Interview with Jessica Bonenfant

Kaliana Basoukeas interviewed Jessica Bonenfant, an MFA alumna, who choreographed Tethered on the entire company. 

What inspired your piece?
Tethered came out of a collaboration with visual artist Susana Conaway (who
happens to be a UofM alum) working with the idea of connecting bodies to
the set, and to each other through costume.  My company, Lola Lola Dance
Theatre, started working with a book of parter-yoga poses to generate
material in 2007, the "tea" theme evolved from the movement, and the
physicality evoked images from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock", which became the primary text.  This lead to research about
women and their societal confines in the Victorian era, as well as how they
transcended these restrictions.  The tethers became metaphorical, as well
as physical.  The dance has been performed as stage works ranging from ten
to forty-five minutes, has been presented as a six-hour installation in a
loading bay for New York City's Fashion District Arts Festival, and has
been part of a steam-punk fashion show.  The version for FTC has by far the
largest cast yet.

What are some of your favorite memories from your time at U of M?
My fondest memories of UofM are being in the studio working with the
dedicated, talented and intelligent undergrads.  In particular, I enjoyed
making a darkly comic duet for two men - Austin Seldon and Aidan Feldman -
which will have its NYC premiere in Triskelion Arts' Comedy in Dance
Festival this month. 

What was your MFA show like?

My MFA thesis work, Secret Poets of the Crushed
Shadows, was an incredible and intimate experience.  Working with five
female dancers, we thoroughly explored perspectives on exposure -
physically and emotionally, and the vulnerability we accessed in the
process culminated in a beautiful and moving dance theatre work.

What is your advice for young choreographers?
My advice for young choreographers is to bring dialogue into your process.
Ask your peers, mentors and audiences for their feedback.  Developing work
in dialectic not only helps you to see your material in a different light,
but helps to create community.

What are you most proud of accomplishing since graduation?

Since completing my studies, I have been fortunate to receive an artist's
residency at Performing Arts Forum in St. Erme, France.  My thesis was
rooted in a research trip to France, so it was wonderful to return there to
work creatively.  The resulting project, Sacre Bleu! Or, Camembert 8 Euro,
is a performance-as-research project in response to the question "what does
it mean to allow one's self to be looked at?"  It will consist of a number
of "performance experiments" featuring some dance department alums.  In
March we performed Experiment No. 2 at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn, and
No. 3 as part of the Itinerant Performance Art Festival.  In April, we will
create a week-long visual and performance installation in Chashama's
storefront space near Times Square, which comes with a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts.