Breaking Points: Residency with Cristina Hall

On Monday of this week, I felt as if I’d emerged from a vortex or black hole. It was the first day in a week that I hadn’t been immersed in the studio to the point of saturation, exhaustion, and elation. Being outside in the sunlight and feeling its warmth and glare, exaggerated by the reflection off the snow, felt particularly refreshing after a week of being in a dance studio. I felt renewed and rejuvenated artistically, yet exhausted both mentally and physically, having been pushed to the limits of my dancing for 6 days straight.

What is a choreographic residency?

Simply put, it’s when a choreographer creates a new choreography (typically from scratch) for a specified amount of time. It can last anywhere from a couple of days to months. In my experience, a week is a typical length of time to set a 10 or so minute piece.

For the dancers, it means being fully present, mentally and physically, to learn new steps, new movement vocabulary. Not only are we learning dance steps, we’re assimilating the choreographer’s style and intention, which could be totally new to us (which was true in this case). This often leads to very sore bodies, very full brains, and joyful spirits!

Here are some of the moments, lessons, and transformations that stood out to me during our time with Cristina Hall (in no particular order, because I honestly can’t remember what we did the first day because that was a lifetime ago):

Hands

As a way to get us to think about movement quality and the importance of hands, Cristina had us do an improv moving our hands on a table. She videod us and then asked us what we thought of what came out. —> I think that’s one of the key’s to her success (and why she’s a great fit to choreograph for Abrepaso!): she opens space for the viewer or dancer to explore, reflect, and discover. We saw how overly busy the hands were, that when we did less movement, it communicated much more. Beyond helping us within the new choreography, I realized how my explorations of movement qualities has stagnated over the last few years. And I realized how much work I need when it comes to isolating movements. Cristina helped me to notice movement habits of which I’d been unaware. I struggle with isolating individual joints - to only move one body part is extremely difficult for me. And now, I have a new challenge to work at in my practice. A veil clouding my vision has been drawn aside.

Listening

I don’t mean listening to music, but rather, listening to a dance partner. The piece Cristina created begins with Felise Bagley and I walking back to back. It took some trial and error to successfully move smoothly as one, and that success came as we were able to sense and anticipate the other’s movements. As we pressed our backs into one another, I had to start moving not on my timing, but on our timing, as one. We began to sense through minute shifts or the breath when the other was going to step and in which direction.

Bruises and blisters and sweat, oh my!

A good residency can really push a dancer - and that shows up in bruises, blisters, and hopefully not injuries, but the latter isn’t uncommon as dancers work in new ways, dancing long hours, and pushing their skills. With a few ice baths I made it through the week! But two days in, I wasn’t sure that would be the case. My legs ached, I got slower at pick up steps as my memory reached capacity - but we kept going. By day 5, the muscle soreness had decreased and the momentum of the work took over as muscle memory began to kick in.

The Brain

I have a keen ability to pick up the mechanics of a step, oftentimes after seeing it just once at full speed. However, I lack the ability to get the musicality of the step immediately, and making the step “stick” is a skill that has atrophied quite a bit for me. The last few years, I’ve been in the choreographer’s seat. So this past week, I’d get frustrated as I’d figure out the body movement quickly, but then forget the step moments later, or have to drill the step over and over with the music and still not quite get it. It’s exactly these reasons why we need outside choreographers to come in and create work - to push our skill level and challenge us to move in new ways. I have more empathy as a teacher and choreographer now - I’d forgotten how difficult and how much repetition is needed when you are trying to incorporate new weight shifts, new rhythms, and new approaches to movement. There never feels like enough time with the choreographer, so the pressure is on to soak in as many details as possible as quickly as possible.

Openness

Dancers are the medium with which a choreographer creates. A successful residency balances the dancers being vessels for the choreographic vision and the choreographer leveraging each dancer’s particular ways of moving. Whatever Cristina asked, we were open to trying. “Can you do floorwork?” “Can you pull on the fabric this way and slowly get to the floor?” And our answer was always, we will figure out how, we will learn to… There was quite a bit of troubleshooting and problem solving together. Cristina would ask Felise how to do some floor work. Felise and I would try different ways to work together with the fabric prop until we figured out what would work that captured Cristina’s intention. In my experience a good residency is not a choreography superimposed on dancers, but a collaborative process where all parties are there to serve the creative process.

Impact

While the residency may be over, the seeds Cristina planted will continue to grow. While most of the time the work was happening between the three of us, with a small audience the final day, the long term impact is immeasurable as we continue to deepen our ability within the choreography and as that process reflects in my own teaching, directing, and choreographing, not to mention the impact on audiences who will see the work.

Next

If you’re wondering when you’ll be able to see the piece - we are working towards a November 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. Now, we’ll work with composer Adam Ben Ezra to create music for this section of what will be an evening length work.

Want to help support what we’re doing? You can donate here:

Special thanks to Playhouse Square Foundation’s Launch Program for some of the studio space that made this past week possible.