I talked with faculty member Carl Flink in Commons about his background, company, and, of course, food! Take a look at some of my short notes from our conversation.

Tell us a little about your background outside of dance.  What made you return to dance and how does it influence Black Label Movement?

-First of all, I started dance very late in my life.  Took my first class when I was 19, after intense soccer training. Eventually I moved to New York for a year, and 10 years later I was with Limon and doing that whole process.

-My life partner Emily and I had been there for a long time (8 and 11 years, respectively), and we both realized we didn’t want to move to another company.  So I made a decision that I wanted to apply to law schools.  My undergraduate degrees were in Political Science and Women’s Studies.  My professors encouraged me to do law school as a more portable degree. I was lucky enough to go to Stanford and thought I was done with dance.  -After about 2 months they invited me to be a guest lecturer, and I actually never stopped dancing. After law school I worked for a wonderful organization in Minnesota called Farmers Legal Action Group that promotes sustainable agriculture and family farms.

-Once the dance people found I was there, I started doing dance again.  Then daughter Willa came along and it was too much, the seams started to show.

-I applied for professorship at University of Minnesota and established Black Label Movement as an entity. I used to joke that my first school of dance was soccer, but I’m serious about that now.  It was more of a mental shift and re-examination of how the body is being used.

Why is it called Black Label Movement?

-I love it because people always ask me about it.  People are actually interested and ask what it means.

-In the late 70s,early 80s when I was teens to 20 there was these things called generic foods.  Now they actually have glossy branding.  Back then, you would walk into the generic end of the grocery store and see boxes and boxes of cans with a black label around them. “Peas” and “Peaches”.  I would go in and walk down those aisles for the serenity of no nonsense commerciality.  No jolly green giant.  That no- nonsense approach to selling seemed a very honest and consistent way with doing the work the way I want to do.

-Trying not to hide behind a veneer of glossiness.  This is what we are, being true to the artistic choice of the moment and not trying to hide it. The movement part of Black Label Movement is very important to me.  I have not tried to get away from my social justice work of women’s studies, I like the multiple layers of what ‘movement’ means.  It’s about being in the world and communicating with others.  A core value of the art I’m trying to make and the community that I’m building inside of my company.

What about in connection to food?  I’ve met many ballerinas-turned-chefs, summer farmers who are Fall and Winter modern dancers, etc etc.  Any thoughts on these links, besides the obvious “food as fuel” connection?

-I’ve undergone a recommitment to my relationship to food.  As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that the examination of how food comes in and is eliminated becomes really important.  It’s difficult to keep eating patterns when you were younger as healthful in 30s…40s… 50s.

-One of things I’ve learned recently is to have an encounter with food that sees it as every level of its use.  That holistic examination has let me have an efficient relationship with it rather than obsessing about it.

-My interest with food isn’t so much in its production of making of it, but in terms of its impact on multiple layers that food goes through in our bodies.

You mentioned your daughter is enrolled in the youth program.  What do you hope for her to learn about food and nutrition as young artist?

-What I appreciate is that they do have a commitment to providing a healthful diet and being extremely embracing of different diets.  My daughter is a vegetarian, and the YAP program meets that need, and that is unusual.  It seems like it shouldn’t be in today’s world. But it still is.

-She actually comes home and talks about the food that she eats, it’s quite important to her.  To be in a place that gets that, makes it pretty special.  I also think it helps young bodies learn how to energize at a young age.  To have my daughter learning that when she’s 9 and see it reinforced in an institutional space is really important.  In other spaces she always has people question her choice, making fun of being a vegetarian, and it’s nice to know there are spaces for her to go where that’s not going to be the imperative.

-What’s wonderful about nutrition is that your body because an incredible lab, not in some weird way.  If I eat only fruit in the morning, is that enough? How does that impact me? Different diets have different impacts for different bodies.  That has been revolutionary for me.

What is your favorite meal in Commons?

-Sesame nuggets.  Raspberry fritters with mango sauce.  Take the cake.

-Sophie

This Saturday I was an usher at the UN/Stable Landscape performance.  The work is collaboration between JoAnna Mendl Shaw’s company, The Equus Projects, and Carl Flink’s company, Black Label Movement.  It also featured some of the BDF students! Woo!

The blazing day seemed to not bother the dancers or the horses, as all the performers had a simultaneous graceful elegance and wild abandonment while tackling the huge pasture, paddock, and boulder that defined the farm.  The opening image was especially resonant, with the BDF students spanning over the vast hill in wind swept, floor-length evening gowns.  Their simple, strong movement and dress contrasted nicely with the running and diving of the all red-clad Black Label Movement dancers.

The horses easily performed all of their movements on cue, circling and galloping in harmony with the dancers.  They barely noticed the 200+ audience members while contacting with the dancers.  Or if they did, they seemed to not mind being watched.  Especially memorable was a moment of contact between three of the horses and BLM dancer Eddie Oroyan, which was too genuine and spontaneous to have been choreographed.  That moment, for me, was a highlight and testament to the fun of improvisation.

Kudos to all of the performers, Flink, and Mendl Shaw for a thoughtful and distinguished performance.  What a feat for being created in two short weeks!

