Q+A with Jeffrey Peterson Of ‘Fe/Male’
Image credit: Intermedia Arts
Recommended by the Editor
Third Annual Keeper AwardsFe/Male, choreographed and directed by Jeffrey Peterson of Jeffrey Peterson Dance and Melissa Rolnick, will be performed at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis this weekend. The show will be performed twice, once by an all-male cast and once by an all-female cast. METRO talked to Peterson about his inspiration, working with Keeper Tamara Ober and his upcoming shows.
METRO: Where are you from?
Jeffrey Peterson: I am from Minnesota, from Eden Prairie. I went to the University of Minnesota [for my] undergrad [degree].
You got your masters from New York University; how did you enjoy living in New York City?
It was a fantastic experience, professionally and personally.
What brought you back to Minnesota?
I had a great time in grad school and I loved the energy in New York, but in the year after I finished my masters I had sort of a difficult year personally. The energy turned bad for me and I was ready to leave. Minnesota is where my roots are, my family and friends. I have a solid foundation here—it took a while to cultivate it, but it’s coming together now.
How did you get into dance?
In high school I was a band geek, into theater and choir. However, I realized I did not like my instrument anymore and I became a color guard. I joined the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps and realized I would be better as a color guard if I could dance. I took dance class at the U of M and I got hooked.
You know Tamara Ober, an artist we featured in our January issue, from Zenon Dance. How did you meet her?
I have spent a lot of time with Tamara; we worked on a number of pieces together at the U of M on their dance troupe. We worked on an improvisational piece by Chris Aiken called Iris. It was five of us and it was a very intense, wonderful experience. To improvise for 10 to15 minutes in dance, the type of connection you have to have to generate a piece that looks choreographed, but is improvised, is very unique. You have to build an immense amount of trust together.
What inspired the concert piece Fe/Male?
The overarching idea came from Thinkingaview, a piece we performed at Bryant-Lake Bowl. In that show we played with gender in love. There is a duet in the show that is repeated three times to Etta James’s At Last, once with two males, once with two females, and once with a male and female. The duet was so poignant I thought it was worthwhile exploring the idea of gender. Thinkingaview was very risqué, cabaret and fun, where in Fe/Male it’s darker and forceful exploring the power in relationships. Really the pieces are so opposite.
What else can we expect when we see Fe/Male?
The performance is a modern dance show. It is set up so there is something everyone can relate to—gender exists in everyday lives. We point out inherently who we are. Modern dance can alienate people and in this concert we bridge the gap of modern dance to the audience. I am a classist when it comes to construction and musicality [and] so is Melissa [Rolnick].
Could you describe more about the look or style of the performance?
It is three parts: Rouse - is a partnering, but a solo too. It explores the differences in intimacy and violence in close relationships. It is a script performance, but depending on the dancers’ emotions while performing the piece they can transform it and I allow for variations depending on how the dancers’ interactions happen, it’s more theatrical. This gives a believability and honesty to the piece. If I try to tell them too much of what to do then the believability would not be there.
2x2 is Melissa Rolnick’s piece about social power—which is in charge and it maintains a double image throughout—two couples doing the same thing. The timing is so powerful; there is no rhythm, but there is a rhythm. Duration is a wonderful craft, how it can affect your interest in something, if it is really, really slow, it can bring out that feeling of discomfort. 2x2 and Rouse share some similarities, but they are different.
Soaring is also Melissa’s, It is a solo she created while working on a program in Phoenix [Ariz.] for female survivors of torture. She created this while going through the experience. It was originally written for a woman in 2003, but I am the male solo in this performance. For me to know where it comes from, the how and why of it—it celebrates the women and the joy in them. I am the first male to perform it and I am very honored. It made me think how, as a man, can I give this piece justice not only as a man but also as an artist.
Do you have an agenda with the concert?
Agenda is too strong a word. We seek to uncover the lenses through which we see the world. We operate in such a way we do not realize our inherent viewpoints and stereotypes. We have an agenda in the sense that we seek to point out how viewers see the world. Hopefully they will walk out of the performance talking about what they have just seen and what they felt how it feels in their lives. We are not saying this is how or what you should think—we are saying instead, this is our world.
Will the visual appearance of the performance be neutral so ideas of male and female are not obvious?
The pieces will be as identical as possible, the costumes too. It is the performers’ performance on stage that calls the attention. We are not leading the audience to a given conclusion; their attention will be in the movements. Nothing in the show will direct the viewer to realize the male and female versions, but men and women are physiologically different. What’s fantastic is there is nothing the men can do that the women cannot do. The concert will be kinesthetically aesthetic and also intellectual. People will walk away thinking about it—I hope.
What about the music in the show?
Soaring is set to an operatic aria by Mozart; 2x2 is set to percussive, ambiance and ethereal music. Rouse is interesting because the composer Ryan Inselman, G.B. Leighton’s drummer I met while playing in the Madison Bugle Corps, he is amazingly talented. He wrote a piece called “Glass, Metal, Wood” and he uses instruments made from these elements in each part of the piece. The Rouse performance is in three parts and the music denotes the three parts. I did not give him direction; he saw the dance and then made the composition. As I added sections to the dance, he built onto the music.
What are you looking forward to next?
The Chris Watson Fringe Show is in August at the Lab Theater. Also in August I submitted to and was accepted to have a piece in the Rhythmically Speaking Show and coming up on June 29 I collaborated with Rebecca Katz Harwood, who I did Fringe with last year, for a piece for the Duluth Symphony to Ralph Vaughn Williams music. I have been on a bit of a dancing hiatus since I have been back in Minnesota; I have been doing more choreography. I don’t have an affinity for one or the other; they are just different creative processes.
Thursday, June 2 – Sunday, June 5
Thursday - Saturday: 8 p.m., Sunday: 4 p.m.
$12 - 14
2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls.
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