Chamber Dance Project dancers Davit Hovhannisyan and Luz San Miguel in artistic director Diane Coburn Bruning’s "Berceuse," performed at Milwaukee Art Museum. A filmed performance of the work will be streamed online July 31. (Photo by Rachel Malehor)

Chamber Dance Project looks to build audience connections with virtual season kicking off tonight

By Ilena Peng On Jul 31, 2020 Last updated Aug 11, 2020

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, DC’s Chamber Dance Project had a list of scenarios for its seven-week performance season starting in June: “What if the theater can’t open? Could we perform outside? Can we rehearse? Can we bring [dancers from out of the area] into the rehearsal? Do we just do a rehearsal showing in the studio and just bring in fewer [audience members]? Do we only rehearse?”

In a recent interview, artistic director Diane Coburn Bruning rattled off the possibilities, and then the reasons they seemed impractical. The contemporary dance company’s performance venue, one of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s halls in downtown DC, had closed for the remainder of the season. Bringing the dancers together to rehearse didn’t feel safe. Outdoor performances seemed like the answer, but with dancers needing to fly in from across the country, the company decided against it.

Chamber Dance Project artistic director Diane Coburn Bruning (Photo by Tim Coburn)

The company — founded in New York City in 2000 and based in DC since 2014 — was slated to perform one of its biggest seasons, with world premieres of three works and a debut at the nation’s longest-running international dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts. But even as the possibilities seemingly dwindled, the company forged forward with a virtual chat series — which featured conversations on topics like ballet history, wrapping up last month — and brainstormed new ideas for an online season. The offerings begin tonight with livestreams of three performances online.

“Our whole thing has been staying positive — adjusting and adapting,” said Coburn Bruning, recalling a conversation with her husband. “I have no interest in whining, in crying. It is what it is. Let’s stay safe; let’s do the right thing. But I looked at him and I said, ‘There’s got to be more. We’ve got to be able to do more and do something.’”

Chamber Dance Project first created and performed a short piece for an audience via Zoom shortly after DC’s stay-at-home order took effect, and the experience made Coburn Bruning realize that digital performances were a viable option. “When it became clear we couldn’t do our season, I said, ‘OK, but we know the dancers are all-in … [and supportive of] working creatively in this new medium, so let’s go.”

Dancers Davit Hovhannisyan and Luz San Miguel have filmed a duet for the company’s upcoming virtual performance, which includes videos of three works that will be streamed for audiences to watch at home. The company hired three videographers to film each work, in hopes of creating an experience akin to a new film with more creative camera angles than the typical recorded live performance.

The duo will be presenting Berceuse, a piece choreographed by Coburn Bruning that Hovhannisyan and San Miguel first performed in Chamber Dance Project’s 2014 DC debut at the Kennedy Center. The two of them have a makeshift studio space in the home they share, but no room to jump or practice lifts. Other areas of their house in Milwaukee are carpeted, which makes dancing difficult, but they’re looking forward to creating, even within the limitations of their home. The filmed performance being shown tonight takes place at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

“We tend to like challenges,” San Miguel said. “It’s a challenge that we are embracing — all of us, all the dancers of the Chamber Dance Project — and I think ultimately we’re going to put on a performance that’s going to be fantastic and very creative. We don’t stop. COVID-19 or anything [else] is not going to stop us.”

The July 31 performance will also include screenings of Chamber Dance Project choreographer and dancer Cooper Verona’s In the Silence and Coburn Bruning’s Sarabande, as well as a virtual red carpet featuring the company members.

Chamber Dance Project dancers Grace Anne Powers and Austin Powers perform Cooper Verona’s “In the Silence.” (Photo by Savannah Caines)

The second half of Chamber Dance Project’s virtual season will take place in September, with the debut of a new dance film and the first public screening of Exit Wounds, a male duet performed by Luis Torres and The Washington Ballet dancer Andile Ndlovu.

Both performances are free, but Coburn Bruning emphasizes that they nonetheless require the time of dancers, choreographers and creators. These aren’t archived videos — they are either new performances of established works or new works altogether.

“There’s a lot of free content online and I personally think it’s doing damage to our art form, saying that it isn’t worth paying for,” she said. “We have to give it away free at a moment when arts companies are struggling for survival. … But we’re going to make a statement about the fact that we pay our artists, we value the work. It’s new work. It’s not just pulling out old videos and performances.”

Coburn Bruning mailed GoPro cameras to the company’s dancers in June and worked to help secure larger screen monitors for the dancers as well. The technology will help them better see and share the choreography they are learning. Despite the technical hurdles, after multiple rehearsals via online platforms, the dancers are all “Zoom queens and kings now,” she said — and grateful to be creating, even in the confines of their homes.

“The dancers dance because of their love of the dance — they want to share it, but their first passion is dancing,” Coburn Bruning said. “As a choreographer, my first passion is creating. I want to share it, but I think it’s the impulse and the passion of the performers and the creators. Then sharing happens after that.”

The company’s artistic director draws a distinction between dancing and performing, even when there’s an audience in the mix.

“I’m not saying performers don’t love to perform, but they’re first passionate about dancing, and it happens that an audience then can watch them,” she said. “So it’s important for me to figure out how that platform can happen, both creating and performing. It’s a strange world to us, but I think we’re going boldly forward in making the creation happen — and the sharing and performance.”

The first segment of “New Works 2020 (& Beyond)” airs Friday, July 31, at 7 p.m. The second segment airs Thursday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. Learn more at chamberdance.org.