Bebe Miller Company

April 2009

What was the inspiration for Necessary Beauty? What was the process?

I was looking for the form of the work before I landed, retrospectively, on the inspiration. I was curious about finding a way of working that fit our 'virtual company' mode: we gather for intensive residencies several times a year, work all day for 2-3 weeks, then move on. So rather than spend a lot of time remembering "steps" what else surfaces? What can we hold on to that fits the moments we want to recall? That led to my memory of a particular drive on a rainy day in Ohio after an unsatisfying rehearsal, when an 'artful' moment occurred: a flock of birds took off in time with the music on the radio, I seemed to solve the rehearsal dilemma, the world seemed right. It was a beautiful moment that I happened upon, and it seemed like the kind of necessary beautiful moments that we live for. It also suggested a way of working that we've incorporated, putting improvisation in the forefront of the work as a defining tone, not as a fallback method. We are rigorous with our scoring to keep the nature of the work specific and of the moment at the same time.

What was the process for creating the work?

We worked for over two years, meeting several times a year. The greatest challenge was scheduling, really. Even though two years seems like a long time it often didn't give enough lead-time to gather all eleven collaborators at once. And because we work inter-disciplinarily with media (video, animation, as well as text, music, lights) - which takes a lot longer to fix than a studio phrase we don't like - it was stressful meeting a range of process timelines. One of the big learning lessons about collaboration is sharing each other's tedium, figuring out who needs to repeat what, who needs to move forward, who needs to come in late in the process.

What was the greatest challenge you faced in making this work?

The work has assembled a fabulous group of dancers with an age span of 30 years, some of who are new to the company and some who've been involved over time (Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Kristina Isabelle, Cynthia Oliver, Yen-Fang Yu and me). The visual design team (Vita Berezina-Blackburn,
Maya Ciarrocchi and Michael Mazzola) has continued from Landing/Place which we performed at Bates as a work in progress in 2005; Ain Gordon, who I worked with over twenty years ago, collaborated with the dancers on the text. I give a lot of credit to our dramaturg, Talvin Wilks (we've worked together for over ten years) who provides a framework of approach for our process, and helps us track between dance and theater. And of course to Albert Mathias, who again has created a score that's closely knit into what we do.

Is there anything else you want to say about the work or its presentation at Bates?

The Bates performance will be a great opportunity to highlight so many of the community that we've known previously, as teachers, dancers, musicians, etc. It's always a pleasure to perform for people who may know some of our individual and collective histories, and to see us all in a new way.