When it comes to dance theater, there’s always the usual elements: the music, the set and the dancers themselves. For choreographer Joe Goode, the usual just isn’t enough. So when it came to Wonderboy, a new performance by his dance company, he made sure to include puppets.
In fact, according to Goode, one puppet is actually a major character of the production as the young boy who feels out of place with the world. He is cast out as a misfit, but he soon learns that his sensitivity might be an advantage in the world after all.
Though the focus of Wonderboy is on the puppet and interactions with the dancers, the message is about discovering the power of one’s own identity. Currently on a national tour, the Joe Goode Performance Group will perform Wonderboy at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center tonight and tomorrow.
According to Goode, who choreographed and directed the performance, he drew inspiration for Wonderboy after working with puppeteer Basil Twist on a play in San Francisco.
“[Twist] makes them so human, and they’re not perfect, happy little puppets. They’re complex, human puppets,” Goode said, adding that the vulnerability of the puppets is what appealed to him.
After discussing the logistics and story line, Goode said he and Twist began working with company members to choreograph the production of the “uber-sensitive child who is afraid to interact with the world.”
“He’s afraid that he’s not strong enough, afraid that he’s too sensitive and too weak and too vulnerable,” Goode said. “It’s kind of the story of the outsider … and how he discovers his power and how he discovers his sensitivity is actually an asset.”
Goode said the puppetry is derived from bunraku, a Japanese form of puppet theater from the 15th century. Rather then using the traditional, unobtrusive puppeteer in black, Goode uses the dancers as puppeteers to create a unique interaction between dancer and puppet.
Wonderboy, a three-foot puppet, requires three people to operate him at all times, something that Goode said was a difficult process for dancers to learn at first. However, what results in the production are moments when the puppet seems to dance on its own as well as interact with dancers onstage.
“Sometimes they disappear because you are just looking at the puppet, but other times they are actually interacting with him while they are controlling him. That was really difficult because it’s kind of like doing two things at once,” Goode said.
In addition to the puppetry, Wonderboy will also feature original music by singer/violinist Carla Kihlstedt and pianist/drummer Matthias Bossi.
Although Goode functioned as the director, he said he worked with dancers to develop dance movements in the production that represented a particular moment in the story.
“We build material together,” Goode said. “I direct them in how to use the bits of material they come up with and how to expand them and make them into something.”
Despite the challenges that came with learning to puppeteer and to dance with a puppet, Goode said, it was important to have the puppet because of what it represented in the story.
“I was drawn to the fact that because the puppet in a way is a blank slate, as a viewer, you can really apply your own story to the puppet. You can look at it and say, ‘Yeah, that’s me as a child. That’s what I felt,'” Goode said.
According to Goode, the dancing element emphasizes Wonderboy’s discovery of both the good and the bad prevalent in human nature.
“Much of the dancing is about what the puppet sees when he looks outside his window,” Goode said. “And sometimes he’s just enwrapped with the beauty in what he sees … but then there’s this other side to it, the ugliness he saw, the brutality, the people hurting each other.”
Goode added that he hoped Wonderboy would leave a strong message of identity and acceptance for the university audience.
“I’m very interested in people identifying with Wonderboy and realizing at some point in their life, everyone has felt like they were different, that they didn’t fit in … and to be reminded that that’s a very human place and that we all can own that place,” Goode said.
Although modern dance can seem overwhelming for some who may not be familiar with the dance world, Goode said his goal is to redefine art and make it more accessible for everyone.
“Dance theater is really fun and engaging and lively. It’s not a kind of ‘art pill’ that you have to take. It’s not just grandiose artists doing their obscure and inscrutable art. It actually can be real communication and a real experience,” Goode said.
Wonderboy will be performed by the Joe Goode Performance Group in the Kay Theatre at CSPAC tonight and tomorrow. Both shows begin at 8 p.m. There will also be a pre-show chat with Joe Goode on tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets for the show are $7 for students and $35 for the general public. Pre-show chat tickets are $3.
dnhan@mail.umd.edu
