Colorado-born, Oklahoma-raised dancer and choreographer James Gregg will debut his world premiere work during GroundWorks’ upcoming Spring Dance Series. Inspired by Italian poet Giambattista Basile’s version of the Sleeping Beauty story, Gregg combines his unique “fixed point” style of movement with while exploring themes including tenderness, love, dark beauty and tragedy.
“My works are like a puzzle piece,” says Gregg, who is based in Los Angeles. “I love creating movement from the inside out and exploring different paths through which the body can move. There will be a lot to watch. You’ll go for a ride.”
A recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award in 2015 and winner of Ballet Austin’s 2014 New American talent choreographic competition, Gregg has set choreographic works on Danceworks Chicago, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, Ballet X, Northwest Dance Project, Nashville Ballet’s Emergence, Springboard Danse Project Montreal, River North Dance Company, Elements Contemporary Ballet, and L’Ecole Superieure de Danse de Quebec. This is his first creative collaboration with GroundWorks.
You have a unique style of choreography. How would you describe your technique?
I have a background in breakdance and we use fixed points on the floor for footwork. In much of my work, we’ll incorporate those “fixed points,” but we’ll use it on our body. It’s one of the tools I use to create movement. It makes the mind work differently for the dancer.
The movements are very fluid. Watching your choreography, particularly this piece, is like watching a beautiful organic machine moving through time and space. The dancers get close.
I’m interested in creating movement from the inside out and exploring different paths and routes through which the body can move. I’m interested in how these various avenues can evoke emotion and how those emotions translate throughout the body. The movements become like a beautiful sentence with your body.
Your new work, titled éveillé, is inspired by the Sleeping Beauty story. Tell us how you decided on this fairy tale for inspiration?
I was reading different fairy tales and I came across the original Sleeping Beauty. It’s a poem written by Giambattista Basile. It’s a little disturbing and dark, but I liked it. Ultimately, I wanted to create relationships on stage and wanted to explore the relationship between “Talia” (Sleeping Beauty), Sun and Moon (her twins), the King and Evil Queen. The piece is a dark, tragic, beautiful love story.
Each dancer will play a character in the story. Taylor (Johnson) is Beauty, Gemma (Freitas Bender) and Tyler (Ring) are the twins, Sun and Moon. Damien (Highfield) is the King. And Felise (Bagley) is the Evil Queen.
The music is mesmerizing. Tell us about it.
The music is from an Australian film called Sleeping Beauty, directed by Julia Leigh with music by Ben Frost. I like Frost’s music – it’s ominous and there’s a dark beauty around it. I also mixed and edited together Vivaldi’s Aria Quia Respexit and music by Apparat. The work features a full 34 minutes of non-stop music.
The work is called éveillé, which means “awake” in French. Is it referring to Talia’s awakening?
I’m exploring tenderness, love, dark beauty and tragedy. I like when there’s a lot of human relationships. We’re entangled in one another. My works are like a puzzle piece, there’s a lot to watch. I’m going to push everything forward, in terms of staging, so the audience can really see it.
This is your first Creative Residency with GroundWorks. How did you first get connected with the company?
David (Shimotakahara) just called me out of the blue. He researches a lot and saw us while we were in Cleveland performing with BODYTRAFFIC. He reached out to me, asked if I wanted to create a new work on the company.
Tell us about your experience working with GroundWorks.
I’ve been having such a blast with the company. It’s been a beautiful creation. We’re all on the same page, everyone is engaged and wanting to do the work. And super open with me and where I’m taking them on this journey. Not a lot of people open up that way so fast. It’s been a lovely experience.
Photo @jgchoreo