Body of Work — Through Dance a Community Looks at Changes in Labor and Identity

by Stephanie Ancona

In April of 1999 high school students, senior citizens, and professional dancers performed together on the stage of the Portsmouth Music Hall. Their performance was the culmination of a six-week residency by the Everett Dance Theatre and was also part of an effort to respond creatively to changes that are transforming the community.

Participants in the Everett Dance Theater residency.

The Music Hall opened in 1878 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is believed to be the fourteenth oldest working theater in the country. Since it’s opening, the Music Hall has gone through many changes and renovations. It was most recently altered in 1986 when private citizens and business leaders formed the non-profit group, The Friends of the Music Hall, in order to reopen the historic building in 1988 as a regional center for the performing arts.

Jane Forde, the Music Hall’s Director of Outreach and Education, recognized that artist residencies could be the key to re-establishing a connection between the community and The Music Hall.

In 1999, the Everett Dance Theatre, based in Rhode Island, was invited to perform and expand community access to the arts in New Hampshire. The goal of the project was to build community around dance by creating a performance around the changes taking place in Portsmouth. The process, referred to as an Integrated Performance Art Project, involved the creation of a new piece by the Dance Company entitled Body of Work.

The Company’s work with the Portsmouth community was part of The Music Hall’s initiative to examine both contemporary and historical perceptions of labor and identity. With support from the NEA Regional Touring Program, through the New England Foundation for the Arts and the assistance of several private and public organizations, the process developed into a concerted community effort. It centered on issues of particular concern to Portsmouth, particularly as it evolves from a blue collar fishing and military community into a high tech Mecca. This economic transition in Portsmouth is largely due to the extraordinary development of the Pease International Trade Port following the closure of an Air Force base. Portsmouth is now being touted as the country’s fastest growing high tech area.

Jane Forde, a seasoned community artist in her own right, organized a six-week course prior to the Everett Dance Theater’s arrival. Forde prepared the participants by leading a series of exercises, which experimented with movements, characterizing aspects of a job or mimicking tools or machinery. The participants included Portsmouth Middle School and High School students and senior adults who had participated in past residencies. Other community members, including a homemaker, a National Guard drill sergeant, and the Director of the local Schools-to-Work Program, also participated in the workshops. The resulting movement skits formed the raw material used in a creating final work.

Aaron and Dorothy Jungels, co-directors of the Everett Dance Theatre, encouraged the group through role-playing and theatre exercises to develop their shared sense of the changes taking place in Portsmouth. In one exercise two participants adopted different emotions for the same scene as the emotions were shouted from the audience. Dorothy explained to the Portsmouth Herald’s staff writer, Jenn Vento, that the exercise might be imitated in everyday life: "It’s one of my favorite exercises because it does show how you can flip [emotions] pretty quick and maybe use that in your own life."

At the culmination of the residency, the Everett Dance Company presented a main stage performance of Body of Work at The Music Hall as well as several lecture/demonstrations to student audiences. The student-senior group also performed. Middle schoolers mimed machine work to show the importance of teamwork and how one faulty piece could throw off an entire operation, and seniors mimed the professions they wished they had had, as well as those they did have. Channel 9 (the local ABC affiliate) covered the event, taping and interviewing everyone involved. The level of community involvement and enthusiasm was unparalleled in the history of The Music Hall, drawing an audience of over 800.

One of the most satisfying results of the project was the intense intergenerational cohesion that developed. A mutual respect between students and seniors shifted attitudes. Participants gained new confidence in their own creative movement abilities. New opinions of participants were carried back into individual communities and peer groups, and the Music Hall flourished at the center of it all.

The Music Hall continues to grow as an active cultural center, enriching the lives of the Seacoast region's residents and visitors. Alive with music, dance, theater and film for both adults and children, The Music Hall is ever aware of its dependence on the community it serves and seeks compelling new avenues of collaboration with the people of Portsmouth. By reinforcing strong community ties through artistic residencies such as this one, The Music Hall serves to fortify the community as well as strengthen its foundation within the Portsmouth community.

In addition to NEA Regional Touring Program support provided through NEFA, support from the Foundation for Seacoast Health was pivotal in securing additional sponsorship to make this project possible. The Music Hall received support for this project from the New Hampshire State Council for the Arts, the Capezio Foundation, and the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities. Local collaborators included Senior Friends of Portsmouth Hospital, School-to-Work Program, Portsmouth Middle School, Portsmouth High School, the Women’s Health Consortium and many local community members.

National Endowment for the Arts
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