♪♪ ♪♪ Weidie: Hi, Brian.

Good morning, Spencer.

How you doing this morning?

This morning...

I am incredibly reflective, sitting here at Jacob's Pillow in the Perles Studio where we have our 10-day residency.

And it's a mix of being very present, which is refreshing after so many months of feeling like I was in hibernation.

But it's also, at the same time, reflective.

I feel like everything that we're doing here and that I'm involved with feels fleeting.

So the sun feels great today out here.

But it's -- it's fleeting.

♪♪ ...and you are done.

[ Beeps ] ♪♪ Oh, great.

That's great news.

-You're good to go.

-Thank you so much.

-You're welcome.

-Appreciate your time.

I can go dance now.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Wow!

-Look at you!

Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

-[ Laughs ] -Oh, my God.

Oh, my God!

Weidie: Oh, marley!

[ Laughs ] Oh, my God!

Wow!

That's good?

What do you think?

I think it's amazing.

[ Softly ] Wow!

[ Laughs ] Wow.

Will that work?

It'll work.

[ Laughs ] [ Woman vocalizing ] ♪♪ Brooks: So my newest completed dance is "Closing Distance," titled a year ago, before I knew what social distancing was.

[ Laughs ] So now I'm a little nervous about the title, but new contexts reframe art, so we'll keep the title.

The piece is made for eight dancers.

And it's largely inspired by and set to the Pulitzer Prize-winning score by Caroline Shaw, "Partita for 8 Voices."

So eight singers, eight dancers, all sound, all movement of and from the body.

So it's really a 27-minute work about touch.

-To the side.

-To the side.

Woman: And around and around and around and around and around.

Man: To the side, two, three, four, five.

-Six, seven, eight.

-Through the midpoint.

Two, three, four.

-Left side, six.

[ Rhythmic voices overlapping indistinctly ] Brooks: It's nuanced and detailed and intimate and really is about this kind of idea of replacement and exchange.

It's an empathetic work.

[ Voices harmonizing ] ♪♪ Hisikawa: I almost feel like it's ironic that Brian had made this piece when he did.

The majority of the piece revolves around touching and contact and partnering.

And then once COVID hit, all that had to go out the window.

So to be back doing this piece during such a time, it almost feels wrong.

It is so intricate.

Every dancer, every arm of every dancer, is necessary and integral to making it work.

Gonder: Working for Brian is thrilling, especially with "Closing Distance."

It feels like such a roller coaster.

I have to think about so many things and also feel so many things that it's -- it's a lot.

But it really feels like a release of the ego 'cause there's so much importance on the group.

And I love that feeling.

[ Voices harmonizing ] ♪♪ We haven't touched anyone [laughs] for seven months.

Everyone's intertwined and, like, it -- like not a day had passed.

Terasaki: Every touch is meaningful.

The fact that we can touch and that we're in a situation where we're in a group of 8 or 10, and we're able to really actually physically touch -- we can't have that outside of this.

Man: The detail of the pattern is movement.

Woman: The detail of the pattern is three, four.

The detail of the pattern is movement.

The details of the pattern is... Eckert: It feels so good to be touched, feel so good to be caught, like, that moment now where you come, and I'm just like, "I just trust you so much and, like, being caught by you."

Like, there's nothing in my life that mimics, like, the feeling of, like, safety, and trust more than that, which is -- is so profound, I think, to be able to find that in dance.

[ Voices harmonizing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Indistinct talking ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Man: The 86, 87, and 88 points..

Okay, stop.

...are located -- Um, Brian, could we try... Steinberg: I don't know what I think of it because my goal is to figure out what Brian wants and to try to make sure that that's what's happening.

One of the reasons I love doing this coaching is that often I find a choreographer will have things in their mind, and they'll see it because it's in their mind.

But we don't see it because we don't have that in our minds.

We're not privy to that.

And so I'll often, with whomever I'm coaching or mentoring or talking with, say, "What are you seeing here?

It's not what I'm seeing.

This is what I'm seeing, and I'm only one person.

But if you -- what about this?

And then we'll scrapple with that."

And I think I will also say that I know Brian very well now as a -- as a creator, and I know his traps, you know?

We're now in a place together where I could say, "I'm not sure why that's there, other than the fact that you -- you know it and that it's filler."

Brooks: She's the best magnifying glass [laughs] on this art form that I could ever imagine and a living legend.

She'll kill me for saying that, but we all know it, and we're very lucky.

