Sue Schroeder, artistic director of Core Dance, is like a fish, seemingly unable to breathe unless she is fully immersed in the creative waters.
Unbowed by the pandemic and the recent deaths of both her parents and her mentor, Anna Halprin, she has continued to work — unceasingly.
During the last two years — and for more than 40 years before that — Schroeder has led an organization that teaches movement artists how to move not just in the studio or during performance but through life. Core Dance is about connecting artists locally, nationally and globally, yes, but it’s also about community, social justice, the environment. It’s about being human. And the artists Schroeder brings to Atlanta reflect these deep and abiding concerns.
Credit: An Pham
Credit: An Pham
The week of March 13-18, Core Dance is hosting acclaimed, two-time Bessie Award winner Ishmael Houston-Jones and four collaborators who delve into “the crises and potentials of land, healing, movement, consent, ownership and solidarity.” On March 18 and 19, they will perform “TRY” at the B-Complex.
“TRY” began with a group of queer dancers from different generations, races and cultural lineages getting together to see what would emerge.
“Entering my 70th year during a worldwide pandemic and political upheaval, I feel peculiarly enthusiastic about my future as an art maker,” Houston-Jones states in a press release.
“With ‘TRY’ I am re-examining fundamental themes that have been present in my work for decades – explorations of racial identity, gender identities, biographical fiction, and finally, a deep commitment to improvisation and collaborating with other artists.”
Credit: an Pham
Credit: an Pham
Those artists include Keith Hennessy, a self-described “frolicker, imperfectionist and witch working in the fields of dance, performance, activism, affordable housing and teaching”; Snowflake Calvert, a Two-Spirit artist of Yaqui, Rarámuri and Tzotzil Mayan heritage who serves as the president of Queers United for Intersectional Liberation (QUIL); and Kevin O’Connor, a multi-disciplinary artist working as a dance improviser, circus and installation artist.
“TRY” will be performed to electronic music improvised and composed live by Gabriel Nuñez de Arco in collaboration with jose e. abad.
Credit: Courtesy of Core Dance
Credit: Courtesy of Core Dance
Houston-Jones, Hennessy and the cast will be guest artists at the March 17 edition of Lunchtime in the Studio, a Core Dance initiative that has been serving the community for 22 years.
Bringing these groundbreaking movers and experimenters to Atlanta is just one of the projects that Schroeder has taken on in spite of the pandemic.
In October 2020, in the first year of lockdown, the company did a live, socially distanced tour in Arkansas to commemorate the 10th anniversary of women’s suffrage with “Nevertheless . . . She Persists.” Mindful of the pandemic but undaunted, the dancers drove instead of risking their health on a flight. The company will return to the University of Central Arkansas March 28 through April 8 for its annual residency. This time, they’ll fly.
Core Dance engages in community wherever it goes, underscoring Schroeder’s commitment to the authentic, personal and political, not just the performative. In Arkansas, the dance artists will do two performances of Planetary Dance for Community Renewal and on April 23 they will participate in the National Water Dance in Brunswick, Georgia. While there, they will engage with the community by volunteering at an elementary school and with LoveSmart, a nonprofit dedicated to ending dating abuse and domestic violence. They’ll participate in Brunswick’s Earth Day parade and are organizing a food drive to support America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia.
COVID-19 hasn’t curtailed Schroeder’s passion for connecting and working internationally, either. In October 2021, the Core artists flew to Prague, where they performed indoors and out at the National Gallery there. In June, they are slated to go to Krakow, Poland, to perform “No Time to Lose,” a searing work about police violence against people of color that premiered at B-Complex in March 2021, mid-pandemic.
Schroeder recently took a short sabbatical. My guess is she spent the time thinking, researching, creating, planning. When she returned in February 2022 she sent out an email so authentic, honest and heartfelt that it stopped me in my tracks. It’s worth reading in its entirety:
“Well into my fifth decade, my friend and mentor, Anna Halprin, met me eye to eye with a fierce yet gentle passion saying, ‘I see you. I understand you. This is the work that is yours to do.’ In that moment, seconds really, I discovered how a very small action can make a huge impact.
That was it; that was the small action.
This human act of reaching out to me with a gesture of connection broke my heart wide open and set me more urgently on my art/life path.
As we enter 2022, I remind us all that we matter . . . to each other. My sense is that we have no idea how many people we touch in small ways with huge impacts. Thank you for every act of compassion you share. I am grateful to be in connection with you and so many others through my art/life practice.
Words matter. Phone calls matter. Emails matter. Your genuine smile matters. The way you hold space for another matters. With the smallest of gestures, we lift each other up.
In the coming months, I invite you to join me in the studio, online or alongside our projects this Spring, all built with the intention to lift each other up and create connection — it takes each of us, it takes a village.”
Thank you, Sue Schroeder, for lifting us up. Unceasingly.
Gillian Anne Renault has been an ArtsATL contributor since 2012 and was named Senior Editor for Art+Design and Dance in 2021. She has written about dance for the Los Angeles Daily News and Herald Examiner, California Magazine and Ballet News, and was dance critic on radio stations such as KCRW, the NPR affiliate in Santa Monica, California.
DANCE PREVIEW
Core Dance: “TRY”
7:30 p.m. March 18-19. $7. The B Complex, 1272 Murphy Ave. SW, Atlanta. coredance.org.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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If you have any questions about this partnership or others, please contact Senior Manager of Partnerships Nicole Williams at nicole.williams@ajc.com.
