Professional Company Directs VCU Students for Dance NOW Show

By Cassie Williams Jones

Opening the recent VCU Dance NOW show, eight students in the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Dance and Choreography performed a piece by guest artist Kate Weare.

Kate Weare Company is a New York-based contemporary dance company known for its provocative and emotional interpretation of human movement. The company performed at VCU last October, and, as part of a residency with VCU, Weare and her team auditioned upper-level dancers and selected eight for a piece that ran during four Dance NOW performances held from Feb. 21-23.  

Rehearsal director Douglas Gillespie and 2003 VCU dance alumna Leslie Kraus are dancers with the company and accompanied Weare to work with the students to choreograph and set the dance.

“We pride ourselves on the connection with VCU and Leslie,” said Gillespie, who was thrilled with his experience working with the selected students. “They were really in it, and totally focused. They were game for anything.”

Weare worked with students in the fall for two weeks to set the piece and rehearse the choreography in the Grace Street Theater. The time with the students allowed for creative advice and direction from Weare.

“Find a way to make that very precious to you,” said Weare. “Find a way to hook into it passionately – that’s how you grow as an artist.”

“Kate Weare's residency at VCU Dance gave our majors not only valuable experience with a successful working professional artist, but living, breathing inspiration in the form of alumna Leslie Kraus, one of Kate's featured dancers and a working professional artist in her own right,” said Lea Marshall, interim chair of dance and choreography at VCU. “On many levels, the residency demonstrated several versions of what a successful career in dance might be.”

Weare not only physically directed the dancers, but addressed the tone and emotion behind the movement. She described the piece as dominant and erotic, and challenged the students to tap into their emotions and connect with the dance.

“Think of yourself in a process that never really ends,” she said.

Weare settled in New York City and established her company in 2005 after dancing in cities around the world. As a creative director and choreographer, her concentration is always on dance.

“Kate is a very pure artist,” said Gillespie. “She’s constantly thinking about the work. She is so focused, always.”

VCU Dance NOW annually features new work by VCU dance faculty and guest artists, performed by dance majors. This year, the department presented choreography by faculty members Martha Curtis, Courtney Harris, Autumn I. Proctor, Judith Steel and Christian von Howard, as well as choreography from Weare and Stephanie Martinez, the spring 2013 visiting artist.

The presentation of Kate Weare Company was made possible in part by grants from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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