In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with four artists brought together by the work of the Dancing Wheels Company. Mary Verdi-Fletcher who is based in Cleveland, OH and is the President and Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Wheels; New York City-based choreographer, Tiffany Mills, Los Angeles, CA-based choreographer Mark Tomasic, and Miami FL - based choreographer, Alexis Diggs. On their website, Dancing Wheels posists, if dance is an expression of the human spirit, then it is best expressed by people of all abilities. That is the fundamental belief behind the Dancing Wheels Company & School. Considered one of the premier arts and disabilities organizations in the United States, Dancing Wheels is a professional, physically integrated dance company uniting the talents of dancers both with and without disabilities.
In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with four artists brought together by the work of the Dancing Wheels Company. Mary Verdi-Fletcher who is based in Cleveland, OH and is the President and Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Wheels; New York City-based choreographer, Tiffany Mills, Los Angeles, CA-based choreographer Mark Tomasic, and Miami FL - based choreographer, Alexis Diggs. On their website, Dancing Wheels posists, if dance is an expression of the human spirit, then it is best expressed by people of all abilities. That is the fundamental belief behind the Dancing Wheels Company & School. Considered one of the premier arts and disabilities organizations in the United States, Dancing Wheels is a professional, physically integrated dance company uniting the talents of dancers both with and without disabilities.
INTRODUCTION: Thanks for joining us Inside The Dancer’s Studio, where we bring listeners like you closer to the creative process. Inside The Dancer’s Studio is a program of the National Center for Choreography in Akron, Ohio, as part of our Ideas in Motion initiative. This episode was recorded as an ongoing documentation practice with NCCAkron visiting artists in 2023-2024. Today we join Christy Bolingbroke, our Executive/Artistic Director, in conversation with four artists brought together by the work of the Dancing Wheels Company. Mary Verdi-Fletcher who is based in Cleveland, OH and is the President and Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Wheels; New York City-based choreographer, Tiffany Mills, Los Angeles, CA-based choreographer Mark Tomasic, and Miami FL - based choreographer, Alexis Diggs. On their website, Dancing Wheels posists, if dance is an expression of the human spirit, then it is best expressed by people of all abilities. That is the fundamental belief behind the Dancing Wheels Company & School. Considered one of the premier arts and disabilities organizations in the United States, Dancing Wheels is a professional, physically integrated dance company uniting the talents of dancers both with and without disabilities.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: My name is Christy Bolingbroke. For accessibility purposes, I am a tall woman, with white skin and reddish-brown hair that is quite long and pulled into a low ponytail to the side. I'm wearing a black hooded sweatshirt that zips up the front with NCC Akron's logo, an open-faced C with a round circle in a square problem in the hole. What is a dancing conversation? Dancing conversations are opportunities for us to bring dance into other fields of study. I believe that the body is innately political and is a way to process the world that we live in. So it is particularly with that in mind today that we're here to talk about “Allies and Actions: Putting their Bodies on the Line and Processing Art and Our Realities.” What you can expect today is we will speak with Founding Executive Artistic Director, Mary Verdi-Fletcher. And then with the three choreographers that she and Dancing Wheels have co-commissioned for their upcoming performances.Mary is the President Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Wheels Company and School. Ms. Verdi-Fletcher has been the world's first and foremost professional wheelchair dancer, a pioneering force in the development and success of physically integrated dance for nearly four decades.Ms. Verdi-Fletcher created the Multi Arts Dancing Wheels School in 1990. Attracting students from around the globe, the school is considered the worldwide center for physically integrated dance and arts access. As an educator, Mary has conducted master classes and lectures and has consulted with notable arts institutions across several continents. Also a tireless arts administrator and advocate, Mary has helped develop state and national programs for arts and disability service organizations and has worked to help to pass significant pieces of legislation. Her efforts have paved the way for others in their quest for full and equal access. Mary is a recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize, Ohio Dance Award for Contribution to Dance in Ohio, Governor's Art Award for Arts Education in Ohio, and the Trustee Award for Contributions to Dance from Dance USA. She has served on the Executive Board of Directors of Dance USA for six years and is a member of the ADA Cleveland Committee.
