BodyStories: Teresa Fellion company members have been reflecting on our current processes of the works in the upcoming NY season. Take a look at what some of the dancers have to say about the cyborg society of Control Dominion.
Corey Bliss’s favorite section of the piece is coined the ‘conveyor belt’. “It’s the first energetic crescendo of the piece, and it’s the first time my heart rate goes way up…I’m huffing and puffing by the time the horizontal lift comes, and then I have to sort of immediately rein everything back in for block partnering, in order to be precise and choppy and clear. It’s a very interesting energetic arc to experience, especially in performance. I also like that it’s sort of a rallying cry slash introduction to each of us as dancers in this abstract narrative…in the sense that we break into and out of this cool unison base phrase with athletic solos. The moment in between each set where we just stand facing upstage for a moment feels very satisfying from the inside, like a brief reminder that we’re still together through all this craziness.”
Sarah Hillmon talked about the choppy, robotic nature of the movement. “The nature of the movement is very segmented in a way that lends it to self manipulation type partnering. Certain sections, specifically the block partnering feel piecey (in a positive sense of the word). You get your momentum going in one direction until your partner stops you and redirects you in another. In this way, some of the steps feel unnatural and unexpected, but certainly not unpleasant. And yet this sort of push/pull, controlling relationship is vital to the overall quality of the piece.”
Dan Chenoweth describes Control Dominion and Mantises as a whole new ballgame from anything the company has done before. “One of the things that I love about dancing for Teresa is that every piece has its own distinct movement vocabulary. Moving from NOGOOHA to Control Dominion to The Mantises this could not be more clear. In Control Dominion, I enjoy how much form and line is present and how we can really devote our energy to the movement. Also the places that really stick out to me are the ‘block partnering’ and ‘The X.’ They are both so fast, partnering intensive and intricate that I run mostly on instinct and have to let go and dance. In those sections I am never stuck in my mind. In performance I love dancing past the sort of exhaustion barriers that I find normally and I enter a place that is above my normal self. Due to the energy and the duration I found this place in CD.”