Sean Hoskins

Choreographer of “Go-Go-Fast-Go-Far”

Q: What made you decide to study dance?

A: Dancing wove its way into my life in a really interesting way. I was an avid athlete growing

up as well as a musician (piano, voice, trumpet), but I had a really influential cross country skiing coach who studied dance at Middlebury College. He watched us nervously standing on the periphery at a ski meet one time and urged us to watch other people and copy what we liked, which really opened the door and made me feel comfortable exploring movement a bit. Then I took a swing dance class one summer with a friend, and I got really into learning disco dances from Saturday Night Fever for fun. And then I registered for Intro to Modern Dance at Middlebury College in my 2nd semester and was very captivated and stimulated by the multiple prompts to create, to investigate physically, and to bring all of the accumulated layers of vocabulary and movement history already in my body into the studio/class. I was hooked and never looked back.

Q: What about choreography interested you?

A: I am quite interested in composition and layout - the way things are arranged on a page, or in

the space, or in a sequence, or on the body. In that vein, I find "form" interesting - basic compositional structures like repetition and subtle variation. I'm also drawn to the ability to abstract movement, and to make movement that I find resonant. So I guess I am interested in choreography as the chance for me to arrange resonant movement in the space. My aesthetic also has a preference for the non-linear, and for thwarting the expected or logical conclusion.

Q: What was your inspiration for this dance?

A: I just took a look back at the initial notes in my journal that read:

“Ideas about going and going...something relentless -> Caught up in the rapid pace/unceasing/busy-ness of it all. Take it in? Awed by even simpler beauty.”

I thought that I could whip up a sort of frenzy of activity that would provide a space to strongly contrast that with a message to "slow down and appreciate the intricacies of life" kind of thing. During the process of creating and working in the studio, I let go of this idea a bit, though it continued to include this balance between slower, smaller moments and the quicker and bigger ones.

Q: What challenges did you face?

A: Time. Bits of rehearsal here and there. Dancers being absent or injured... all to be expected in

a rehearsal process a bit! Also, I tend to build these chunks of material here and there in a non-linear way (i.e.- not starting at the "beginning" and working toward the end), so finding a way to structure or link those moments together presents a good challenge.

Q: What do you generally draw your inspiration from?

A: My professors at Middlebury College used to say, "Notice what you notice," which was a

lovely invitation to attend to that which captures my attention. So in my days, I try to pay attention to what I'm drawn toward, and I try to make note of it - in a journal, or napkin, or just in my mind. I also like to consider and investigate movement possibilities, as well as enjoying posing and "living in" questions.

Q: How does your past choreography compare with the choreography you set on FTC?

A: This was the largest group I've ever made a piece for/with, the largest before that being twelve

or thirteen in a dance I made at Oakland University. Also, I tend to like to build material over more time, continually refining it along the way as I get a better sense of what the dance "is", so the quick timeline was an atypical challenge that required some quicker decisions. Some of the compositional tools I used were ones I tend to use, though the dance had vocabulary and structures I haven't used before.

Q: How do you generate your movement?

A: A number of different ways. I employ improvisation as one method, "collecting" things that

emerge that feel new and of interest. I also say to myself, "Alright, I want to make a big, sweeping thing that travels," and build a phrase by adding movement to movement. I also really enjoy giving prompts to my dancers and having them build material that I go in later and shape. I tend to have things like rhythmic, spatial, level, and "instrumental" variation in mind, so as I'm building I tend to want to continue to shift things up a bit.

Q: How does music influence your movement?

A: My musical background often shows itself when I'm building phrases, and I do this kind of

sing-song thing while I move through material, giving "voice" to it. Then, depending on where in the process the music/sound comes in, that influences the shaping of sections sometimes. I don't tend to work with counts, but I really enjoy having sonic layers as components of my dances.

Q: How has your choreography evolved overtime?

A: Wow- what a good and tough question! My earlier pieces were much smaller casts:

as an undergrad I made a quartet, then a solo, a trio, a duet, and a quintet. But perhaps the biggest change over time has to do with the relationship of my pieces to an "idea". My early works tended to begin without a clear central meaning or idea. I just made and investigated, playing around with movement. My teachers told me that the meaning would "emerge in time", and so I waited... and waited... In 2007 I took a workshop with Jeanine Durning, and it was through working with her that I came to realize that one has to get in there and mine the materials that are being created for the meaning. So I think I am more active in the creative process - usually generating, then sifting through and distilling, and then using that to generate more. Maybe.

Q: What was your favorite style of dance growing up? Has it changed? If so, what is it now?

A: I really loved disco, and still love it. Someday I'll have to just go for it and make a kick a$$

disco solo... I think tap would have been a favorite when I was "growing up", if I had taken it, which I didn't. When I did learn to tap as an adult, I totally loved it.

Q: Where have you travelled for dance and where would you like to go?

A: Dance has brought me to San Francisco, Cuba, Berlin, Vienna, Romania, Paris, a festival in

West Virginia, Cunningham Studio in NYC, North Carolina, Boston, Burlington, VT, and Michigan. I'd like to go to Mexico, to perform in Minneapolis, New York again, Berlin.

Q: If you could travel anywhere to perform or set a work, where would you want to go and who would you want to work with?

A: I'd love to have the chance to work with Leslie Seiters again. She is a fabulous mover,

choreographer, visual artist currently in San Diego. And I guess if I'm dreaming, I'd like to dance with Project Bandaloop high on the side of a cliff or a skyscraper.

Q: What was the transition from student to teacher like at U of M?

A: Hmm... Well, it's been exciting to come back because I know the personalities and the

program. I consider myself a student of life, and I still get to jump into the occasional dance class, or get into the studio to engage in a choreographic project or other, so that is a benefit. When I was here as a student, I remember working, dancing, reading, writing, etc. I was stretched and challenged in the way that only being in school can do. Working as teacher/staff is challenging in different ways :) I'm really happy to have the chance to come back to this department and plug in the set of skills I've developed to benefit the program.

Q: What made you go into technology and how does that influence your choreography?

A: I've been interested in technology for years: videos, and computers, and editing sound

scores... And I find that my curiosity has led me to involve myself with equipment and programs in a way that I've built skills and familiarity. And then the new technology that keeps coming out leads me to apply them to a workplace setting to increase efficiency, which is fun for me, requiring some systematic thinking. I guess I was always good at math. As far as choreography goes, I like editing sound scores, and I like playing with ways that including technology might create new ways of presenting and viewing movement.

Q: Do you anticipate making more multimedia works in the future?

A: Yes! Stay tuned for Ann Arbor Dance Works June 9 & 10. The ideas are still swirling a bit,

but I'm using a program called Isadora that allows me to manipulate and project live-captured video of my own dancing body. And I'm dabbling in projection mapping a bit. We'll get Betty Pease a-rockin'!