03 Jun Interview with Miranda Reid, Choreographer for Something Weird is Happening in Balachine’s Backyard

Today we were able to talk with Miranda Reid, choreographer for Something Weird is Happening in Balachine’s Backyard. We were able to talk about the intersections of theatre and dance, the inspiration for the piece, and how taking a step back can further your relationship in the arts.

 

Could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and when you first fell in love with dance and theatre?

 

Hi there! I’m Miranda, and I am the artistic director and founder of Rebound Dance Collective,  which we started about a year ago. I’m originally from Halifax, lived in the UK for a few years and then moved here to do my master’s degree, which is in coastal geomorphology. Dance is like my surprise second career, and is extremely important for me. I think a lot of people feel like they have to be really tied down to just one thing they’re passionate about. But for me,  with coastal geomorphology and research and academia, that’s really my passion, but dance is like my air. I couldn’t live without it. 

 

For Rebound Dance, I am the writer, choreographer and director for Something Weird is Happening in Balanchine’s Backyard.  I co-wrote it with a friend of mine that I actually met in the UK who just finished his master’s in theater directing in London. He has been an awesome person to work with on this project. 

 

I started dancing when I was three years old. I have no memories of my life without dance being in it. I trained  in the Vaganova syllabus for ballet, and then through the Performing Arts Educators of Canada for tap and jazz. Then when I was 18, I  moved to the UK to do my undergrad.  When I moved, I did about six months of competition. That was just a horrible environment and I swore off dancing forever. . But the next year they asked me to come choreograph a piece for the comp team, and that turned into my gateway drug. I realized I could keep dance in my life on my own terms and that was really powerful. 

 

The year after that, I produced my first full length show, and I have been in the production and choreography space ever since. So much for retirement. And now I’m fully back, fully taking classes and training again. I think it’s just something I’ll always do. 

 

In terms of theatre, I attended a lot of musical theatre camps and classes and things like when I was young, as well as in high school.When I went to Wales for my undergrad, I joined the musical theatre society there. I wasn’t going to, but I came back from dance rehearsal one evening with a friend of mine and her flatmate was the music director for the musical. I was singing Christmas songs ridiculously. And he was like, wait, I need you to audition for this musical. I protested, but he said we need you to come audition for “Legally Blonde.” That was the start of really getting back into theatre

 

So the intersection between theatre and dance has been something that I’m really interested in since then because it was something I got to explore so much when I was in the  UK. In my second year I played the cow in “Into the Woods” and that was really an interesting experience for me artistically because it was a completely movement based role. It’s definitely a space I want to explore more.

 

Something Weird is Happening in Balanchine’s Backyard is explicitly described as sitting at the intersection of dance and theatre. I’m curious how you are approaching this piece. How do the two meet? Theatre is often so reliant on text while dance is often focused on the poetic use of the body – In what ways have these worked together or butt heads?

 

Yes, our piece is structured so that it’s essentially a ballet with a one woman monologue that is broken up throughout. For me, it’s really exciting to get to use dance in a narrative way.

 

You can take an approach to dance that is very focused on the very technical elements and the aesthetics of it all and I think there’s a lot of value in that, but what’s really exciting to me about dance is how we can use that to tell a story. In the same way you can use motifs and themes in music to drive a story, you can use similar tools in dance. 

 

I wouldn’t say they butt heads. For this piece, the actual dialogue is really there to complement the dance. It’s really just there to drive us along, and a lot of the storytelling is actually being done through the choreography.

 

And with all of this in mind, what do you hope to get out? And what do you hope that the audience takes away once they’re done watching it?

 

 For me, it has been such an amazing process. I have  such an awesome team. 

