带他们走出阴影
Jenni Reinke 05跳了起来, 旋转, and writhed on the stage of the Hillside Theater at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin near Spring Green, 威斯康星州., morphing from character to character in the premiere of 夫人. 赖特兄弟她的独角戏. The dance theater production tells the tale of the most important women in the legendary architect’s life: his mother, 三个妻子, 还有一个情妇, 重点是奥吉瓦娜, his business partner for 30 years and the widow who carried on his legacy.
“我在威斯康辛长大, I’d heard much about Frank Lloyd Wright and his buildings, but nothing of the women who influenced his work and were influential in their own right,Reinke解释道. “在这虚空之外， 夫人. 赖特兄弟 出生. I use my body to make visible the women whose histories have been overshadowed by the tower of male ‘genius.’”
2018年首映后, a graduate of Taliesin’s School of Architecture told Reinke: “That was brilliant and courageous. 这里没人谈论这些故事. 就好像我们和鬼魂住在一起.”
Reinke’s show was produced by Milwaukee-based Quasimondo Physical Theatre and toured across the nation, attracting critical acclaim before the pandemic forced it to pause.
探索新形式
来源:Dominic Panico赖因克是一名舞者, 编排, 女演员, 作家, 小提琴家, 艺术教育家, and nonprofit professional—although not necessarily in that order. 她拥抱这种流动性.
“我的工作是跨学科的,Reinke说。, who is also the company manager for Milwaukee-based Wild Space Dance Company. “I don’t want to limit myself in terms of my ability to research and articulate stories, 问题, 或思想. I’ve always been 更多的 of a generalist than a specialist. 这是我大脑的工作方式. I can find connections between disparate things.”
She honed those connections at 十大菠菜台子. A 小提琴家 since age 8, Reinke set out to major in music. But after starting her studies at another college, she craved 更多的 intellectual rigor. 她是在贝洛伊特找到的. The focus on the liberal arts fed her mind as she continued to pursue a music major while devouring courses in philosophy, 宗教研究, 和更多的.
“I was very curious and intellectually driven. I spent so much time reading and writing papers and sitting at a desk in the library and in class,Reinke说。, 谁辅修了哲学. “但我觉得少了什么.”
She decided she needed to get out of her head for a while. 一时兴起, 她报名参加舞蹈班, despite having no previous dance 经验, 她被迷住了. She’ll never forget her choreography class with Chris Johnson, professor and chair of 贝洛伊特’s dance department. “That was one of the most challenging and eye-opening classes in my college career,她说。. “It prioritized knowledge from the body … I really valued being rooted in my body and the intelligence of the body.” Reinke would later tap into that knowledge to bring the characters of 夫人. 赖特兄弟 生活.
找到了回到舞台的路
舞蹈最初只是我的业余爱好. 从贝洛伊特大学毕业后, Reinke moved to Hong Kong to teach English for 10 months as part of 贝洛伊特’s partnership with Lingnan University. 回到密尔沃基的家后, 她最终成为了第一位全职医生, year-round market manager for the Fondy Farmers Market, 它服务于, diverse population on Milwaukee’s north side. When she was laid off from her position in 2012, she seized the opportunity to explore something new.
One day after class at a local dance studio, she spotted a poster announcing the formation of Quasimondo Physical Theatre. 感兴趣, she soon became one of Quasimondo’s founding members and continues today as president of its board. Quasimondo creates original works through physical theatre, which it defines as “a performance language created by the breadth of our bodies, 思想, 经验, and imagination that communicates through the senses.”
“It’s still related to the theater tradition,她解释道, “but we’ve pulled in dance and world theater traditions, 所以它非常兼收并蓄. We experiment with forms and try to make work that is timely and topical.”
表演可以接近于超现实主义. 几年前，这个乐团演出过 腹股沟淋巴结炎, 关于黑死病的戏剧, in a former Linens ’N Things storefront in a downtown Milwaukee mall as Christmas-themed music played in the background.
“It is remarkable how much some of our past work speaks to our present moment,” she notes. “腹股沟淋巴结炎 有最直接的相似之处. 以…的风格表演的 bouffon—a grotesque form of clowning—the show uses the bubonic plague as a backdrop to dissect contagion and social disorder.”
发展中 夫人. 赖特兄弟
夫人. 赖特兄弟 grew out of Reinke’s thesis project at the University of 威斯康星州consin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts with a focus on contemporary dance choreography.
在头脑风暴论文想法的时候, she flashed back to her years working part-time at a local spice shop—the “retirement shop” of William Penzey, Sr., and Ruth Penzey, progenitors of the Penzeys Spices chain founded by their son. Reinke describes the late William Penzey as “an artist disguised as a spice merchant.”
