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Kids JUMP!
The company’s style is minimalist, abstract and liberal in its interpretations and technical approach. This characterization seems more appropriate for a company of mature dancers, and the confrontation with a dance troupe of adolescent girls performing a sophisticated interpretation of the daily interactions between junior high and high school girls initially makes one wonder if modern, abstract dance, is even appropriate for pubescent girls. Yet as the dance entitled Walk Right Through proceeds, the audience cannot help but be captivated by the flow of movements that naturally grow from each other. The dancers remain intensely focused and serious throughout the dance, diligently paying attention to every move, to every transition. The pace is set from the very beginning by the dancers who repeatedly count from one to eight in both English and Spanish, thus contributing to the stern musical background. The use of words continues throughout JUMP! choreographer Paula Hunter’s solo Grocery Store, set against an audiotape recording narrating a trip to the grocery store. The relationship between words and movements creates a powerful, humorous effect. The blending of words and dance is a trademark of Hunter’s style. “I like to talk, and in my work autobiography and dance come together,” the choreographer confesses. “I let the voice be part of the dance and see how it affects the movements.” The words and body movements are complemented by facial expressions and contortions, which contribute to the humorous effect. Even when not performing, Hunter’s face, with its bony, well-defined features, is expressive. Hunter’s slim, long body and her hair, purposely puffed up and messy, contribute to her dramatic stage presence. The idea of using words at the beginning of the JUMP! piece came during rehearsals, when the dancers were counting to keep the pace, Hunter says, quickly bringing the conversation topic back to her company. “We thought it might symbolize something they study in school, maybe a foreign language, so the dancers counted in both English and Spanish.”
What makes the company unique is the collaboration between Paula Hunter and the dancers in conceiving the pieces
She founded JUMP! in 1998 with the purpose of “giving kids an opportunity to do some more sophisticated work that goes beyond recycles.” The company, based in Providence, R.I., where Hunter currently lives, is divided in two groups – Little JUMP!, made up of eight children aged 8 to 10, and Big JUMP!, whose eight dancers are seven through ten graders. Most dancers are students in Providence. What makes the company unique is the collaboration between Hunter and the dancers in conceiving the pieces. “Other companies give you already choreographed pieces, but with JUMP! you learn to choreograph them yourself,” says Judy Estey, a 13- year old member of the company who has been dancing for ten years. “That way you learn what you are good at.” Hunter, who sees herself more as an editor, emphasizes the importance choreography plays in the work of the company. “JUMP! is not a dance school,” Hunter says. “I do emphasize the technical side, but there are too many trained dancers out there, and too few choreographers.” Although the emphasis is on crafting the dances, Hunter does require her dancers to take ballet lessons, Estey and Rachel Kirtley, 15, say. “Ballet is so structural, there is one way you can do it,” according to Kirtley, who has been dancing since she was 3 years old. “Modern dance is based on ballet, but you can be more creative.” The company’s most important project so far, a dance drama called Mill Girls according to Hunter, is a perfect example of the fusion of ideas that create JUMP!’s dances. JUMP! performed the dance in theatres across Rhode Island. Mill Girls, for which the company received a $2,000 grant from the Rhode Island 2000 project, was inspired by the stories the dancers learned in school about girls who were used as cheap labor in the New England mills in the 19th century. “We started by asking ‘What do we want to get across?’ We took the day of a girl in the mill and rapped a song about how exhausting the work was. We also made our bodies into the machines, and chanted out the different times of the day,” Hunter says. Estey emphasizes the role played by the dancers. “We incorporated the knowledge that we had with her ideas. She also had us do improvisations and then used some of our movements in the final dance.” The dancers’ improvisations are a source of inspiration for most dances the company does, according to Kirtley. Estey quotes another piece for which Hunter came up with the beginning, inspired by the warm-up routine of two baseball players. “We took it from there and worked with our own improvisations and transitions.”
Hunter describes her dance style as “humorous but formal and highly-crafted."
The company normally rehearses once a week, but during performance periods (September and January), the Big JUMP! sometimes rehearses every day, and the girls often sacrifice school vacations and holidays to practice, according to Hunter. “We do not have a home base so we vagabond like crazy – public library basements, churches. Lately, due to good weather, we rehearsed in my back yard!” Hunter added that the company is currently working on a new dance drama based on the children’s book The Polar Express. Hunter emphasizes that the company’s independent, non-profit status makes it difficult to obtain funding. “There has never been much money for independent dancers like me.” The grant from Rhode Island Project 2000 has been the company’s most important financial support so far, according to Hunter. Hunter graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Dance and Fine Arts. A Providence native, Hunter worked in New York with independent choreographers, primarily Carolyn Lord, before she went on to several dance teaching jobs at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Hamilton College (N.Y.) and the Interlochen Center for the Arts (Michigan). In New York, Hunter has performed as a dancer at the Kitchen, PS 122, and the Dance Theatre Workshop. She is currently a curator of the series The Words and The Motion at Dixon Place in N.Y, a project that supports hybrid work involving talking, words in general, and dance. Hunter is also a curator of the dance series Summer In The Square, a summer dance festival in Union Square Park promoting ethnic, modern and innovative work. Hunter describes her dance style as “humorous but formal and highly-crafted. There are a lot of dance styles now, but the well-crafted, structured, and reductive work will always win out,” Hunter says. She tries to teach the young dancers these principles, along with “using their body expressively, and taking charge of their education.” Hunter hopes that some of the members of JUMP! will go on to have careers in choreography. “There are millions of dancers, and many of them get burnt out. But choreographers never want to stop what they are doing. And I think some of the girls in the company got the choreography bug.”
Paula Hunter can be reached at Mphunter54@aol.com or 401-751-0366. Please join a discussion on this topic in our forum. Edited by Azlan Ezaddin. |
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If
you think kids dance companies are all about pink tutus and Barbie
make-up, choreographer Paula Hunter’s company JUMP! will change your
mind. Dressed in green fluorescent fleeces and black tights, the teenage
dancers of JUMP! presented two of their modern dance pieces in the
company’s first New York City appearance at Judson Church on April 30th,
2001.