- Hi, I'm Michael Gadlin.
- And I'm Kate Perdoni.
Welcome back to Arts District on Rocky Mountain PBS.
- Collaboration amongst arts organizations
has a strong tradition in Colorado.
It enriches the experience for artists and audiences.
- This season, Colorado Ballet,
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, and Wonderbound
came together and intermingled in a Tour de Force.
- Arts journalist Eden Lane was at the world premier
and brings us a special in-studio conversation
with the artistic director of each company.
Plus, a glimpse of the rehearsals.
- Three years ago, Gil Boggs,
the artistic director of Colorado Ballet,
had the idea to collaborate with two other companies
right here in Colorado.
Tonight is the world premier of that idea.
It's Tour de Force,
Colorado Ballet, Wonderbound, and Cleo Parker Robinson.
We began following the journey of this project
a few weeks ago.
Here's a look at our conversation
with the artistic directors
in the studios at Rocky Mountain PBS.
Tour de Force is what?
- Tour de Force was an idea that I came up with
of just collaborating with these two wonderful companies.
You know, I adore the work that they do
and I wanted them to come work with our dancers.
And then, you know, not just the choreographers themselves
but I wanted to bring their dancers in
and work with our dancers as well.
So a complete collaboration, if you will.
- That's very different.
Often we see companies cross-pollinate in terms of
I'll come choreograph on your company and you,
But to blend the companies together
is a little bit more unusual.
How did that...
- Blending the dancers, a little unusual,
because three distinct, different styles
for the companies.
I guess the one fear was, will they get along?
Will the collaboration work?
You know, how are they gonna react to each other
and coming into the building and being there.
And from day one, I mean, it was just,
it was comradery at its finest.
And still today, months later,
when we're finishing up rehearsals
they're hugging each other,
thanking each other for the work, the time.
So it's been great.
- Tell me about your reaction when Gil presented
the idea to each of you.
- Immediately, it was yes.
The next question was, when?
(laughter)
But yeah the reaction was, absolutely.
I was thrilled about the idea of getting to create
a work with so much talent and also with such a large cast
because it opens up all kinds of possibilities.
We're used to working in an ensemble of ten dancers,
so expanding that to 20 dancers
and seeing what you can do with that
was really appealing to me.
- What was your reaction, Cleo?
- I think when Gil presented the idea
of our collaboration
I just said, "Oh my god is that extraordinary!"
I could hardly believe it.
But, the question was, who's going to choreograph?
And the proposal was due rather soon in my mind
I'm like oh gosh, I better come up,
and I thought about all the choreographers
I thought would be fantastic.
And then I went, I wanna choreograph, are you kidding?
And then I got really selfish.
I went I don't even have a clue of what I want to do.
But I just knew that would be way fun.
And then as soon as I started working
I said, dancers, this is like,
this is dance heaven right here.
This is it.
It was thrilling, it was great.
And I loved this.
I mean it really was the energy of just
lots of love and respect.
- Tell me about the idea.
Clearly you spent some time sitting with it
when you realized no I wasn't gonna
give this chance away to somebody else.
I was gonna keep it for myself.
Tell me about the idea that you came up with.
- Oh, the idea of what I would do
didn't happen for a long time.
All I knew,
I knew I couldn't decide
until I saw them together.
That was really what I understood.
- So did you give a class together
first to see how their bodies would...
- No, the first day I walked in and I said
dancers, I don't have a clue.
I do not have a clue, I will not lie.
I said but guess what, you're going to tell me
what we're going to do.
You're going to give me the gift,
I'll give it back to you.
But I knew that what was going to happen between them
was what I was going to create.
And I had to be really really open.
You know I had to be open to what I was seeing.
And I just knew whatever they were going to do,
they were brilliant.
The dancers are brilliant.
I mean, how could I go wrong?
It's called "The MOVEment"
so what does it mean to us?
What does "The MOVEment" mean?
What is all that fighting for people's rights mean?
What I think will happen is that they'll empower
the audience to know that they're the MOVEment.
That we're all a part of making change.
Everyone has a role in that.
- Ultimately what I came to realize
is my main thing that I wanted to do
was take the opportunity to put all these people together
and take a moment to say
regardless of how much we spend our time
trying to differentiate ourselves in the world,
trying to make ourselves unique,
trying to say I'm different because,
or our organization is different because
this moment is a moment to say
this is how we are all the same.
And by doing that I realized that,
for one, I wanted to not differentiate
between the two companies.
So I created a work where each Colorado Ballet dancer
is paired with a Wonderbound dancer.
My work is very focused and built on partnering.
That's kind of the driving force of my work.
So each one of them is paired
with a dancer from the other company.
And then using that as the impetus
to discover what happens when you bring these new voices
into the conversation.
I ultimately, pretty late in my development process,
ultimately landed on Beethoven's
"The Creatures of Prometheus"
and I ended up naming the work "Creatures of Prometheus."
And it's one of only two ballets that he wrote.
- It's gratitude, so I think that's it.
I'm just most grateful.
And I got to see you work with the company.
So that was exciting for me to see,
because I could see how I was working,
I've seen them in concert, they're phenomenal.
And then to watch what you're doing
with the same dancers I'm working with was like
these dancers are phenomenal.
I said, "What are you made of? I love that."
To be able to say to each other,
"You are absolutely phenomenal, absolutely."
And to be totally authentic about it,
that's where we are.
How blessed are we?
- Yeah, I don't think it's lost on any of us
how fortunate we are that we've spent
our entire lives in dance.
That we've been able to make our careers and our lives
doing this amazing thing.
But we also are aware that because of that fortune
that it's so important to share that with the world.
And that what we have to do every day is
share our entire selves with the world.
That's our responsibility
for having the good fortune of being artists for a living.
Yeah, it's gratitude and it's sharing
and it's community.
- For me, I absolutely love this art form.
And I'd do anything to make it better.
You know, as a dancer I wanted to be in a company
that I loved the repertoire that was there.
And I wanted to be inspired.
For me that's the important part of all of this
is to bring something in the repertoire
that we're performing
and for people to be inspired.
Because then the product that you get on-stage
is gonna be amazing.