Muscular men in tutus, a pseudo-evangelist, a battery of umbrellas and at least one naked butt?Step right up folks, it’s another SB Dance extravaganza!
Who’s to blame for this saucy brand of modern dance? Stephen Brown.
Brown’s career began from right here in Salt Lake City at the U and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, then to New York and Austin, and then right back to Salt Lake City where he founded SB Dance Company 10 years ago.
I interviewed him about his career, SB Dance and his newest creation, Dry Spell.
How did you get started with dance?
I started off as a normal freshman in college [at Washington University in St. Louis] having no idea what I wanted to do, and I took a dance class because I had to for a liberal arts requirement or something. I thought, “Wow, I kind of like dance.” I’d never done anything like it-no music, no art, no nothing. So then I moved back to Utah and started taking classes at the U in the modern dance department.
I read on your Web site that SB Dance specializes in “subversive dance.” What do you mean by that?
Well, hopefully all art is subversive in that it runs against the mainstream current. We’re always questioning what’s going on. There’re many things that are a little provocative and controversial in our pieces. I usually choose content that is challenging mainstream ideas.
Parts of your pieces are quite funny. Is that something you strive for?
Yeah, I think most modern dance is so serious that it will call the police and get you arrested if you fart. It’s all this “end of the world” kind of art, and I don’t like that. I get bored with people constantly pointing out how hard things are and how crappy people treat each other. I don’t mind pointing that stuff out, but I like poking fun at it. I like to be funny. And hopefully people are laughing at it because I intend it to be funny?
Yeah, there were parts of Dry Spell that weren’t apparently funny, but people were laughing?
Yeah, there was some woman laughing during the part with the steel umbrella [one of the many props]. It was really weird. There was nothing funny about it. I mean maybe you see a tutu up a guy’s ass, I guess. What happens in this kind of work is you just start pushing people’s buttons, and stuff comes out of them?and it’s weird stuff.
Does that bring you satisfaction to evoke a response that you didn’t expect?
Oh yeah. As long as an artist is evoking a response?that’s it, you’ve won.
So is it true that Thayer [one of the dancers] farts a lot?
[Laughs] Yeah, Thayer’s flatulence is legendary. He can’t fart the whole alphabet, but he definitely gets up to ‘Q.’
Do you think you’ll ever use it in a show?
Ha ha, no?Thayer’s just an amateur farter. He’s not a professional.
SB Dance Company will be performing Dry Spell at Rose Wagner Black Box Theater on Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 18 at 4 p.m. Tickets are $13.50 with a Ucard.
Performers in the SB Dance company execute beautifully subversive art this weekend at the Rose Wagner.