 

I have all these dancers that have danced with me for a couple projects before and they are just the ‘always up for anything’ type of people. hey have been amazing. I’ve really thrown them a curveball here. It’s something we haven’t really done before. They’ve just totally taken it in stride and it’s been really amazing work. I mentioned before that my co-writer is just coming off the back of his theater directing master’s degree. He’s been so cool to work with. Just, like, everyone! My music composer is amazing. The set designers are just incredible. My lighting tech is just amazing. The thing that I got out of this the most is just  this experience of working with just such an incredible team. Every single person has been 100% on their game. It has been such a cool experience and I just really enjoyed that.

 

In terms of what I want the audience to get out of the piece, I definitely think what we’re presenting is quite unconventional. You don’t see a lot of pieces with this structure. So I think  what I want the audience to get out of it the most is to open up their understanding  of how we can tell stories and start to think outside the of box  in terms of the ways you can use movement.There are all these different elements and forms that you can use for storytelling that aren’t necessarily traditionally when we think of theatre and that’s something I’m really excited to bring to an audience. .

 

There is this idea that “we’re not defined  or to what extent are we defined by what we do.” I think that’s certainly a common theme with dance,  andI’m wondering what it was like to explore that relationship to the arts and creativity through a creative method? 

 

The idea for the piece was really inspired by my own relationship with dance. Growing up, it was such a core part of my identity, and it was so important to me. It still is, but in such a different way. When I took some time away from it, I realized that I can be a whole person outside of dance. I think when you come at it with that perspective, it brings a lot more joy back into it. When there’s so much pressure on it, and when it’s such a core part of your identity, it can be really scary to take artistic risks. By allowing myself to take a step away from it, it actually allowed myself to go deeper into it afterwards.

 

I also read some Camus when I was in high school. Those kinds of questions of ‘Are we what we do?’ That’s something that I find really interesting  and  a concept I’ve worked on before in projects.

 

Following that like one act play structure,  how has that shaped you in creating this piece? And then what has it been like to be a part of the Victoria One Act Play Festival as a whole? 

 

I think the reason it works really well in the One Act Play format is that it has been written to be very immersive. There’s not a single performer who ever goes off stage. Everyone stays on stage the entire piece. So the structure of the one act play really lends itself to that idea of complete immersion.

 

In terms of working with the festival, it’s been so exciting because, since my background is in dance,it has allowed me to really connect with artists who are using a different medium than I am, and that’s been really helpful in developing my own methodology in the space.  It’s just been really amazing to go into it with all of these diverse voices and opinions that I get to meet and hear. It’s been really interesting and really cool to connect with the other artists.

 

Now it’s your chance to give a shoutout to others in the creative space – what shows have you seen or been involved with recently that has excited you?

 

I volunteer with Dance Victoria, so I’ve seen all of their shows over the last couple of years. One was from a ballet company that came from Italy.. Right after they were flying back to Italy to perform at the closing ceremony of the Olympics, so that was super cool. They did a contemporary ballet dance piece to Rhapsody in Blue, the Gershwin piece. The way they played with space and lighting was fantastic. And with their costumes as well, there was so much intentionality behind every single decision that the company made with that piece. My eyes were glued to the stage. It was just such an interesting piece to watch, and I think something that I’ve really taken hold of is this idea of intentionality behind every single decision you make.

 

Now this is the last question. We’re on night four of a six night run. You’re leaving the theatre. You’re very, very tired. You want to be dead to the world, and you’re almost home. You need to make a stop for food, but the only thing open is a Circle K, gas station, kind of thing. You need to buy a drink, something salty and something sweet. What do you get?

 

In terms of drink, I’ve been really into the Roar electrolyte drinks recently, specifically the Georgia peach flavour. I’ve actually had a situation like this. We were in our show from last June, Songs from the Nearshore, and we had five days in a row of four hour, evening rehearsals.  I was so dead and one of my friends said you should drink electrolytes to get through the long evenings. Honestly life changing.. 

 

For a salty snack, I’m gonna go Doritos Sweet Chili Heat. For sweet, probably a Kit Kat – take a break, you know?