Today we catch up with Brooklyn-based choreographer Anna Sperber. She first wrote for Life as a Modern Dancer back in 2015. Read her original artist profile here.
Photo: Ian Douglas
How would you describe the past 2 years?
The past two years have been very full! Thinking back to two years ago today - November 2015, I was at the beginning of the process of making PRIZE, a piece that premiered in June 2016 presented by The Joyce Theater’s Unleashed Series, off site at New York Live Arts. I worked with a cast of six dancers, only two of whom I had worked with before. I loved getting to know and to work with this new group of amazing people and artists. I also worked with composer and percussionist Ryan Sawyer, lighting designer Elliott Jenetopulos and scenographer Sara Walsh. One special thing about this process that enabled these collaborations to feel very integrated with one another was that I was able to go on residencies with them all to Mount Tremper Arts, where we had intensive time to workshop and play with ideas about each of the elements in dialogue with one another in the creative process in advance of going into the theater.
After the premiere of PRIZE, I had the desire to work solo for a while. And this has lead to my current project which will be predominantly a solo performance. It’s both exciting and daunting as it will be the first evening length solo I have made. Creatively, the past year has been filled with the research and work on this piece. I am grateful to have been on two residencies at The Macdowell Colony and Yaddo. These were different than past residencies I have been to, in that artists in different disciplines (writers, composers, filmmakers, visual artists) come to work solo but are concurrently part of a community working in close proximity in these many different mediums. Working in a concentrated solo practice this year has allowed for time to shift rhythms and patterns that had established in my working process.
When I look back on the last two years, it is inevitably in the context of the political events and climate in our country. The current administration’s relentless assaulting bigotry and intolerance affects me and the communities that I live and work in on a cellular level. In its relationship to my work as a dance artist, I am inspired by the resiliance, intelligence and strength of the artists around me. My belief in the urgent importance of self expression, the life of the imagination, and community is only reinforced.
PRIZE. Photo: Ian Douglas
Pictured: Tara Willis in foreground (Lizzie Feidelson, Rebecca Breheney, and Michael Ingle in background left to right)
Pictured: Tara Willis in foreground (Lizzie Feidelson, Rebecca Breheney, and Michael Ingle in background left to right)
On balancing career and family:
Balancing career and family is an ever evolving process. My husband is a musician, so from the beginning when our son Jonah was born, we have been negotiating between the time that each of us spend with him, with our work, and also prioritizing time together. Our son is now turning 7 years old. In some ways this makes finding time to work easier because he is more independent, but he also needs a different kind of emotional attention and engagement from us. In the past two years my husband has been touring more than when Jonah was an infant, so I need to be very clear with how I plan and prioritize my time when he is away, but I have also had the opportunity to go on longer residencies and working periods away from them than I have in the past. It takes a lot of cooperation and negotiation for us to support each other in this way, but it’s definitely worth it.
What is the role of teaching within your work? What is the interplay between teaching and choreographing?
This year I have really enjoyed teaching as a way to re-examine how I want to articulate what I value in dancing. It’s been an opportunity to reflect on my own approach to my body, to physical practice, to movement from an internal somatic experience and also in relation to the space and people around us while we are dancing and performing. I have always loved dance class as a ritual and a practice for myself. Teaching is a way to enter that space and share what I have found useful to me, and to let go of what is not. To excavate what I still draw on in my own practice as information and inspiration from my teachers at different points in my life. It’s also been an opportunity to connect with dancers in the community who I might not otherwise cross paths with and get to know.
What is on your calendar for the new year?
My current project, Wealth From The Salt Seas, will premiere in March 2018 at The Chocolate Factory Theater in L.I.C., NYC. It’s an evening length solo performed in collaboration with composer and vocalist Gelsey Bell. After that I will be starting a new group piece at a creative residency at The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard.
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