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: I'm um a white woman in her later years (laughs). Seasoned years. I have red hair um with sort of blonde highlights. I'm wearing a green dress and I'm sitting in my office at home. Um Home office, and I do use a wheelchair. It's not too visible right now, so who cares, right? (laughs)
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I am really excited for us to reconnect. I think the last time we got to work together on something was a dancing lab for physically integrated dance back in the fall of 2019. And that was both with Dancing Wheels and with Axis Dance Company. Let's catch up. Can you tell us more about the genesis behind “Allies in Action”?
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: You know one of the things that the organization really prides ourselves on is the inclusionary factor and how we as allies in all the fields are together. You know, that we've had similar things in terms of our quest for equality. People of color, people from the LGTBQ communities and the disabled communities have had to really struggle for their identity and to be uh contributors to the community So we felt that this year celebrating the artists from the LGTBQIA+ community was a way for us to give homage and also to show those connections.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: So tell us a little bit about how, how do you identify and select these artists as well?
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Many times I do research, of course looking into the field and oftentimes do referrals. Sometimes our dancers have connections with choreographers that they've worked with over the years. And then sometimes,I've just known the choreographer for years and years and years and finally get the opportunity to work with them.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Something we talk about often in our Creative Admin Research Program. It's all choreography. Not just what you see on stage, but the resources, the timing to work with the collaborators that you want to go to the communities. You know there is so much of that is not as simple as great we just have all the people and relationship add water and lets go. No we are lining things up we are working with so many outside forces and resources too.
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: And in many cases, you know, funding. They look at what are you going to do two years down the road, you know or three years down the road? And sometimes I say to myself, I can't just get to tomorrow, you know. (laughs)
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I often say that we in the arts are time travelers because sometimes you are writing about something that you did last year in a report. You're trying to live and perform in the moment. And then you're also dreaming and writing proposals for the future.
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Right, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I've been doing this for 43 years (laughs). So I feel like how many things can you think of to do differently or uniquely, um you know. But it seems that I just get this internal feeling sometimes when I know it's right and in it just never leaves me. So I don't know if you call it an intuition or vehicle for artistry. But you know thinking ahead, um but knowing that it's right as well.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I'm curious then what is the invitation look like in terms of a co-commissioning for an artist? How much time does each artist get with the company? And sort of do you ask them to create a certain number of minutes? You know what does that proposition look like?
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Well, it depends on the relationship with the choreographer. I will say it's more individualized because some choreographers choreograph very fast and others, you know, need more time. Some have known the company in the past so they can come in and know what they have to work with. Others have never had a time with the company so they may need to workshop for a period of time. Most choreographers look for about two weeks. Again I want to make it um um viable. So in doing so, I need to have a give and take on both ends and to work with the choreographers on that basis. Sometimes I put a time, not a time limit, but a general consensus of the time of the piece that I would like. We haven't had a full length piece for a while, um and that would be a single choreographer. And I'm actually working on that for next season.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Remind us how many dancers are in the company now?
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Currently there's 10. And sometimes there's 11 to 15. So it depends on the season and what we're doing. They've learned to work together so closely and they're, they’re committed to the organization and to each other.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: And then with the choreographers, do you ask them to create a, a work for the whole company or is there sort of an audition or setting process if they come in and say, I want to do a trio or something?
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Well, two ways. If I'm looking for a piece that can be, say, dissected into sections and used uh for our lecture performance and on the road, I may say, you know let's keep it to six dancers. And then the others, um, would certainly learn the roles.Mark Tomasic in particular has made many works um that are really great to couple with the information that can be given to our students in a lecture performance form.And that way it not only has longevity, but it offers educational aspects.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: What I'm also hearing is the value of having a rich repertory so that you're ready for any opportunity that comes up.
