On Sunday afternoon I went over to the National Ballet School, to talk to Pamela Rasbach and some of the Typecast dancers about her latest work Missed Connections. The piece features dancers, Austin Fagan, Luke Garwood, Lara Gemmiti, Larissa Hiraishi, Benjamin Landsberg, Missy Morris and Katlin Torrance. Pamela, Lara, Larissa and Missy stayed behind after their rehearsal, to share with me their experiences working on this piece. Here is what they had to say:
Q: Pamela, can you start by telling me a little about the piece?
Pamela: So, it is called Missed Connections and it started off with an interest in this giant community of people who connected through computers and weren't able to say [things] in real life. I was curious about what leads up to that, or causes it. Eventually, it broadened into this bigger world of technology. How technology is a huge aspect of our lives. And in an effort to connect us it has actually disconnected us. I can't go up to someone and say hi. I have to write it on this website and hope that they see it. There are so many missed connections there.
Q: What is it that people aren't able to say in real life?
Pamela: Anything and everything, whatever they might need to say to another person. There are so many moments that we experience. Something as simple as an encounter or conversation is hindered because we have these online mechanisms in place.
Larissa: Connections are altered through these devices. You understand your communications solely through your own interpretation of what you read or see on these websites.
Q: Have any of you ever filed a missed connection or had one filed about you?
Larissa: I had one written about me, I went on as a joke. And I had no idea who it was, but I knew it was about me because I had been doing promotions and he described me and my exact location.
Pamela: I had one written about me too. I used to work at Starbucks and one of the other baristas searched Bloor and Jarvis and there I was, "to the tall brunette..."
Q: But for the most part aren't these people you don't really want to have a personal interaction with?
Pamela: Yes, but that is because they can't come up to you and say it in person. That is what makes them creepy online. That is the problem with all of this. It is hindering real interaction. Those are not the interactions I want but they seem to be all the interactions that are happening.
Q: So how has that manifested itself in your piece?
Pamela: I have separated the piece. There are themes of particles in space, since that is what we all ultimately are, particles in space. And, how we go through the motions not really connected to anything. And so Missed Connections explores that at the extreme. I don't have to talk to you I can just send out my thoughts into the impersonal world of the web. That personality-less interactions. So even when dancers are dancing together they are not looking at one another. Then towards the end I explore more the human sense of being. Thinking about our story... There is no narrative, it is extremely abstract. But you sort of hope for certain things to happen. Certain vague outcomes. You are hoping for certain outcomes.
Q: If this piece could have the impact on society that you would like to see, what would that impact be, or how would it look?
Pamela: Because of the company mandate, (creation for young people) we wanted to explore issues facing young people. Not necessarily kids or teenagers but people who are young adults. So I knew I wanted to explore the way these things shaped their lives. It is so relevant. We all have our Blackberry's and cell phones.
Missy: I say it is more about how it has impacted us. It has made me much more aware of these interactions and the roles they play in my life. So I don't see it as a large scale social change I see it more as awareness. I mean, you can connect with so many more people but the interaction is so much more defused and passive. It has made me much more aware of the people who I want to have a deeper connection with and make that effort.
Pamela: And actually touching... that is the power of dance in this piece. Physical contact.
Larissa: Our ability to contort and control our own image. For example Facebook, you can craft your own image in such a manufactured way. It is such an edited version of your self. And with phones, you are always analysing your interactions at such a high level. 'What did they mean by that etc.'
Lara: The other weird aspect of text messaging is you find yourself saying things you would never say in real life. I have had arguments over BBM, and as I am sending messages, I think, 'did I actually just say that?' It is so bizarre. I have ended up saying things that I'd be embarrassed to say to someone directly.
Larissa: You always view texts or messages based on how you are feeling. When things are not being presented to you, in a true sense, the ability to infer or interpret is so strong. We often misunderstand or miss connect based on our own reading of what is said. We lose those interactive clues that you get from one-on-one interaction. There is such a lost context.
