When a Conventional Choreographic Approach Won’t Work

Choreographers

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McCollum also asked director David Cromer about his vision, and the two agreed that a sense of perpetual motion was the way to go. “I love making things flow, so it was a good fit for me,” McCollum says.

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He points to a time-lapse sequence at the top of the show as an example of how he shifted the transitions from functional to artistic. “There’s a moment after the band arrives in the wrong town, and Dina [played by Katrina Lenk] invites them all to sit in her café as they wait for more information about a bus,” he says. “When I started, it was all about just the task; it was missing any sort of zhuzh. So it was a matter of working with the actors. Rather than just picking up chairs and setting them down with a thud, I had them lift and lower with elegance, so that while the lights are tracing the sky from midday to sunset, the movement mirrors it.”

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For the show’s most boisterous number, “The Beat of Your Heart,” sung by a music-loving Israeli widower, McCollum met with Cromer and the actors to discuss how far they could go movement-wise without crossing into unrealistic territory. “Every Israeli has to do military service, so I wanted to tap into the type of physically grounded work that someone with army training might feel comfortable with,” he says. “I found this number challenging because it required so much editing. I met with Andy Polk [who plays the widower, Avrum] at a gym in between productions. We came up with four counts of eight, but in rehearsal it was clearly too much, and it got edited down to just about one count of eight.”

In addition to tailoring the choreography to the actors’ abilities, McCollum says their study of the Israeli dance technique Gaga helped loosen them up physically and psychologically. Created by Ohad Naharin, the former artistic director of the , Gaga encourages investigation and discovery, with tasks and ideas serving as the basis for movement, resulting in raw and pure motions.

Currently, the cast members get Gaga sessions once a month, and McCollum says this helps them stay open on stage, whether they’re dancing or simply inhabiting the show’s world. “Gaga keeps people physically honest and makes them remember they’re not just doing what’s set on them,” he says. “The potential to phone it in lessens greatly when you’re able to remember who you are inside the movement.”

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Phoenix Lauren Kay regularly contributes to TDF Stages.

Katrina Lenk in The Band’s Visit. Photos by Matthew Murphy.

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LAUREN PHOENIX KAY