OEUVRE Magazine

This isn’t choreographer Amber Burns’ first time at the rodeo.  She’s worked on several Renegade productions and this ambitious show is just her latest.  Interview by Dennis Kempton for OEUVRE Magazine.

What were your first thoughts about choreographing Spring Awakening?

When Andy first asked me to choreograph Spring Awakening I was really excited! Andy said he wanted a lot of contemporary, non-traditional dancing, which is more of what I like to create. My background is less in musical theater and more in the dance world, so I was very excited to take on this musical!

So, what’s your process? Do you take your cues from the original show or do you scrap everything you’ve seen and begin with a new concept?

When I first begin choreographing I do think about the concepts and I see what has been done, some people don’t want to look at what is already out there, but as an artist I get inspired by the success of other work, and sometimes I like to use something that already works and make it even better. Once I have a general idea of concept and the themes I would like to use I really just sit down and go meaure by measure with the music writing down my ideas.

Did you get any inspiration from period dance techniques for the show or how did you incorporate anything from the time period into the movement of the show?

For this show, Andy and I really wanted the dance numbers to be very contemporary so I really did not have to do a whole lot of research into the period and what types of dancing they did at the time.

How about the cast? How easy or difficult was it for them to work with the choreography? Do you have a philosophy about how choreography is important to a show’s success?

Working with this cast and my philosophy of choreography answer sort of go hand in hand. I really think it is important that everyone feels comfortable with the movement and can add their own style or imput, I guess you could say I like to collaborate a lot. Meaning that I encourage the cast to let me know how things feel, or to please tell me if something is uncorfortable. I also like to “steal” sometimes, for instance if I am teaching a part of the movement and someone naturally adds an arm that looks really awesome I might tell everyone to add that arm. This cast was really fun to work with because they are all so young so they were all really willing to do almost anything I asked of them. They also had a lot of great ideas to add to the movement as well! I think the dance pieces are so successful in this show because the cast was able to give their imput and add thier own style, so they feel like it’s not just my movement and my ideas, but it was all of our ideas!

This show was put together very fast, and the cast worked very hard to get things just right! We bascially had a week to learn all of the dances, and then another week to clean, which is not a lot of time at all, so this cast really did a great job! This show has been challenging becasue I am also part of the cast, so I am in a lot of the dancing numbers, meaning I am un able to see everything and give notes at the end. Thankfully we have an awesome tech crew who were willing to video tape certain dances for me, so I was able to go home and watch and then give notes or change things the next day. Also, I have never had a cast work so hard, and I really have not had to fix or give too many notes.

Tell us about the dance rehearsals? How much foot work rehearsal went in to getting the movements where you wanted them? Was this show any more challenging than any other you had worked on for Renegade?

This cast and crew have been so wonderful, and although I sometimes have some crazy idea they have all been very willing and very faithful. It is going to be a great show!

THE DEETS:

SPRING AWAKENING opens Thursday, February 9 at Teatro Zuccone, 222 East Superior Street, Duluth.  The show runs Thursdays through Saturdays through February 25.  Curtain time: 8 p.m.