“What else is there? What else do I have in me?” says Jennifer Hart, Performa/Dance choreographer and artistic director. “I don’t know if I have anything more to say. That’s always a concern.”
Hart describes her most recent artistic journey, FINDING ALICE (IN WONDERLAND), as fulfilling yet nerve-racking. The dance – one of four works included in PIVOT, coming to Ballet Austin – analyzes artists’ tendencies to overthink their work. PIVOT’s quadruple-stacked bill, also featuring New York City-based Christian Warner and Austin’s very own BLiPSWiTCH, premieres at Ballet Austin’s AustinVentures StudioTheater on Aug. 16 at 7:30pm and Aug. 17 at 4:30 and 7:30pm.
Hart turned to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for inspiration, using phrases from the novel to guide rehearsals. “It’s just about being creative,” Hart said. “It’s nonsensical, you don’t have to make a story out of it. And yet, somehow, everything sort of makes sense, which is kind of what art does sometimes.”
Austin-born costume designer and choreographer Kelsey Oliver brainstormed with the team to help capture the whimsy of Hart’s Wonderland. The artistic director says Oliver brought a wild energy to rehearsals.
“You know those little blue children’s plastic tables?” Hart said. “Kelsey started walking toward it, then put her body underneath it and started walking with a table on her back – and it worked!”
In the past, Hart has choreographed to music, but in FINDING ALICE, she took a new approach: choreographing to text. “It’s a little scary, because I tend to like to know exactly what the music is going to be during rehearsals,” Hart said. “But now we are figuring out that piece of the puzzle toward the end.” With the choreography completed, composer Ritika Bhattacharjee brings a final crucial aspect to the piece. Bhattacharjee will use music by Yann Tiersen, a French avant-garde musician, and mold the instrumental tracks to fit the choreographed work.
Another creative mind following Hart down the rabbit hole is Austin-based dancer Alexa Capareda, Performa/Dance’s assistant director. Capareda and Hart created the “Morphs” as a tool for the audience to understand when the dancers evolve into the various characters. During rehearsals, experimentation helped Capareda “feel what’s right.” She recalled how she came up with the “Morph Walk,” saying that she was tasked with moving like a “cross between a jellyfish and a frog.”
When Capareda came to Ballet Austin in 2007, Hart was her teacher and mentor. Once Capareda graduated from UT-Austin, she became a full-time performer, working with Hart over the years as a rehearsal assistant and choreographer. The two previously collaborated on Leonard Bernstein’s Mass at the Long Center in 2018.
“We have a natural rapport, finishing each other’s sentences all the time,” Capareda said. “A lot of how I teach and my approach to teaching ballet is from her.”
In addition to her work with FINDING ALICE, Capareda will showcase her first live work for Performa/Dance, a duet titled CAUTERY – derived from “cauterize,” meaning to burn the skin. This piece will depict the human urge to burn and discard oneself in the quest for freedom. Needless to say, Capareda’s CAUTERY will present a stark contrast to the playful FINDING ALICE.
Hart’s creation challenges logic, authority, and her own identity, much like Carroll’s book balances whimsy and depth. “What does this mean?” and “Why am I doing it?” are some of the questions Hart asks herself during her artistic process, only to realize that her art, much like Wonderland, is “all mad anyways.”
PIVOT
Friday 16 & Saturday 17, Ballet Austin’s AustinVentures StudioTheater
This article appears in August 16 • 2024.