Click here to read more Picture This Post American Dance Festival stories.
Is it theater?
Is it dance?
Is it a musical performance?
The Bipeds of Durham, NC are all about blurring these lines. The Bipeds are described by the American Dance Festival as “…a unique compositional approach combining movement, music, and lyrics to create a peculiar and compelling hybrid of dance and song…”
Here, Picture This Post (PTP) talks with Stacy Wolfson (SW) and Curtis Eller (CE) to elaborate upon their work and their upcoming premiere commissioned by the American Dance Festival for their MADE IN NORTH CAROLINA event on July 7, 2024.
PTP) How would you describe your unique compositional approach to Picture This Post readers?
(CE) We strive to employ movement, music, and lyrics, in equal measure, to tell stories that can’t be easily told within the limitations of any discipline. We sometimes describe singing as choreography for the lungs, and dance as melody or harmony for bodies. Lyrics are choreography for language. Each aspect works to support the others.
How does your creative process unfold?
(CE) We often start with a choreographic move or phrase. When we encounter a question that can’t be answered choreographically, we turn to the music to find a path forward. Sometimes the equation is reversed. This encourages unexpected choices, and results in unusual movement and musical structures. Occasionally, a lyrical idea will inform the dance or music and we build from there. Each gear is necessary to keep the machine turning.
What are the features of your new work commissioned by ADF for the Made in North Carolina event?
(CE) As with our previous works, we have tried to blur the lines between the various disciplines. Integrating the dancers, musicians, and singers in a way that calls into question the definition of dance and music.
Who are the dancers? Who are the musicians? Which came first? What is dance anyway? We hope the audiences find these questions impossible to answer.
(SW) We tend to gravitate towards humor and a bit of silliness in our work, but for “We Know this by Heart”, we found ourselves in darker territory. We unexpectedly began exploring themes of school shootings and teenage mental health. As parents of teens ourselves, we felt it an important story to tell.
What first drew you to dance? When did you decide to become professional dancers?
(CE) As a banjo player and rock & roll singer, I’ve always embraced movement in my stage presentation. After having seen my band in action, Stacy brought me into The Bipeds, where I’ve learned to approach the movement aspect of performance in a more disciplined manner. Then I asked her to join my band.
(SW) My mom put me in dance at the age of 4, because I “was never still.” It began a lifelong love affair of dance and I will never stop.
How do you approach balancing lyrics vs movement to tell the tale/s?
(CE) Although we don’t consider dance as being inherently superior to these other elements, we usually describe The Bipeds as dance theatre. Dance offers the performative structure necessary for telling our stories in the most mysterious and theatrical way. Dance is the central tentpole of The Bipeds project.
Photos courtesy the The Bipeds.
For more information visit The Bipeds website.
For tickets to the July 7, 2024 Made in North Carolina performance, including The Bipeds, visit the American Dance Festival website.
