RUMI Inspired Dance – CORE Performance Company at the MATCH

By  Adam Castaneda

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

The words of  the 13th century Persian poet Rumi have stirred readers for centuries, and his commentary on love reveals a multidimensional human impulse that defies definition and classification. For dance artist Rose Shields, the quote above became a source of personal exploration as part of CORE Performance Company‘s On Love. CORE’s evening-length work will be performed at MATCH on Feb. 5 and 6 at 8:00 p.m. and Feb. 7 at 2:00 p.m. On Love marks the first time the company will present work at the new Midtown facility. In MATCHBOX 2, CORE will adapt the project for the proscenium stage; it originally premiered as a site-specific work for the Callanwolde Mansion in Atlanta last February.

Conceived more than a year-and-a-half ago, artistic director Schroeder gave her dancers books by Rumi and German poet Rainer Maria Rilke as a jumping board for exploration into the meaning for love. The dancers held on to quotes they related to, or found particularly moving. “Then we chose a word within the quote that really stood out,” explains Shields. “For me it was “hundreds.” We were then asked to find movement that represented the idea of the word.” Under Schroeder’s direction, each dancer led a section of the piece and generated movement phrases.

The Atlanta iteration of On Love was constructed with the floorplan of the Callanwolde Mansion in mind. The ensemble sections were created for the mansion’s expansive central chamber, while solos and duets were created for specific rooms in the building. “One of the trickiest things for that show was navigating the audience through the rooms, then bringing them back together again,” explains Shields. For the performance at MATCH, the challenge for the company is resetting the work for a proscenium while also keeping the interactive quality of the experience.

Company manager Patton White describes On Love as a multisensory journey. “It’s certainly visual, but there’s also sound component in that we’re having live musicians work with us on this,” says White. (Percussionist James Metcalf will lead musicians Max Dyer, Mike Mizma, and Yvonne Smith on various string instruments.) “And each of the sections touched on various other senses, like smell and taste. For example, one of the sections involved a dancer observing a cake, then eventually eating it. One of the other dancers incorporated an art installation with flowers that suggested smell. And another involved audience members picking up pieces of paper and then reading the words aloud.”

And of course, CORE’s dancers have always played an intrinsic part in the creation process. “We created things on each other, but it’s always a discussion with Sue in the room,” explains Shields. “We would show one another what we created, and give critical feedback. When we weren’t in a particular dance, we would be an extra eye for those that were in it. The process gives us multiples lenses to see each other’s work.”

It’s no coincidence that CORE is presenting this meditation on love a week before Valentine’s Day. Audience members might want to come in pairs, as the company is offering free rumba classes before the start of each show. “The rumba is the dance of love in the ballroom lexicon,” explains White. “It’s a social dance intended for two people who are taking on the roles of leader and followers.” Rumba is without question a dance of sensuality and romantically charged energy, and when performed to its pinnacle, even onlookers can be stirred to a passionate fit of the sense. But can modern dance vocabulary also encapsulate the same primal suggestions?

For Shields, the answer is yes. “For my section, specifically, I look at sensuality not in a sexual sense, but in what one is sensitive to. Sensuality can easily be attained through the senses, specifically touch. Different people find different things to be sensual, and I’m very much interested in having people question, is this artist being sexy, or sensual?”

In a world that is often anything but loving, CORE’s exploration of love is much needed.  “I’m thirty-one, and I’m noticing all the generational changes brought on by the Internet,” says Shields. “We communicate so much through phone and there’s not really any face-to-face human communication. Life can be impersonal. There’s a lot of anger and hot-headedness that would not exist if we interacted face-to-face, and were really human together.”

And what’s more human than live performance, and sharing live performance with a special someone during Valentine’s month? “It’s intended as a way to acknowledge what the holiday is all about, and that it to look into our hearts, and find the beauty and the love that exists there,” says White.

I think Rumi would agree.

Adam Castaneda is a dancer, writer, and arts administrator. He is the Executive Director of FrenetiCore, and performs with Suchu Dance, Holding Space Dance Collective, Heather VonReichbauer, and Intuitive African Dance and Drum Culture.