Lucinda Childs’ first new dance for her company in 16 years comes with an Arcade Fire connection
The past, present and future of renowned postmodern choreographer Lucinda Childs will lunge and spin together on Saturday night during a retrospective of Childs’ career that includes the first new piece of choreography she has created for her company in 16 years.
The evening, dubbed “Lucinda Childs Dance Company: A Portrait (1963-2016),†will be staged at the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. The world premiere piece, “Into View,†features music by two Arcade Fire collaborators, violinist Sarah Neufeld and saxophonist Colin Stetson.
“This is the first time people have seen any kind of physical contact in my work,†Childs said of the piece, which is danced by an ensemble of 10 paired into five couples.
Childs has worked extensively with other dance companies, some in Europe, in the last decade and a half. Her company, Lucinda Childs Dance, has focused on reviving her earlier work in a trailblazing career that started in the experimental collective Judson Dance Theater in the early 1960s.
Childs’ choreography is often described as conceptual and minimalist. Spatial exploration through the repetition of movements and patterns factors into her sparse phrases, as does a general abstract approach to the language of dance.
Childs’ company was reformed in 2009 after a break that stretched to 2000. Kristy Edmunds, artistic director of CAP UCLA, said the current incarnation began as a way for Childs to “transfer her early works to a whole new generation.â€
This is how artists take care of one another. They leap across their differences and join arms.
— Kristy Edmunds, artistic director, Art of Performance at UCLA
That Childs was inspired to create new work for her dancers, Edmunds said, speaks volumes about her initial source of inspiration, which was a haunting, chaotic, darkly original piece of orchestration by Neufeld and Stetson titled “The Sun Roars Into View.†That piece of music clocks in at more than seven minutes and is on the pair’s 2015 record, “Never Were the Way She Was.â€
Like Childs’ young dancers, Neufeld and Stetson represent a fresh wave of modern art- and music-making. They were part of the circle of musicians contributing to the groundbreaking indie rock band Arcade Fire, which exploded into the mainstream firmament with an unexpected Grammy win for album of the year in 2011.
“This particular piece was inspired by a young group of dancers whose master choreographer says, ‘How do I make something for you and for your time that you carry forward?’ †Edmunds said. “And the music of Colin and Sarah fits that same ethos.â€
The marriage of those universes wasn’t so much a collaboration as it was an accidental collision. Childs, Neufeld and Stetson share the same management company. The musicians also work with composer Philip Glass, who has worked extensively with Childs. When Childs heard “The Sun Roars Into View,†she said she immediately fell in love with it. The music has a rhythmic pulse that she called ideal.
“It’s special because it feels unique. It’s not something I’ve heard before,†Childs said. “Sometimes when you listen to contemporary music, you think that sounds like someone else, but I don’t feel like that about Colin and Sarah.â€
Neufeld wished there was more of a story about how Childs’ new work came to include her music, but the violinist added that she and Stetson hope this a glimpse of what is to come.
“We’re huge fans of her work,†Neufeld said. “I think the idea is to hopefully someday bring what we do live into the piece. You can inject a piece of choreography with new life when you combine it with another aspect of live performance.â€
Edmunds expanded on this idea. In her role as curator, she loves seeing audience members who have locked themselves away in “art form-preference silos†expand their horizons by attending a show that bridges the gap between different art forms, including live music and dance.
“For the dance world more accustomed to seeing ballets, opera movements or lyrical forms, Colin and Sarah will be a new discovery in their musical repertoire,†Edmunds said. “This is how artists take care of one another. They leap across their differences and join arms.â€
Edmunds knows a thing or two about these kinds of unions, working at the intersection of so many types of performative art at CAP UCLA. Her organization’s involvement in “Into View†has been three-fold, she said. It co-commissioned the piece, a leap of faith that required a financial commitment before a single dance phrase had been conjured into being. CAP UCLA also is hosting the work’s world premiere and will document it, recording video of the performance.
This last part will be crucial to Childs going forward. It will help her recreate the work in the future, perhaps with a new group of young dancers.
Perhaps most important for Childs, “Into View†will allow audiences of Saturday night’s performance to experience the full arc of her career, she said — “a chance to add a bit of the present to this program that shows work from the 1960s and 1970s.â€
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“Lucinda Childs Dance Company: A Portrait (1963-2016)â€
Where: Royce Hall, UCLA, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $29 to $59
Information: (310) 825-4401, www.cap.ucla.edu
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