Choreographer and performance artist Jonah Bokaer to present show in Ithaca
Published by Natasha August 9th, 2007 in Local, Interview, Dance.
Here’s the following article about dancer/choreographer/performance artist Jonah Bokaer that appears in this week’s Ithaca Times. I’d spoken with Bokaer almost exactly one year ago (in preparation for his excellent ” | underscore | ” performance at the Kiplinger Theatre), and, once again, I was amazed at how pulled-together and smart Bokaer is at such a young age (he’s 25). Watch this space for the full transcript of our interview, and be sure to head over to the Henry St. Johns Building tonight at 8pm for his free performance/preview. Here’s our arts cover story:
This summer, Ithaca native Jonah Bokaer will return home for an exclusive preview performance of a piece in progress, titled “Invention of Minus One.” This will be a unique opportunity to see Bokaer’s innovative choreography, still in the early creative stages, and his exploration to various media in relationship with contemporary dance techniques. Bokaer’s work typically displays a canny blend of dance, technology and science, with a confident, rigorous aesthetic — his pieces combine elements of avant-garde dance, music, video, even animation software and other digital tools.
During the past year, he has continued to refine his approach. “Invention of Minus One is a work about erasing pattern, or disassembling pattern and really taking a look at it,” Bokaer explains. “So much digital media has to do with binary code, or ones and zeroes. It occurred to me that in a lot of different numeric systems such as binary code, people don’t communicate in reverse; they don’t count backwards. I’m trying to take a look at new patterns.”
Jim Self, who is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance at Cornell University, as well as a former member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (Bokaer is a current member), will bring Bokaer and his “Invention of Minus One” piece to Ithaca for the first-ever Summer of Love Shoe Fest. “It’s [about] bringing love through dance and movement, and drawing attention to the role of shoes, walking and dancing,” Self says.
Self is hoping that the Summer of Love Shoe Fest will present a “new way to experience dance” by employing unusual venues, unexpected contexts, and performers in other media for these experimental performances. The festival will feature events throughout August and September, including a master dance class by Banu Ogan at CSMA and the Love Shoe Laff Fest: On the Loose, a moving improvisation to be held on the Commons on Friday afternoon.
As a full-time instructor and choreographer, Self is an active member of the Cornell dance community, but the Summer of Love Shoe Fest seeks to bridge members of the Cornell dance community with the Ithaca dance community, as well as NYC dancers and beyond. “Jim has a deep interest in generating interest in the local dance communities of Ithaca,” Bokaer says. “I applaud his efforts and what he’s done to build more awareness about these kind of events.”
Every moment, Self continues to familiarize himself with the local dance scene. “I’m just beginning to get to know the Ithaca dance community,” Self says. “Being on the Cornell Dance faculty is usually very consuming and doesn’t leave much time to get out and get to know other dance activities and people in the area. I’m enjoying having a strong impetus to interact with a larger community.”
Last summer, Bokaer presented a modern dance performance “| underscore |” to a sold-out house at the Kiplinger Theatre in the Schwartz Center. “It seemed like a warm, responsive community,” Bokaer recalls. “And rather than going in the same direction as last year, I’m presenting a piece that is in need for space for a permanent project development. Jim and I talked about using studio space at Cornell, but then he mentioned this initiative with the NYS Dance Force. That kind of community involvement is natural, because I still feel very connected to the Ithaca community.”
Already in the third month of the making, “Invention of Minus One” is set to premiere in NYC in March 2008. “It’s still very much in its formative stages. But it’s a year-long project, and it’s such a pleasure to share the work at this stage in the game. We’re glad that there’s already been this kind of enthusiasm — even before the completion of the piece,” Bokaer laughs. “It’s exciting. It means we really have our work cut out for us!”
Ithacans will have the very first look into Bokaer’s piece, which will also feature four dancers from the international modern dance world — Holley Farmer, Banu Ogan, Rashaun Mitchell, and Michael Cole, all of whom have danced or dance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. “It’s a privilege to scale back a little bit and work with a trio,” Bokaer explains. “They’re three very mature, award-winning performers. The fact that they are such seasoned artists is having a big impact on the way the work is being built.”
Bokaer will also be featured in the Queer Love Shoe Fest on September 9 at the Common Ground, which will focus on queer dance and the gay communities of Ithaca. Although performing in a bar may seem idiosyncratic to some, Bokaer thrives on unexpected venues and transforming spaces. “I run a performance space in Brooklyn, a loft studio space,” explains Bokaer. “So creating new environments for dance is definitely familiar, and it’s something that I welcome. It’s great for people to experience dance up close — at a close proximity, rather than in the seats of a theater.”
Self echoes these thoughts. “This is material which can be presented in a larger theater venue, offbeat spaces, as a digital event, or in this case, up close and personal in an informal context where viewers can feel more ‘inside’ the event,” Self says.
“Queer Love” will feature the works of Bokaer and two other performance artists, Miguel Gutierrez and Shasta Cola. “Dance is a perfect form to explore gender and sexuality because it is so immediate and visible,” Self says. “The body is the site of sexuality and gender, so drawing attention to that aspect is very easy for the dancing body. We tend to wear our body identities without much question, so when a dance artist shows us the many possibilities for body expression, it can be a deeply profound experience.”
“When the body is your material, the relationship to society, culture and politics is not a far leap at all. And if you think about the kind of scholarship that has occurred in gay studies, women’s studies and cultural studies, a lot of it focuses on the experience of the body,” explains Bokaer. “And the artists that Jim has chosen are really on the cutting edge of NYC dance.”
Bokaer now resides in Brooklyn, where he operates the studio Chez Bushwick. “What I find interesting, is that Brooklyn probably has the largest concentration of artists in the world. It’s really a petrie dish of activity and new work. A lot of artists are running their own spaces, and so different kinds of public programming can happen. It’s very generative,” says Bokaer. “Jim, in his own way, is related to that kind of thinking, that kind of creative culture in NYC. He lived in lower Manhattan in the 70s in a loft, and that’s where a lot of early performances were happening in NYC. He also lived in a similar kind of loft in Ithaca, and I think that’s probably had an influence on the way that he is curating.”
“Invention of Minus One” will begin at 8pm on Thursday, August 9 at the Henry St. Johns Building on 301 South Geneva St. The event is free. The Love Shoe Laff Fest: On the Loose will take place on the Commons on Friday, August 10 at 4pm. The Queer Love Shoe Fest will be held at the Common Ground on 1230 Danby Rd. on September 8 at 9pm. The Summer of Love Shoe Fest 2007 is a grant recipient of the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.
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