 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter")
 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter")
The American Repertory Ensemble is not traditional. The musicians are not relegated to a symphony pit or to the side of the stage, and dancers are not a background support to the music.
The Austin-based ensemble company combines the best of them all in a way that is unique, with no one discipline given the focus of having the stage to itself. Because of this, some of Austin's best classical and chamber musicians are as much the stars of the show as the ballerinas.
This weekend, UT students will have the opportunity to see the company's January show "Winter Tryst," a collection of nine separate performances under the theme of people coming together and moving apart, including two world premieres and one highly coveted special act - "Soudain, L'Hiver Dernier," ("Suddenly, Last Winter").
Only four companies in the world have the right to perform Soudain because of the way choreographers choose certain companies to perform their works in the hopes that their vision will be maintained, said the ensemble's public relations director, K.C. Scharnberg.
Watching nine separate arrangements may seem like a lot, but the number is understandable given that the company only performs twice a year - in January and in the summer - taking advantage of the off-seasons of major ballet companies across the country to draw in some of the best-known professional talent.
'The ensemble'
ARE was founded by David Justin, a UT assistant professor in the theater and dance department, and a musician, Rob Demeer, who has since become the composition department chair in the School of Music at SUNY-Fredonia.
Justin said when he moved to Austin in 2003, he was looking for a way to contribute to the community. His unique contacts to high-caliber, national-level ballet companies and orchestras from his world-wide ballet career offered him the means.
"A lot of pieces fell in. I was like wow, we could really do something that contributed to the community, a new perspective on a caliber of dance that a city like Austin can expect," he said.
Scharnberg said capitalizing on Austin's excellent musicians is part of the company's mission.
"The premise of the company is bringing dancers from all over the country - best of the best - and the best of the best of musicians in Austin together," she said.
Michele Gifford, who has now worked with ARE through three performances, said she thinks the work done by ARE is important to show to both Austin and the world because in the United States, people are so focused on technology that they often forget about the arts.
"I think it's a really important part of culture that we're missing out on, because the United States is so into brick and mortar that they're forgetting what's going to fill those spaces that you're building, and why not art? Be it painting or dance or music or drama or whatever it is," she said.
Gifford, a former principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet and then the Texas Ballet Theater, is performing in several of the shows including "There Where She Loved," a romantic bittersweet performance, and what she calls her emotional favorite, "Je ne t'aime pas," ("I Do Not Love You"), a production originally staged by well-known choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.
ARE is the only place Gifford said she has really encountered the opportunity to work with several musicians on stage at once, though she has worked with a piano or singers on stage on occasion.
"It's not just about the dance or the music. It's definitely professionals coming together without compromising their integrity. It rises to another level," she said.
The company was founded on the idea of bringing together artists from many disciplines to work together. With the recent departure of Deemer, the music director and co-founder, Justin is determined that losing the musician's voice at the planning table does not change the company's ideology.
"To come to an experience like this, where you're working with other dancers of the same caliber, and beside the musicians - it's such a rare opportunity that can feed their artistic souls. That's one of the reasons I can get such good dancers," Justin said.
'The Style'
Watching the direction of a dress rehearsal, Justin, the company's artistic director, tells his performers to "imagine yourself being followable." A musician waits for a dancer's footfalls to begin before striking the keys of the piano and, in turn, that dancer later watches a musician's hand hovering over a guitar or for a nod of the head as she begins to sing before moving into gesture.
"In this, there's really an aspect of performance, of working together to make one large art rather than us being sort of stuck in our little bubble of abstractness," said Elizabeth Petillot, a UT vocal performance doctoral student who adds her voice to the performances of "There Where She Loved" and a world premiere piece titled "Opening the Cage."
While the company likes to experiment, the majority of their work is based in classical dance and music.
"It's not just classical ... but it's definitely classical ballet structure, but neoclassical is a broad term these days," Gifford said.
Justin does not see the company moving away from its classical base in the future.
"A lot of our stuff is rooted in classicism because there's a strong foundation there. It's a better place to move away from," he said. "I think the classicism helps us explore those other things. For instance, [Opening the Cage], though - it's acoustic, and it's a chamber ensemble. It is not a classical work. It is truly contemporary."
'Imagine That'
The world premiere, "Imagine That," has two dancers in oversized pastel jackets fighting with childish enthusiasm over a bowler hat and balloon.
Through the course of the performance the mood changes to a coy, adolescent romance, highlighting the night's theme - "coming together and, on occasion, moving apart" - while also emphasizing the unique visual experience of seeing the dancers and musicians interact. At one point, dancer Laura Feig perches pouting on the back of the piano bench where pianist and UT doctoral graduate Yu-Hsuan Liao masterfully coaxes out music to match the changing scene.
'Opening the Cage'
Petillot, who works in Austin professionally with Conspirare vocal choral and other local groups, describes "Opening the Cage," the other world premiere, as a very different type of performance, with a complex style and even more complex origins.
A quote from composer John Cage inspired a poem by Edwin Morgan, which in turn inspired the composition by Hywel Davies used by ARE. The words from the quote - "I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry" - are repeated in jumbled forms to the beat of several instruments gathered onstage, crowding a small group of dancers.
"Each of the musicians have a note per word, so everybody plays something on each word that I say," said Petillot, who plays the guitar and chants the words. "The dancers, individually, have moves for each word. And then all the words get jumbled up in different phrases from the original phrase."
"Opening the Cage" may be the most complex of the arrangements on the program - using four dancers and several musicians on an increasingly cramped stage to create Justin's vision - but it is just one of several that have come together in little over a week of rehearsals.
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