helping us cope with the changes.

Daniel: It was nice to have this a sort of outlet to meet people again, even if it was at a distance. I compose music, and it was cool to be in the rehearsal process as much as possible and creating the piece as it went. I pretty much created the music during the rehearsal because it was nice reacting in real-time to what they were creating, and it was only maybe 45 seconds of the whole piece that was created away from the rehearsal process. So it was great to work with Cindy and Stephanie, who were so great to work with.

What is the difference between being on stage versus what came to be?

Stephanie: I think our idea of going into the process because our idea was the cycle, and we knew that the process was more important than the product. So we weren’t really stuck on this idea that we were not able to perform on stage, and we kind of went with the flow and organically see how this work would emerge, giving our circumstances. And I think it was powerful to be surrounded by nature, by the community. They got to witness almost every rehearsal outside with a mini-performance, and that was lovely.

Was there a particular purpose in the clothes you chose or the colours of the clothes in the piece?

Stephanie: I think part of the reason why this work is so relevant is that each person can have their own interpretation of it. For me, the clothing in the beginning on the clothesline where they were white and flowing and uninhabited and that was really powerful image showcasing the norms of society what you aspire to be, something that is structured that you are not quite sure how to attain.

Contact Improvisation & Social distancing with a yoga ball.

Stephanie: Cindy knew I had a yoga ball at home, and she had a lot of spare denim, so we ducked taped it to the ball, and it was hard to do it without having the tape visible, but it ended up being such a beautiful thing.

Lauren: I thought it was a clever way to maintain social distancing while doing contact improvisation.

Communication between Videographer & Dancer.

To what extent were you the dancers directing the person that was filming you, or was that their own creative agency?

Cindy: Alyssa, our videographer, was a dance major at the University of Calgary, and we really wanted her to film our project. As a dancer herself, she would understand kind of what framing was best to compliment the movement and draw focus to specific body-parts and moments. Some of the framing ideas we already had in mind as we were choreographing so the shots with our body parts being framed came from Stephanie. We were thinking how can we frame different parts of our bodies and how can we recreate this shaping with our bodies so that the camera can look through it. In that sense, the framing informed our choreography.
In some cases, Alyssa came to many of our rehearsals near the end. And she came forth with ideas that would best fit the work, and it was really exciting to have a dancer behind the camera because she had a great insight. She knew us as people and mover, and with that knowledge, our communication was quite seamless in that way.

Composing Music to Movers Bodies.

What was your rehearsal process like? And the communication between a dancer and a pianist?

Daniel: there wasn’t that much of a barrier in the end; it was all about storytelling. It was interesting to move through time and space in different ways. In music, there’s so much about momentum and tension and release. There’s so much of that in dance as well. At least that’s what I found, and in the end, it was how we counted because, in music, there is a specific metre 4-4,7-8,5-8. It seems like in dance, it is in beats, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be in a metre. I remember when I was composing for something, they were counting in eights, but the music lined up perfectly in seven, but it ended up working quite seamlessly.

Stephanie: From a dancers’ perspective, I really enjoyed how Daniel perceived time than how we envisioned it and thought that really developed the intensity of the movement phrases itself.

What was the composing process like?

Daniel: When I was writing, I noticed Cindy wanted there to be scenes for specific movements, so there was a scene motif for pulling melodies that constantly turned back. That I developed in reaction to the piece, reacting to the movement because it was mostly improvised. I had the chance to perform. An application that I can easily put into my performance for the first 9-10 minutes of the piece was in one take and had a piece of paper with time stamps.

Eunice: Did you ever find yourself dancing along with them?

Daniel: I felt like I was constantly reacting to the flow of their movements, and I know that because the first three minutes, it was sort of improvised and in the end, that was one of the sections that were very influenced by the music. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily dancing. For the record, it was a fun time.

Digital Theatre & Future for Artists.

What advice can the three of you give when it comes to collaborating? How can we support each other in this new platform?

Stephanie: the digital medium is not always accessible for everyone to create, and needs a lot of technology. I need a camera and apps, a laptop. Find yourself a team that has open communication, and you can support each other when needed.

Cindy: I would say to recognize that the ability to create and collaborator with a digital medium is a massive privilege. Find people who you can collaborate with, who inspire you and are open to the not knowing and shifts.

Daniel: especially since it’s a new process for everyone, so surround yourself with people that you trust. To have the patience necessary to commit and because everyone is sort of learning on the fly.

What did you take away from this?

Stephanie: Going into the unknown since it was my choreographic debut. And I felt so supported and that the community.

Daniel: rediscovering how vital music and creating art is to me. Especially during the turbulence and uncertainty in this time and thinking who knows where all of this is going

Cindy: I feel the same as Daniel, I felt a lot of gratitude throughout the process, and out the process, it really did inspire my desire for emerging artists and the value of connecting and collaborating and being thankful. No one knows where the world is going to, and in the end, we have the opportunity to be who we want to be and make our story heard. I felt really empowered to use my artistic outlet and value it and make sure my platform is used to empower the people around me.

Thank you to the Re:New team for sharing with us your journey with this interdisciplinary piece. For the readers we have linked a page to their information and bios to learn a bit more about them. Checkout our previous blog “Voices of Artists” a Shakespeare’s Hunnies production where we have the full video of the wonderful piece Re:New!