that wherever her new revelations lead, her powers will be formidable in every direction toward which her practice bends.
I recently asked her about her keen interest in language, and she responded: “What my body can do is limited. This is not a bad thing because how I choreograph frees me from those limitations. Writing is then how I reframe and understand the body through my choreography.”
Being freed from limitations is what I have witnessed and experienced in Deborah’s entire body of work, which stands as a gift to those who are engaged in her orbit. Deborah is in complete possession of the skills and disposition to upend restraints. Most typically she has set her sights on those restraints from which artists in particular draw. But perhaps all of us more generally can examine the assets of what we have spent years perfecting, illustrating, and maintaining and consider them anew. Perhaps in doing so we can in some way be liberated from the limitations that our own maturing skills unconsciously present to us later on.
Using the Sky is indeed a generous invitation to draw from Deborah’s accumulated observations a departure point from what we already know, so that we can arrive in places we may otherwise never have imagined.
Kristy Edmunds
preface
I am among friends. It is evening, and the lake is dark and still. There is a red circular life buoy floating some distance from shore. Drifting on my back, cradled by the buoy, I realize my mind is in a thousand places, so I look up at the sky. At first I see only blackness. Soon enough shades of pale amber light reveal layers of shifting and billowing clouds. They force my breath to rise. Then I begin to wonder how far I have drifted. Trying to twist around to see land, I fear capsizing. I take a moment to decide not to worry, and turn back to the sky.
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
A dream
acknowledgments
I am indebted to the following dancers, each one an extraordinary test site for my choreography since 2000. The full cast for each ensemble work is listed here, so a few dancers are acknowledged more than once because they appeared in several works. These artists have had a particularly strong impact on the development of my choreography, and I would not be where I am now without their sensitivity and passion.
Whizz (2001): Raquel Aedo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Emily Coates, Rosalynde LeBlanc, Michael Lomeka, Emanuele Phuon, Keith Sabado
Single Duet (2001): Mikhail Baryshnikov
The Match (2004): Wally Cardona, Mark Lorimer, Chrysa Parkinson, Ros Warby
“O, O” (2005 and 2006) (the New York and French adaptations): Jeanine Durning, Neil Greenberg, Miguel Gutierrez, Juliette Mapp, Vicky Schick, and, in France, Nuno Bizarro, Corinne Garcia, Emmanuelle Huynh, Jennifer Lacey, Catherine Legrand, Laurent Pichaud, Sylvain Prunenec
Mountain (2007): Gaelen Hanson, Peggy Piacenza, Amelia Reeber
Grope and Find It and Pull It Out (2008): Andrea Buckley, Rachel Krische, Jane Mason, Fiona Millward
If I Sing to You (2008): Michelle Boulé, Jeanine Durning, Catherine Legrand, Juliette Mapp, Vera Nevanlinna, Amelia Reeber
Up Until Now (2009): Alana Elmer, Mairi Greig, Syreeta Hector, David Houle, Yuichiro Inoue, Pulga Muchochoma, Simon Renaud, Kaitlin Standeven, Brodie Stevenson, Naishi Wang, Sarah Wasik, Linnea Wong
Breaking the Chord (2010): Clara Amaral, Koldo Arostegui, Esther Arribas, Fernando Belfiore, Marlene Bunge, William Collins, Marina Colomina, Nina Djekic, Florentina Holzinger, Setareh Fatehi Irani, Tomislav Feller, Adriano Jensen, Marzena Krzenimska, Lilach Livne, Andriana Lubina, Thibault Maillard, Adrius Mulokas, Magdalena Ptasznik, Alice Pons, Noha Ramadan, Olivia Reschofsky, Vincent Riebeek, Michele Rizzo, Karina Sarkissova, Agata Siniarska, Rodrigo Sobarzo, Alma Soderberg, Eva Susova, Simon Tanguy, Olga Tsvetkova, Lisa Vereertbrugghen, Marta Ziolek, Alexander Gershberg, Sara Ostertag
Lightening (2010): Joona Halonen, Satu Halttunen, Anne Hiekkaranta, Jyrki Karttunen, Jenni-Elina Lehto, Vera Nevanlinna
A Lost Opera (2011): Ella Clarke, Julie Lockett, Cindy Cumming
As Holy Sites Go (2011): Jeanine Durning, Juliette Mapp, Ros Warby
Blues (2012): Rashaun Mitchell, Omagbitse Omagbemi, Samantha Speis, Simone Sobers, April Matthis, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, Malcolm Low, Paul Hamilton, Stacy Spence, Niv Acosta, Marya Wethers, Maggie Jones, Abby Block, Meredith Fages, Kathy Wasik, Margaret Paek, Jocelyn Tobias, Laurie Berg, Emily Moore, Stephanie Miracle, Hana van der Kolk, Rebecca Davis
Richmond Hall (2012): Joanna Friesen, Neil Ellis Orts, Angeles Romero, Leslie Scates, Paul Smith, Toni Valle
As Holy Sites Go/duet (2012): Jeanine Durning and Ros Warby
Not included are the names of more than three hundred dancers/choreographers who participated in my annual Solo Performance Commissioning Project (SPCP) from 1998 through 2012. The experience of working with these individuals was way more than one person deserves. I salute them, and that book will come.
Since 2000 the consistent administration, production, and/or presentation of my work by several presenters, producers, and educators have been gifts of a lifetime:
Jennifer Tipton
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Bill Forsythe and The Forsythe Company
Michèle Steinwald
Laurie Uprichard and Judy Hussie-Taylor and Danspace Project, in New York City
Movement Research, New York City
Gill Clarke and Fiona Millward of Independent Dance, London, England, Karl Jay-Lewin, Dance North, SCT
Kirsi Monni and Raija Ojala of the Theater Academy and Zodiak in Helsinki, Finland
Festival d’Automne, Paris
Dancehouse, and Jane Refshauge, Melbourne, Australia
Christopher House and Toronto Dance Theatre, Canada
Gabriel Smeets and the School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam
L’Atelier de Paris Carolyn Carlson, Vincennes, France
P.A.R.T.S, Brussels, Belgium
Josette Pisani, Danse Objectif, Marseille, France
I am proud of and grateful for the insight, encouragement, and support I have received from Scott deLahunta. Along with the input and creativity from Amin Webber and Florian Jenett throughout the Motion Bank project, we were able to take the ball, run with it, and manage to score together. Using the Sky is also the name of my score as it appears on the Motion Bank website.
I am deeply appreciative to Laurent Pichaud, who began working with me as a dancer/choreographer and translator in 2006. He has since assisted in
