(Courtesy of Christina J Massad)
George Staib, a professor of practice in the dance and movement studies program at Emory University, always felt drawn to musical theater, television and variety shows. In 2007, he established his own, now critically-acclaimed professional dance company “staibdance.” Staib’s newest work, “ARARAT,” premieres at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 26 and runs through Oct. 28. Exploring themes of new beginnings and resilience, “ARARAT” tells the story of Armenian genocide survivors through contemporary dance and multimedia elements.
However, Staib said his parents did not push him to pursue arts in adolescence. Staib recalled a moment in which he, aged 9 or 10, and his mother picked up his cousin from a ballet class.
“I told my mother, ‘Oh, that looks fun. I really want to do that.’ And she’s like, ‘No, boys don’t do this,’” Staib said.
At Temple University (Pa.), Staib pursued a degree in political science, which he described as “torture” due to his lack of interest in the topic. After bumping into a dancer at a fraternity party in his sophomore year, Staib began dancing while studying poli-sci. After performing a jazz duet with the dancer he ran into, Staib took a class on contemporary dance and became hooked.
However, Staib’s relationship with dance continued tenuously. One year after beginning his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in dance and choreography at Temple University, he left the program, feeling “ridiculous” for pursuing dance. He then got a job at Georgetown Law School (D.C.) doing legal research, but ultimately returned to eventually complete his MFA program in 1994 after realizing dance was his passion.
Staib said he still hesitated to dive into dancing immediately after graduation from this program. However, in a moment Staib described as an “awakening,” he decided to finally apply to a full-time faculty position in Emory’s Dance and Movement Studies program. Staib choreographed numerous productions for Emory Dance Company and taught a freshman seminar on dance for several years.
(Courtesy of Christina J Massad)
In creating “ARARAT,” Staib said he focused on finding the universality, the “essence” of survivors’ stories, focusing on sensory questions of what “newness” conjures in the body. He does not view the production as a political project, despite its ties to the history of the Armenian genocide.
“The actual movements matter less, and it’s the frame, so it’s the sound, the sensations, the way a dancer approaches another one, the way they leave them,” Staib said. “Those images that feel more important than the ‘put your leg here and then put your arm there’ sort of thing.”
Staib described his work with dancers as less directorial and more like “managing the aesthetic.” He works collaboratively with dancers by giving them a prompt to see what they produce and then visually unifying these images.
Staib often gives his dancers a prompt to work with. For example, he’s asked dancers to think about “memorializing,” then gives them 20 minutes to freely play with movement.
“It’s usually well within the 20 minutes, after the 15-minute mark, that juicy stuff starts to come out, so I harness images that way,” Staib said.
Faith Fidgeon, a member of staibdance and performer in ARARAT, said that rehearsals centered on collaboration and communication, as Staib rarely followed “traditional” techniques.
“We’re playing games, and using props, and using improvisation to create for ourselves and with each other too,” Fidgeon said.
“ARARAT” already had a preliminary opening in spring 2023 as a work-in-progress project at the Schwartz Center. The new version boasts “enhanced” costumes and new compositions by Ben Coleman.
“What happens inside of ‘ARARAT’ is way more volatile in the best way,” Staib said.
He also described the content as more “edited and concise.”
“I feel as though this version is closer to what I really enjoy seeing and want to do, and what I want to test more than anything,” Staib said. “I’ve been far more demanding of the dancers to really push themselves and be more physically present and be more spontaneous.”
(Courtesy of Christina J Massad)
Reflecting on ARARAT’s theme of newness, Staib described Mount Ararat in Turkey, the show’s namesake, the fabled resting place of Noah’s ark in the aftermath of the Great Flood. Staib views the mountain as a symbol of hope, and within that hope, newness’ potential.
“Just mythologically, [the flood] signals that this is the result of some cleaning of the slate,” Staib said.
Yet, duality is inherent to newness, as Staib believes there is potential for celebrating new beginnings and mourning bygone eras. He said dance as a medium possesses unique qualities to tackle these historical and thematic questions with the dialogue that exists between performers and audiences.
“If you have a great audience that’s leaning in, literally leaning in, and they’re with the artists, there’s something so phenomenal about it,” Staib said. “That space between performer and audience can be so charged. Unfortunately, these days there’s just a lot of just sitting back, waiting for the art to come to you.”
Henry Koskoff (23C), a dancer in ARARAT, said that the boundary between audience and performers in the performance is “thin.”
“That can be disturbing for people, especially in modern contemporary dance,” Koskoff said. “I think the avant garde aesthetic nowadays is to push that boundary and confuse it and challenge it, which provokes unease.”
Staib noted that audiences often expect answers, searching for meaning rather than embracing the confusion and discomfort the art evokes. He said he hopes audiences can learn to live in that ambiguity with “ARARAT.”
“If you can’t describe it, you’ve probably encountered something wonderful,” Staib said.
Alexandra Kauffman (26C) is an English & Creative Writing major from Phoenix, Arizona. At the Wheel, she is an Emory Life section editor and Arts & Entertainment campus desk. Outside of the wheel, she is a member of Alloy Literary Magazine. She is also a science fiction enthusiast and enjoyer of the bizarre.
