Residency Reflection: Alyssa Boone
A Duet for One

This residency with the Dance Center has served as a doorway to rediscovering dance and the creative process amidst a pandemic. Going into this project, I wanted to deconstruct the framework of a duet – how it could be disassembled, distilled, and then reconstructed inside-out and upside down – but my concept was quickly whittled down to a solo study in the light of COVID-19 concerns and restrictions. So, I adapted. To maintain my objective of duet exploration, I embarked on creating a duet… for one.

I began researching asynchronistic duets, focusing on the duality of a partnership – what are traditional roles and expectations? Is it possible to make a duet completely equitable? Must it always maintain some aspect of polarity (this person is “good,” the other person is “bad”/ this person gets lifted, the other is the lifter)?

How could both partners be represented within a single body?

My notes from this research are affectionately labeled “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to describe this dichotomy. I employed a couple of techniques to study this idea: creating a phrase and then a counter-phrase, one that opposed the first in time, flow, weight, and space. In a different study, the counter-phrase found ways to support the initial phrase: finding negative space, and weight sharing. Then came the splicing, each movement paired with its equal and opposite part. Light then strong, sustained then quick. The end result was textured and surprising, allowing me to break internalized movement habits to yield things rich, contradictory, and compelling.

I believe this method of dancemaking has informed and elevated my creative process for years to come.

While creating a Duet for One was the destination of the project, my method of creation included extensive research on the Minimalist Art Movement. This was partly inspired by the scarcity and simplicity of the circumstances – the plainness of working alone in a big empty studio in a world plunged into isolation left me with this new feeling of simplicity – and I was surprised to find how freeing the idea of “less” is once I allowed myself to let go of the noise. This idea of minimalism provided the rules, boundaries, and direction for my creative process.

I’ve always considered dancemaking a kind of architecture, and root much of my research in how striking visual concepts from the fine arts world can inform choreographic design. Minimalism as an art movement began in the 1960’s, emphasizing the focus on the most vital parts of a work while leaving out unnecessary elements. Work from this movement is described as fundamental, simple, and clean – an aesthetic I find rare and refreshing.

When there are too many ideas, phrases, and dancers thrown together in a work, I find there tends to be a lack of intention. What I’m seeing can be beautiful but empty and leaves me feeling unsatisfied and disconnected from the piece. To draw in an audience and to create a piece with such clarity and precision that the audience feels included from the first moment, I turned to Minimalism.

In the dance world, I began studying post-modern greats such as Lucinda Childs and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker – Women who stripped away the embellishments to present a clear, concise thought. In her 1979 masterpiece DANCE, Childs’ carefully constructed phrase work revealed weaved together patterns in a repetitious loop and champions the minimalist ideal of synchronicity by having live dancers performing in unison with projected dancers on a scrim (set/film by Sol LeWitt). De Keersmaeker’s Fase: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich (1982) is yet another ode to synchronicity, this time taking form in a crisp duet, intricate in detail yet stark in its execution, and extremely satisfying in its perfect harmony.

From these great choreographers, I gained a new appreciation for the simplest and more perfect balance – synchronicity. Although harder to research alone in the studio, two or more dancers performing the same phrasing in perfect timing provides such a clear, striking image that amplifies the details and patterns of a phrase by echoing on multiple bodies instead of overcrowding it with other movement and ideas.

I also spent time researching how minimalism can apply to technique. Being outside of a traditional training setting for the duration of quarantine allowed me time to question many of the traditions of technique that I had been conditioned to accept. I began to study efficiency –the most simplified way to get from point A to point B. My main question here was – how can I create movement that reads as clearly as possible? Specific mechanics emerged: momentum, conservation of energy, axis points and cause and effect. These became the building blocks that would inform the minimalist visual art elements of line, shape, space, form, movement, and texture.

Minimalist artists are known for denying the “taking away” aspect of artmaking, framing it instead as “adding space.” In applying this to my choreography, I questioned where I could add “nothingness” - viewing stillness and space as valuable elements to include in my choreography.

In these uncertain times, the concept of embracing stillness – welcoming the pause – has brought me comfort. I have learned to find the beauty in less and I am thrilled to have the research and foundation in place for a minimalist experience and a celebration of less: A Duet for One.

Alyssa Boone is a dancer and choreographer from Chicago, IL. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Western Michigan University with a BFA in Dance in the Spring of 2019. Alyssa has performed works by Paul Taylor, Aszure Barton, Kate Wallich, Desmond Richardson, Brian Enos, and Joshua Manculich, among others. She has attending summer trainings at the Joffrey Ballet School, DanceWorks Chicago, and Velocity Dance Center. Boone considers dancemaking a kind of architecture and focuses her research on how striking visual concepts can inform choreographic design. In the Fall of 2018, Alyssa co-directed and choreographed Western Michigan University’s first ever evening-length collaborative arts capstone: a surrealist theater-dance piece entitled “Wisteria.” In 2020, Alyssa was commissioned to choreograph and premiere a new work, entitled “Gridlock,” as a part of Velocity Dance Center's "Bridge Project." Gridlock was later selected to be presented at the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival in August 2020.