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Right. That's very true. And actually we're up to 100 pieces in our repertory now (laughs).
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: What that reminds me of too, you alluded to the project that we worked on we put together a dancing lab here at NCC Akron that was meant to ask a question. Like here we have the oldest physically integrated dance company in the country along with Axis Dance Company, which also has been a prolific commissioner of new works. And what I was so struck by was that y'all, the two companies had not repeated a single choreographer up until that point between the two of you with your robust repertory. I'm curious what you walked away from that experience with?Just from your experience being in the body, being in the studio with them what you carry forward?
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: And of course I'm still dancing, so I'm not only, not only an old company, but an old dancer (laughs). But yeah. Seasoned, you know. Yeah (laughs). But um I see, because there were opportunities to move, improv, you know, ways, and you could see more, and learn more about movement structure um by tapping into other dancers that have had other experiences with movement. And so it becomes really more broadened in terms of opportunities. A lot, years, years ago, um when we first started, there were people, funders that said, Oh well, this is very limiting. Like how many ways can somebody in a wheelchair move? what they said. And so here we are, you know, 43 years later and the movement continues and grows and you learn from each person that comes into your fold. And that's what I learned mostly as an artist that opportunity to know that we weren't creating a performance per se but we were experimenting and seeing how far our work together as artists, no matter what, whether you have a disability or not, how expansive can it be? And it can be sky's the limit.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Those silly funders. Don't they know that dancers are here to question limits, you know? We're here to find all kinds of new ways of working with and against gravity and, you know We accept nothing. (laugh)
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: Right. And the wheelchair is really a tool of freedom and an opportunity for us to look at movement in a way that possibly people on two feet haven't thought to move.And I think choreographers have said to us really time and time again that it's expanded their vocabulary.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: We have Alexis Diggs of Dayton, Ohio. An independent artist from Dayton, she is a 2023 Black Midwest Initiative Fellow, a Culture works Artist Opportunity Grantee, and an Allegro Grant recipient. A former Doug Varone DEVICES choreographer and Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company Rising choreographer. Lex has created and presented works in Cleveland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York City, Florida, and the greater Dayton area. She is a part of the Jacob’s Pillow 2023-24 Curriculum and Motion Institute cohort and has been on the teaching faculty for Ohio University Summer Dance, Ohio Dance Festival, Miami Valley Ballet Theater, and Geraldine School of Dance, as well as a classroom instructor for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company's Education Outreach Program. Her central artistic mission is to create and be a part of work that provokes thought, feeds the soul, and ignites a desire to learn, love, and share with the collective.
ALEXIS DIGGS: I am Lex. I am a 24 year old African American female. Uh My hair is cut short. It is dark and I am in front of a window today. I have on a tank top and a short sleeve Browns t-shirt. It is lovely to be here. Thank you for having me.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Absolutely. Next up we have Tiffany Mills, the Artistic Director, choreographer and founder of the New York City-based Tiffany Mills Company from 2000 to present. Joining Lewis and Clark College as the Director of Dance in 2024, Mills returns to her Oregon roots and embraces a bi-coastal presence. As a creator of dance theater, Mills work centers on human relationships, is grounded in partnering and improvisation, and is fueled by collaboration across mediums. She collaborates with artists from various disciplines and backgrounds to viscerally, aesthetically, and intellectually stimulate a wide-ranging audience. Her company's recent works have been presented at National Sawdust, La Mama, The Flea, and BAM Fisher, Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts, Dance Place in DC, and the Austin Dance Festival in Texas. International highlights include Russia, Italy, Mexico, and Canada. Mills has taught extensively at universities and festivals nationally and internationally. Her company also conducts summer partnering and improvisation intensive and pop-up workshops.Mills received her MFA in Dance Choreography at Ohio State University and her BA in Dance at the University of Oregon Honors College.
