Art Feature

Rieger helps forge a new dance partnership
by David Ollington

Susan Rieger was five years old when she saw her first ballet. With that, the little girl expressed to her parents a desire to dance.

“I first took classes at Miss Lily’s Tap and Tumbling Studio in Lorraine, Ohio,” said the award-winning choreographer.

Then at 22, Rieger took modern dance classes. “I knew then this was what I wanted to do,” she said. In 2004, Rieger was awarded the Kennedy Center Award of Achievement in Choreography.

Award-winning choreographer Susan Rieger has become artistic director of the 940 Dance Company.

It was another highly regarded choreographer in the KC area, Susan Warden, who had provided Rieger with that first-time exposure to modern dance in the early ‘80s at the dance program at Kansas State University. Warden also began a professional modern dance company, the Susan Warden Dancers, which performed and toured locally. It disbanded in 1990.

In 1989, while continuing her studies with Warden, Rieger, participated in a choreography workshop where she worked with a Lawrence, Kansas, dance artist Candi Baker. In 1987, Baker had begun the Prairie Wind Dancers, a company based at the Lawrence Art Center.

The internationally recognized choreographer/teacher Don Redlich taught the 1989 choreography workshop at the University of Missouri-Kansas City under the auspices of the Mid-America Dance Network. Baker participated as a choreographer, Rieger, as a dancer.

“I set the first part of ‘Four-Patch Suite’ on Susan,” said Baker.

“Four-Patch Suite” became a signature piece for the Prairie Wind Dancers, a dance Baker created based on the quilting work of the pioneer women of Kansas.

In time, Rieger plunged with relish into creating her own choreography. For the last 14 years she has poured her energy and creativity into aha! dance theatre, which began as a collective of dancer/choreographers and eventually became her company. Rieger became the sole artistic director in 2003.

That same year Warden took over the artistic direction of the Prairie Wind Dancers and renamed it the 940 Dance Company, located at The Lawrence Art Center.

Rieger, Warden and Baker have now shifted their affiliations, affecting the two long-standing dance companies, aha! dance theatre and the 940 Dance Company.

Warden recently announced a resignation from the 940 Dance Company, and Baker, who stayed on with the company in an emeritus position, considered Rieger as a viable replacement for Warden.

“Both Susan Warden and Susan Rieger have been a part of my dance world in this area for more than a decade,” Baker said. “I think this is a wonderful connection for the dance community.”

After much reflection, Rieger decided to make the move to Lawrence and take on the artistic direction of the 940 Dance Company.

“It’s been a struggle to survive with as a small arts organization in Kansas City. 940 has stronger administrative support built in,” Rieger explained, “I won’t have to wear so many hats. I’ll truly have more time as an artistic director than I’ve ever experienced before.”

For years, in addition to creating and teaching choreography, Rieger has written grants, booked engagements, contracted dancers and pursued collaborators. While directing aha!, she has collaborated with costume designer Atif Rome, composer Eric Schultz, playwright Frank Krainz, sound designer Terry Moore, the contemporary music ensemble New Ear, fellow choreographers E.E. Balcos and Tina Kambour, and the list goes on.

“I think maybe there’s been limited exposure people have to modern dance. There is a misconception that there is a one-dimensionality about it,” Rieger said,

“I think there’s a fear of not getting it. I think maybe there is a desire to be entertained rather than to be provoked, to think about something; maybe people fear having to do the work, maybe people fear not being smart enough to get it, not being educated enough to get it.”

Rieger’s remarks lead to another question: How does a contemporary dance artist address the issue of misconceptions about the very nature of modern dance?

“I think working with other artists has been a really good thing,” Rieger said.

Her interdependent work with such a variety of collaborators stems from a desire to build an aesthetic bridge to untapped audience. Writer and actor Frank Krainz participated in Rieger’s most recent collaboration, “Disability Romp,” which premiered at the Folly Theatre last April.

“I think using text recently has been really helpful. I see people respond to that and kind of get comfortable. They think ‘oh, good, words, I will know what to make of this piece.’ I love those pieces with words. I loved working with Frankie’s writing. It was inspiring to me,” said Rieger.

“Disability Romp” included a single dancer, Chris Dunn, sitting at a small desk wearing a hospital gown and wrapping himself in bandage tape. Behind him, the rest of aha! hurled themselves about as we heard Krainz’ voice list the multitude of questions on an application for disability assistance based on mental illness.

The dance exemplifies the nature of Rieger’s work: dark but humorous, and avant-garde, experimental. Critics have called her work “enigmatic,” “Fellini-esque” and “strangely haunting.”

“It’s Susan Rieger’s voice that comes through,” stated aha! board member Sue Lewis. “When I see a piece dealing with care-giving, family issues and break-ups, I know that people will be able to understand what the dance is about.”

Rieger has created light, humorous work and athletically lyrical work, but she often returns to dances about social issues and healing. Before her career as a dance artist, Rieger completed a Masters in Social Work from the University of Kansas.

“My interest in social work and psychology has also taken place physically,” Rieger said. “When you create a dance, the unconscious gets out there and is reflected back on yourself.”

The board of directors for aha! dance theatre, Rieger, and the 940 Dance Company hope to combine resources. Rieger and the aha! board deliberated and decided that rather than continuing as two companies, aha! will join forces with 940 to continue to support Rieger’s artistic directorship in a venue of a different name.

Lewis explained, “I would look at it as an expansion of aha! To continue to have Susan Rieger awakening the human spirit I think is fabulous, a huge benefit. I think this new partnership offers phenomenal opportunities to both organizations.”

“I want to continue a presence in Kansas City,” said Rieger, “aha! has built a following here. I’m proud of our annual concert at the Folly, and I’m proud that aha! has been a part of the Renaissance of Kansas City.”

Warden, Baker, and Rieger have all worked hard and established for themselves venerable stature in the area dance community. The current shift of artistic direction resembles a carefully crafted moment of choreography. Within it, aha! joins forces with the 940 Dance Company to broaden the appeal of a too-often puzzling art form.

For information about the upcoming work of the 940 Dance Company, visit www.940dancecompany.org.

David Ollington can be contacted at Ollington@aol.com.