46 days: Belinda McGuire

46 days until #DanceWeekend19!

Next our countdown is Belinda McGuire Dance Projects. Belinda will be performing Sunday January 27 at 3:40pm on the DanceWeekend stage.

Social Media Links:

instagram –belindamcguire

twitter – BmcGuireDance

facebook – @BMcGuireDance

 

Can you tell us little bit about your company/collective/school?

Established in 2007, Belinda McGuire Dance Projects (BMDP) supports the research, development, production, and presentation of international and collaborative multidisciplinary dance performance as a means to stimulate the conscientious capacity of wide-ranging publics through exposure to creative experimentation and artistic excellence.

What are showing at DanceWeekend’19?

Cello Counterpoint

Who are the performers/collaborators in this piece(s)?

Belinda McGuire – dancer

Katharine Mallinson – costume designer

With music by Steve Reich.

Can you talk about your creative process? What inspires you?

As a choreographer and dancer I am interested in “revealing” or allowing-to-be-seen, rather than “showing”.  I use the establishment and navigation of choreographic design to frame, focus on, get close to and better understanding the subject. Via technical, interpretive or choreographic pursuits, my exploration of instinct and the conditioning of instincts can be summarized like so:

“The environment [E] is designed (stage, lights, props, costumes, sound), and the animal [A] is conditioned (through training, practice, and exposure to the choreographic design, which is essentially a sequence of ‘proposed/available goals/behavior’), so that we can see what E affords A. As this practice continues (of rehearsal and performance), we see how E continues to condition A, and, intentionally or otherwise, how A reshapes or redesigns E, as well as the mode of conditioning.”

In Cello Counterpoint, sound (the music) is a significant (driving, motivating, necessitating) component of the environment.

I seek to illuminate the prevalence of relativity over randomness in the world (zoom in to the seemingly arbitrary, and you will find stimulus and response!).  There is hope and beauty in the belief that actions have consequences, so I celebrate that in my work.

Through dance – creation, collaboration and performance – I want to better understand the way things work, the transparency of my pursuit inviting parallel growth of understanding on the part of the audience. By taking risks and allowing the micro failures and successes to be seen within macro accomplishments, courage becomes contagious.

My research, as a human being with questions about life, is done primarily in solo form. I enjoy being indulgently rigorous in these endeavors, then harness this experience as I embark upon large-scale creations, orchestrating the conditions which allow my dancers to find a similar dynamic of freedom, responsibility, transparency and authority within the work.

Commissioning other choreographers is a practice of self-diversification – stretching myself to see and process in new ways by inviting another artist to speak through me. It informs my research, reinforces my value of community, enriches my work as a mover/interpreter, stimulates my own creativity and broadens my view of art and the world. Collectively, my commissioning platform has seen the creation of eleven new works by artists from four countries. The benefits of these collaborations are amplified by sharing the work with others.

Please share your experience performing in a previous DanceWeekend and/or tell us what you are looking forward to at DanceWeekend’19?

I might have performed at DanceWeekend prior to 2002, when I danced with CCDT.  Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of bringing some of my own work, creations and commissions to a beautiful stage in collaboration with a talented lighting design/stage management team and for an enthusiastic audience.

What is one surprising or interesting fact about your company/collective/school?

Argentine tango is my secret… probably not so secret… mode of cross-training.  It is a huge influence to my work as a dancer, choreographer and human – though perhaps not in easily recognizable ways.

Do you have any up-coming performances/events you would like to share?

I will be performing my solo Slaughterhouse/Requiem at Offset Dance Fest in Brooklyn January 3^rd-5^th 2019.  www.offsetdance.com has all the details.