The Chicago area dance community finds a lot at Links Hall: a chance to start something, a place to rehearse something, a way to create something that might not ever get created otherwise …
A lot of things have changed since 1978, so it’s always a little surprising to find something that hasn’t. 1978 was the year when three Chicago choreographers — Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon — founded a safe harbor for dance and dancers in an old dentist’s office called Link’s Hall, named after the Dr. Link who first built it. A lot of things have changed since then, but Links Hall’s role as an irreplaceable resource for independent dance artists isn’t one of them.
The Chicago area dance community finds a lot at Links Hall: a chance to start something, a place to rehearse something, a way to create something that might not ever get created otherwise, and then, perhaps most importantly, a place to present the work that gets started, rehearsed and created at Links Hall. Besides a calendar filled with some of the scene’s most imaginative performances, Links Hall also creates a range of ways, like residencies and a number of artist-conceived programs, for artists to develop their ideas. “Links Hall best realizes its mission by functioning as an artistic incubator,” they write, “a launch pad that partners directly with artists.” Why? “To achieve outcomes greater than either organization or individual could accomplish alone.”
From December 5th through the 8th, four artists will present the result of just such an undertaking — Links Halls’ Co-Missions. Co-Mission is a three month artist residency program, and it culminates in a four-night, shared bill festival format perfomance. In two separate bills, Tuli Bera and Jasmine Mendoza (Thursday December 5th and Saturday December 7th, both at 7pm) and Elijah Motley and Paul Scudder (Friday and Sunday at 7pm) share the works they have developed.
Links Hall best realizes its mission by functioning as an artistic incubator, a launch pad that partners directly with artists …
Tuli Bera is a Bengali-American movement artist based in Chicago, who dances with Project Ishti and as an apprentice with Aerial Dance Chicago’s professional company (where she also works as the school’s Program Coordinator). She’ll be presenting her new work Bengali Mei, which explores “the experience of inhabiting the body of an [immigrant] / [first-generation American], specifically one of [South-Asian] / [Indian] descent living in the United States of America.”
Jasmine Mendoza is a Mexican-American dancer, performer, choreographer and yoga teacher. Links Hall tells us that her work in the darkness she laid to rest “investigates her physical connection to the high deserts of New Mexico, echoing mountains, wind, and the sand beneath her feet. The result is a transfixing expression of the desert’s impact on the body.”
Paul Scudder is a performer and composer in Chicago. His work 2000m “is a song cycle using text from Sappho, Emily Dickinson, and Vaslav Nijinksy to create a meditation on queer identity. The legacy of these three historical figures each has a contentious relationship with queerness, an ever-shifting discord between facts, hearsay and contemporary values.”
Elijah Motley is in his third season as a company member with Chicago Dance Crash, where he performed the mullti-discipline title role in Jessica Deahr’s brilliant re-imagining of the Pinocchio story Lil Pine Nut. He studies and teaches an impressive range of dance styles, which made it even more interesting when we heard about his new work for the Links Hall Co-MISSION festival, Quadratic. We asked Eli to let us in on whatever details he could, and here’s what he told us:
You start to see the movement from its center of initiation to where the tension is held, pushed, and released.
Johnny Nevin: In your new solo work Quadratic, you’re exploring ideas about two very musically defined styles of dance — hip-hop and house — both of which are usually identified with a certain range of tempos. But you’re looking at how movement from hip-hop and house can be used outside of their normal time signatures, and how that affects both the artist and the audience. Can you tell us a little more about what you’ll be doing in Quadratic to take a deeper look at this?
Elijah Motley: Yes! Within the work itself those ideas will be explored and we will see what will come out of that experience, for you guys and for myself. I know that using those styles out of their typical break-beat or music has been done, but what I am doing here is reversing that notion, extending movements outside their normal time signature and using repetition.
For example, I’m asking what happens if I use a Farmer’s Steps from the House vocabulary and start playing with its tempo and energy level. You start to see the movement from its center of initiation to where the tension is held, pushed, and released. As the performer, I feel the history of this move and why it was created and fits into the house culture. Hopefully those ideas, if not understood, will be visible to the audience. Outside of those styles, I will be using those concepts to convey the true motive of the work, which you just have to watch to get!
As someone with a wide range of movement and training, it is a challenge to find ways they relate. I think the movement I am doing is starting to find that naturally and I cant wait to show the audience that.
Johnny: You’ve studied extensively in Israel, as well as here in the U.S. with the iconic Israeli company Batsheva, so you have a good vantage point for looking at the similarities and differences between dance in Israel and dance in the U.S. Can you give us an idea of what you think some of the different ideas are that distinguish contemporary dance in Israel from genres here in the U.S.? You’ve spoken especially about the idea of the ‘groove’, and how that has a very different meaning in different styles of dance. Can you tell us a little about that as well?
Eli: That is correct. I have studied abroad with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (KCDC) for a summer and with Batsheva Dance Company for a winter intensive. Of course there is a difference between Israel and the U.S., but within the dance companies in Israel there is also a difference. I like to compare it all to the concept of grooving or groove. I think if you’ve ever taken a Gaga Class you would understand Ohad Naharin’s take on groove, because he bodies that movement vocabulary through his company, Batsheva Dance. Before I continue — these are my experiences so what I say next might differ from someone else that has or will take these forms.
Batsheva groove comes from my internal rhythm or my need to move, more like our primal self. On the other side, KCDC groove is the connection to Earth, and how to navigate through space and time. Their groove feels more elemental, as if you’re being controlled by the Force like in Star Wars. From a hip hop point of view, it is that musical break-beat for breaking, the 1s and 2s for popping or the 124 bpm of house. They all are representative to the culture they were created in, so when I’m doing either of the hip hop/urban styles, I’m grooving with history and culture. The same can be said for modern and ballet; it just makes sense to me.
As someone with a wide range of movement and training, it is a challenge to find ways they relate. I think the movement I am doing is starting to find that naturally and I cant wait to show the audience that.
__________________________________________
The Co-Mission Festival of New Works will be presented in four performances at Links Hall (3111 N. Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60618) on
Thursday, December 5th at 7:00pm featuring Tuli Bera’s [Bangali] [Meye] and Jasmine Mendoza’s in the darkness she laid to rest
Friday, December December 6th at 7:00pm featuring Elijah Motley’s Quadratic and Paul Scudder’s 2000m
Saturday, December 7th at 7:00pm featuring Tuli Bera’s [Bangali] [Meye] and Jasmine Mendoza’s in the darkness she laid to rest
Sunday, December 8th at 7pm featuring Elijah Motley’s Quadratic and Paul Scudder’s 2000m
Tickets are available online from Eventbrite.
__________________________________________
