do it. You just push along and make it happen, it’s been like that from the beginning.
When I moved to New York I came here and started from scratch. My sister was here but I didn’t know many people. I was working many jobs. I was waitressing, babysitting and teaching class to make ends meet, striving for my goal, which I was working on right from the beginning. I was presenting little performances here and there, knowing that if my heart was in the right direction and in the right place that I would just do it. I always felt it was something I had to do. I’ve done it since I was three. It’s what I’ve always done.
Of course there have been amazing people along the way that have helped me. I wouldn’t be where I am without them, especially the dancers I work with because they are so supportive of my work. I have always kept going for it, just trying to always learn. I am definitely not stuck in a way of choreographing. I am learning new things every day. Working, changing, growing, and evolving. I feel like it’s not me that’s supposed to be on the set. It’s something much greater than me. I just try to connect to something spiritually.
Life is busy. It’s crazy how I take things on myself, like the season I’m now doing in New York ( The Travelling Show) with my own company. It’s just something I had to do amongst all of the craziness and amongst all of the companies that I am working with. The dancers that are so supportive of my work and have always been there deserve my attention. Life’s great, it’s busy. I don’t have enough time to get everything done, especially my personal life, but I am building an infrastructure a little bit to assist me, but why not do everything now and having fun doing it?
You are the Artist-in-Residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. What is it like to work with the famous Baryshnikov?
He’s pretty incredible, as everyone knows. Once he takes something into his body and mind, he takes it somewhere that you can’t even imagine. Once it leaves him it’s magic. I think it would be hard for him to do something that isn’t incredible. I think initially when I was making Come In, the piece I did with him and Hell’s Kitchen Dance, I was a bit like, “what do I do?”, for the first hour. “What do I do with this man, who really is an ordinary man that does extraordinary things?” But that was only for the first day.
Mikhail is an incredible man, but he’s also really down to earth and a really beautiful human being as well. He just wants to be a dancer in the studios, being directed. He wants to facilitate the creation of emerging artists. It’s not a big pressure, it’s about the process and about seeing what happens in the studio and keeping it exciting. It’s about just having fun. It helped that I had known him for a couple of years before working with him, and I knew how supportive and brutally honest he was. If he wasn’t happy, he was going to say. I knew if he had a thought, he would say it. He was open and there for me. It’s pretty amazing. He is still very ,very supportive.
Tell us about your choreographic process. From where and how do you pull your ideas and themes?
Every piece is different, but I pull my ideas and themes from the dancers. I am really excited by the human psyche and where people are at. I try not to come up with a grand scheme in my head before walking into the studio. A grand idea doesn’t interest me as much as the people that are right in front of me, meeting the people and the environment. That’s why I am really excited to go to Australia. Not only is it new for the dancers, but it’s a new environment and I have no idea what is going to come to me. That’s really exciting for me. We’ll share something amazing. Australia sounds really amazing.
Where do you pull your movements sources from?
It’s collaborative. Sometimes I have a movement phrase that I’ll start with so I can just sit back and really take it all in and watch the dancers work in the movement, but I am not a choreographer that says, “move like me”. There are a lot of those. At the moment I’m interested in coming up with a family of movements that evolve from the dancers and myself collectively, and then deconstructing that or chipping away at it to build a common language between everyone, so that it’s unrecognisable. It’s a very personal journey for everyone that’s involved.
So if you had a different group of dancers a piece would look completely different?
It’s a very specific aesthetic that I like and I don’t like, but it changes because the family changes.
Your dancers dramatise inner thoughts and impulses in your work. How do you inspire them to express themselves so intimately?
Trust. I don’t know what I was given to be able to access that, but for some reason people trust me. I am given an incredible amount of trust. I don’t think it’s me. I think it’s the situation and the environment. People have just opened themselves. Every place I’ve gone it’s like that. I think it’s also because it’s not for anyone’s ego or for selfish reasons. It’s a safe environment to make a fool of yourself, to try whatever. Whatever you’re feeling is important, or whatever your body wants to do. See where your ideas can take you.
Do you find it hard to build this culture of trust and openness when you travel and work with different companies? How do you create an environment where dancers can break down physical and emotional barriers?
