What is The Making Room?
Christal, Bebe, Susan, and Angie during the first convening in Philadelphia, March 2016. Photo: Lila Hurwitz
The Making Room is an investigation into innovative ways of sharing the creative process from start to premiere. Organized by Bebe Miller Company, the project brings together Bebe Miller and choreographer Susan Rethorst to generate a joined experience of the choreographic process, shared virtually and in person, over the course of one year. While each artist will be creating new work, the interactions between the artists in and outside of the studio, made available to virtual and live audiences, are the project’s focus.
Bebe and Susan will engage with each other at virtual and in-person convenings throughout the year, working separately and together in Columbus, OH, Philadelphia, PA, and other sites. They will each work within their respective creative process; the juxtapositions of method, style and intention will become the fodder for conversation and reference as they take the next steps in their own practice. Video artist Lily Skove participates as a register and translator, documenting each convening as witness to the process.
The video, audio, photo, and text materials generated during the artists’ rehearsals, conversations and spur of the moment discoveries will be shared with virtual audiences via an online portal, aiming to capture Bebe and Susan’s developing curiosity and choreographic strategies. In-person public events will further open their research to audiences.
Creative residencies in Philadelphia, Seattle, Columbus, Northampton, and other locations include open rehearsals and workshops. A culminating public event will occur at New York Live Arts (NY), as well as a Bebe Miller Company tour to Wexner Center of the Arts (OH), The Dance Center (IL) and On The Boards (WA). A culminating e-book and website will be created about the entire project, to serve as an online resource template for creative process documentation, geared for both academic and artist audiences. And a national convening of educators, artists and archivists to share innovative practices in artist-driven archival methodologies is planned for the near future.
Dance Artists: Michelle Boulé; Christal Brown; Sarah Gamblin; Angie Hauser; Gregory Holt; Darrell Jones; Bronwen MacArthur; Wendy Perron; Trebien Pollard; Gabrielle Revlock; Michelle Stortz
Video Artist: Lily Skove; Ellen Maynard
Consultants: Rachel Boggia (Bates College); Lane Czaplinski (Wexner Center for the Arts); Scott deLahunta (Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University); Mike Ross (University of Illinois)
Project Manager: Lila Hurwitz/Doolittle+Bird
Media Associate: Shannon Drake
The Making Room is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts‘ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network; Ohio Arts Council; and Greater Columbus Arts Council.