FLOODESIGN

SD: I think … interpretation is entirely imagined, so people that say that their interpretations are informed by historical performance practice are imagining that, right? [laughter] SD: Sometimes people get upset by my interpretations because they think that I am either oblivious or ignorant to certain things in the music. But I've made very conscious, informed choices about how I'm going to interpret a piece of music. Sometimes that means that what comes out might actually be quite different than how it is normally played. Sometimes what comes out is not that dissimilar. PT: You're postmodern, baby. [laughter] LVJ: I felt like this was what I was seeing in the MANCC video: there is a very specific approach that you're both taking in your craft, and who knew that there's actually such a beautiful overlap there? Now I wonder if that will be the case in this whole performance season that is centered around women — PT: Which we didn't know about when we came to Jed [Jed Wheeler, of Peak Performances] and it was all booked like a year and a half ago. LVJ: It's a beautiful mission. There's a specific quote from him, addressing the "slow parity of gender." SD: I constantly have people saying that my playing is very feminine. I think that feminine to them means more soft-spoken. Usually my tempi are a bit slower; it's maybe more emotional. I don't know. I would never describe something as being feminine or masculine — those concepts don't exist anymore. My son, who is 15, would never use those words. PT: My daughter is all over that stuff, too. I have such high hopes for this generation of kids; they are so present and open and engaged in the world. LVJ: When I hear the slower aspects in "Goldberg Variations," I feel like this is the definition of human longing. Or God comes up. And I always love when there's that reveling in really taking time with the music. So to say, just because you're a woman "that's a feminine interpretation" is so lame. SD: I mean, it was written by a man, so what does that say? LVJ: What about for you, Pam? PT: For me, it's all about the work. Of course I know that I'm a woman, but the themes that I work with are important to dance and dance history. I'm a female choreographer trying to make interesting dance in 2017. At the same time, I feel it is hard for women because people are more apt to cultivate male choreographers. That's just a fact. I think what's always been really important to me is pushing myself, making sure I stay true to the dance and the work that I'm making. I've been making work for the last 25 years. You have to love it. You have to be committed to it. You have to determine what you want your work to be. You have to be in it for the long haul. SD: I also think, any project I've done where I've collaborated only with women has definitely felt quite different than when I collaborate with men. I like both, but I think there's something really special about working with another woman. There's a different give and take. We're brought up to be much more interactive with each other, in our generation at least. There's no mansplaining. [laughter] "It's the music itself that's interesting, the way that it lives right now, the form of it, the phrasing, the more abstract nature of music." —SIMONE DINNERSTEIN "New Work for Goldberg Variations" in rehearsal at the Alexander Kasser Theater. Photo: Marina Levitskaya www.peakperfs.org 25

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