It depends on the dancers and how open they are to the process. Generally it’s a given, because clearly I’m not judging from the beginning. I don’t think you can build something magical and fantastical when there are barriers, when you are constantly inside a cell. Having grown up in the ballet world there is a lot of that and there is a lot of self-judgment and physical perfection. I love ballet so much, I am a huge fan, but there is a lot that it does to a person, or can do to a person. I like my dancers to feel freedom and to not feel like they have to fit inside a certain box, then we can access the beautiful stuff. I know myself, and if I have somebody on my shoulder saying “don’t do this”, I limit myself.
Is it emotionally draining for you and the dancers, as you don’t just do the steps but dance from the inside and make it real?
I think it’s especially draining. I can use my dancers as an example because we have just worked together, and because we create such an environment that is safe, but is also very vulnerable. People do break down. People cry, people laugh, and that’s beautiful. I don’t think you have to come to the process and feel a certain way. A lot of people come in and carry whatever they are going through. If you are willing to go to a place, or if you’re not, I‘m not going to say that you have to bring your emotions to the process, you can come in and do the steps in your way. It’s a personal journey, although I am not really interested in someone who doesn’t bring themselves. I hope the Sydney Dance Company dancers are open…
You have enjoyed many collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, designers, photographers and musicians. How do you find a successful collaboration?
I think it’s a risk that you take. Some people are obviously soul mates a little bit. Some connections are more intuitive than others, but I’ve been pretty lucky in connecting with people. A good collaboration comes from people that have the same kind of vision or understanding for the bigger picture, and are not thinking about themselves. It’s interesting because I don’t know any of those people in Australia. I am excited! What is the worst that could really happen?
What are your goals and visions for your company, Aszure & Artists?
It’s always changing. I set my priorities. My heart is to continue working with special groups of people that have been with me for a long time. Every time we work together, it’s just so rich. There’s a connection you make with certain people along the way that makes magic. I want to tour, I want to come to Australia, I want to share the work with not just with the dance audience. I think it’s important that my work is hopefully accessible. I would love to reach out and let the work connect on a different level than to just a dance audience. It’s important to reach other people, artists, non-artists, young kids. I think there’s a sensibility and a sense of humour. The people are just so interesting in the work that you don’t have to be of a certain dance calibre or a dance mind to appreciate it. I would also love to work with live music. I am a huge fan of music. That’s a goal of mine.
Is music something that inspires you? Do you choose your music and choreograph the work before you enter the studio?
Yes, music inspires me for sure. No, I don’t choose the music before I create the work. I used to in my early twenties. I would have a palette that I would work on for about a year in my head on the subway. I would be working and building it in my mind. But now I love going into the studio and creating the work and choosing the music there. Somehow it’s more vulnerable. I’d rather go in, see what happens and trust the intuitive moments, than to have a plan, because I don’t want to know where I’m going before I get there. When you go into the studio and it’s in your mind already you don’t see all the percolating effervescence in the studio and all the things that can kind of bounce out at you.
What are your plans for Sydney Dance Company? Can you share any secrets about your new work?
I am seriously driving people crazy. It’s getting close and I haven’t been telling anyone anything. I have an idea but I don’t want to talk about it yet. I do know that it is going to be a journey. It’s definitely going to be something that will change in colour and energy…
Do you think you will use the whole company or just select dancers?
I would like to use all the dancers, they are great dancers, but there are always things to think about…but no matter what they will all be involved in the process. That is something that is really important to me. People take for granted the process a lot. I used to as well. I just wanted to be on the stage, and then as I got a bit older I realised how it’s all the same thing. Being in the studio and working and developing the work should be the same thing as being on the stage. You shouldn’t change suddenly when you are on stage.
What are your plans for your time in Australia? What do you want to see and do?
Everything! There is going to be so much going on in Sydney, so that will keep me busy. I’ve been dreaming about it! It’s so weird. I’ll wake up in the morning having these dreams about Sydney even though I haven’t gone yet. I’d like to go outback and travel a bit, if possible. I can’t wait! My sister has been to Australia before and she loved it. I hope to see some other work whilst I’m there. I’d love to see Lucy Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek. But I am so obsessive compulsive about the work that I know that I’m going be focused.
Aszure Barton's work will be performed by Sydney Dance Company at CarriageWorks, October 7th to 25th
www.sydneydancecompany.com
Check out Sydney Dance Co's Season 2
Showing Now!
Choreographed by Rafael Bonachela
Date: July 26th - August 16th
Venue: Carriageworks
www.sydneydancecompany.com
Cover photo: Sydney Dance Company dancer Anabel Knight in Inuk 2, by Meryl Tankard.
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