interview conducted & edited by CHRISTINA CAMPODONICO
Watching this video of Brian Brooks’ Fall Falls, I see elements in the choreography that I know from classes I took with Brooks when he taught at Princeton where I was an undergrad. It turns out that during that time, he was collaborating with Wendy Whelan on an early version which is now on national tour as part of a longer program, Restless Creature, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach tomorrow night. I caught up with him and Wendy Whelan about the making of the duet, First Fall. Whelan, recently retired from New York City Ballet, though hardly done with dancing, is a stunning and rapturous ballerina. Having been exposed to the beginnings of First Fall, I was curious to know what had happened and see where it is today.
[FALL FALLS, Brian Brooks and Wendy Whelan – 2012 Vail International Dance Festival, via VailValleyFoundation on YouTube]
Q&A with WENDY WHELAN
AMPERSAND: What’s your most memorable moment working with Brian Brooks?
WENDY WHELAN: I’ll never forget the moment I met him, which was at the Fire Island Dance Festival. And I had seen his work and someone said, ‘Oh do you want to meet Brian. He’s the choreographer.’ So I met Brian, saw Brian and I thought, ‘You made that!?’ I didn’t put the two together. I just thought, ‘You have topsiders on, right now and you made that piece!?’ It just didn’t fit. And then he smiled and I just felt his energy exude.
AMPERSAND: What made you think, “I need to work with him. I need to have him in my show”?
WHELAN: I loved his piece [“We’re Going to be Cool”]. I loved that people looked like people. It had nothing to do with the ballet world I came from. I liked that there was a lot of thought about gravity and weight and that kind of dynamic, which is something I’ve always been curious about because I’ve always been considered so weightless. I knew that I wanted to spend time with him. I knew that there was a lot in there for me to tap, just person to person, artist to artist. I didn’t know a whole lot until we got into the studio together, but once we got into the studio I was really glad I listened to my instinct.
AMPERSAND: I talked to Brian about the first time you worked in the studio together. I hope he doesn’t mind if I tell you this – maybe you know already – but he was a little scared of dancing with you. Did you have any fear or insecurity during that first rehearsal?
WHELAN: Oh sure. I was filled with insecurity, at first.
AMPERSAND: How did you overcome it?
WHELAN: I allowed myself to be the novice and that of course took the pressure off a little bit, because I was just going into [the choreographer’s] world. My goal was… to find out what the chemistry was within what we were going to create together. Deep down, I just wanted that connection with the choreographer. I just wanted to be one-on-one with the choreographer in the room – “We’re putting this out there together. It’s just us.” I had to approach it in the most open and natural way to get what I wanted to find and so, therefore, it forced me to be myself and be fearless.
AMPERSAND: You say you just wanted to find a connection with the choreographer. Did you?
WHELAN: [With] Brian’s piece – we’re always touching each other. We’re always sort of locomoting each other around the stage with our movement patterns. The beginning starts out as a tangle or struggle – a chase. And then it sort of becomes, like I’m pushing this weight, like there’s this block in front of me and I’m trying to get this block out of my way. Then the tangle becomes a little bit more intimate and a little simpler and then basically I just surrender to him. It goes from this kind of struggle to this kind of incredibly peaceful surrender.
There’s kind of a spirituality in it that I find. I really feel like I become this kind of floating angel.
I just feel so lucky to have that connection to him, as I’ve made this transition at this point in my life.
Q&A with BRIAN BROOKS
AMPERSAND: Why do you think Wendy Whelan asked you to make a work for her?
BRIAN BROOKS: Wendy and I met a year before working together. We were both performing in the Fire Island Dance Festival in 2011. So it was a year later that I was asked to create a new work for her. My piece [“First Fall”] was originally commissioned by Damian Woetzel, Artistic Director of the Vail International Dance Festival.
Damian asked me to do the piece [“First Fall”] and that blew my mind because I’m a modern guy – the dance guy you see rolling around on the floor. When I was approached to make a duet, not only to choreograph for [Wendy Whelan], but to perform with her, I thought, “Damian, do you know what I do?” Then when I met Wendy, I was like, “Do you know what I do?” She really wanted to find out – she really wanted to try something different, but at first I was very intimidated and very skeptical.
AMPERSAND: How do you overcome that intimidation?
BROOKS: Honestly, the moment was when we had our first rehearsal together. It was Wendy herself in the studio, being available and committed and focused and interested in my creative process. So it put me at ease. I mean I’m so far out of my comfort zone, right? You know, I was even scared to touch her. And we’re doing this intimate partnering. I was nervous to make that first touch of even my hand to her shoulder. I remember that moment being a big deal. But then once it started it just never stopped. It was just like another great relationship, another great collaboration, another great calling, another great partner.
AMPERSAND: How is this reflected in “First Fall”?
BROOKS: The piece is very set – the steps are obsessively the same. It’s a really intricate piece and we’re supporting each other’s weight and moving rapidly through space with all these interlocking arms and bodies, so it has a very high level of complexity in the work.
We’ve trained in a way to almost forget the steps. We’ve done it so many times and we’ve trained so hard and we’ve looked at every step. It allows us to be really present in the moment. We play with call & response with each other. So rather than just going on the movement, on the music rather, or going when I know I’m supposed, I wait for Wendy to push my elbow. I wait for her to her hand to grab my hand to give it the slightest tug before I start to rotate and spiral and wrap behind her lap. I wait just to feel her impulse. So there’s something really alive and present with the piece and our relationship.
AMPERSAND: Balanchine said, “ballet is woman.” Since the world Wendy danced in was of Balanchine, did you think about that? Did you feel out-shined?
BROOKS: Oh, that’s interesting. My first answer is no. And then of course, obviously yes. The talent and star-power of my dance partner is extraordinary.
I wasn’t sure how the process would go. Would she be coming down to my level of work and physicality. Would I completely be making a ballet, just for her and her ability and something happened in the middle, actually. We both met in the middle. We both learned from each other, but in my work we also balance each other out. We’re also still fully who we are and have been, but together. So there’s a bit of opposition. I feel like the grounded body and she’s the ethereal body. I’m not sure of the hierarchy. I certainly know who I’m on stage with and I think I’m a full step back, but I also feel that the partnership is so co-dependent and it’s mutual and it’s balanced.
Risa Steinberg coached us on how to perform this work. She saw it early on and she said, ‘You know, you look like two wonderful soloists dancing very close to one another.’ And she wanted us to be two people doing a duet together. And I feel like we dance the duet together now.
& Extra
Restless Creature, an evening-length work featuring duets by Whelan and four up-and-coming, contemporary choreographers – Brian Brooks (Brian Brooks Moving Company), Kyle Abraham (Abraham.In.Motion), Alejandro Cerrudo (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago) & Joshua Beamish (MOVE: the company). Restless Creature is Whelan’s first contemporary dance project after retiring from a thirty year career with City Ballet.
Restless Creature will visit California State University Long Beach’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Saturday, February 7, 2015. For information about the show visit carpenterarts.org.
[photo by Christopher Duggan]