My Fulbright adventure in New Zealand!!!

 I am thrilled to be embarking on my third Fulbright adventure, which will be taking me back to New Zealand later this year. This is a Fulbright Specialist grant that will afford Black Grace Dance Company, based in Auckland to have me, Richard Chen See, in country for six weeks to engage in projects that will hopefully ripple far into the future of dance in NZ. I also hope to highlight a few of the human connections between NZ contemporary dance and American modern dance genres, particularly through the acclaimed choreographer, Paul Taylor. I rejoined the Fulbright Specialist roster in 2022, in hopes of participating in just such an opportunity!

Wearable art which I snapped a shot of back in 2016, my last visit to Aotearoa.

Fulbright does request that I post the following disclaimer, as I am not officially writing as a representative of Fulbright, but as an independent individual. I will try and remember to copy this at the bottom of each post going forward.

"This blog (FNZdance25.blogspot.com) is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author (Richard Chen See) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations."

My host organization will be The Black Grace Trust (aka Black Grace Dance Company) who applied for a Fulbright Specialist grant with a focus on the choreographic work of Paul Taylor. I have been intimately associated with Taylor's work for more than thirty years, and I have been reconstructing Mr. Taylor's dances for companies since 1999. That also happens to be the very first year I met Neil Ieremia, the artistic director and founder of Black Grace. Now, twenty-five years later, I will be staging one of Taylor's iconic dances, Esplanade, for Neil's company to perform in NZ and abroad. Esplanade is currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of its world premiere in 1975, and continues to garner acclaim from critics and new audiences globally.

Black Grace marketing photo from their 2022 visit to perform in NYC.

Alongside transferring a dance, I will be investigating with Black Grace the many ways that American contemporary dance training evolved, through the lens of the life and choreography of Paul Taylor (1930-2018). Contemporary dance, as it is considered today, builds on much of the modern dance choreography and training methods of Taylor's generation and earlier. Yet, Taylor uniquely eschewed the development of a singular "technique", in favor of observing and utilizing the abilities of dancers from vastly different backgrounds and training disciplines. This meant that to dance Taylor's varied works, the dancers had to also access skills that may not have been common to their specific training. This versatility in turn pushed the breadth of technique and performance craft for which Taylor dancers are recognized internationally. With Black Grace, I hope to participate in developing curricula that builds on what is unique to their heritage and culture as I learn more about their training methods. And we will broaden the versatility of the young dancers with exposure to the standards and demands expected of working dancers in America.

I am looking forward to sharing the journey with you, as Black Grace and I discover how this project builds bridges artistically and culturally into the future. I will also take some time to provide more context to my Fulbright Specialist designation, and the players who brought and bring New Zealand and the USA together in this confluence of dance and Art.

Performing Esplanade shortly before I retired from the stage in 2008.