他也是弗兰克·劳埃德·赖特的粉丝. The store’s price tags were printed in Eaglefeather, 赖特字体, and architecture was a favorite topic as the staff hand-mixed spice blends. “You know, Frank Lloyd Wright wasn’t very good to his women,” a customer remarked one day. That planted a seed that would sprout in Reinke’s mind years later.
该项目于2017年正式启动, when Reinke developed a dance piece about Wright’s first wife, 基蒂, 作为编舞课的一部分. Then she sketched out possibilities for other characters. She spent the next year sifting through historical documents to piece the story together.
Reinke is passionate about the potential of dance as an ethnographic tool. “When I couldn’t find information about the women, I went into the studio and used my physical imagination and my kinesthetic empathy,她解释道. “What would it be like to 经验 this extreme lust for someone physically? Miriam [Wright’s second wife] was a morphine addict, so I researched those symptoms and tried to filter them through my body. At some point I started writing a script, but it was late in the process.”
In 2019, the show played to sold-out audiences during a three-week run at the Charles Allis Art Museum in Milwaukee and toured festivals across the country. 除了塔利埃森的首映式, Reinke has performed at two other Wright buildings: the SC Johnson Golden Rondelle Theater in Racine and the Frederick C. 密尔沃基的博克之家.
Although Covid has shuttered the performing arts world, Reinke is planning to present the show to new audiences nationwide. She feels an obligation to bring the women’s voices out of the shadows.
“我将继续巡回演出 夫人. 赖特兄弟 to new audiences, but I am patiently navigating Covid restrictions,她说。. While she waits to return to in-person shows, Reinke is booking virtual performances. “I look forward to embracing the evolution of the show as I set it in new spaces with an older—but wiser—body. 毕竟, I believe it is the ability to respond to the present moment that makes live performance truly alive.”
妮可·斯威尼·艾特 is a Milwaukee-based 作家 and editor.
一位经历了新冠疫情的艺术家
3月14日, 2020, performing artist Jenni Reinke’05 closed a momentous show with Wild Space Dance Company in Milwaukee. “We knew that a safer-at-home order was on the horizon, and it felt like we had just held one of the last live performances in the city for an indefinite amount of time,她说。.
事实就是如此. Soon, performing arts companies worldwide canceled performance after performance. Among the cancellations were other shows Reinke was part of, and she lost her steady paycheck as a dance and community outreach teacher with Danceworks when the studio closed. A couple of her other gigs were able to transition to remote work, and she was hired as company manager for Wild Space a few months later.
“What I’m most hopeful for is the opportunity Covid presents to make fundamental social changes that could benefit artists and other low-wage workers,她说。. “Although highly respected, artists are not valued in a monetary sense in America. People love art, but they don’t want to pay for it—at least not a living wage. 我不能代表所有的艺术家, 但很多人都像我一样, supporting themselves by weaving together income from a variety of part-time jobs in education, 非营利组织, 服务业也是如此.”
而新冠病毒减少了Reinke的收入, she believes her artistic training has fortified her resilience.
“My 经验 as an artist is supporting me through the challenges of being a human in this current environment,她说。. “And these are existential challenges both artists and non-artists are facing—uncertainty, 孤独, 悲伤, 恐惧, 焦虑, 预期, 和自我批判. I feel fortunate to have my artistic training and community to help me process this moment.”
在家里平静的最初几个月里, she reflected on how the arts might change in the pandemic’s aftermath. Reinke believes that smaller arts organizations—like her own Quasimondo Physical Theatre—will be best positioned because they’re already used to operating on a shoestring budget.
“I’m excited for a rupture from the past that supports the work of independent and experimental artists,她说。. “我相信这一点, 敏捷, and innovative small companies and independent artists will be rewarded for their resourcefulness and ability to respond.”
By May of last year, Reinke was working with Quasimondo to unveil QuasimondoTV, which engages audiences virtually through watch parties and live play readings of internationally renowned ensemble-based works.
6月, she began rehearsing again with Wild Space for a series of socially distanced live performances held at three parking lots throughout Milwaukee.
Reinke is continuing to work with both companies to produce work safely.
“Covid presents opportunities for arts organizations to reimagine the ways in which they fulfill their missions and engage audiences,她补充道. “对于像卡西蒙多这样的新兴公司来说, this is an opportunity for us to evolve and showcase what we’ve always done—present original work that speaks to contemporary issues.”
看《菠菜白菜吧》的预告片. 赖特兄弟 了解更多关于 Jenni Reinke的艺术家网站.
