"Leatherwing Bat" with John Michael Schert, Brett Perry and Virginia Pilgrim / Photo by Ben Rudnick
Trey McIntyre has proven himself one of the most interesting and talented choreographers of his generation. He had developed a nice freelance career, working with ballet companies from coast to coast while having the steady anchor of a resident position at the Houston Ballet. In 1994, when he was in his early twenties, New York City Ballet thought enough of him to commission a ballet for its Diamond Project, a festival of new works, and American Ballet Theatre added a work of his to their repertory in 2004.
But McIntyre, now 39, began to tire of the freelance life and craved more of a steady, ongoing connection with a group of dancers, rather than flying into a city for a few weeks, working with dancers he hardly knew and moving on to the next gig. He initially formed the Trey McIntyre Project as a summer venture, before making the bold commitment to a full-time, year-round nine-member company, which now makes its local debut at the Joyce Theater.
“I realized the limitations of working with these dancers only in the summer. The next step I wanted to take as an artist required a much more long-term collaboration. It was a big leap of faith. The first year, I had been dead-set against making it full-time. I had been offered company directorships in the past and was fully aware of all the other things that are involved, besides getting to have dancers you can work with all the time. But the realization was, we either were going to move forward, or we were going to be stuck. I have to evolve, to move forward on a regular basis. If something feels mastered, it’s not comfortable just to stay with that,” McIntyre explained last summer at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, which presented the troupe’s debut performances.
Nine months later, after touring that took him to 25 cities, the tall, thoughtful choreographer reflected on the inaugural year, speaking from Boise, Idaho—his company’s home base—on the eve of the New York performances. The experience has “exceeded my expectations, in terms of what I would be called on for as a person, leader, mentor. I’m helping to navigate the paths of young artists. It certainly takes a lot of gentle coaching, but also a lot of awareness and being present every minute of the day. Because the level of what these dancers are expected to achieve as artists is pretty high and so I have to keep my finger on the pulse a lot more carefully than I had even anticipated. It’s been wonderful. I’ve grown a whole lot this past year.”
He’s also been creating new dances at an intense pace. The Joyce program consists of three works all made within the past year. “Leatherwing Bat” is set to familiar and beloved songs by Peter, Paul and Mary that the Wichita native heard as a very young child and rediscovered about a year before he made the dance, which he describes as being “about a really sad time as a child.” He recalls that while choreographing it, “I would try to conjure up memories, and try to get to a space that felt really sad and painful. I found comfort in those songs. They expressed what it was to feel young and feel like an adult at the same time. I had that whole period of childhood, and then put it away to become an adult. To listen to those songs again, and to feel exactly the same—I thought that was a good thing to explore right now. A lot of it had to do with starting the company, and the parts of me that were feeling swallowed up by being an adult.”
“{serious)” sets a trio of dancers moving to trios by Henry Cowell. “My concept was to absolutely make it 100 percent in the moment, divorcing myself from any expectation or any insecurity.” Going into the studio, he would “react to the dancers from where they stood that day. They have become so in touch with their intuitive nature and were able to access that part of themselves very quickly.”
Closing the program is “Ma Maison,” which is set to music by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and refers specifically to New Orleans, where it had its premiere. It’s a city McIntyre knows well, having visited often. “One of the most interesting things to me is the unique way that they deal with death, that there is partly a celebratory nature. People incorporate the idea of death into their daily lives. You live your life with the knowledge that there is finality to it. So the piece explores that idea, that part of the culture.”
Trey McIntyre Project
June 2 through June 7, Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave. (at W. 19 St.), 212-242-0800; times vary, $19-49