We -- I could not have been here at this time without her.

♪♪ The Pillow has always served as a -- a great haven for artists and dancers, and it's always been so special.

And in this moment where space has been removed for us and as dancers [chuckles] we've had our studios closed, the performing arts industry is decimated right now, it's shuttered, and The Pillow has figured out a way to open.

It just feels like a crime that we get all this space [laughs] just to ourselves and we get to -- we just kind of have full run of the grounds.

It's amazing.

I think it's been really eye-opening to be back around a community of people when I feel like the pandemic has just taken away a sense of community for me.

We've eaten dinner together every night communally.

The first night we were here and we were all sorting through the groceries, and I looked down at the dining table and we had 10 people sorting through the same food and getting ready to eat together.

It's so simple but so meaningful.

You know, and in this moment where we're all struggling, we're uncertain, we've lost identity, we have no purpose, time is just like a fog.

And to come to The Pillow -- it reminds me that this is a moment.

[ Chuckles ] It's a moment.

Feels like eternity, but it's a moment along a larger path.

♪♪ [ Rhythmic breathing ] Brooks: The trio still confuses me.

[ Laughs ] The rule system is unforgiving in the trio.

So each of the dancers is only contacting the dancer in front of them at the same point in the body, same side -- right hand to right hand, right wrist to right wrist, flexion of the elbow to flexion of the elbow.

There's no crossing the midline.

The music itself really drives all of us, I think, for me especially.

Interesting to come back to it on day one, to just go over it, and so much of it was still in our bodies after not touching it for seven months.

And, you know, it makes me not lose faith that things aren't all the way lost.

[ Voices harmonizing ] ♪♪ Brooks: The residency has proven that this is important work.

I feel very confident about it, and the day I arrived here, I didn't feel confident about it.

I really didn't know.

Weidie: I have felt completely invigorated by the entire process of this.

Documenting this in such a historic place as well, in a historic moment to be here, [voice breaking] I feel so grateful.

Hauptman-Anderson: I think that this has honestly been such an opportunity, and this is something I've wanted for so long.

So I think I'm -- in my mind, I am manifesting [chuckles] that this is just, like, the beginning of, like, a lot of positive things.

We're at the end of the residency.

I'm speaking now near the end, and I'm actually taking a moment of pause because I'm trying to think back to where the residency began, and I'm having trouble.

And that's evidence that this 10-day residency has been utterly transformative.

I just thank Spencer and Carlye, Evan and Stephanie and Taylor and Zach and Leo and Noelle for taking a huge chance.

I mean, we're talking about not just risking yourself artistically, but we're actually talking about risking your safety and health.

I have never had to ask that of a dancer, and I'm very hopeful I never have to again.

[ Rhythmic breathing ] Hi, everybody!

Welcome back.

Hey, hey!

[ Laughs ] You know, as you all know, I don't really have, like, a master plan for the week, other than to just make, make, make and have fun, I guess.

I have a sense of how we're starting, but I'll just leave you all to enjoy class.

I'll be doing a little somethin'-somethin' to get my head in the game.

But I'm really happy to be here with all of you and look forward to making, building, etc., etc.

Happy dance!

Happy dance.

♪♪ I think there's so much, really, to think about with the company coming back together for the first time, and today being that first day, I'm trying to be aware of the dancers' energy.

I'm trying to be aware of my energy.

I'm also trying to, like, ride this weird balance of, like, making sure that we're being super productive because this is the only time that I'll probably be with everyone, really, in a studio until maybe 2021.

This whole time, I knew that I really wanted to make a lot of progress on all three of the works.

And kind of my extreme goal -- I wanted to have a finished version of "An Untitled Love."

I wanted to have a finished version of "Nina Simone," and I wanted to have a very clear draft, if not the full thing, of Mozart.

♪♪ Kooistra: We were given this opportunity from Jacob's Pillow to come here and be our own pod.

And that really means that we are on campus as our own residency bubble.

We are sticking to four indoor spaces, two houses that are where the dancers and some ancillary staff are residing, and our two rehearsal spaces -- the Doris Duke Theatre and the Perles Studio.

We took the measures that would clear us to rehearse without masks, making contact, kind of all of the things we're not yet ready to do in New York when we're not in our residency bubble.

That said, if somebody wants to wear a mask in the rehearsal space, we are completely encouraging that.

I think coming back now in the midst of all this chaos that we're all kind of just in right now -- it's really assuring that there is a safe place that we could still have that freedom or feel free.

