Overview
Twenty hours. That's how long it takes to travel from New York City to Sydney. Miguel Gutierrez, NYC-based choreographer, made the epic journey Down Under just two days ago. There are no detectable traces of jet lag in the CarriageWorks studios this morning, however, just an air of quiet anticipation. Today is the first day of rehearsal for the second collaboration between Gutierrez and Sydney's three-member dance group the Fondue Set.
Gutierrez seems far from groggy; in fact, he's already hit the gym for a pre-rehearsal workout. He mentions taking particular notice of the music videos playing earlier on the gym's TV. He dismisses the "mechanistic" style of dance and overtly sexual portrayal of women that fills most of the music videos; the generic isn't what impresses him. What Gutierrez seems to value is an alternative approach to art, one with emotional validity. Now that's what piques his interest, he says.
Gutierrez has certainly piqued Sydney's interest. His arrival in town marks the continuation of a 2010 collaboration with the Fondue Set. The original collaboration was created while Gutierrez was working remotely from NYC. Emailing daily videos, messages and inspiration, he meshed his imagination with those of the trio, creating a work that defied the difficulties of distance. This time around, Gutierrez and the Fondue Set have a series of three solos in the works. With the show only a couple of weeks away, and the pieces still in their nascent stage, there is a lot of work to be done. Where does one begin, exactly?
"What really happens is that you tune into what is going on, what you want to do, what you perceive is possible to do, what you perceive that time is asking of you," says Gutierrez. "To sound a bit occult about it, I think in a way that you are a medium. You are channelling both the thing that feels important for you to explore and also tapping into the energy of the situation.
"If you aren't open to accidents, and open to the weird causality that happens in any day of the week, I don't know what your work will look like … mine would be dead."
'Dead' is the last word that comes to mind when thinking of Gutierrez, or the Fondue Set for that matter. Jane McKernan, Emma Saunders and Elizabeth Ryan, the lovely ladies of the dance group, produce some of the most fabulously loud and ludicrous pieces around: a perfect match for Gutierrez's energy. The trio pop out from the rehearsal studio and coyly slip a piece of notebook paper into Gutierrez's hand. "Gone to get coffee. Want some?", it reads.
Gutierrez requests a latte.
"Decaf?"
"No!" he exclaims, laughing. So that's what keeps this man ticking. Gutierrez describes the Fondue Set as they hurry to the coffee shop.
"They're smart, they're funny, they're grown-ups," he says of the group. "This is not me being like 'Okay you guys, I'm going to show you what's what.' It's a conversation ... If I'm a great tennis player I want to play with great tennis players … In order for me to put my shit to the test, I have to do it with other good artists."
In collaborating with other talented artists, Gutierrez admits that there can be challenges. His past collaborations have brought moments of conflict and disagreement, but he honours the progression those moments result in. That friction, he says, generates content.
"I've been working recently around the senses," says Gutierrez, "and sort of using the senses as a way of exploring the environment … to create a different relationship to the way your body is investigating space."
His current inspiration may sound a little mellowed to those familiar with Gutierrez's past works, many of which are considered to be explosively political. In 2004, Gutierrez choreographed his piece dAMNATION rOAD, which explored "the body in terror". Critics and audiences perceived the piece as a reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US a few years prior. Gutierrez, however, says that he no longer enters the studio with a political agenda.
"I think that when people perceive politics in the work, it is because either through text or maybe a certain tone or sensibility in the work, there is a distinct relationship between what is happening on the stage and outside of the studio. And so people can make those associations, and they deem those political. Yeah sure, there are politics in that, but there's also just awareness and context.
"I do feel like something that intrigues me right now about dance in relationship to what's happening in this world is that it is this confusing thing, and the world is confusing. More often than not, people are looking to art forms to be these repositories of clarity. Dance can be this space where confusion is honoured and explored and maintained."
The creative process is slow and steady for Gutierrez. A self-proclaimed 'tortoise', he works in increments, piecing together his product. Aussies, Gutierrez has gathered, share a similar, dedicated yet relaxed approach to work. Not relaxed as in lazy, he clarifies, but a "self-assured" sort of relaxed. Dancers and choreographers from Oz are, in his opinion, "jovial, open, smart and never bitter." In the Fondue Set, Gutierrez has found his work-ethic soulmate(s).
When asked if he might be making an appearance onstage with the Fondue Set, however, Gutierrez will not say 'yes'. But he won't say 'no' either.
"I'm not going to answer that," he says, smirking his way back into the studio.
The Fondue Set will take the stage at Carriageworks on Friday, April 20 at 7pm.