TIFFANY MILLS: My name is Tiffany Mills. I am female. I use the pronouns she/her. I have ancestry from Scandinavia, primarily Norway. I have blue eyes, a round face, straight, long, light brown hair. And I am wearing a striped shirt today. It's pink and purple. Yeah, I think that does it.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Excellent. I'm feeling the abundance already. But friends, we have one more artist to welcome. Next up is Mark Tomasic from Los Angeles, California. And Mark has danced principal and featured roles in the masterworks of notable choreographers such as Martha Graham, Donald McKayle, Paul Taylor, David Parsons, Sean Curran, Mayo Donald, George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Mauricio Ranreau, Fleming Flint, Tally Beatty, and Agnes DeMille throughout his performing career of over 20 years. As a choreographer, Mark has created works for numerous dance companies, colleges, and universities, and has worked extensively in the field of physically integrated dance with the Dancing Wheels Company and School. Serving as Artistic Advisor to the company,Mark travels nationally and internationally to teach physically integrated dance to students and professionals alike and is the author of the inclusive dance training manual, Physically Integrated Dance: The Dancing Wheels Comprehensive Guide for Teachers, Choreographers, and Students of Mixed Abilities. Mark's choreographic work for Dancing Wheels has been presented across the United States and internationally. Mark is currently the Chair of the Dance Department of Santa Monica College.At SMC, he has been awarded recognition as Equity Champion and Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year. Mark holds an MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine.
MARK TOMASIC: Hey everybody. It's so good to be here. I am a white male. I have dark hair and a dark beard. I'm wearing black rimmed glasses and I have a dark grayish, blackish shirt on.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: So I'd love to start if we were to go ahead and start back up with you Lex. I'm curious, where do you begin when making a dance?
ALEXIS DIGGS: I can start almost anywhere. It can come from watching movies, reading books, feeling something in my body that feels very good and identifying a sense of groove. Oftentimes it has to do with some thematic content or lesson that I'm learning in my own life in which I then bring into the studio. And I try to be very intentional about sharing with the dancers some thoughts and words and language around those experiences not so that they make the work about that themselves, but that they have something to identify with and then nourish outward from their own experience. I often come with phrases prepared and so that we can all, you know, meet in the middle with my style and as I'm getting to know dancers and that is usually a really good way for us to connect. Typically I come with an abundance of seeds and try to remain open to whichever ones are going to sprout and letting the ones that do not go.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: So much beautifully put inside of that, that not every idea is gonna be fully realized. I could have a whole other conversation about letting go uh But I also love how personal that starting place can be for you as a means of maybe why you are an artist and processing, you know, your own journey through this world. That's really lovely.Mark, you've worked on Dancing Wheels before so I'm curious, where do you begin when making a dance, particularly um if it can feel that you're in very familiar territory?
MARK TOMASIC: For Dancing Wheels, I feel like I have this, I do have this history of like 30 years of working in some capacity or other with the company. And I've choreographed several pieces. So it does, there's, there’s a level of comfort there in terms of I'm not going in as someone who's never worked with a person with a physical disability. I'm familiar with their strengths, their weaknesses, um and it allows me to tailor certain things to, to Dancing Wheels in particular, which is really a blessing. And oftentimes when I work with Mary, she will, she'll commission a work for me. She'll, she’ll ask me specifically to make a work about. And that's amazing because it takes that big burden of the blank white page off of my plate.That can be super helpful to me as a choreographer too, to just say, what are you thinking about? What are you envisioning? And then sometimes though, when she commissions work for me and, and doesn't, she'll, do whatever you want. That can be the most interesting thing too, because then you have to dig a little deeper and, and follow your own path. So.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I'm curious, Tiffany, because when we met, was your first introduction to Dancing Wheels where do you begin when making a dance?
