A public discussion on the creative process with MOTION Dance+Theatre
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center – 56 Broadway – Asheville
Friday, June 15, 7:30 p.m.
Moderated by Brenda Coates
$7 / $5 for BMCM+AC members + students w/ID
How do you keep a centuries old art form feeling as relevant and modern now as the day it was created? Can something commonly linked to beauty and purity also give voice to complicated world issues? This public forum will feature a discussion with MOTION DANCE+THEATRE’s director Nick Kepley and its choreographers, dancers and composer about the different creative processes utilized by each artist and how elements of these techniques can be applied to all fields.
The questions above are precisely the questions Asheville area native Nick Kepley is asking himself. And with the creation of his dance company, MOTION Dance+Theatre, in 2010, he began to find the answers. Kepley, an Asheville area native, describes MOTION as a “choreographic laboratory,” rather than a traditional concert performance company. Each summer, he chooses six dancers and two guest choreographers from across the country and provides them with three weeks of restriction-free time to create. As a freelance choreographer, Kepley explains that he has often found himself limited by time and the pressure to deliver something specific.
“In the past, I’ve been asked to create 20-minute ballets in five days,” Kepley said. “It’s not impossible, but it does leave you wondering what you might have come up with if you just had a little more time and freedom.”
Kepley, who has danced professionally with Ballet Austin and Kansas City Ballet as well as on Broadway, founded the company in 2010. He called together friends from far and near to experiment and create work in New York City. The company performed three sold-out performances at Dance Theatre Workshop. But the financial realities of running a dance company in the Big Apple could not to be ignored. “It didn’t look like we’d be able to repeat it,” Kepley said. “I was really discouraged because everyone who had been involved seemed to really love the experience.”
Then, in early 2011, calls began to come in from supporters in North Carolina. People were curious to see what MOTION was all about.“We don’t get to see a lot of professional dance in Asheville,” Kepley said. “For a city that offers so much diverse culture, it’s still really lacking in that area.”
Besides the opportunity for artistic creation, a lack of dance awareness in modern culture was Kepley’s other motivation in founding the company. “I want ballet to feel important; to feel current,” Kepley said. “I want people to understand that it can convey complex ideas and emotions and that it’s not just tutus and tiaras.”
Six dancers from Ballet Austin, Colorado Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and Nashville Ballet, will travel to Asheville to participate in the residency this summer. Kepley will create a new ballet set to an original piano composition by University of North Carolina School of the Arts graduate Bruce Tippette. He has also invited two other choreographers to participate in the project: Gabrielle Lamb and Brian Carey Chung.
Chung, who has his own company called Collective Body Dance Lab in New York City, has created works for Cedar Lake II and Connecticut Ballet. He says he was immediately drawn to MOTION and the nurturing creative environment that it provides. “[Kepley] is so earnest about the process of creating work and having a safe place to do that,” Chung said.
Both choreographers agree that having all the resources provided for them in advance, would allow for more artistic freedom. “When you’re a freelancer…and based in New York, everything becomes that much more difficult,” Lamb said. “You have to do everything yourself: rent the studios, employ the dancers, find venues. This is a wonderful chance to have that all taken care of, to go someplace and to concentrate on the work.”
Kepley believes in presenting as diverse a program as possible and felt this could be accomplished by bringing Chung and Lamb onboard. Chung likes to play with “different ways of creating work,” and experiments with the use of multi-media. Lamb likes to describe her work as “cinematic,” and says that the work she has done in film has strongly influenced her choreography.
This year, in addition to their performances in Tryon at Tryon Fine Arts Center, and in Asheville at Diana Wortham Theatre, MOTION will present a moderated public discussion called “The Art of Creation,” at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center at 56 Broadway in downtown Asheville. This public forum approach will feature a discussion with the choreographers, dancers and composer on the different creative processes utilized by each artist and how elements of these techniques can be applied to all career fields.
“Art doesn’t change the world,” Kepley said. “People do.” He explains that by nurturing the next generation of dance-makers and encouraging more conversations about dance and the arts in general, MOTION hopes to challenge and inspire people to think about art in a new way.
“The audience may come and see something new and be absolutely captivated,” Kepley said. “We hope that they leave with thoughts and questions. We don’t even mind if they don’t love everything they see. We just want them to think.”
CREATION OF DANCE
at Tryon Fine Arts Center
Thursday June 21st, 7pm
and at
Diana Wortham Theatre
Saturday June 23rd, 7:30pm
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Nick Kepley at 917-627-9345 or Alice Sebrell at 828-350-8484
WWW.MOTIONDT.COM
