Claudia Schreier talks about Atlanta Ballet’s new production

Claudia Schreier, Atlanta Ballet’s resident choreographer, presents a new ballet as part of the company’s spring “Liquid Motion” program, which runs May 10-12.

Schreier’s work is called “Nighthawks” and is set to “The Jungle (Symphony No. 4)” by Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. According to a press release, the ballet takes audiences “on a journey through musicality and inventive movement that reflects the complexity and rapid pace of modern urban life.”

The ballet features costumes by Abigail Dupree-Polston and a collaboration with local artist Charity Hamidullah. For the show, Hamidullah created 12 pieces of art which were then photographed and recreated into costumes for the dancers. Hamidullah also worked on the set design that will be presented in the ballet.

Schreier has worked as Atlanta Ballet’s choreographer-in-residence since 2020 and recently renewed his contract with the company for three more years. Before the show, Rough Draft Atlanta spoke with Schreier about her work in ballet and the new production.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get into ballet? Did you always know you wanted to work in dance?

Claudia Schreier: I started dancing very young. My parents put me on a creative journey when I was three years old, living in New York, and it just kind of grew from there. I have studied classical ballet most of my life, mostly in college.

At the same time, at eight or nine years old, I started to want to create movement. I think I didn’t really understand what choreography entailed very early on… especially since I could make a career out of it. But I’ve had few opportunities here and there to do a solo myself or do a little duo for a little school project. When I got to college, there were a number of opportunities to create (for) student-run companies in the dance department. So it became this really welcoming and fertile environment in which to develop ideas, and it all grew from there.

By the time I graduated, I started working full time and took on a lot of opportunities on the side, sort of doing it as a side passion, and then I found out that I could actually do it a career, which was obviously a dream come true.

You’ve been a choreographer-in-residence at Atlanta Ballet since 2020. I’m sure people ask you questions all the time about the pandemic aspect of this and how that has played into your experience over these first three years. You can touch on that as well, but I was wondering what made Atlanta Ballet unique during this period and what attracted you to the company?

Schreier: I became a choreographer in residence in 2020, but my first work for the company was in 2019. I started working with them in August 2019, the premiere was in September. So luckily, I had a very “normal” first creative experience with the company before embarking on this pandemic journey together that we’ve all experienced in one way or another. It was a way to get familiar with the dancers, with the administration, with the production team and experience what (Atlanta Ballet) would be like in what you would call a normal capacity.

When I was invited to take on this role, it was an immediate yes for me. It was a no-brainer because I had a very positive experience with Atlanta Ballet from the start. I felt like they were so welcoming, so responsive. They were really accepting of everything I was trying to do with my work from day one, and I never felt anything other than supportive in bringing it to the stage.

What the pandemic really did for me was reinforce how dedicated and team-oriented the company is, as it was a very difficult time for many reasons – none of which I need to enter in most cases. But the specifics of creating a work remotely and safely required so much focus and attention and planning, pre-planning and all that, that it’s not necessarily reflected step by step in the work , but of which I am perfectly aware and I remember very well what was implemented to ensure the safety of the dancers and also to offer a product, a performance of which we were all proud and which would last beyond the pandemic.

I created a ballet called “Danses des Pléiades” that I knew I wanted to exist and have a life outside of the pandemic. I would like the audience to watch it without knowing that it was created during a pandemic, even if most of the dancers couldn’t touch each other. We had a main couple who did a duet because they were married, so they were allowed to be in the same room and touch each other, but except for that, everything… took eight times as long to put together. place. But the camaraderie and patience were there.

Let’s move on to “Nighthawks,” the piece you choreographed for “Liquid Motion.” When did work on this particular piece begin?

Schreier: This one I started in the fall of last year. So by the end of the summer, through October, I created the majority of the first movement and about half of the second movement. And I came back three weeks ago to finish the work.

The work is set to music by Wynton Marsalis. I’m a little outside of the ballet world, but it’s not necessarily the type of music I think of when I think of ballets. How has working from this music influenced the choreography for you?

Schreier: I’ll start by saying that Gennadi (Nedvigin, artistic director of Atlanta Ballet) intentionally decided to present a jazz work, or a work set to jazz music. The resulting movement is therefore directly a response to what I hear in the music. A lot of it is specifically inspired by jazz… there are so many textures, colors, patterns and rhythms. It wobbles pretty quickly so it’s a lot of fun for me to play with because there’s just one big playing field.

Regarding Wynton’s music specifically, I was very fortunate to be able to work directly with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra beginning in 2017, and then again in 2018 for the premiere of “SPACES,” which is music by Wynton. composition which was created in conjunction with this extremely multi-genre dance performance. There was Memphis wild card (a street dancer type) Charles Riley, known as Lil Buck, and Jared Grimes. There was jookin’, there was tap – I mean, you name it.

My role in that capacity was that of choreographic assistant and rehearsal assistant, and so we had these extraordinary improvisation artists who were able to take that, exploit it, and then structure and codify it. in the context of this performance. We created a full evening work that premiered at Lincoln Center, first in New York, and then I took it on tour with them to California, we went to the Hollywood Bowl and everywhere. It was such a rewarding experience. You’re there in the room, working directly with Wynton, working directly with the conductors and the musicians, and giving specific notes and reading the score, and sort of breaking things down into pieces. I just fell in love with his work in particular, but also being surrounded by that genre, because it’s not something I grew up with. Like I said, I grew up with classical ballet. Since then, I’ve expanded my repertoire a lot, in terms of the type of music I work with and also the choreographic style, so I wouldn’t say I’m a ballet choreographer at this point. I would say I’m a choreographer and I work in a lot of different styles. So it seemed like an opportunity to branch out and really create something that’s still close to my heart – everything that comes out feels extremely natural and organic to my body – but it’s in such a different context.

I was going to ask you if you think you have a distinctive choreography style. I guess the answer is no?

Schreier: I don’t want to sound like a broken record year after year, but for me it always comes back to the music. I really enjoy exploring new ways of moving through music. So most of the time…the way I move is in response to the music I’m internalizing. I discovered that it is a way for me to develop my choreographic language. If I were to look back, I could not have anticipated what this work would become without having lived inside the music as I did for weeks, because it is, once again, in response to her.

I mean, I still have ballet training. There are elements of classical ballet and contemporary ballet in general that are inherent in my work and that I’m sure are present and seen in a lot of my work. But we’re kind of turning them around and playing with them in different ways now, which is just fun.

You mentioned collaboration earlier. There’s a lot of talk about collaboration around this piece, with muralist Charity Hamidullah and costume designer Abigail Dupree-Polston. Could you talk about what this work and collaboration was like?

Schreier: This has been very exciting, especially because the charity is so ingrained in the Atlanta arts community. Her philosophy is integral to what we want to celebrate about Atlanta, which is a strong, female artistic voice, speaking about the joys and ills of society and the importance of fostering community through it all. His work is vibrant, it’s alive – it sings. Abby and I saw this immediately when we were looking for an artist. We knew we wanted to bring in a third voice. Abby and I collaborate a lot on our work. This ballet is, in many ways, a tribute to urban life and community, and the contrast between individuality and community, particularly in the context of what makes Atlanta so vibrant and forward-thinking .