Haqq: Very grateful to be in the space and very grateful to be learning and able to dance and move my body at full capacity.

♪♪ ♪♪ Kooistra: A typical day in a residency starts with either a self warm-up doing exercises that get them ready for the rehearsal day, or it'll start with company class either led by our rehearsal director, Matthew, or by one of the company members during this residency.

Guy: I would say when the dancers teach the classes prior to our rehearsals, it's really helpful 'cause I think it also helps to bring us together before starting a day.

So the classes have been Beautiful.

Keer taught yesterday, and that was a really awesome class, and CJ's class was also really beautiful today.

It definitely prepares us for what is going to be asked of us in rehearsals.

I do start, like, most days or rehearsals, always asking how everybody's feeling because I want to gauge that to figure out how to push or what to do or what we need to see or do.

It can be really challenging to see how much needs to get done and feel really antsy and eager to work towards that, but to also be acknowledging the people that you're working with.

And you just have to relax and realize that there will be more days, there will be more time, trying to stay patient in the continued process of the work, that it will develop and it is a development and it's a process.

♪♪ [ Indistinct singing ] Abraham: Today we have been working on a lot of Mozart stuff... [ Indistinct conversation ] ...I think just investigating more of the characters in the piece, also getting used to the new dancers in the space as well, kind of creating memories with them, an atmosphere with them.

[ Indistinct conversation ] Woman: Five, six, seven.

We go right, left shoulder... [ Laughter ] Abraham: The more and more I watch the videos of the work, I see different dancers stand out to me and different themes start to evolve for me.

Jae was a dancer that really stood out to me.

I think there was something about not only their, like, ridiculous movement possibility, but there's something about just their essence that I felt really embodied what I'm hoping to do with this work in some way.

Ironically, though, this Mozart work is one that is really driven by a lot of intention and direction, not necessarily choreography, per se.

♪♪ [ Mozart's "Requiem in D minor, K. 626" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We went into this Nina Simone project that we started making during quarantine.

[ Nina Simone's "Wild is the Wind" plays ] It was my first time seeing that all together because I could never have the dancers all in the same room.

I started making "The Nina Simone Suite" when I knew that some of the women from the company were gonna be doing another repertory work that wasn't gonna include everyone else.

So knowing who was already cast in that work, I wanted to focus on those other dancers for "Nina" initially.

♪ Hungriness ♪ ♪♪ Abraham: Each time that we've worked on "An Untitled Love," the cast has shifted, it seems like.

Almost every residency there's been a change in dancers, or so it seems, and each time that happens, it gives me an opportunity to have new perspective and to integrate new ideas and new energy, new flavor into that work.

Johnson: So two years ago, we worked on this piece.

And we have something, and now we're just stripping into what it really needs to be.

And it's so interesting that it takes a two-year process to do that.

Abraham: One-on-one time with dancers is really important, but it's also really complicated when you have a larger cast.

It's really something that I think I do a good job in terms of having people working on several different things at the same time so we're maximizing the time.

But I do have to think about that one-on-one time and think about how I can try and get as much information to someone as possible.

Ruffin: I believe that the challenge that I have being new in the process is the nuances.

Believe A.I.M dancers have a way of moving a body.

The most valuable information he said yet -- I'm here because I'm a part of this recipe that he's preparing.

He needs certain spices and certain ingredients, and I'm just happy to be an ingredient.

Being around nature and just being inspired by everything around me has been really amazing.

♪♪ Man: Kyle always has a destination to reach, and he's always discussing with us about that destination.

And what I love about Kyle is that he is completely okay with whatever route we take into that destination.

♪♪ Hi, Steph.

I'm just over here filming myself.

Hmm.

How's it going?

I think it's going great.

[ Chuckles ] Vinny!

Look what I did.

Oh, yeah!

[ Laughs ] I set it up.

Whoooo!

-It's nice.

-Yeah, it's nice.

♪♪ I don't have the -- the -- There was something weird that happened when you sent those two videos to me, Matty.

So only one -- I also have, like, a little pile of some, like, A.I.M shirts and tanks that -- sweatshirts that I can't fit anymore 'cause COVID's real.

And there's that hoodie thing that you wanted, so there's stuff over there.

You're welcome to take it.

Ah, just gonna hold again.

Sorry.

Wow.

Just landed right on my phone.

Okay.

I see you, okay.

Let you do you.

♪♪ ♪♪