Lara: I think the thing about this piece, for the audience, is that it doesn't matter if they are dancers or just regular human beings. Whether they understand what they are watching in a technical way, is not important. Because first and foremost we are all human beings. So many of the sections of the piece begin with us walking onstage. You see us as a human being first.
Q: How did you develop the score?
Pamela: I did a residency in Berlin, in 2009, and while there I became familiar with the work of AGF. She is an electronic composer. So I was trying to figure out, with these themes, what would be appropriate. I had originally been thinking of James Brown, something very heartfelt. But it wasn't really fitting for me. So AGF is the majority of the music. From all different albums, but it is very choppy and segmented, broken. Very technological. She speaks a lot about webs, and lines. And then the other part is Flying Lotus, who is just magical and cosmic. And he has some chords that remind me of wires. I wanted to evoke images of space. Using a lot of sound distortion and robotic.
Q: Does that abstract music make it difficult as dancers?
All: (laugh) Yes, absolutely.
Pamela: It is an absolute nightmare. We still use counts, but we have had to study the music a lot. And we just had to play it and play it, over and over until we could anticipate the music. We have also utilized the techniques of Darryl Tracy, which are all about feeling each others energy, which of course fits nicely with the themes of particles in space. That has been cool because it is about connecting.
Q: Did you choreograph with these dancers in mind?
Pamela: Yes, I had an audition and cast the piece and then I choreographed with the dancers. We worked little by little. But, there is so much choreography that I relied heavily on the dancers to remember what we had choreographed already. The work is so dense, and then multiply that by seven. There was no way for me to remember it all. So, in that regard I asked a lot of the dancers. Most dancers come back to the choreographer looking for the work. But not with a piece this dense.
Larissa: Pamela is also very good at choreographing with the dancer in mind, working with their strengths, and keeping injuries in mind. I mean we, (referring to the other two girls) are very different dancers but you really worked with the people in the room. And made it cohesive
Pamela: That is feedback I have also gotten about the piece. I mean, we cast on a project basis, but I have heard that these dancers really look like a company, which is nice to hear. I don't have a type in terms of who I cast. I like working with different dancers.
Q: How do you, as a choreographer, know when the piece is done?
Pamela: For me it is in the cleaning. When we clean the piece that is the editing process.
Larissa: To me, this piece feels really full, very intricate.
Pamela: And feedback from the dancers. That influences the cleaning a lot.
Q: Can you talk a little about the broader dance community in Toronto, and Canada. And about your struggles or successes with accessing resources.
Pamela: Well, most of us have come out of the Ryerson program or TDT. (Toronto Dance Theatre)
Larissa: For me I find the community here very safe. A safe place to take class and study but to me there is more access to companies, and new and dynamic work in Montreal.
Pamela: My big frustration is that I don't know where the money is, or where it is going. We all work our butts off and it seems like there is never enough support. This is the first time we have gotten a grant, and we have written dozens of applications. So that is a major frustration. I would like to be able to work in dance to support myself but it is very difficult. And I find the audiences to be not very diverse. And for the most part the support seems to go to international or national companies rather than support for local dancers and companies. I mean I get it, it is a small group of people who are constantly complaining to the same small group of governmental support systems, so of course it doesn't feel like a vast or widespread need. I do think things like So You Think You Can Dance, have done a lot for the visibility of dance. But the money doesn't seem to be getting beyond that commercial sector. So we need that breakthrough in contemporary dance. Maybe artists should go on strike and that would make people realize.
Larissa: Everything goes grey.
Q: So why do you think dance is the medium that is best to tell this particular story?
Pamela: I often ask myself that, 'is this the best way to tell this story?' And I think dance presents a dynamic opposition to what is happening in society. We have disconnected so much and we are so dispersed. So when you come together there is an actual touching. We feel more with our bodies than our thoughts and that is a strong reason to express this through dance.
Missed Connections runs at the Winchester Theatre in Cabbagetown January 13th through the 15th. Click here for the box office.
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