UNDERSTANDING EXIT WOUNDS
Chapter 1: Unearthing Stephen Mills’ creative process
It is 9 a.m. on Monday morning, and Stephen Mills stands at the front of the studio. He takes a sip out of his coffee mug, places it down, and softly says to his dancers, “let’s begin.”
Mills is the artistic director for Ballet Austin, a professional ballet company with studios in the heart of Austin, Texas. Since Mills became artistic director in 2000, he has grown the profile of the company and its repertoire by curating productions with cutting-edge choreography while making a name for himself as a choreographer who excels at creating works that address social justice issues. His signature work, Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project, is a full-length contemporary ballet and Holocaust education partnership that promotes the protection of human rights against bigotry and hate through arts, education and public dialogue. Light has been performed around the United States and internationally, with its most-recent staging in February 2018 by Nashville Ballet. Few major ballet companies in the United States routinely tackle such topics through dance productions, but Mills believes it is his responsibility as an artist to do so.
This spring, Mills takes on a dance project of a very personal nature, titled Exit Wounds, a full-length work portrayed in three chapters that has been commissioned by long-time Austin arts supporter and philanthropist Dr. Beverly Dale. This is not your traditional ballet production, with classical choreography elaborate sets and lots of tutus. Exit Wounds mixes contemporary choreography with multimedia video projections and narrations supplied by Mills. The soundtrack includes a combination of existing and newly commissioned music. Exit Wounds will push how we experience dance as audience members while exploring social issues raised through Mills’ life experience. The overarching theme focuses on the choice between fear and courage, one we face in our daily lives, and how that choice affects our point of view, values, and the way we treat others. Mills is stepping from the studio into the spotlight, putting body and soul into this production.
I asked Mills to explain his creative process for dance works such as Exit Wounds and the impact he hopes it will have on both the art form and the larger community.
Gattozzi: Why are you deciding to go out of your way to do work that speaks to specific social justice issues when no major ballet company in America is doing so?
Mills: As you said, I have created work in the social justice realm, and honestly, it was such a satisfying experience that I have been looking for a way in which to replicate that experience. I think that as an artist who works in a field that is considered to be a little more buttoned up than say modern dance, I am interested in the way that this art form can find more relevance in our day-to-day lives. I mean, sure, ballet is a useful tool for telling fairytales but what do fairytales have to do with our contemporary life? You know the morals of them are evergreen. So how can we get to that place in which we are telling relevant stories through this medium? I have been really concerned and distressed over the past year about political issues and the demonization of people and the way in which leaders are using weaponized language as a way to single out certain populations of our national community for ridicule. It bothers me. So it caused me to think about situations in my life — well, I feel like those things are happening and no one is speaking up because there’s a fear about speaking up, and we have to assess that. I feel like we live in a world that is going to take more courage than we are mustering now. And so I am using Exit Wounds as a way to begin a conversation about choosing courage over fear. And I think the best way to encourage others to tell their stories is for me to tell my own so that would be a way to begin a dialogue.
Gattozzi: What is like to put yourself out there? Usually, Ballet Austin markets the dance or the dancers, but your face is on the cover of this production. You are staking yourself at the forefront of this conversation and this piece. Has it been hard for you to be vulnerable?
Mills: I think as an artist, the thing you should be most mindful of is doing work that is relevant to you. At this place in my life, this is what I am focusing on. So at my age and development as an artist, I am not the least bit concerned about anything you just talked about. One of my great inspirations was Naomi Warren who was a survivor of three Holocaust camps, death camps. I mean, that’s courage. What I am doing doesn’t take courage, you know, it just takes a will. It was Naomi who said it was our responsibility to call out acts of bigotry and hatred when we see them. And so I am witnessing them, and so I am calling them out, and I am encouraging others to do so as well.
Gattozzi: You have been working on this piece before the actual rehearsals started by planning how this piece would present itself. What were your inspirations to choose certain music or even the video projections to create a different experience for the audience?
Mills: Well, I have done a lot of narrative work which generally revolves around transforming an existing story into a dance narrative. Exit Wounds is a narrative of sorts. The overarching narrative is choosing courage over fear, and then within that overarching story are these three narratives that are loosely based on experiences that I had but mostly the experiences of watching other people and watch the courage in action and the power it has to move others to action. The dance isn’t about celebrating my courage because it’s just not. And so, as you say, a lot of preparation goes into it so trying to decide what is the story that I want to tell within each of the dances and then it is just a matter of using a craft of theatre to stitch them together in a way that makes sense as a piece of theatre for the audience. I have done that many times, so that is just an experience and process.
Media is so ever-present in our lives that I wanted to use video as a way to make bridges for each of the stories, so there is an overarching conversation, and those videos are going to help bridge those stories together keeping in mind that the primary concern is about courage. I have been so impressed by the work of Jordan Moser (former Ballet Austin dancer and current marketing team member) that I just really wanted to have the opportunity to work with him on this.
Gattozzi: For the audience members, what do you want them to get as a physical experience sitting in the seats watching the production? And, on a more spiritual, meta level, what do you want the audience members to leave with?
Mills: Well you can’t predict how any audience member is going to react to a piece of art, but my hope is that — well, I believe art is only good if those who are viewing it can see themselves reflected back in some way. So my hope is that the audience sees something there and they are encouraged to jump out of their chair and go do something. Art can only act as a catalyst to action. Art is not the action. People have to take something from it and then do something. I think they will leave the theater remembering as much they remember. A week later they will have forgotten most everything that they saw. A month later, hopefully, there is something about as you say the ‘emotional or spiritual’ from the work that they are still holding because art is fleeting. It comes, and it goes, but it still leaves you with a memory. I still have recall of performances that so inspired me, but I can’t tell you everything about it. I can only tell you that it inspired me, and I can tell you how it inspired me. But I can’t tell you the particulars of it. So hopefully this is a work that does the same and encourages people in positives ways to do something in their community, in our community!
Gattozzi: What does this piece, Exit Wounds, mean for you as a choreographer and in your career? Is this a defining piece of your career?
Mills: Well, I think, ultimately, I won’t know until it’s done. What it meant — the dances don’t reveal themselves immediately — you know, their impact to me as an artist. It’s only after reflecting after it is over. But Dr. Beverly Dale was the individual who gave this gift that allows this project to be created in the first place. The inspiration of her own personal story allowed me also to think about how I might reflect my story because she inspired me with her own. I would not have known it had she not come forward with this gift. There is beauty in the circle of that. Yeah, so I don’t know. I guess that’s a good answer; I don’t know.
EXIT WOUNDS
World Premiere commissioned by Dr. Beverly Dale
APRIL 6–8 | the Long Center
Choreography by Stephen Mills
Music by Claude Debussy, Graham Reynolds, Bryce Dessner, and Joby Talbot
Join the conversation! Share on Facebook or Twitter a time when you witnessed someone choose courage and tag it with #ChooseCourageATX.
This article is written by Matthew Gattozzi (@therealgattozz) who dances as an apprentice for Ballet Austin.
