Tania Isaac Dance

April 2009

What was the inspiration or starting point for stuporwoman?

stuporwoman was born from pure exhaustion, physically & artistically. I was in the midst of a few other projects, had just had a baby and was putting together the infrastructure for the company as an official non-profit. For one moment on the phone with my costume designer and one of my closest friends, Jeannique Prospere, it all seemed
simultaneously impossible to imagine, accomplish or even attempt... and then it just seemed funny.

We talked about roles and superheroes and I created for fun this character who was an amalgam of my ideas and mythological stories of 'superwomen' goddesses etc.. And I called her 'stupor' because she was playing all the expected roles, but exhausted and in a complete fog and not quite sure why... Then I started writing.

What was the process for creating the work?

This piece was somewhat different from the others I've made. I was making it because I wanted to. There was no funding, but I had secured a performance and set myself a goal to complete what as that stage was a solo. I started with the text I had written that described the character, then met with my lighting/visual designer, Madison Cario and visual artist, Aaron Hyman to talk about what I thought the stage looked like and we came up with the idea of dividing the stage into discrete areas in a similar way to the stanzas I worked into the text. I wanted to emphasize the satyr so I looked for live music and tried for something that hovered between fantasy and reality, thoughtful and humorous.

Once the solo was created, I wanted to expand the story and the character and the entire environment, making it even larger than life, a little more absurd. I added more music, more dancers, more story line and loved it. Then I decided it was too much and pared it back down to something a little more personal and intimate.

What was the greatest challenge you faced in making this work?
There was the practical aspect of becoming too self-involved when you make something about yourself, especially something that is happening as you work, so I think it was difficult to always assess the balance in what was serving the piece and what I simply wanted to say. Artistically, the challenge was in taking what became a giant work that contained every idea I wanted and then peeling away the layers of it to the most essential parts. Moving from a solo, to a large multi-layered cast, then back to a quartet, deciding which elements stayed, which expanded -- the whole editing process. Its probably true for everything...

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

Bates has been my artistic home, my incubation space and support as I bring ideas to paper and then to life. It is an unequaled, rare space to explore, refine and question, which is almost everything you crave as an artist. Im looking forward to performing and teaching and living with some of the most vibrant voices in contemporary dance.