TIFFANY MILLS: Absolutely. Well, I was thrilled to come back to work with Dancing Wheels in this capacity because as you mentioned, Christy, I got the opportunity through NCC Akron in 2019 to do more of a choreo lab where it was the creative process without any end product. And I just loved the possibilities that opened up when working with sit down and stand up dancers that I hadn't ever had the opportunity to work with before.It’s very dynamic working with the wheelchair, I feel, because the wheels have a life of their own. And it's like introducing props for me, sort of as an artist, into the, into the whole frame from the very beginning.I typically work similarly, as Alexis mentioned, with an idea or a concept to start. So I like to come in with a direction. For instance, I did a piece during the pandemic about home called Homing. And we, we wrote about it, we improvised about it, we talked about it, uh we created, we threw away, we created some more, all of those things to make, to make work. And in the process of this piece that I'm creating or have created for Dancing Wheels, it only happens once yesterday and tomorrow, it's about a reoccurring dream. And I loved getting into the studio and, and bringing this idea of dreamscape to the dancers. But then each one of them got to bring their individual take or perspective on dreaming and nightmares and how they come and go in their lives. So it was, it was kind of wonderful to find that baseline altogether and celebrate our similarities and our differences in that capacity. I feel that working with artists is about a collective coming together and makes very rich work that way.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: You’ve all sort of acknowledged how porous the creative process can be sometimes, how you can come in with an idea, but then you're going to get additional input or information about what you might need to let go or what you might need to lean into and go further.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Very curious for anyone who's navigating a creative life. And Tiffany, we'll start with you on this. What do you do if you find yourself in a creative rut.How do you keep pressing through? How do you keep seeking when it's not coming as naturally as you'd like it to be?
TIFFANY MILLS: There's always the good days and there's always the days where it feels stuck and you have to move past it. I tend to laugh a lot to get through those places. I find if I can sort of have a perspective of playfulness, it helps to kind of move past that moment of feeling stuck. Sometimes if I can take a break, whether it's like sleep on it, I come back and I try it from a different angle or a different perspective. Sometimes um I'll talk to the, to the artist and just say, Hey, this isn't feeling right.What do you think? Like where, where might we try this afresh? Like let's try it in a different way. Sometimes I'll move away and I'll say, let's improvise the idea and not even work with the exact material and then see what feels right and then kind of try to come back to, to the idea at hand if it's,partially formed already.Sometimes I'll say, this is just, it's not working and it's okay. Like we've talked about already, like it's okay to let it go. It is really, really okay. And maybe that idea can get recycled later somewhere else in this piece or another piece, or maybe we had to do this to understand this is not it, to go back to the drawing board to find something else. But I always work with the dancers we talk and we move and we,um acknowledge to try, to get at those places. And I think that the places that you're stuck, once you get through them, that's where you learn the most. So when things just go smoothly, great. But when you can't quite figure it out, then, and then you do, you've learned something deeper, I feel.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Choreographers have to have a full toolbox of possibilities. Maybe this wrench fits, maybe this happens. Well, how else do I get this unstuck? Lex, I'm curious, do you have any other practices, tools that you use when the creative juices just aren't flowing someday?
ALEXIS DIGGS: Tiffany, I love what you said about laughter. I've been saying that for like the last week, like oftentimes I think thematically my work can be darker or a little bit more serious.And I think that deep belly laughter joy, curiosity and play are like such necessities so that we can carry through that kind of work and feel safe doing so. I am starting to try to master the art of the pivot. So when things aren't working, I'm a hack through something else. And if that's not working, I'm really love, I'm a lover of language. So I try to lean on that. I'll ask questions and we'll build a vocabulary of words. Or I'll ask questions and leave them to reflect on that on their own and build phrase work that way. I'll build a gestural vocabulary based on the experiences that we've shared.I find that's been a really lovely way to work through material, As well as kind of just like asking for some things that I might want to see. Like, oh let me see what you think this would look like. And then you show me. And then we just get through this whole thing. And now we have this long phrase, I didn't do much of anything but chat with you. And that's a very new thing for me. And it causes me a bit of discomfort. But I find that, it has also produced some really lovely phrase work and pushed and stretched me and the artists that I work with in a new way and I am appreciative of that.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Thank you. Mark, you've worked with Dancing Wheels for a very significant amount of its history and your own history. And so I'm curious how you find something new or do you like to start with something known and then seek out the new after that?
