Interview with
Heather Harrington
Dancer, Choreographer & Educator
Heather Harrington
|
Heather Harrington received her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is an award-winning dancer and choreographer. She has danced with several renowned companies, including the Doris Humphrey Repertory Company, the Martha Graham Ensemble, the Pearl Lang Dance Theater and Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. She ran her own modern dance company, Heather Harrington Dance Company, in New York City for nine years, performing nationally and internationally with a focus on site-specific dance. Her choreography has been presented by various venues including Danspace Project, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Sitelines series, Fresh Tracks at Dance Theater Workshop, Rockefeller Center, Boston University, and many others.
Heather has received numerous grants for her work: from Meet the Composer, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation, and the Harkness Space Grant from the 92nd Street Y. She was resident choreographer for The Yard’s Bessie Schonberg Choreographers and Dancers Residency, Kaastbann International Dance Center and the Hotel Pupik series in Austria. Heather has created a number of site-specific pieces including "Giscard Games" for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and "Melt" (2014) at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ for the Outlet Dance project. In 2013, she staged a gun violence protest piece as a part of the Art=Ammo project at Washington Park in Newark, NJ. |
Heather is currently an adjunct professor of modern dance and theory at Kean University, and she also teaches at Seton Hall University.
Myrna Beth Haskell, managing editor, spoke with Heather about her lifelong love of dance, her early years as a figure skater and her current endeavors.
|
You were a figure skater when you were younger. At what point did you decide to take off the skates and focus on dance off the ice?
I started dancing at around six years old. However, I also discovered ice skating and fell in love with the ice and the movement of skating. All I wanted to do was ice skate, and I took dance to enhance my skating. I was never an accomplished jumper, so they tried to push me into ice dancing, but I didn’t want that. In college, I took my first modern dance class in my freshman year, and it just clicked. I wound up spending a whole summer learning ballet, modern dance, jazz and other styles at the Harvard Summer Dance Program with Ralph Lemon. I loved it so much that I wanted to dance instead of pursuing my initial plan, which was to go to graduate school to study psychology. I then enrolled in the Boston Conservatory, and I danced with the Martha Graham Ensemble and other companies. I went back to skating while I was living in New York. I became a figure skating coach and a dance teacher at Sky Rink Chelsea Piers in 1997. I taught lessons and was a Silver Ice Skating Institute Judge. I also skated, choreographed, and taught for the Ice Theatre of New York, an ice skating company devoted to presenting dance on ice. |
Photo credit: Britt Nhi Sarah
|
Photo Credit: David Elwood
From performance of "Melt" |
What was it like to start the Heather Harrington Dance Company? It had to be a daunting process considering the amount of established companies in the New York City area. What was your company’s primary focus?
I had been dancing with a Los Angeles area dance company, but it dismantled. So I moved back to New York City. I thought, “What now?” I felt a strong urge to do my own work. I started auditioning for different curated programs. From there, a producer became interested, and I started working with different producers going from project to project. At first, I worked on projects where I included dancers who I already knew in the city. Then, I began to audition younger dancers for various projects. Our focus was site-specific dance. Editor’s Note: Site-specific dance is defined as a dance piece that is conceived in relation to a particular place (therefore “site-specific”), instead of for the stage. The location becomes as much a part of the performance as the dancer’s body. |
This is our “Arts in Education” issue. What are some ways you think dance can be incorporated into curriculums to help students understand and visualize subject matter in a more comprehensive way?
Dance is always put at the bottom of the arts programs and one of the first to be cut. But the link between body and mind is extraordinary. Since we live in our bodies, to neglect the body as an expressive tool isn’t wise. Dance teaches spatial relations and sequencing. When you sit at a desk for a long period of time, it doesn’t stimulate. Integrating movement into the class makes students more aware. It’s a more “hands-on” type of experience because there’s a physicality. In middle school and high school, kids' body chemistry is changing, and they’re dealing with a lot of emotions and conflict. Dance gives them a physical outlet for expression.
I see that you’re also certified in Pilates. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Well, Pilates is about controlled movement, so it was natural for me. At first, I taught at different studios and focused on pre-natal and post-natal Pilates to help women prepare for birth and to get their bodies back in shape after birth. However, I also taught privately for years, and I’ve helped several students with Parkinson’s disease. Pilates helped them keep as mobile as possible when their disease was progressing.
As much as I enjoyed teaching Pilates, it became harder and harder for me to continue with my increasingly busy schedule. I had begun to segue into the academic arena. I am now an adjunct professor of modern dance at Kean University, and I am teaching a course at Seton Hall this fall. They have a theater program and are just beginning to bring dance into the fold.
Dance is always put at the bottom of the arts programs and one of the first to be cut. But the link between body and mind is extraordinary. Since we live in our bodies, to neglect the body as an expressive tool isn’t wise. Dance teaches spatial relations and sequencing. When you sit at a desk for a long period of time, it doesn’t stimulate. Integrating movement into the class makes students more aware. It’s a more “hands-on” type of experience because there’s a physicality. In middle school and high school, kids' body chemistry is changing, and they’re dealing with a lot of emotions and conflict. Dance gives them a physical outlet for expression.
I see that you’re also certified in Pilates. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Well, Pilates is about controlled movement, so it was natural for me. At first, I taught at different studios and focused on pre-natal and post-natal Pilates to help women prepare for birth and to get their bodies back in shape after birth. However, I also taught privately for years, and I’ve helped several students with Parkinson’s disease. Pilates helped them keep as mobile as possible when their disease was progressing.
As much as I enjoyed teaching Pilates, it became harder and harder for me to continue with my increasingly busy schedule. I had begun to segue into the academic arena. I am now an adjunct professor of modern dance at Kean University, and I am teaching a course at Seton Hall this fall. They have a theater program and are just beginning to bring dance into the fold.
As part of your artist statement you assert, “In an age where we are becoming more and more dependent on technology, dance is a form that brings us back to our essence, our body and our interaction with one another. As life gets noisier and more complicated, I see the importance of stripping away to what makes us move and why.” Have there been times when you’ve felt your performances have connected you with your community in a profound way?
Photo Credit: Mark Frohna
Performing "I Will Wade Out" |
I’ve always felt a variety of responses and connections with my audience. My first year at the University of Wisconsin, I choreographed a solo titled “I Will Wade Out,” inspired by a friend who committed suicide. There was a man who had a friend with terminal illness, and it touched a chord with him. He broke down crying afterward. I hadn’t even put a note on the performance as to what it was about. So, his reaction really moved me because it let me know the piece was connecting the way I had intended.
Another time a performance deeply resonated with both me and my audience was when I danced a piece titled “I Don't Like Mondays.” My daughter was in kindergarten when Sandy Hook* happened. The piece addressed the issue of people being able to carry guns in public places. At the University of Wisconsin, firearms were not allowed, and this was posted in every building. It was a very difficult piece to do. The dance community there was viewing it, and I put the names and the ages of the victims of the school shooting in the hallway where I was performing. It was a visceral experience for me. There was a dead silence. It was overwhelming for people. *The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children between six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members. |
Editor’s Note: Heather just performed in Beirut on August 28th at the Lebanese American University - a piece that she and Nadra Assaf performed at the Dance and Democracy conference at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, titled "Embodying Feminism in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the East and West." Photos and updates about this performance will be listed in our December issue. For other upcoming performance dates, see the list below.
|
To learn more about
Heather's life as a dancer and choreographer: 
|
Photo Credit: Mark Frohna
|
