FLOODESIGN

PT: At MANCC, Simone would say, "Why don't you try these steps with this variation?" Or I would say, "I'm not really sure what to do with this," and she would suggest something. It was all very organic and in the moment, which is really exciting. LVJ: You're choreographing it together, at that point. This is positive human interaction! [laughter] SD: It's interesting to me also how much the dancers remember, that they take in all of these variations and permutations and rearrangements. PT: It's a physical memory, the way you — SD: Yeah, but I couldn't learn that way. That's like learning by ear. And they're learning really complicated stuff that way. LVJ: Completely committed to memory. It's very beautiful. My understanding, too, is that each dancer has a tool for how to remember, and it's very personal and specific. It could be around building a bit of a narrative, or it could be image-based. And it gets linked — PT: You're absolutely right. We have a part where Lindsey Jones sits behind Simone, so they're back to back, and she's mimicking Simone's hands with her feet. If you pulled her out, she would tell you a whole story. Whereas with other dancers, it might be more about the steps, or the rhythms. The challenge for the dancers, and the challenge for me, actually, is how the piece is from beginning to end. What is their subtext? And physically how are they going to get through a 70-minute — SD: It's more than that. PT: Well, we're not doing all the repeats. LVJ: Are you doing the complete piece? SD: All the variations, but not all the repeats. With some, there's less difference when you repeat, and so it's OK to remove them. Some are slower, so you don't need to repeat because it's already been a long time. In others the music changes enough in the repeat that it changes the structure of the whole variation. LVJ: I just keep thinking about the density of the music. And that's also a strength of your work, Pam; it's really formally dense — you're able to draw from classical style and form and vocabulary to create endless permutations. In coming together with this piece of music that is itself so dense and historical and rich, what has that dialogue or tension been like, between you? PT: When I push against something traditional, I actually feel more freedom than when I have total freedom. So that tension is me pushing up against this history, this music, this, you know, everything. "Goldberg Variations" is in everybody's life — people have their own relationship to it as well. SD: When Pam and I first started talking about the "Goldbergs," she was very interested in the historical aspect of it — the ornate baroqueness of it. But I didn't think we should go there. That's never been what's driven me with the music. I'm not interested in period performance practice or knowing what Bach was experiencing in his life when he wrote the piece; 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 the music. And so that's what we've done. PT: It was really exciting when she said the music was abstract. To think of the music in terms of abstraction opened it up. I hadn't really thought about it as abstract, but rather, OK, all these variations. Is that when I called you, scared? She had to talk me off a cliff last summer. LVJ: And is that what brought you to this piece of music? As something that you've invested in? SD: This is really what draws me to all classical music, or art music, up through contemporary music. This is not how many of my colleagues think about music. They're often obsessed with the historical side of it and understanding the performance tradition of a given piece, researching what kinds of strings were used by the violins at that time or how did people ornament during Bach's time, when they add little trills and things. I've always been of course interested in knowing as much as possible, but I don't think the power of the music has anything to do with knowing the background of it. LVJ: Do you feel that's what allows your interpretations to take on a more expressive quality — for you to invest yourself more personally or freely? "When I push against something traditional, I actually feel more freedom than when I have total freedom. So that tension is me pushing up against this history, this music, everything." —PAM TANOWITZ 24 www.peakperfs.org

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