MARK TOMASIC: That familiarity in, in regards to what Tiffany and Alexis both said too, for me, I love to laugh and I will, you know, Mary and I have such a long history of being great friends, but also being able to like laugh at each other and laugh at things that happen.So not taking myself too seriously is super important. I take my work seriously, but you know, I'm like, we're all just kind of making it up as we go along. To have that kind of history gives me a great freedom And for this… process in particular, because I already knew what it was going to be about. I had the music already established. And for me, that process was, this time especially, just thinking to myself, like, you've heard this before of like the statue of David already existed inside the marble, but just being like, this already exists. All I have to do is try to get out of the way as much as possible and just really try to listen. Like be in the room and listen to the dancers and listen to myself and just trusting whatever. And I was like, whatever impulse, even if it's like the silliest thing and this dance has some really silly moments in it. But like just trusting that impulse, that intuition, that instinct, and just being like, whatever that is, I'm going with it and it's gonna be okay.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I've talked to some people who imagine that like every song has a dance sort of hidden inside of it. And then I often will point out to them that like I have seen a lot of different dance artists make work to the same music and they're diametrically different interpretations of that music. Mark, with this specific creative opportunity and under the banner of “Allies in Action,” what does it mean to you to be a part of this year's gala performance?
MARK TOMASIC: I'm so excited about it. Even though I don't live in Cleveland anymore, I grew up in Cleveland. I came of age in Cleveland and the gay community in Cleveland was a huge part of my identity. Of Like I still have so many friends in the gay community in Cleveland and it was really like how I figured out being an adult within that community. So to be able to come back and be part of a program that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and allyship is. I mean, it's just awesome.The piece that I'm making is based on a personal story, but it's also just like a celebration of friendship and allyship. So it's just really extra special to share it with a Cleveland audience.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I love that. Another deeply personal dialogue to create context for your work. Tiffany, what does it mean to you to be a part of this creative opportunity under the “Allies in Action” banner?
TIFFANY MILLS: Well, I'm, I’m also like Mark and Alexis, very excited by it and to be a part of it honored. I think that in terms of Ohio, just as a state, I'm coming back to a place that I spent some significant time as well since I did, did my MFA at Ohio State. Spent, you know, a good number of years in Columbus. So it's fun to expand now to Cleveland. But it does feel like sort of another home. I touched upon this earlier, but to get to be working with this company, Dancing Wheels, and, and celebrate, integration in the physical capacity, but then also expanding it to celebrate all of these different communities that are coming together under the banner of “Allies in Action.” I really truly as an artist love each dancer and what they bring to the process and their identity and their sexuality and their cultural background and everything to pour through the choices that they make.And so it was really exciting to think about all these different layers of who we are and how we identify in the room, sort of through the lens of dreaming. But dreaming I love because it kind of gives you a freedom to be even more expressive because there's a surreal element to dreams and it gives permission to go even further. So I, I just, I was so excited and moved in our last rehearsal, when I got to see a run through. I would just see how everybody's bringing everything to the table and putting it forth in such a beautiful and honest and raw and vulnerable way. That was inspirational for me to, to see all these layers of individuality and identity and who you are coming together and then putting it together in this work and finding this community to support these ideas about who we are and how we can express ourselves and how we can have a voice and how we can be seen. All those came to fruition, I feel, through the experience.I'm just excited to be part of this process and this community to celebrate all these, all these different layers of who we are.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Lex, what would you like to share with us about the work that you develop, what it means to be a part of this opportunity?
