The Studio

Written, Directed, and Choreographed by Christopher d’Amboise
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Nov. 6-Dec. 9, 2007
http://www.signature-theatre.org/

“Dance is a language. It requires punctuation.” So proclaims Emil Anderzen, the blocked but brilliant choreographer of Christopher d’Amboise’s dance play The Studio making its East coast premiere in a new production at Signature Theatre of Arlington, Virginia. In a play that teaches the process of dance, both choreographically and corporally, it is not only surprising but also stunning that the language employed to convey the story is so literarily astute in its conciseness and evocative power.

The viewer does not have to read the biography of d’Amboise to know that the playwright has himself experienced dance from every angle. And he is not only the playwright, but also the director and choreographer of The Studio. Yes, Christopher d’Amboise, as a Principal dancer in the New York City Ballet worked closely with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins while dancing major roles as well as originating several new works. As a choreographer, he has created over 80 works performed by over 30 ballet companies worldwide, including his 2007 premiere of “Tribute” by New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. Among his many playwriting credits is his new musical Hang onto Me about Fred and Adele Astaire.

The Studio, performed in one act and 16 scenes, concerns Emil’s (played by Broadway veteran Stephen Lee Anderson) efforts to complete his choreography to Igor Stravinsky’s rhythmically challenging composition “The Rite of Spring.” This ballet suite, commissioned by Serge Diaghilev’s Les Ballets Russes and known in French as “Le sacred du printemps,” caused a riot at its 1913 Paris premiere where world renowned artists gathered to witness Stravinsky’s third ballet collaboration with Diaghilev.

Assisting Emil in his choreographic pursuits are two hired dancers—Lisa (played by Chryssie Whitehead) and Jackie (Tyler Hanes). As The Studio progresses, we learn that the ambitious Lisa who lives by her declaration “I think we attract everything that happens to us” got an audition with Emil because she saw his cryptic note pinned to her dance studio bulletin board with a phone number that read “Mover needed” and knew from her reading of dance magazines that Emil Anderzen called dancers movers. We also learn that Jackie, who believes “There’s something so rewarding about being a servant to something you believe in,” has been working for years with Emil on this piece and was Emil’s lead performer in a version of this work that went on stage in Chicago except Emil refused to open the curtains for the audience though he made the performers dance.

Jackie functions as the narrator of The Studio. From Scenes 4 through 13, Jackie counts the numbers of days Emil has allowed Lisa to work with him. On the 79th day, Emil permits Lisa for the first time to ask a question. She questions whether a certain sequence of versions is not the same. Emil ignores her and commands that they dance version 27, which they do perfectly. Then he says, “Thirty, sixteen. Stop. You know, Balanchine was short.  … But when he talked to you he would lean back. It gave the impression he was taller than you and looking down. Isn’t that fantastic? Okay, we are done.” Lisa misunderstanding believes Emil has settled on version sixteen and asks if he has thought about costumes.” Emil says no and then asks Jackie when was the last time he cleaned the studio floor, which is code for the-work-with-this-ballerina-has-finished.

It is not important to know the outcome of The Studio but to savor the process of creating an artistic work and understand the agony and doubt an artist suffers as he or she creates. Dramatically Christopher d’Amboise gives us fleshed out characters whom we care about. We know Lisa’s biography through her dance audition with Emil and that she associates her home state of Michigan with Jell-O. Her jiggling Michigan dance captivates Emil and he nicknames her Jell-O. But she’s not a lightweight as Emil warns, “Careful, Jackie, she has ‘Der Sack,” meaning: she has balls. Lisa herself says this is true and that her father would have preferred his only child to be a construction worker rather than a dancer. D’Amboise also punches up this notion of weight when Lisa must be taught to plié into a lift so that Jackie can help her defy gravity. Emil repeatedly has told her not to look at the floor and that “Dancers are above gravity. If they touch the floor at all, it is only because they choose to.”

Jackie provides a critical inside look at Emil. To Lisa, Jackie strips away all Emil’s artifices—Emil is from Pittsburgh not Austria as Lisa believes, his accent is an affectation, he was once married for two days to one of his dancers. Through an interview of Emil that Jackie recounts to Lisa, Emil says of his failed marriage that you can’t marry your muse and “To create you must explore every possibility, then discard the wrong ones. Nothing ruins an artist faster than being seduced by the wrong idea.” To more questions by the interviewer Emil offers that his two-day wife was just a dancer and “Good choreography exists regardless of the dancer. My ideal work would involve neither dancer nor audience.” In fact, Emil envies Picasso who can work with dance on a canvas.

Since Jackie is the narrator, we know less about him. What we know is that he continues to miss opportunities because of his dogged loyalty to Emil who has made him known by dance critics as the “Infamous Invisible Boy.” Through his actions, he reveals himself as a nurturer who takes frozen peas to Lisa after she limps away from a dance practice. He says these peas are the best things for icing an injury.

If one were to take away the rich language with many one-liners, viewers who saw this performance on November 11, 2007, would not go home dissatisfied. The dancing and acting of Chryssie Whitehead and Tyler Hanes were viscerally and emotionally engaging enough to occasionally raise waves of goose bumps in this viewer. Stephen Lee Anderson performed with convincing timing in his role as the mercurial choreographer who is worried about growing so old that he won’t recognize a good idea when it happens.

The set is appropriately spare but accommodates space for the dance studio, Lisa’s apartment with a bathtub, Emil’s digs with scrawled-upon wall of dance notation, and Jackie’s pad with sofa. Recorded classical music threads through the play.

The Studio made its world premiere March 31, 2006 by the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California. In the original production, The Studio was a two-act play with one intermission. Signature Theatre’s one-act production running about 90 minutes without intermission seemed appropriately structured.

By Karren L. Alenier