In the dance world, some of the biggest stories have been about choreographers leaving their companies to return to their previous lives as freelance choreographers. Choreographer Jessica Lang has made news by doing the opposite. After 12 years as a successful freelance choreographer with more than 80 commissions and counting, Lang formed her own company.
Audiences will be able to see the two-year-old Jessica Lang Dance perform this week at the Joyce Theater. The company performs through Jan. 23.
“I love it. It’s great having a company. It’s a good balance between my freelance work and building the company,” Lang said.
Lang said she enjoys the consistency of working with the same group of dancers.
Jessica Lang
“The bulk of my life has been about walking in with a plan, but not knowing anyone and them not knowing me. But by the second day I have to have a cast selected. That’s the reality when you’re a freelance choreographer,” Lang said. “With my company, I can come in and I know who’s in front of me. They dance my movement the way I want it to be done and their commitment allows me to have the freedom to keep growing myself artistically.”
“With my company it’s more about my work. When I go to another company it’s about that company’s experience in my work and how my work or my voice can be useful for them. I have a responsibility to give them something useful.”
Lang noted that she thinks of choreographer Mark Morris as a model for the career she’s forging.
“He has his own company, his own voice, his own place to create and call home and yet he still does take outside commissions from various dance companies and operas. He also has a school,” she said. “All of that is really interesting and inspiring for me.”
Lang added that she’s also finding that with her own company, she can branch out more with some of the company members setting her works on one company while she travels to create a ballet with another company. “I can’t do it all so it’s great to have that kind of help,” she added.
Another benefit for Lang (and for audiences)is that she has been able to surround herself with a cadre of seasoned, accomplished dancers whose credits include the Mark Morris Dance Group, Suzanne Farrell Ballet, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and the Metropolitan Opera. And one of the most interesting additions to the Lang company has been former Alvin Ailey star Clifton Brown, who in addition to performing with the Lang Company also serves as the company’s rehearsal director. Brown, who left Ailey in 2012 after 12 years—the last as a guest artist, now works as a freelancer with, among others, Lang and Lar Lubovitch.
“I think (Lang) is an artist who I feel has a very clear vision and I think that’s kind of rare these days,” Brown said. “When I look at people’s work I would like to do or people I would like to work with, that’s very important.”
Photos by Takao Komaru, courtesy of Jessica Lang Dance and CAMI
“I like the range in her work. There are some pieces that have a vocabulary that’s a little more classical ballet in terms of the movement vocabulary. But then there are other pieces that are much more grounded and modern in their aesthetic. But her voice is very clear throughout. That, in a nutshell, is what draws me to working with her.”
For tickets and performance information go online at www.joyce.org.
—Karyn D. Collins
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