Artist Profile #111: Gwen Welliver (New York, NY and Tallahassee, FL)

Hometown: State College, Pennsylvania

Current city: New York City and Tallahassee, FL

College and degree: BA Psychology, Pennsylvania State University

Graduate school and degree: MFA Choreography, Bennington College (mid-career student)

How you pay the bills: Teaching

All of the hats you wear: Parent, dancer, choreographer, teacher, mentor, researcher, director, grant writer, rehearsal coordinator, fundraiser, payroll administrator, archivist. 

Non-dance work you have done in the past: My first year in NYC I sold merchandise at Broadway shows and taught Pilates. This was in the early 1990s, before the Pilates trademark disputes. 

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Pre-NYC

While in college, I joined The Pennsylvania Dance Theater, a repertory dance company based in State College, PA. The company commissioned works from remarkable choreographers who were early-career at the time: Ohad Naharin, Stephen Koester, Hannah Kahn, Nina Wiener, Rachel Lampert, Ze’eva Cohen, and more. Experiencing these varied approaches to performance was a deep form of training. During this inspired time I traveled to study in NYC where I first encountered Doug Varone. Doug’s packed classes were held at PS122. He was probably still in the Lar Lubovitch Company at the time - about to start his own company.

After graduating, I auditioned for and joined ZeroMoving Dance Company under the Artistic Direction of Helmut Gottschild, a German-born dancer who had been Mary Wigman’s assistant in Berlin. The company was based in Philadelphia, PA. Helmut taught me about sensation, rhythm, and story. Immediately before performing his works I felt that I was just about to go on an uncertain journey - and that I had to be open to this ride for the piece to read. Helmut is a remarkable artist, and I didn’t fully understand what he taught me until years later. Funny how that’s often the case. 

After two years in Philadelphia I had a strong pull towards New York City, succumbed, and moved. 

NYC

Doug Varone and Teaching: 1990-2000

In NYC I studied ballet with Zvi Gotheiner, improvised Monday nights at PS122 and in Central Park, lived in my late friend’s living room, stressed about how I would pay my rent, had a lumbar injury, began studying early 20th century visual art history, danced in freelance projects (Douglas Dunn, Mark Taylor, Fred Darsow, improvised with Julie Carr!), and joined Doug Varone and Dancers. I wanted to dance when I was around Doug - and that was the story for 10 years. I would probably feel the same way if he and I walked into the studio tomorrow. 

I began teaching in NYC in the early 1990s. At that time I had a deep necessity to find form for what I was discovering in performance, and a genuine need to communicate this research. I remember meeting with Lance Gries to share my notebooks. He had good advice. Lance said, “Take a few people into the studio with you and start to work.” So I did. I prepared for a long time. White Street Studios offered me a few slots on their teaching schedule. Often, no one would show up for my class. This didn’t matter. This was my research and I just kept on working. By the end of the decade I was fortunate to teach for Movement Research, the Trisha Brown Studios, Dance Space (later rebranded as DNA before closing), at festivals around the world, and as adjunct faculty at Tisch School of the Arts. 

Trisha Brown: 2000-2007

I have a lot to say about how remarkable it was to work with Trisha. I never danced in the repertory: I was hired as the Rehearsal Director, which was a full-time creative, administrative, and political position. Trisha's talent is idiosyncratic. Trisha is brave. Trisha is genuinely thrilled by movement. She was regularly astonished by her dancers. She would frequently gasp with joy. Trisha knew there was not just one way to work. I remember feeling uncertain and very much an outsider when I first joined the company. I told Trisha. I remember we were talking on the phone. I was in some hotel room. She gave me this advice: Diane and Carolyn found their MO based on what was needed at the earlier stages of the company, and now you [Gwen] can choose your own way. Wow. I’m still feeling the strength she gave me from that one statement. Thank you Trisha Brown for trusting me, without a doubt. 

Beasts and Plots   Photo by Ian Douglas

Bennington and Creating: 2007-present

After all of this, I wanted to concentrate exclusively on my own work. I went to Bennington College and entered the MFA program. This was a magical time. It took two years of improvising for me to figure out where I was. To my mentors: Terry Creach, Dana Reitz, Susan Sgorbati, and Michael Giannitti. I’m still enjoying the momentum I gained from this period of study. 

What is on your calendar for the rest of 2015? (Teaching, performing, travel, commissions, etc.)

Starting a new rehearsal process; enjoying my 2015 Movement Research Artist in Residence meetings and workshops with the astounding AIR’s and MR staff; planning next year’s creative projects; teaching at Florida State University; writing grants; designing courses; leading a workshop and showing our newest work What A Horse! (premiered May 2015, La MaMa) at the Movement Research Fall Festival in December; flying between NYC and FL a lot.  

What a Horse!     Photo by David Gonsier

Please tell us about your current opera project for Spoleto. What was the process?

I hoped to work in opera again since twice directing the remount of Trisha Brown’s choreography for Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, conducted by Rene Jacobs. When director and visual artist Jennifer Wen Ma contacted me to be considered as the movement director and choreographer for her new installation opera, I was floored. Her production needed something very specific. The project was using Kunqu - a 600-year old Chinese operatic tradition - with contemporary western opera in a brand new music composition by composer Huang Ruo. Since the music was deeply inspired in Kunqu, which is the most elaborately choreographed of the Chinese classic operas, Jennifer wanted the choreography and movement of the production to look deeply into this tradition and use it as a springboard as well. The lead was to be performed by Quin Yi, a superbly trained performer and dancer. 

To prepare, I spent time with materials in Columbia University’s East Asian Library, looked at many videos of Kunqu opera, watched Quin Yi perform in the Peony Pavilion, and read about the form. When we worked on the project, I knew I had to listen carefully, allow Jennifer and Quin Yi to lead, only work from what I know, and stay focused on what the production needs. Paradise Interrupted, premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA 2015. 

The role of teaching in your career and what the term “teaching artist” means to you:

Teaching is lab time. I bring in an idea, others try it, and our work together activates the idea. Work created in the "classroom" is invariably more amazing than anything I could have ever envisioned - and this inspiration fuels me to make work. In this way teaching is fundamental to my creative practice.

Gwen Welliver, far right. Minding the Body panel (April 2013) through New York Live Arts. Bill T. Jones, Alva Noë, RoseAnne Spradlin, Colin McGinn, Miguel Gutierrez, and Gwen Welliver. Photo by Ian Douglas. 

Final thoughts: Hope/belief/love of the profession:

I think we all would admit that dancing and researching movement as a profession demands uncommon stamina. Not many can hack it. Personally, I have never questioned my pursuit - or, when I did, I just got right back to work. Nor have I ever stopped knowing that movement research is necessary. I am in awe of what the brilliant and brave artists in the NYC dance community are accomplishing. 

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Comments

[Phyllis Haskell Tims]

Wonderful article...real, insightful, humble. Lovely dancer and person.