Practice makes perfect

The performers of Goat Island Performance Group are some of the most sophisticated dance artists in the city. Their painstakingly crafted, evening-long performance works are filled with compelling, elaborately orchestrated, highly detailed and mysteriously organized dances. During the next couple of weeks, you're invited to gain some understanding of their intense creative process by observing the group in daily rehearsals at the Chicago Cultural Center, and also by viewing the short film Daynightly they reschool you The Bears-Polka (a nine-minute adaptation of one of the group's much longer recent live pieces), at the Betty Rymer Gallery.

There are six core members in the group: Karen Christopher, Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson, Mark Jeffery, Bryan Saner and Litõ Walkey. Unlike the majority of dancers in this town, they do not train in jazz, ballet, modern or hip-hop. While Walkey trained in contemporary dance in Europe, the other members come from theater, visual art, performance art or other backgrounds. "We're not part of the discourse of the dance world," says Christopher. "We're not about having a technique of movement. In rehearsal, we don't say, 'When you raise your arm, it's like this.'"

It's not like they don't practice their moves, though: The Goats spend long daily rehearsal hours and take up to a year or more developing a new performance work. For example, they started working on their last piece, When will the September roses bloom? Last night was only a comedy, a double performance in mid-2002—and it premiered in October 2004. Hixson serves as the director and "outside eye," while the other five members develop the movement ideas and later perform the work. "[Hixon] sits there for months and watches us do stuff," says Christopher. "But she never tells us how to do it." Hixon's role is to eventually edit and arrange the material.

The Goats are starting on their ninth work, yet to be titled. "All of our pieces come out of a seed from the piece before," says Christopher. This work explores the theme of duality that emerged in September roses, which combined two separate performances into one. The members are now learning about the Hagia Sophia Museum, a building in Turkey that began as a Byzantine cathedral and was later converted to an Islamic mosque. It continues to be of religious significance to both Christians and Muslims. Because of the building's two identities over time, it fits in with what the Goats are exploring: "What's on our minds right now is the idea of doubleness and reorientation," says Christopher. "Shifting alignment to find harmony, how a building or a person can have a double identity."

In rehearsals, "we just dig in," says Christopher. "We give ourselves very explicit instructions, and just start doing to see what people come up with." She says the group's approach is practical, not based on any particular style of dance movement. "We only do what we can do right now with our bodies," says Christopher. "We don't work to develop a fantasy version of what's in Lin's head. Lin watches us and sees what is actually happening." They also don't train their bodies to fit some kind of aesthetic ideal of grace and beauty. "Lin's idea is that you are already what you are. I think that's very different from most dance," says Christopher.

However, just like any dancers, the Goats are highly disciplined in their approach to using the body as an expressive medium. "We have a discipline of research and thought," says Christopher. "We have systems and patterns that govern our work. What we do most is organize thoughts and actions into patterns." The Goats' fascinating patterns may just change your definition of what dance is.

See Goat Island Performance Group in rehearsal through Saturday 14 at the Chicago Cultural Center. A film of previous work is also on view at the Betty Rymer Gallery through February 24.