Synapse Arts in a Crosswalk Dance/Photo: Matthew Gregory Hollis
Rachel Damon says she never planned for Synapse Arts to be a long-term thing when she started the project as a Columbia College student in 2004. Now her organization, housed in the Berger Park Cultural Center, is an established Arts Partner in Residence with the Chicago Park District and an incubator for dozens of independent dance artists through their New Works program. For its twentieth “Birthday Bash,” Synapse is offering up a daylong sampler of ongoing projects: dance films; showings by New Works artists; Textile Dances, which incorporate movement with large-scale handwoven fabrics; Crosswalk Dances and Mural Dances, which bring a splash of spontaneous delight to public spaces. Damon speaks about the one-day event and the continued importance of genuine human connection to her work.
As I was looking at the Birthday Bash schedule I thought about how all these activities reflect how Synapse has grown. And I thought about the appropriateness of your name. Look at all these connections you’ve made.
When we were talking about our twentieth season, we were like, “We’re not a gala company. We’re not a rep company.” We want to bring people together around the arts. And it should be free. And it should have things for all the communities we cross over with.
Maybe that’s a good place to start. Could you talk about some of these communities?
We say dance for all ages, identities and income levels. It was important for us that adult professional dancers cross over with young dancers in our performance troupe. I think it will be fun to have professional dancers cheer on the young dancers and vice versa. We’ll also have a giant game of freeze dance—no dance skills required.
We’ve been writing a lot of grants lately to do more with senior populations. We’ve had some nice opportunities with libraries and residential centers to work with people in their sixties and above. Some of that is in the Birthday Bash and is something we welcome and are open to expanding on.
And then ability—having things you can do whether you’re non-disabled or disabled. We have a lot of folks in our network who have chronic illness or other needs and it’s important to us you can choose your own adventure. If you’re watching Crosswalk Dances or Mural Dances you don’t need to watch from any certain spot or be able to fit in any particular seat. You can choose to join in when we invite people to move with us. And Maggie Bridger, who was a New Works artist, is going to host a care area so there’s a spot you can chill if you get overstimulated or anxious.
It’s all very all-gender inclusive. Berger is a good space for being able to separate things out in different spaces and the restrooms are all-gender. Trans Dance is also there, a weekly class that Reign Drop developed out of their New Works project.
You’ve mentioned a few of the artists Synapse has supported with New Works over the years. I see the Studio Series will take place through the day, but also throughout the year.
The Studio Series grew out of the need everyone has for space, and we’re fortunate to have access to a lot of it as Arts Partner in Residence working in three different parks. Chrissy Martin is showing and Camilla [Rivero Pooley] who moved back to Chicago, as well as Reign Drop and IS/LAND Performance Collaborative. And Jordan Kunkel is showing a film they made in their studio series.
As we look back and move forward we wanted to support people who have made the company what it is today. I put out a call to everyone who had worked with us and see who wanted to take sixteen hours of time in one of our studio spaces, there’s a small stipend that comes with it, and share the work in some way. Just reweaving people from the past twenty years in. We didn’t feel the need to remount something, so we decided to keep supporting process and new things, which is more our style.
You use the word “reweaving” so that’s a good segue. Making these new things—you mentioned Crosswalk Dances, Mural Dances, and there’s also Textile Dances—I’m wondering about your relationship to the material environment, be it “built” or “handmade.” How has that evolved for you, or what’s interesting about it for you at this moment in time?
When I hear the words “built environment” I think about the people involved. We’re space-makers because dance is always in conversation with space. For “Birthday Bash” I’m trying to make a Textile Dance on the outside of the building. The Park District has a few caveats about this, but this balcony is calling to me. It overlooks the Lake. I want to have dancers on the balcony and at ground level. I want to extend the building with the textile and dance, where people walking by can stop and watch the dance—very much in the vein of Crosswalk and Mural Dances. It can be a destination or it can be something that crops up in your day.
I’m interested in professional-level performance happening spontaneously and outside. I have this rejection of the controlled space of the theater. I also do theater production so I spend a lot of time in a dark theater where we control light and sound, and that’s great. But I feel my creative voice comes out more clearly when we’re in a space where you can’t control all the elements. You can’t control the little kid running up and grabbing your leg or the guy on a cell phone or the construction workers. There’s true spontaneous joy in those moments I can’t craft. I want to create the structure that allows for that. But that’s just improvisational human reality in real time. Often I like to make contemporary or modern dance and that can get heady; people feel “I don’t know how to watch or talk about this.” I like to take that apart.
In another interview you mentioned how, with a lot of your performances, people don’t have to watch the whole thing. It occurred to me how granting that permission makes dance so much more approachable. I thought about busking: People have no problem with that idea when it comes to music. But with visual-based performance, you wonder if you’re supposed to stay still and behave a certain way.
Yes. And that should not only show up in our classes and office space; it should be in the performance space. There’s this tightening-up in dance practice, where everybody’s having a good time in rehearsal but then you get on stage and get really serious. Your spine is the only thing emoting. Is your face emoting as well? Do you see me as an audience member? Do you acknowledge I’m here?
Sure, and that’s a huge choice to make.
It is. And it takes some performative maturity to allow that. To make the decision that we’re going to move now because a four-year-old has clasped my leg. A lot of our dancers are parents and sometimes need to bring their child to rehearsal. And they adapt to having a kiddo in the mix. That seems normal to me.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
The only thing I should mention about “Birthday Bash” is that it’s free, but donations are welcome. You can come for just a little bit or stay for the whole day. Art on your terms.
Synapse Arts “Twentieth Birthday Bash” at Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 North Sheridan. Saturday, August 3, noon-4pm. Free, donations welcome.
