March 14, 2018 at 4:10 p.m.
Artistry through dance
The Equus Projects brings unique performance to ArtStart this weekend
Artistry through dance
By Kayla Thomason-
The group will perform at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday at ArtStart in Rhinelander.
The Equus Projects was founded in 2004 and has created more than 50 unique site works throughout the United States and Europe. Their performances "engage with the geographic and cultural environments," according to their website.
"This is an artist in residency collaboration between the Warehouse in Eagle River and ArtStart,"Ashley McLaughlin, program and operations director at ArtStart, explained. "Brittany (Beyer) from the Warehouse in Eagle River was a former dancer with the Equus Projects so she was familiar with the organization and the unique choreography."
There has never been a dance performance at ArtStart before, and after some discussion, the group was excited to offer this unique opportunity to the Northwoods.
"When we started to discuss the idea of bringing this high quality, contemporary dance experience to our community, we knew we had to make it happen," McLaughlin said. "ArtStart aspires to educate, challenge, and build community through the arts, and without this opportunity with the Equus Projects, we know some individuals in the community wouldn't have the opportunity to experience this type of event."
The Equus Projects' dances involve the spaces they are working in, and often include horses. For this reason all dancers have experience in horsemanship. In such performances much of what they do is improv, taking cues from the horse and applying "what if" scenarios, such as if the horse moves this way, the dancer will move a particular way in response.
"A lot of what we're doing is improvised," said JoAnna Mendl Shaw, artistic director of the Equus Projects. "They're very highly structured improvisations where there's this dense rule structure that you're working with so it looks like choreography but you never know how long it's going to last."
Having a fluidity of structure allows the group to work with horses because, during the riderless horse performances, they need to be able to ebb and flow with the horse. Doing so keeps the spontaneity and momentum going.
"When we work with horses there's a kind of site-specific congruency with a sentient being, here (at ArtStart) we're creating site-specific congruency with architecture," she explained, adding that "We don't do circus. The way we use horses is very different. It's not about spectacle it is to actually create landscapes where you are looking at the human condition and our capacity for compassionate leadership."
The dancers use physical listening - observing what their other dancers are doing, responding to them and the surroundings, getting cues from the touch of another dancer etc.
"I find myself increasingly distressed by how passive people are," Mendl Shaw said. "They're sitting and watching a two-dimensional screen, they're doing everything in front of their body, they're not using backspace, they're sitting and listening to someone and already figuring out what they are going to say so they're not really paying attention. There's so much multi-tracking where you're not really concentrating on one thing and when you work with these animals you can't do that, you really can't, you need to pay attention."
During the ArtStart presentations there will be five different performances taking place in different areas, each with a different energy and vibe.
In one scene, a dancer - performing a solo piece - is given a challenge where she will be given ten Post-It notes with prompts on them, and shell have a minute and a half to create her dance based on those prompts.
"As an artist myself, I do not wish to perplex my audience but I do want them to think and I do want them to be active participants in how they emotionally and intellectually engage with the material," Mendl Shaw said.
She said Equus Projects is quite excited at the idea of coming back to the area in the future, and they love coming to rural areas.
"We are very active in looking at bringing the arts to rural America," Mendl Shaw said. "What other dance company performs in the mud and works with horses?"
The suggested donation for the March 16-18 events is $10 for adults, $5 for children.
The Equus Projects will have dinner and equine demonstrations at Serenity Ranch in Eagle River on March 25. There will be drinks at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. and the demonstration at 7 p.m.
Entrance to this event will be $35 per person or $60 per couple.
The event is supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from Wisconsin Arts Board and the Crane Group.
For more information on The Equus Projects visit www.equus-onsite.org.
Mendl Shaw said she pleased to work with ArtStart and The Warehouse.
"This is the epitome of great collaboration," she said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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