ALEXIS DIGGS: I'm always looking forward to and yearning for this idea of expansion of community. And I think, similar to what Tiffany said, there feels like such a sense of home, in this piece and with these people and these lovely artists. But it also completely expands my capacity to understand what concert dance is, which I think is extremely important as we continue to evolve as an art form, making sure that we're making space for everybody and platforming identity, which is something that's extremely important to me. You know I have the opportunity to create work often, but I think this was one of the first times that my identity was one of the most important pieces which is something that I'm so proud of because I really try to work to make sure everybody has the space to show up fully. My piece abstractly talks (laughs) a lot about sinuous narrative and this idea that every version of you, every part of your experience is necessary to your story. And so while it's not a through thread of a narrative it's all of these many ideas and experiences that create space for everybody to show up with every part of themselves that they feel that they want to. Sometimes in pursuit of our liberation, we can often think about the things that have been violent or oppressive. And in the pursuit of our acceptance, we can often think about the things that have been joyful and peaceful. And I think my point is that we need to tell both sides of the story all the time because they deserve to be told. And that was something that I spoke to the artists a lot about. That was what was important to me and why this opportunity was so special.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: We have a little more time left. I wanted to create some space to offer what questions you may have for each other.
MARY VERDI-FLETCHER: I was curious from the standpoint of Tiffany and Lex, your perceptions of working with artists with disabilities. How has that changed from when you came in first to after you completed your work?
TIFFANY MILLS: When I first came into the process with Dancing Wheels and Axis Dance Company for the NCC Akron residency, I was wondering about translation and how much should I try to provide as sort of the guide, as the choreographer for differentversions and interpretations of a standup versus a sit down dancer. And through that experience and then coming with, to work in this project with Dancing Wheels to create a work, I realized that, for the most part, dancers are so smart. Like I don't have to necessarily translate much. I can bring in a task just as I would to my company ym And I actually don't have the opportunity in my company to, to work with sit-down dancers and maybe in the future I will. That would be wonderful. But going back to the idea of dancers have so much intelligence that if I just bring in a task the dancers can work it and figure it out. And the richness of their choice is right there. So I work a lot improvisationally to create work, rather than bringing in too many movement ideas. I mean, I, I do, I have preferences. I love weight and flow. I love going upside down and inversion. I love partnering I love that dynamic sort of momentum-based material, but the dancers found it. So I feel like it's pretty exciting that we all are humans and we all move and we all understand how to create and there wasn't so much a need to try to say, okay, let's translate it from this to that, or from that to this. And I know the dancers have been working in this way for a long time, but for me, I learned something new, that we're just all there together and everybody will take an assignment and create something and we'll then go from there.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Lex, any perceptions that have, you know, since changed?
ALEXIS DIGGS: When I first came, I'm someone that really wants to create safe space for everybody. But in this moment, you know, I was worried that I was unequipped. I was worried that I wouldn't speak correctly. I was worried that I wasn't my awareness wasn't necessarily informative of being able to provide a language that felt inclusive. And I said that from the jump. I said, you know, I'm really happy to be here. And I really want to do this work. And I'm looking forward to the collaboration. But please like correct me, you know call me in find a space for us to like collaborate so that everybody feels advocated for safe, and also platformed. As the week progressed I appreciated how collaborative it was. Per Tiffany's answer, everyone is so intelligent. And so I do bring a lot of phrase work and it never seemedto be, there was never a hitch and if somebody needed something from me they advocated for themselves in a way that also helped me to further advocate for them in a way that maybe I wasn't prepared to do before.But what I will say is I was very appreciative of people's ability to be honest with me, to be open with me. And yeah it was one of the easiest things in the world because it was such a lovely environment.
MARK TOMASIC: Alexis, you mentioned in passing talking about your work and I never heard the term sinuous narrative. I'm just so interested now, like what is that? I was like, I've really restrained myself from looking it up right now during this call.
ALEXIS DIGGS: So, and it might just be my ADHD brain, but I have a hard time going from point A to Z. So typically when I'm building work, there's millions of stories, ideas, and thoughts that are just a conglomerate narrative. Sinuous is in layered, multiple worlds. They overlap and evolve, transform and develop. It's not necessarily, these are your characters and you watch them develop through a plot and there's a climax and a resolution. It is more I'm tableau-ing experiences from my head or that my dancers have shared with me and we're just building this world based off of intrinsic experience versus a chronological story. And so when I say I'm a sinuous storyteller, I mean, it is not necessarily flat on A through Z. It's many things and whatever you get from it is what you are supposed to.
