Q&A With The Artists: Summer Beasley

We wanted to give you, our fantastical readers and friends, a chance to "meet" a few of the LVDT artists. Readers, meet Summer. 

Summer Beasley (right) and Margaret Beaver Hassenstab
at aTrek's Impulse Festival 2011
Photo by Jessica Stack

How are you involved with Seen Unseen?
I am performing. I am helping with recruiting technical crew, and how and where to get lights, sound system, etc. 

How long have you been working with Leverage (including when it was aTrek)?
About 10 years.

What do you find exciting about working with Leverage?
Leverage is always a great mix of talented dancers who are always great collaborators. 

Why is Leverage a good fit for you?
Leverage (aTrek) has been a good fit for me over the past 10 years because the company allows me to dance and choreograph while also working a full-time job (livable income) and starting a family.   

What does Leverage offer that’s different than other companies (in St. Louis or elsewhere)? Leverage directors, choreographers and dancers are not afraid to take risks. 

What opinions or thoughts would you like to share about Seen Unseen? 
The change of venues during Seen Unseen takes the audience on a journey (literally) in a very unusual way. I’m excited about the step outside of the box Leverage has taken with this concert. 

So many dancers say, “I can’t live without dance.” Is this true for you? Why is it so essential? 
Of course I cannot live without dance. Movement gives the body energy and feeds the soul. Bodies are happiest when they are moving, and my body just happens to be happiest dancing.

Do you hold another job outside of LVDT? If yes, what challenges/opportunities does this present?
Yes, I work a full-time job teaching dance. Scheduling rehearsals and class can be very challenging. 

Where do you find creative inspiration?
EVERYWHERE!

Thanks for checking out our Q&A's! We hope to see you at Seen Unseen this weekend!

Q&A With The Artists: Betsy Brandt

We wanted to give you, our fantastical readers and friends, a chance to "meet" a few of the LVDT artists. Readers, meet Betsy. 

How long have you been working with Leverage (including when it was aTrek)? 

Ten years!

How are you involved with Seen Unseen?

These days, I am the President of Leverage’s Board of Directors. In that role, my contributions to the organization are largely related to the broader strategic vision/direction of the company. For a number of years, I was Diana’s co-artistic director and the organization’s director of development, working on everything from grant proposals to press releases and all of those weird tasks in between! I was an active dancer and choreographer with the company throughout my time with aTrek/Leverage. After a three-year hiatus where I lived out of town to complete my MFA, I am thrilled to be back in St. Louis and supporting the mission and programming of Leverage in my new capacity.

What do you find exciting about working with Leverage?

LVDT is like a greenhouse that supports the germination/development of new work and emerging artists.  LVDT provides opportunities for these artists to work with visiting master artists throughout the year – opportunities that would not traditionally be available to them without being enrolled in a dance department’s undergrad/grad program. The organization also allows these artists to participate in the programming free of cost, requesting only a contribution of time and energy to the administrative side of running the organization. These are important learning opportunities for anyone looking to develop their career in the arts. Each of these aspects of Leverage’s identity has not only enriched my own artistic practice over the years, but they have helped me get jobs, grants, awards and opportunities that I never would have gotten otherwise!  

What does Leverage offer that’s different than other companies (in St. Louis or elsewhere)?

An open attitude to diverse aesthetics and an acknowledgement that this diversity strengthens, rather than weakens, the organization.

What opinions or thoughts would you like to share about Seen Unseen? 

I think that it is exciting that LVDT is tackling a site-specific project. This is something that I have never seen done in St. Louis in quite this way. I think the project highlights one of LVDT’s major strengths – its strong relationship to the city of St. Louis – and places this relationship at the center of our creative process. Sometimes audiences can feel a little alienated by modern/contemporary dance if they are unfamiliar with it, and I think this concert offers an exciting potential to empower the audience in a new way.

What would you like to say about your piece in Seen Unseen?

