Another project I have on the horizon is the commission of a new duet from renowned San Francisco-based choreographer, Robert Moses, for Bliss Kohlmyer and myself. We applied for and received a grant for the commissioning fee and travel expenses to bring Robert to Tampa to create this new duet for Bliss and me. We will begin the creation process in January 2024, and we will perform the new dance in BEACON24 at the Palladium in St. Petersburg.
In response to our questions about dance and the aging body, we are putting together a series of duets created by choreographers we have worked with in the past, and Robert’s work is the first in the project. Bliss danced in Robert’s company, Robert Moses’ Kin, for years when she lived in San Francisco, and her connection is what is making this first duet possible.
There is such a wealth of knowledge in our bodies, and as dancers we are shaped by the choreographers with whom we have worked. A dancer’s job is to communicate a choreographer’s intention – and the longer you work with someone, the better you get at anticipating and realizing/manifesting/executing what they are trying to express.
We are interested in what happens when we “go back” and work with foundational choreographers from our “past lives” in our performance careers. The next choreographer we plan to commission a duet from is José Bustamante, former co-artistic director of Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks in Austin, TX, a company I danced with for years before our final performance in 2007.
