Outskirts Press, INC.

Inside Choreography: An Intimate Look From Concept to Movement

ChoreoGraphics: Six Studies was conceived with the intention of illustrating visually and conceptually vibrant examples of how dances are made. How do choreographers find their paths into the creative process? How does a choreographer move through the process that begins with an idea and somehow becomes a dance? Each chapter deconstructs one dance by documenting conversations with the choreographer while concurrently showing related, photographic sequences. Created for lovers of dance and photography, it speaks to practitioners and audiences, offering an insight into the thoughts and processes that contemporary choreographers Alexandra Beller, Janis Brenner, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Colleen Thomas, Nathan Trice, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Samantha Speis each used while making these dances. With access that enables understanding of individualized approaches to giving form to ideas, readers will have the opportunity to tune up their own receptors to become truly creative observers, armed with clues to discovering the many nuances of making art. The process begins with photographs of early rehearsals of a new work. These can seem less like a conventional rehearsal and more like a research and development project. The seven artists in this book use improvisational techniques with the dancers to find an organic connection to the idea and/or feeling from which the music derives. The photographs capture examples of those mostly spontaneous moments. The conversations reveal why and how those moments develop. Shots in dress rehearsals show the final version. The intersection of photographs creates an exciting liminal space to further an understanding of dance-making.