Lethal Passion… and Having a Business Plan

Choreographer Kate Hutter talks about Electra as inspiration and her company’s success

By Ann Haskins

Today’s news headlines started choreographer Kate Hutter and director David Bridell discussing a dance/theater work that grapples with how people come to think killing is a reasonable and acceptable action. But as their conversations continued, the focus shifted from current events to universal themes captured in Greek tragedy. Eventually, the vengeful, manipulative Electra and the intervention of capricious gods became the starting points for Gods and Marionettes which Hutter’s Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company (LACDC) premieres June 18 at the Ford Amphitheatre.

Sitting on a couch at the Brewery Arts Complex where her company has its studio, Hutter is quick to explain that, while elements of Electra and Greek tragedy are employed, Gods and Marionettes is not a strict retelling of Electra conspiring with her brother Orestes to kill their mother Clytemnestra for the murder of their father Agamemnon. 

Noting that the outdoor environment at the Ford Theater has a lot in common with Greek amphitheatres, Hutter thinks the Ford is particularly suited to evoke theatrical elements similar to ancient Greece, elements that help explain why Electra’s story resonates through the centuries.

“Of course, we have injected some differences that are distinctly Made in L.A.” Hutter says, flashing a pixie smile as she invokes the umbrella title for the program LACDC shares with another L.A. dance company, BODYTRAFFIC. “Looking at current events and then Greek tragedy, we are trying to get at what propels one to action and particularly the action of killing, and where, in that moment of choice, does it become reasonable for a human being to think it is o.k. to kill another human being?” Hutter explains.

As she brushes away the bright pink question mark of hair that punctuates her otherwise blonde locks, Hutter’s ticks off some of the elements differentiating the current endeavor from traditional presentations of Greek tragedy — the dancers take on the principal roles; the narrator is part of the audience, and the a cappella group Sonos does triple duty providing the music, acting as a Greek chorus and sometimes sharing a character with a dancer.

Recently, visitors and denizens of a downtown park were treated to a rehearsal of Gods and Marionettes. “We have a few rehearsal days actually in the Ford, but we wanted to test out how the atmosphere of the outdoors affects how the parts connect,” Hutter explains. “We wanted to adjust how far singers can be from each other and still hear each other, so critical with a cappella singing; how far the dancers can be from the singers to pick up cues; and the vagaries of night air on a cappella pitch. We wanted to tackle those issues before we are actually in the Ford so we can concentrate on evolving what we created in the studio to the physical opportunities to incorporate the wall of shrubbery, the climbable trees, and the Ford’s multi-level stage.”

L.A. Contemporary Dance Company	SONOS a cappella	BODYTRAFFIC

This kind of projecting ahead and attention to detail is typical of LACDC, which has come so far in a short five years. Hutter credits her USC education, not only her dance training, but also an arts business class where she was paired with a business student named Michelle Mierz on an assignment to develop a business plan for an arts organization. Mierz still tells how, even as an undergraduate, Hutter announced that she was going to start a dance company and the project became a business plan for Hutter’s dream dance troupe.

“Michelle and I talked a lot about what L.A. needed in a dance company. We decided it should be a repertory company bringing in choreographers, not just my choreography, and that it should be a resident company, not touring but servicing the L.A. constituency. At end of the year, we had a business plan.” Hutter recounts. The project received an A. When LACDC opened its doors in 2005 with Hutter as artistic director, Mierz as the executive director, that business plan was its foundation.

Hutter admits she obsesses a bit with planning, but, with only one performance, she wants everything ready. “Planning does not preclude the whims of capricious gods, but had Electra thought about all things that could go wrong, it might not have been such a tragedy,” she quips.

Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company’s Gods and Marionettes shares the bill with BODYTRAFFIC's Transfigured Night by Israeli choreographers Guy Haver and Roni Weizman in the Ford program Made in L.A. June 18, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. 

Ann Haskins writes about dance for L.A. Weekly, Pointe Magazine, Dance Spirit Magazine and other performing arts publications. She has provided theater and dance interviews and commentary for KUSC-FM, KLON-FM and KCRW-FM.

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See more photos of LACDC in action at rehearsal.

MADE IN L.A. is one of 17 events in the Ford's 2010 DANCE SERIES.

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