Big seaside balls, glowing air-traffic batons, a rock quarry, references to Irish dance sensation Michael Flatley, a paleobotanist, and the Venus de Milo: These items make up the wildly imaginative world of SISSY, a brand new dance-theater play written, directed, and choreographed by Celia Rowlson-Corridor, which runs April 24–26 at Baryshnikov Arts.
Although Rowlson-Corridor obtained her begin within the New York Metropolis concert-dance scene, for over a decade she’s labored primarily in movie, creating her personal award-winning work and choreographing for initiatives together with HBO’s “Ladies” and A24’s Aftersun.
For SISSY, Rowlson-Corridor reimagines the Greek fantasy of Sisyphus (the story of a person compelled to roll a boulder up a hill, just for it to roll again down each time it nears the highest) from a feminine perspective, to discover her experiences caring for her younger son and ailing father whereas attempting to not lose herself or her artistry alongside the best way. SISSY options dancer Ida Saki within the titular position alongside A-list actors Lucas Hedges, Marisa Tomei, and Zoë Winters. A bunch of 5 dancers rounds out the solid.
Whenever you have been profiled in Dance Journal in 2014, you mentioned that you simply’re drawn to myths of all types. Why Sisyphus?
I’m all the time considering pictures which can be within the canon of our psyches. If I say “Sisyphus,” you may conjure up a picture instantly. A few years in the past, I used to be at some extent the place I’d been attempting to get my new movie off the bottom for five-plus years, and likewise my spouse and I have been three years right into a child journey. I felt like if I wasn’t pushing considered one of these targets, or each of them, up the mountain each day, they simply wouldn’t occur. I had this picture of Sisyphus, and I imagined a digital camera revealing a lady who had been behind the rock the entire time. The individual that’s been doing all the work, however not seen. What’s her story?
At first, I assumed it could be a movie. After which, as soon as my son Romeo was born, I used to be like, I need to go residence to the theater. When he was 6 months outdated I did a two-week residency by Baryshnikov Arts, after which final summer time, throughout his nap occasions, I began writing the script.
Are you able to discuss a bit about your inventive course of?
I usually get a picture in my head, after which I deliver that to the studio and discover it. The photographs have been Venus de Milo, an airport tarmac, and Sisyphus. I didn’t know the way or why. I simply saved creating the dances. Then I began making a story inside these dances. And I obtained the concept to create a play inside a play; however that first play is dance. It’s quite a lot of narratives to weave collectively.
Why Venus de Milo?
Alexandros of Antioch, who carved Venus de Milo, we don’t know that a lot about him. I like this concept of an unknown particular person making some of the well-known items of artwork. It represents what it’s to be an artist. Whether or not you get consideration or get panned or fail, it’s a must to present up once more. And that may be a Sisyphean activity in itself.
You’re working with a solid of well-known actors along with skilled dancers. What excited you about bringing these two teams collectively?
I believe quite a lot of actors really need to transfer, need to dance. It’s been about discovering these people who find themselves courageous sufficient to go for it. I like mixing dancers and actors collectively. I believe they create different issues out within the different particular person.
What made you need to return to the stage? How do the challenges and joys of this course of differ from movie work?
Final 12 months I choreographed 5 totally different movies, and never considered one of them occurred in New York Metropolis. And so, if I used to be going to be with my household, I needed to uproot them. I had this second of like, How do I’ve a creative apply but in addition a sustainable life for my household? I wished to be residence. This chance got here on the proper time. However, wow, is it difficult. I wrote one thing much more sophisticated than I assumed I did.
The phrase “sissy” feels loaded in so some ways. Why did you select it?
I cherished the concept Sissy is the feminine model of Sisyphus. It’s additionally “sister,” and over the previous couple of years a lot of my life has been my relationship with my sister as we have been attempting to maintain our father alive. Sissy’s brother within the present is Fuss. I had this concept that they inherited this job from their household, of getting this rock into the sky each night time. However Sissy is the one who really finally ends up having to do all the work. After which we get one other which means: the character of the Quarry Employee being known as a sissy by his dad, and the emasculating emotions round that.
How has your relationship to the Sisyphean activity of motherhood modified because you began engaged on this venture?
I’m within the studio from 10 to six, and meaning I get to see my son for perhaps an hour mixed every day, which is so painful. So I’ve to make this time every part, as a result of I’m making a sacrifice, and I need it to be price one thing. The largest factor is being laser-present within the studio after which laser-present with my son.
