June 7, 2009
Sneek a peak at new dance rock opera
Nashville in Motion, Peter Moon Band collaborate on addiction-inspired piece 'FIX'
By Fiona Soltes
FOR THE TENNESSEAN
Jennifer Harwell hopes to one day be "collaboration central" for dancers, choreographers and songwriters looking to spread their wings. But this was beyond even her imagination.
One night, while eating dinner downtown with her husband, Harwell heard a live song by the Peter Moon Band that moved her. Immediately, she knew she wanted to choreograph a piece to it. So she sought out the band's manager. And that manager, Margaret Frank, confided that she and Moon had long wanted to do a rock opera but had no idea where to find interested dancers.
It turned out to be an "absolutely amazing process," says Harwell, artistic director of contemporary dance company Nashville in Motion. And this month, a series of "sneak peeks" of the piece will be presented in various locations.
FIX: What's Your Monkey? is a look at rehab and the wide variety of addictions that plague human beings, told from the standpoint of "the people inside, the friends and the family members."
"The music depicts all of it," Frank says. "You'll be laughing, crying and wanting to stand up and dance. All of these emotions are brought into this one situation."
Frank says the inspiration came from people they know in addition to those the band has seen on the road; the group plays up to 200 dates a year at festivals, casinos, colleges and the like, and they're often concerned with the state of the people in the audience.
"We see a lot of people we want to drive home," says Frank, who has also been writing music with Moon for the past decade. "That's why we started throwing MoonPies into the audience to sober them up at the end of the night."
Working with Harwell, she says, has been "real synergy," and plans are to have seven songs ready to go. At this point, the work is about 45 minutes, but will eventually be a couple of hours.
Harwell, in the meantime, will present the FIX songs as part of a larger program. Also on the bill are an Argentinean tango from ballroom choreographer Tony Guidera, as well as the return of Design by choreographer Kathleen Spinazzola.
Nashville in Motion, now in its third year, employs professional dancers off-contract in the summer months. This season's crop includes eight paid dancers (mostly from Nashville Ballet) and five trainees, but the goal is to have both a professional performance group and an internship program that allows dancers to grow into the company.
Harwell's own training was at Nashville Ballet when it was still called Nashville City Ballet, followed by work and touring with Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride, and then musical theater. She's been teaching and/or choreographing in the Nashville area for about 10 years.
In terms of FIX, she says, "People don't know what to think of when it comes to 'rock opera.' We're just trying to put something out there as a different dance/live theater/music experience for Nashville. It's taken a long time for the city to open its mind to the arts, but as a whole, it's become so much more into the dance and theater scene, with these underground theater places popping up. It's time for something new."
Frank likes the idea that in addition to the music and dance, the show carries a strong message.
"Basically, it takes away some of the shame of addiction, and adds humor," she says. "People are more receptive when they're laughing. Then maybe they can actually have some sympathy for people dealing with all this instead of judgment. . . . Everybody has some kind of monkey on their back. And we came up with the title FIX because everybody wants to be fixed."
Additional Facts