Preview: Verb Ballets @ CPT DanceWorks

Sometimes these dance previews try to write themselves. Verb Ballets brings a concert of all-new works by local choreographers to CPT's DanceWorks. As they did last year. Ho hum (except that, actually, we enjoyed many of the results of this premise last year).

The choreographers can be relied upon to remain stuck in their established ruts. Predictable, right? Except that Verb's Margaret Carlson has employed a strategy to knock choreographers out of creative ruts. She ASSIGNED music to the choreographers, a tried and true device beloved by composition teachers everywhere, and one that unfailingly produces much gnashing of teeth as it destroys comfort zones.

We got Carlson on the phone.

Cool Cleveland: How are the choreographers bearing up?
Margaret Carlson: After I selected the music, I assigned it to each choreographer. I tried not to give them something that would be too comfortable, but [also] not to give them something that would be too much of a stretch. My sense is that choreographers have unanimously found working with assigned music to be very challenging, because the choice of sound is very personal and very much linked to each person's creative process. But I really believe from what I've seen that every choreographer has come in and done something very different from anything I've seen him or her do before, and done it successfully. At least one choreographer said to me afterwards that, difficult as it was, he really feels that this project will allow his work to go in a new direction. That's exactly what I wanted to happen. I was hoping that it would open doors to new possibilities for the choreographers.

We heard that, like last year, this project afforded very limited rehearsal time.
MC: For pieces that are 5 minutes or less they get one day to set the piece. 3 pieces on the program are between 8 and 12 minutes and those choreographers were given 2 days rehearsal time. It's very much a pressure cooker. One choreographer came in with so much material in his head and he just put it all out so quickly that the dancers were like, 'Ummm, could you show that again?' But the choreographer said, 'I have to get it out of my head; I can't spend another sleepless night with all this choreography running around my head.'

We notice that 4 of the 7 choreographers are former ballet dancers and also currently ballet teachers. What's their work like?
MC: The choreographers who are more ballet based have not stuck to ballet. The pieces they've done draw from ballet technique but they are definitely not ballet, which pleases me, because it allows those choreographers to explore in a different way.

Which choreographer is using which dancer?
MC: Pretty much every choreographer has used every dancer. Every dancer is in every piece. The dancers' heads are spinning because they have 7 pieces running around in their heads.

Where did you find the composers?
MC: Like the choreographers, composers had to submit an application.

I had no idea there were so many composers in Cleveland, and how good they were. It was very difficult for me to finalize the selection of music; I found it very encouraging because it means that there's a rich supply of creative people here. And we can continue this project.

The 7 choreographers working outside their respective comfort zones are Richard Dickinson, Kay Eichman, Diane Gray, Terence Greene, Lisa K. Lock, Troy McCarty, and Sara Whale.

The composers, locals all, are Larry Baker, Alex Berko, Loris Chobanian, Ty Alan Emerson, Richard Rinehart, Nicholas Underhill, and Eric Ziolek.\\\

The Verb dancers are Danielle Brickman, Ashley Cohen, Megan Coleman (intern), Erin Conway Lewis, Leisa DeCarlo (intern), Antwon Duncan, Katie Gnagy, Gary Lenington, Kevin Marr II, Catherine Meredith Lambert, Jennifer Moll, and Brian Murphy.

Trad A Burns is the lighting designer. Verb's Fresh Inventions performances are made possible through the generous support of The Bascom Little Fund, Millie L. Carlson, and Kenneth Milder. Please note the early starting time, new this year at CPT.

Verb Ballets performs at CPT's Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave, Cleveland 44102 at 7pm Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and at 3pm Sunday (4/8 thru 4/11/10). Tickets, $10 for the 4/8 performance and $21 for 4/9 thru 4/11performances, are available at CPT Box Office 216-631-2727 or http://cptonline.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.