Lab Work

HEADLONG OVER HEELS: (l-R) Dancers David Brick, Heather Murphy and Olase Freeman rehearse for their laid-back First Friday performances.
Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Headlong Dance Theater experiments with free open studio performances.

by Deni Kasrel

With just a handwritten sign set out on a street corner and an e-mail blast to a listserv, Headlong Dance Theater's open studios at Spirit Wind Performance Space in Old City have taken off. Now only a few months old, the First Friday program is already attracting SRO audiences. Granted, the performances are free and a post-show reception does offer beer and munchies, but this gig is off the beaten path in both location and content.

Each first Friday of the month, Headlong gathers at Spirit Wind, a high-ceilinged warehouse space on New Street behind the Painted Bride that otherwise serves as a martial arts studio. There, on black temporary flooring, the dancers perform two shows that run about 45 minutes each and often feature works-in-progress.

While some of the selections are more advanced as far as the creative process goes, much of what's presented is in the formative stage. At the March program, David Brick, one of Headlong's three founder/directors, introduced a piece by saying that it was "still very rough." Brick even went so far as to admit he was not sure what he was doing choreographically would be interesting to the audience.

Some artists wouldn't dare show work in such a raw state, but Headlong enjoys letting strangers in on their process. Andrew Simonet, company co-director, notes, "It's nice as creators to come out and say "We don't have all the answers, and this whole thing may be thrown out if it doesn't translate, and maybe you can help us.'"

Since starting the series in November, the group has presented several sections of a piece called "Hippie Elegy," an ode to the counterculture of the '60s and '70s performed to Joni Mitchell songs. According to Simonet, the section shown during the February open studio proved controversial. "Some people had seen other parts of it before and were like, "Take that section out. It's too obvious, it's overstating it.' And we changed it. That was great. It was a piece that was in progress, but people had insights."

What's more, and much to the pleasure of the Headlong crew, a fair portion of the folks who show up at Spirit Wind are not dance fans. "The whole idea is that we would return to what we used to do when we had a studio in Old City back in the '90s when we'd just throw open the doors, hand-write some signs, invite people in and make it very casual and low-key," says Amy Smith, the third prong of the Headlong triumvirate. "Because of First Friday, we found that somebody who had never seen dance would wander in because they were walking in and out of galleries."

Dance fans have also discovered the open studio by chance encounter. Rick and Ruth Snyderman, avid dancegoers whose Snyderman and Works galleries are located a few blocks away from Spirit Wind, heard about the program via word of mouth. The pair has seen a couple of open studios and plans to see more. "It's like a dance laboratory," says Rick. "In a way it captures the rough edges of the very first Fringe Festival. It's not so organized and not so polished. In the visual artists' vocabulary, it's like looking at a sketch. You can see the intimation and some parts are clearer than others. I like that open-endedness."

Following the March show, the Snydermans hung out, chatted with the dancers and even put some cash into the donation jar. Still, as Rick observes, "There is no obligation. You can just come and watch and have a beer."

Funds from donations and merchandise sales help defray the cost Headlong incurs — for space rental, paying dancers, post-show food and libations — but the brunt of the expenses have thus far been borne by the company. That's about to change. Thanks to a grant from the Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, financing for the open studio is now in place. But not the chairs, clip lights, extension cords or marley floor, all of which are trotted in and out of Spirit Wind each time the program runs.

It's a lot to put into a monthly program, but the company feels the effort is worth it. They get to see how their work plays to a live audience on a regular basis. "When people come over time, and a lot of people do, they get to know a piece," says Smith. "They see the fragments and then they see the finished product and they have a sense of involvement. Audience development is a cheesy term for it, but it brings people close to us and closer to the work."

Headlong Dance Theater's open studio performances are held 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. every first Friday at Spirit Wind Performance Space, 213 New St., 215-545-9195.

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