-Sophie

One of my roommates was away this weekend, so I was lucky enough to steal her ticket and see both performances of “Prophets of Funk,” from David Dorfman Dance.  This was the third time I saw a version of the piece, the first being in January 2011 at APAP in New York.  Here are some of my thoughts on two changes I noticed.

1. David’s Role in the Work.       During the lecture demonstration early last week, the company discussed the process of deciding David’s role in the piece.  In January, if I recall correctly, David watched the piece on stage and also kicked off the piece with a dance and speech to the audience.  Here at Bates, David interspersed his movement within the rest of the work, and did not address the audience via voice at the start of the show.  I interpreted the solos as transitions between sections, as well as drawing parallels between David’s character and Raja’s character (as Sly Stone).  I also imagined David as a representation of the vibe of living and experiencing the music in that time.  While the individual company members seemed to portray individual reactions to issues and the music of the period, for me David was more of an overarching, summarizing character.  This stood out especially in the new ending…..
2. The New Ending.        Both nights the piece closed with Raja and David returning to the diagonal of the beginning entrance, raising one arm in a peace sign while the stage faded to black.  Raja claimed a wide-set, firm stance.  David continued to jam, slowly quieting his movements–but keeping the beat in his torso until the fade out.  I thought it was a poignant visual, alluding to the relationship between Sly Stone and his fans.  Maybe even prophets to their followers, in a larger sense.  Or I could be way off.  That’s one of those fun things about abstracted art.

Lastly, I wanted to give a quick shout out to performer Whitney Tucker, who did the most graceful improvised duet with a moth that I’ve ever seen.  During her moving solo speech, a moth descended from stage right, as if on cue after a pause in her monologue.  Lit perfectly, she seized the moment so fast that the audience erupted in cheers at her quick (-est) wit.

A moth’s life span is only about one week.  If he only knew the 15 minutes he just got.

-Sophie

This past Friday marked a regular favorite at the festival, “Class Switch Day”.  For one day only, students could switch their daily schedules to practice with faculty that they may not normally see during the festival.

Hip hop dancers to ballet, Pilates abandonment for extra modern, and many flocked to yoga for some much needed afternoon relief. I even talked with one student who took a pre and post class from the wonderfully animal Kathleen Hermesdorf and Albert Mathias.

I decided to have a technique heavy day, with David Dorfman’s morning modern, the treat of Jenna Riegel teaching Lisa’s class, and clubbing with Kathleen and Albert post lunch.  Not only was the day very “physical,” (so sorry to use my least favorite, least descriptive dance word) but I was thrown for a loop mentally with the excitingly different styles of each class.

Let’s start at the top:

David began with a much appreciated, friendly warm-up.  Not only was it body-friendly after the soreness from Week 2 sunk in, but David (in his signature fashion) took time throughout the class to remind us all to connect to everyone in the room.  At the conclusion of the 40ish person class, he knew every dancer’s name.

Jenna Riegal powered through the second class, having all of the students leaping and attempting to imitate her insane (-ly good) energy throughout the class.  Once 12:30 hit, we all bounced our way over to Commons to refuel and ponder her ability to jump just so gosh-darn big.

After lunch, Kathleen and Albert’s class began with a fire alarm.  After we shuffled back into the gym, Albert and Kathleen seamlessly began the class and the awkwardness of the alarm was quickly forgotten.  Also important to note: Kathleen is one of the most inventive and unabashedly generous improviser to ever live.  Fact.  Also fact, the class felt like it lasted about 5 minutes.

Overall, class switch day=great success!  It was a great way to end Week 2 and energize us all for the final week.

-Sophie

Photo by Thomas Haentzschel

Mike Vargas is a virtuosic listener.  His compositions, performances, collaborations, and improvisations are informed by his surroundings.  On the stage, he draws from his bank of musical memory. For dance, he listens to moving bodies and energetic shifts.

Although Mike initially trained as a classical pianist, he is largely self-taught via a sensitive ear.  Working in a record store sparked his interest in music’s diversity.  He explained “that’s when I began listening to music that was not pop.”  This exposure led him to dabble in virtually every type of music, from free jazz and world to found sound and electronic.   Today, he draws from it all in his improvisations.

On Tuesday, the Bates dance community listened to his original work What Is an Open Mind?. The atonal melody wove in and out of itself, always interrupting and being interrupted.  Mike explained this element of the piece’s structure: “It’s like walking on top of crusty snow in the winter, and you’re not sure when you will fall in.”  He artfully utilized a variety of textures, as one might use different energies on unstable ground.  The music featured sparse notation in one moment and a chaotic palette in the next.

In addition to the concert stage, Mike improvises for dancers, and has been doing so since 1978.  His extensive work in the field has taught him to listen to movement and energy, then convert it into music.  Peek into Plavin studio between nine and ten thirty and you may hear a jolly Strauss-esque waltz, an electronic drum set groove, or an ethereal gong soundscape.  His sense of musical possibility is endless.

For Mike, the most rewarding aspect of improvising for dance classes is working in real time.  In human time.  He is not merely an accompanist; he is certainly not a human jute-box; he is an artistic collaborator.

To hear clips of Mike’s compositions and check out funky photos of his former facial hair, visit his website: www.mikevargas.net

-Brianna