For this concert, I have made a short video installation that will be installed at the Centene Center and viewed by the audience as they walk from one live performance to another. It is a very quiet piece that incorporates images and texts that I have been thinking about during my transition back to living in St. Louis. Snowy parks, the architecture of our city’s many bridges, and the often non-verbal communication between dancers.

Stay tuned for Q&A's from other artists, coming soon!

Q&A With The Artists: Grace Barlow

We wanted to give you, our fantastical readers and friends, a chance to "meet" a few of the LVDT artists. Readers, meet Grace. 

Photo by Daniel Castro

How are you involved with Seen Unseen?
I am performing and choreographing in Seen UnSeen. 


How long have you been working with Leverage (including when it was aTrek)?
Since September 2011. 



What do you find exciting about working with Leverage?
I find the opportunity to continue to dance and create work very exciting. After my collegiate life, I didn’t think that I would get the opportunity to continue dancing other than recreationally. LVDT has given me an outlet for expression over the last year and a half and I look forward to continuing my work with the company.


What would you like to say about your piece in Seen Unseen?
My piece, Fifth and Final, will take place in the Metropolitan Lofts space. My motivation for creating this work derives from the often cliché experience of going through a loss of a relationship. However, instead of being over-dramatic about this relationship, I am pushing my choreography and my dancers to display strength in their movement instead of sorrow. Each one of us has experienced some sort of relationship whether it be a friendship, kinship, romantic relationship or the like. To me, this piece is about how we pick ourselves up and learn from the situation to ultimately release that person from our lives and become a stronger person.


What dance experience do you have prior to/outside of Leverage? 

I began my dance training at age 3. Growing up, I lived in Bloomington, Illinois and trained at McLean County Dance Association and Twin Cities Ballet. I trained mostly in ballet, modern and jazz from a young age through high school and was active in three companies: Bloomington Ballet, Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Orchesis Intercity Dance Company. These companies afforded me performance opportunities as well as choreographic opportunities at a young age. While I attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, I took non-major dance courses to continue to study technique. This opened a door for me to study African dance and work with a graduate student on his work. Upon moving to St. Louis, I found aTrek Dance Collective, now LVDT, and I am happy to be able to continue dancing and return to performing and choreographing.



Do you hold another job outside of LVDT? What challenges/opportunities does this present?
I hold two other jobs outside of LVDT. Mostly these jobs challenge my scheduling ability for rehearsals and performances; however, without them I would not be able to pay my bills. I work as much as I do as a teacher, dance educator, and fitness consultant so that I can do what I love which is dance. While it becomes challenging at times to schedule around my hectic work life, in the end it is rewarding to know that I work so hard every day so that I can continue to experience dance both as an educator and a dancer myself. In an ideal world, my dancing and performing would pay the bills, but we all know such is not the case. It also becomes challenging as a dance educator to continually be creative. I give a lot of my creativity to my students which then can affect my time for choreography for LVDT. 


Stay tuned for Q&A's from other artists, coming soon!

Q&A With The Artists: Ellen Vierse

We wanted to give you, our fantastical readers and friends, a chance to "meet" a few of the LVDT artists. Readers, meet Ellen. 

How are you involved with Seen Unseen?

I’m performing in 4 pieces, taking pictures of rehearsals to post on LVDT Facebook page, creating/updating Google calendar events (e.g., workshops with guest artist Nejla Yatkin), any other PR assistance I can provide.

How long have you been working with Leverage (including when it was aTrek)?

This is my first time officially working with Leverage, though I have periodically taken classes and intensives through them/aTrek since 2008.

What do you find exciting about working with Leverage?

I am inspired by the overwhelming amount of creativity and artistry within this group as well as the collaborative drive to constantly pursue new ideas and challenge boundaries.

What has your experience been so far, working on Seen Unseen?

