The Big Easy: In its 40th year, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks salutes New Orleans’ roots of the genre
Kimberly Cooper was in New Orleans last May when she took in a show by jazz trumpeter and vocalist Marla Dixon.
Of all the places on Earth, the Big Easy might be the hardest city for a performer to stand out when playing jazz. Cooper has been the artistic director since 2013 of Calgary’s Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, a company formed 40 years ago to keep the spirit of jazz alive and rekindle the relationship between it and dance. So it’s safe to say, Cooper has a more discerning ear than most when appreciating the genre. Nevertheless, she was “blown away.”
“There is so much music there,” says Cooper. “It’s the birthplace of jazz. It’s so rich culturally. So I heard lots of amazing music. But somehow her vibe and her voice stuck with me. So I took a chance, found her online and called her up. She put together a band and is coming tomorrow.”
Dixon’s six-piece Falling Bullets Jazz Band from New Orleans provides the musical fuel for DJD’s newest production. Call and Response is a loosely plotted homage to New Orleans and its traditional music. Dixon and her cohorts play compositions associated with Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Kid Ory. The vibe is very 1920s and 1930s, but it’s not a period piece. It takes place in modern times, set in a bar with a bandstand. It opens Jan. 16 at the DJD Dance Centre as part of the High Performance Rodeo.
Incorporating live jazz music into DJD productions has been a hallmark of the company since 1988, four years after the troupe was founded by Vicki Adams Willis, founder of the University of Calgary jazz dance department, and two of her students, Michele Moss and Hannah Stilwell.
So it’s fitting that DJD will be kicking off its 40th season this year with a show featuring a six-piece traditional jazz outfit and DJD’s 10 dancers.
“Part of the culture of jazz, the history of jazz, is that dance and music were always one expression,” says Willis, who joined Cooper in a conference call interview. “They did get separated over the years. Part of our mandate over the years is to really bring that back and use live music and work with incredible jazz musicians whenever possible.”
“It delights me,” says Willis about the premise of Call and Response. “We’ve always been about the history of the form. But we’ve done the full spectrum of jazz over the years, from very contemporary work to honouring the beginnings. I think this year being our 40th anniversary, I think it’s very lovely that (DJD) has decided to honour those beginnings.”
There were few dance companies like DJD in 1984 when Willis, Moss and Stilwell first conceived the idea. Willis, whose mother opened Calgary’s first dance studio in 1927, founded the U of C jazz-dance program in 1978. At the time, it was the only program of its kind in Canada.
“I had a sabbatical in ’83 and had travelled the world looking for like-minded artists who were interested in reigniting the elements that initially defined the form and were based on the fact that it was an African-American art form and I came back empty-handed. Two of my students, Hannah Stilwell and Michele Moss, came up to me one day and said ‘We think you should start a dance company. Basically, we don’t want to work as waitresses this summer …’”
That summer they received a student employment grant, hired four dancers and began rehearsing in a basement at U of C. Body and Soul, DJD’s first production, was choreographed by Willis and performed in September 1984.
“We were the only Capital-J Jazz company in Canada and one of the very few in the world at that time,” Willis says.
Since then, there have been plenty of highlights for the company. One of the most notable was the 2016 opening of the DJD Dance Centre in Calgary, a $26-million, 12-storey facility adjoined to the Kahanoff Centre on 12th Avenue S.W.
The company has travelled internationally, including performances at Cuba’s Havana International Jazz Festival and tours of Japan, Turks and Caicos and Chicago.
Willis says the 1993 DJD production No Small Feets stands out as a pivotal moment for the company. It was meant to both star and pay tribute to Clarence ‘Big’ Miller, a jazz and blues icon considered the last of the Kansas blues shouters who had moved to Alberta in 1970. He died suddenly only nine days before the show was set to open. In a fit of “the show must go on” determination, the company soldiered ahead.
“We decided to turn the show featuring him into a memory of his life, a tribute to him,” Willis says. “It was all of our media friends coming to our rescue getting the footage and trying to put together a show that was meant to feature him and using these horrible rehearsal tapes and having the band play along with these tapes. Everybody came to our rescue. It darn near did us all in, but we realized at that point that we really did have the wherewithal to rise to the challenges. That was a huge turning point.”
Cooper saw a DJD production of Body and Soul when she was 13 and was determined to make jazz and dance part of her life. In 1989, five years later, she auditioned as a dancer at the age of 18. She danced for the company until 2013 and also served as a resident choreographer from 2002 to 2013 when she became artistic director. The landscape of dance has changed compared to 40 years ago, when DJD was a rarity.
“I feel like there is a kind of resurgence or a renaissance happening with jazz,” Cooper says. “There is a number of small companies in the States that are starting to bloom that are combining a lot of Lindy Hop and hip-hop together that is super interesting. They are very much related, so it makes sense. The tap community has been thriving for a long time and I think that has also helped the jazz community come alive. I feel like things are starting to evolve.”
Call and Response runs from Jan. 16 to 26 at the DJD Dance Centre as part of the High Performance Rodeo.
Source: Calgary Herald
Photo Credit: Brent Calver/Postmedia