TIFFANY MILLS: I was just interested to know how, if from Alexis and Mark, did movement vocabulary evolve through this process because of, of the people in the room? Did it change? I'm a really kinetic uh mover and responder. So I talked a little bit at the beginning about the wheels and that constant motion that it can make. And that, that inspired me in, in the partnering that I created to really see how I could use that flow and almost like ice skating in a way. What physical sort of language evolved because of working with this company, in this process?
MARK TOMASIC: What amazes me with Dancing Wheels especially is the partnering work. So I'll just be talking to one person, like working on something, I'll look over here and they'll be like, stand up in a wheelchair dancer or doing some amazing crazy thing that I've ever seen. I was like, wait a minute, what is that? So for me that, that revelation often comes when I witness the partnering. For me, however, for this piece, it is super narrative driven and super musically driven. So it actually was kind of fun for me to work that way, which is not a way I often work. So in a way like this time, I don't know Mary, how you felt, there was much less experimentation because I was like, this is the narrative, this is what the music is telling me to do, and this is what we're gonna do. So oftentimes I come in with like one eight count phrase and I'm like, let's experiment and build and see this world that develops. And this time I was like, nope, these are the steps. This is the story (laughs). So it was kind of different for me, but really, in a way, really enjoyable to have that, in a way, different kind of clarity.
ALEXIS DIGGS: I will say that I have a two-pronged answer. There's a part of me that really tries hard to keep the integrity of some of the things that I really like to do in my lexicon and vocabulary because I know what a challenge it provides to the artists in the space, regardless of ability. So I can be very specific gesturally. Like there's a part in the work that there's like eight different gestures in like maybe three counts. And it was a challenge for everybody, but I wouldn't come off of that and we were able to create some really beautiful movement that way. But I also created, there's a section of my work that's completely sitting down. Everybody's at the table. It's like this Thanksgiving dinner and we created that in real time from top to bottom. We all did it. We created it together. I would give them something and it was so interesting to see how much my vocabulary expanded as I was like, okay, so we're only gonna do, you know, waist up. And how do we make that exaggerated enough that I can still get the story I'm trying, trying to tell? And how do we continue to create this narrative or this idea with only everybody sitting at this table? How do we keep that integrity of still my language, still my voice, but also something very new for me and for everybody probably? So it was lovely and it was something that I had been wanting to do, but this presented an amazing opportunity to do so. And I was actually really happy with the way that turned out. We had a blast doing it. It was so much fun and I felt very challenged by it for sure.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: So wonderful. Thank you all for your generosity and vulnerability, sharing process.Thank you, Mary, for bringing us all together to be able to illuminate this process. We have a couple thank you to funders for NCC Akron's. We wish to acknowledge the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the GAR Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, and theOhio Arts Council. Specific support for “Allies in Action,” we wish to acknowledge on behalf of Dancing Wheels, the National Endowment for the Arts with co-sponsorship by the Bennett Family Foundation.
OUTRODUCTION: Inside The Dancer’s Studio Conversation Series is supported by NCCAkron, the University of Akron, the University of Akron Foundation, the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts, and Audio-Technica, a global audio manufacturer with U.S. headquarters in Northeast Ohio. Our podcast program is produced by Jennifer Edwards. James Sleeman is our editor, transcription by Arushi Singh. Theme music by Floco Torres, cover art by Micah Kraus. Special thanks to Laura Ellacott, Sarah Durham, and Will Blake. To learn more about NCCAkron, please visit us online at NCCakron.org. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook at NCCAkron. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platform by searching for Inside The Dancer’s Studio. Please share with your friends and if you’d like to help get the word out rate us, and leave a review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening and stay curious.