It’s fascinating to be working with so many different choreographers; each has a unique approach to creating new work. Some rely more on collaboration to make new material, whereas others have a clear vision of what they want before even entering the studio. It’s been a great learning opportunity for me to have to adapt to each choreographer’s process; I appreciate each experience for its own challenges and discoveries. I have learned more about myself as a dancer as well as a person because of these combined experiences.

So many dancers say, “I can’t live without dance.” Is this true for you? Why is it so essential?

Yes, it is definitely true for me. I’ve never been the best technical dancer, but I love the constant striving for improvement. I love the intricate details in each movement and the idea that dance can express emotions and ideas that words simply cannot. When I am dancing, it is the only time that I truly feel free to just be. Somehow, everything else falls away, leaving me feeling intensely vulnerable, yet somehow strangely and wonderfully empowered. Dance to me is a beautiful gift that I never want to take for granted.

What dance experience do you have prior to/outside of Leverage?

I hold a BFA in Modern Dance from Texas Christian University and am currently dancing as an apprentice with another local company, Common Thread Contemporary Dance Company, under the direction of Jennifer Medina.

Stay tuned for Q&A's from other artists, coming soon!

Q&A With The Artists: Keli Brook Hermes

We wanted to give you, our fantastical readers and friends, a chance to "meet" a few of the LVDT artists. Readers, meet Keli. 

Conversations in Concert, April 2012
Jonathan R White Photography

How are you involved with Seen Unseen?
I’m choreographing and dancing, I will be helping distribute flyers and helping with food donations for shows. 

How long have you been working with Leverage (including when it was aTrek)? 
Since August 2011. 

What do you find exciting about working with Leverage?
I like the opportunity to choreograph and have a group of artists help give feedback and grow. So often choreographers don't have a support group and are only subjected to criticism after a dance piece is finished by way of review or audience feedback. I like that we put on unconventional shows and do pieces that are emotionally and/or performance challenging. I also like that while there are directors who have the final say there is a lot of open discussion about the direction of the company and our role in it. I never feel like my opinion is disregarded.  

What does Leverage offer that’s different than other companies (in St. Louis or elsewhere)?
Leverage offers a combination of technically strong dancers with unconventional dance. We can kick our legs high and we can also stand still and perform. I like to think that our performance quality is something that helps us stand out. Each dancer is very committed to the movement and/or theme of each piece they perform. I think Dancing to Music, which debuted at New Dance Horizons and is also a part of Seen Unseen, is a nice example of that quality.

What would you like to say about your piece in Seen Unseen?
This piece, The Older I Grow, was initially motivated by families, the relationships between parents and children, and the role reversals as caregivers later in life. With that basis, the piece ultimately is about the reflection of a long-lived life. Along the way, the dancers have been reflecting on their dance careers and how their bodies have responded to age. I am striving to convey a variety of emotions a person may experience as they age. I don't want to say too much, though, as I hope the audience will discover their own storylines and feelings!

What dance experience do you have prior to/outside of Leverage?
I danced for four years at Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) and also acted as a teaching artist for their education program “Books in Motion.”  I have also done projects with Common Thread Contemporary Dance and Dawn Karlovsky & Co. My choreography has been seen locally at St. Louis Dance Festival, National Dance Week, and 60x60 Dance and I have been at guest artist at University of Missouri –St. Louis, Cottey College and Creekview High School (Texas).

Do you hold another job outside of Leverage? What challenges/opportunities does this present?
Oh lord yes. I am heavily involved in teaching and choreographing at Arts in Motion in Webster Groves. I also teach one day a week at Denoyer Dance in Arnold. Monday through Friday, I also act as the billing supervisor at Sports Medicine & Training Center, a physical therapy and performance training facility with locations in Crestwood, Clayton and Creve Coeur. Working multiple jobs often means working seven days a week which is very challenging for my mental state. I enjoy teaching and working in the office setting, but often wish I could change my hours and availability to provide more opportunity for creative work.

Stay tuned for Q&A's from other artists, coming soon!