Mid-grant reflection... dance as a catalyst

Walking and writing can be exhausting. This is not so much of a complaint as an observation. As an Arts manager, I don't spend as much time physically engaged in a studio with dancers as when I am teaching a class or staging a work. And as the person directing from the front of the room, my studio activity is far more anaerobic, where I am observing and taking notes with intermittent periods of jumping up to demonstrate, explain, or move dancers into shapes and positions. But this past weekend was spent writing up a mid-project report for Fulbright and then going to visit the Auckland Zoo. 

Studio rehearsal shot by Jinki Cambronero

The great thing about keeping this blog, and writing up reports, is that I need to focus my perspective and review of what I have been doing, most of which is not about writing. In fact, dance is specifically about learning to express and interpret between, around and outside of spoken and written languages. Certainly, as I have described before, I rely on written words, diagrams, and various forms of notation in the process of reconstructing a dance. And one of my references are the original notebooks that Paul Taylor kept when he was first developing the choreography for each dance. 

Rehearsal with Black Grace holding written compendium. Photo: Jinki Cambronero

This weekend marks the end of Paul Taylor Dance Company's second week of performances of three at Lincoln Center in New York City. Included in their repertoire for this season are 12 Taylor works, 2 world premieres, 1 new york premiere, 1 company premiere, and 2 revivals of non-Taylor works. The works by resident choreographers Lauren Lovette and Robert Battle are joined by the NYC premiere by Hope Boykin and last year's homage to Loie Fuller by Jody Sperling. It is an astonishing feat to perform 18 dances in rotation in just 3 short weeks. And considering that each dance probably requires between 20 to 60+ hours of rehearsal before they are ready to be on stage, I cannot stress how important it is for audiences to jump at the chance to see live performances. Each dance has the potential to transcend all that time and effort in a momentary instant that connects with you as a witness. 

Black Grace marketing photo for upcoming Double Bill of Ieremia's "If Ever There Was A Time" and Taylor's "Esplanade"

Audiences carry with them as many stories and connections to life's joys and woes as there are individuals sitting in seats. So whether there is the chance to see only one dance or many, the hope is that some perspective of the Art being created on stage will touch something in the each and every viewer. I have been consistently in awe of chreographers' abilities to create works that spark an indelible memory into our lives, and their inspirations for work are as myriad as the audiences with whom they hope to connect. Neil Ieremia, the choreographer who founded Black Grace has more than once astonished me with his dances and dancers, and I can easily tell you of my indelible memories of a dance and dancers I have seen performed by Black Grace. Some of the memories are of environments and cultures with which I have not had much, if any, connection, yet the dance and dancers transcended my personal knowledge, and lit an interest in knowing and seeing more, not just of dance, but of life. My expertise is with Paul Taylor, and it is a weighty privilege to be adding to Ieremia's legacy and Black Grace with the introduction of "Esplanade" to be performed by the current team of dancers, production artists and theater audiences. 

If you are in New Zealand, I encourage you to come see Black Grace peform its double bill in Auckland on 21 November and in Christchurch on 25, 26 November.

As a foreigner to a country where I am trying to stage a dance from an American choreographer, I am constantly looking to find connections to the everyday culture of the local environment. Common sources of media in my lifetime has been television, radio, and now the online social media platforms. If I have a television in my residence where I am working, I often have it playing in the background, and have been surprised by things that have caught my attention as related to my work as a Taylor regisseur. In China, I was staging "Company B" set to World War II era songs by the Andrews Sisters. Both the music and the perspective of American GI's was unknown to the dancers in China, but I noticed that most of the day time dramas on television were focused on the Sino-Japanese wars, and I was able to work with how the love and loss in any war is the heart of the Taylor's "Company B".

Along those lines, I discovered another connection here in New Zealand to Taylor's "Speaking in Tongues", for which Taylor won the top US television award, an Emmy, when it was produced for the Dance in America series on US television. There is currently a series in running on TVNZ called Escaping Utopia that is focused on the isolated religious community of Gloriavale on the South Island. Taylor choreographed his dance back in 1988, and its subject matter is not only still relevant, but addressing a perspective on current documentary news cycles in NZ, which are eerily similar to communities in the US about which Taylor made "Speaking in Tongues". However, it is from the craft aspect of choreography that I was struck by a recent reviewers comments on the current performances of Taylor's dance in NYC last week.

"But it was the folding chairs and their imaginative use that struck me most – at first, as a step to bring you closer to heaven, then as a barricade to hide behind, and a sign of shame to drag with you wherever you go. And finally, as the lid to your coffin." - Bachtrack, Nov 13, 2025. Carla Escoda

Taylor was, generally, sparing in his use of sets and props in his dances. And designers like Alex Katz were notorious for providing Taylor with choreographic challenges by the use of sets. But Taylor was also a visual artist and very capable of finding just the right prop or design element to craft an essential component in a dance.

2025 revival "Speaking in Tongues". Photo: Ron Thiele

If I type quickly, I might be able to get this posted today... Obviously I have been doing a lot of writing, which I mentioned at the beginning can be tiring in and of itself. But my visit to the Auckland Zoo reminded of how just walking can be tiring also. I found myself wandering the paths of the Zoo for more than three hours, and I was lucky to be there on a glorious sunny day that was not too hot, and not too cold. 

Not all readers of this post might agree with the concept of zoos, but going to visit them in different parts of the world has been of great interest to me. In Vienna I had the chance to visit one of the oldest zoological parks in all of Europe, and in San Diego I visited one of the most progressive zoos dedicated to the identification and sustaining of animals around the world. The Auckland Zoo is more in the model of the latter, and promotes its collaborations with other zoological institutions around the world in the interests of both knowledge and the future of the planet. I also find that observing exotic animals that I might never see elsewise, to be similar to going to dance performances, some are truly inspiring, and others are less interesting, but all hold a certain beauty unto themselves, and they hold secrets about their lives which will never be told directly through words, but in how they move and interact. 

The animals at this zoo seem to be healthy and willing to be observed, if not always interested in being on display. As a means of encouraging myself to roam as much of the zoo as I could, I did limit my time at each environment to whether I thought I got a good enough photo of the animal protagonist, once I identified them, hah. In the end, I traversed three-fifths of all the zoo pathways before I needed to take a rest and grab a bite to eat myself. It was nice to read that included in the animals' care was an emphasis on their emotional well being. And I remembered an old children's story about birds having the freedom to go where they wished since they could fly, and mostly chose to stay close to home because they understood the privilege of their freedom... the story goes on to tell about a bird who getst captured by humans, only to use the wisdom he learned from his family to trick his way back to freedom. 

Birds in the Afican Safari Track of Auckland Zoo.

A fortuitous viewing for me was to see one of the Sumatran tigers settling down on a bridge overlooking the pedestrian walkway. He/she seemed quite content to look down on us from a perch safe from any actual contact with the humans that started to block the pathway in an effort to get their own pictures. Even though I grew up in the West Indies with no tigers, my Chinese family ancestry offered me a water tiger as my birth zodiac, and I have always enjoyed imagining the privilege of the tiger's standing in the animal kingdom. They are mostly solitary creatures that roam vast territories, and my life has proven to somewhat parallel this description.

Sumatran tiger in the South East Asian Jungle Track of Auckland Zoo.

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.