MILWAUKEE – If the recent trends on social media regarding the cottagecore and whimsigoth aesthetics are a strong indicator, fairies have had an overwhelming resurgence as of late, with people having a perpetual fascination with folktales and anything related to magic, collecting crystals that possess mystical meanings and dressing like these fantastical creatures.
The upcoming production Sylph, presented by Dawn Springer Dance Projects has its worldwide premiere on Oct. 11 at the Jan Serr Studio on 2155 N. Prospect Avenue here in Milwaukee. It capitalizes and encapsulates this popular notion while subverting certain conventional images often associated with the classical art style of ballet and these ancient formulaic stories. It plays around with esteemed but often suppressive traditions, showcasing the ingrained idea of femininity in a new light.
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The production, which features dancers from all around the world, has been characterized by Visit Milwaukee as a “contemporary dance performance that examines the humanity behind the rigor of ballet artistry” that is determined to demonstrate up close and personal “beyond flattened representations of the stereotypical roles women are often expected to inhabit, both on and off stage.”
The intrinsic relationship between women and fairies has built up a toxic reputation for being exclusionary and restrictive, with these inherent connections going back centuries and still upholding white-centric models of beauty.
I was able to have a conversation with Artistic Director and Choreographer Dawn Springer regarding the collaborative process behind bringing the Sylph project to fruition, her experiences influence of the themes and messages of her work and her position as a woman director in a male-dominated industry.
PH: How would you describe your personal relationship with ballet? Is this a mostly positive connection or have you had rough spots?
DS: It’s very complicated. The form itself is so demanding and it’s very much about pushing the body to its absolute limits.
PH: Do you ever find the style of dance too restrictive or limiting? I know you
described Sylph “as a contemporary dance performance that examines the
humanity behind the rigor of ballet artistry.” Is this dynamic what influenced the production?
DS: Yes, 100%. Sylph is very much about the physicalization of the polarity between having to measure up to something impossible that always feels just beyond the physical body and the pressure to create the airiness of the ballerina and the very weighted struggle of doing so. We looked for ways to both create that version of lightness…but then also to find physical surrender within the choreography too.
PH: Without spoiling the show, how would you say this begins to take shape? How does this physicality take form?
DS: First, in just the actual physical material that we’re playing with, steps that are about giving into the weight and going with the sort of depth of the sound that we’re dancing with, and then also holding back from it and creating some tension and waiting with the dancers relating to each other throughout in different ways.
While there is physically a lot of virtuosity in the choreography…we feel both this sort of overarching rigor that the balletic form necessitates, but then also getting to see the person and the individual within that shared common form where they’re dancing together. Another way I think it takes shape is that the piece is being performed in the round at Jan Serr [Studio], so the audience is on all sides of the stage, and therefore everyone is in closer proximity to the performers. So you’re seeing the fullness of the physicality of the dancers, but then you’re also seeing them breathe and make eye contact and pause and you might see the actual effort because you are so close.
PH: What was it like working in a round, in that type of space? How was it like creating the
production with that in mind?
DS: Very challenging. Initially when we started making the piece, it wasn’t designed to be in the round in the first iteration of creating choreographic material. Then quickly, that idea came to mind when I started thinking about politics and viewership, especially as it relates to ballet and the history of ballet being something that was developed to please the king and elevate social status…I wanted to disrupt that because we are working with all women. In my work, I am constantly driven by the question of how power is enacted on the body as it relates to gender. I was particularly interested in the fairy aspect of Sylph. Throughout many mythologies from around the world, faeries and other nymph-like creatures are often associated with a very particular societal model of what women should be and embody that is ever pervading, that being thin and white in appearance with Western culture as a whole being fixed on young girls and the conceived idea of “innocence” should be. We have this undying fascination with elves and pixies continues into the modern day, with bestselling books flying off shelves these days featuring them.
PH: I was wondering if this production serves as a commentary on this inescapable beauty standard that even our folktales going back hundreds of years seem to perpetuate and if Sylph plays into this resurging current obsession and attempts to reclaim these stories in a new light? Yeah, I think that so much of that mythology of folklore is the basis of values. Common stories that people knew so that they could be wordless. Because of the way gender has played out in history and the sort of expectations, those stories oftentimes contained all of that. I think that Sylph as a production is certainly a contemporary reflection on what it feels like to be a woman in an art form that has such an extensive history. It’s a very old form. They’re beautiful stories, and I’m a huge classical ballet fan myself, but I think that is one of the things the production is doing and finding is the personal within the world and within that picture. It’s certainly a reflection of fairy tale image as it relates to gender.
PH: You mentioned in one of the press releases of Sylph that you wanted this production to “expand beyond flattened representations of the stereotypical roles women are often expected to inhabit, both on and off stage.” Are there any personal challenges in this field that you think are common occurrences?
DS: Women’s leadership in director roles in ballet is 23%. We see a lot of women get pushed into roles that are more teaching. I am a teacher, and I love teaching, but there’s a difference in that. Of course, as a young dancer, if you have grown up seeing men primarily be the ones who direct the artistry…I have found that some of my biggest challenges in being a woman in dance exist when I walk into a theater, and I need to direct the room, and I need to say what I think I want. I have seen my male colleagues be treated very differently and questioned a lot less. I have seen it happen to other female choreographers. There’s this lack of trust that the woman knows what she’s doing. I think we’re changing things, but I think we have a long way to go.
PH: I know one of the principal missions of your dance projects is feminist thought. How would you say this perspective impacted this current production? Who or what encouraged you to participate in this movement and include these uplifting themes within your work?
DS: I think the dancers. I just think my experiences with what women have gone through. A lot of different dance training. Then, in my personal life, I was a working mom during COVID and felt what the world experienced with the gender disparity in terms of domestic labor in the home and how much that impacts the economy. How much that impacts women’s abilities to thrive in their jobs. The world is still set up with the notion that one person goes out and one person stays home.
I can’t think of a more “professional” way to exist in the world than for a parent to say, ‘I’m gonna get my kids to work. I’m gonna be able to do all of these things.’ So I think that inspires me to make dances the way that I make them because that’s how I experience the world, and unfortunately, even though it is 2024, we’re still going through a lot of that.
Tickets for Sylph are now available with a student discount for the three showings between Oct. 11 and 12 at the Jan Serr Studio.
The event features international performers bringing their unique experiences with femininity to the table and the overall work involving itself in a global discussion around the complex definition of a woman.
Great interviewer! Great artist and interviewee! Great insights!
Thank you.