The Pop-Up Project Infuses The Last Five Years With Dance

  • Thursday, October 18, 2018
Jules Downum and Mattie Waters
Jules Downum and Mattie Waters

The Pop-up Project is collaborating with the Chattanooga Theatre Centre to incorporate dance into The Last Five Years for a unique spin on the musical. 

Review for The Last Five Years:

Relationships are messy, full of complex and often conflicting feelings, filtered through two people experiencing the same events from distinctly different perspectives. The Pop-up Project’s original choreography for the Theatre Centre’s production of The Last Five Years delves deep into this complex theme.

The musical, which runs Oct. 19-28, focuses on a couple in their 20s and usually involves only singing and acting. “This is the first time it’s ever been done with dance as a focus,” explains Jules Downum. Ms. Downum and Mattie Waters, dancers and co-founders of the arts non-profit The Pop-up Project, have been working in residency at the Theatre Centre. They originally planned to participate in The Last Five Years only as movement coaches.

“The director Garry Posey wanted to bring in movement specifically, then the movement just became dance, so our role grew organically as we worked together,” said Ms. Downum. “We were
lucky that two really strong dancers were cast.”

Local performers Jordan Otis and John Thomas Cecil play the demanding roles. 

In the musical, the husband relives the relationship chronologically, while the wife recalls it in reverse. The story lines converge only briefly for the wedding, otherwise entangled in the conflict of emotion and perspective. 

Ms. Waters and Ms. Downum in collaboration with Mr. Posey decided the dance should mirror the divergent story lines, so while the man sings happy songs about the relationship’s beginnings, the wife would simultaneously dance in sorrow and anger, recalling the emotions from the end of the
relationship.

For The Pop-up Project productions, Ms. Waters and Ms. Downum are usually involved as dancers, choreographers, directors and producers, so they enjoyed the opportunity to focus solely on choreography this time.

“We talked with Garry a lot about the story, about the intentions of the characters and we wrote the choreography based on that,” Ms. Waters said. “It’s a long process to write 45 minutes of original
choreography and then teach it.”

“And there are only two dancers,” Ms. Downum added. “It is quite a job for them as well. It’s very
physical and it’s a lot of time on stage. We were lucky to have strong dancers with high capabilities to do whatever we dreamed up.”

“It was a challenge to choreograph against the emotion in the music,” Ms. Waters pointed out. She and Ms. Downum looked for common musical elements to create unity.

“For example, I was given a piece where the man was really happy and the woman was angry. So I was able to match up tempo. Whether you’re happy or angry, you might move quickly,” Ms. Downum explained. “If we hadn’t done that, it could have looked totally removed and bizarre.”

Immediately following the final performance on Oct. 26, The Pop-up Project will host a free dance party for the audience with Waters as DJ and a cash bar with specialty cocktails. The Theatre Centre’s young professionals group hatched the idea when brainstorming ways to make an evening at the theater more experiential. 

Responding to today’s theater goers, who desire more than a passive experience, the Theatre Centre is holding a Q&A session with the performers and directors in addition to the dance party.

“So you get an exceptional production with high quality art, and then you get to interact and dance with fellow audience members and the performers,” Ms. Waters said. “It’s a way to extend the evening and just have fun.” 

 

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