Hi! How is your morning going?

It's going good.

Can you tell me your name and what pronouns do you use?

My name is Mariah Polster, and my pronouns are she/her.

Alright let's get started.

Can you talk about your background in dance in about one minute or less?

Yes. So I started dancing in kindergarten. I danced at a studio called The Dance Scene in Victorville, California, [which is where I started] my first tap and ballet class. Once I became 9 years old, I joined the competition team that they had there, doing all types of styles til graduating from high school. During that time, I also went to a performing arts school [Encore Junior Senior High School for Performing Arts] from 7th - 12th grade where I also took multiple dance classes there as well, and I was also in a couple productions twice a year, which was a requirement to going there. Now, I'm here as a dance major at San Diego State.

So, because of the feedback session and a little bit of how you were explaining during our meetings, it really looks like you are using more of a biographical style of dance as well as you're working with a lot of storytelling, and talking about your journey.

I was wondering if you could give a little more insight on how this process is going in your piece so far?

Yes! When I first started this process, I wanted to think like, "ok what do I want to do in my piece?", and a lot of the things that you have to have come up in my piece and so it [had me] thinking like, "Ok, what can I do differently, but also what can I bring more of what I have learned throughout my last 3 years here at San Diego State?"

Ok, thank you! Delving more into the process and going back into this feedback session again, can you tell us a little bit about the difference between the piece that you are choreographing now and your first ever choreographed piece that you have ever made?

So, looking back, I was 15 years old when I choreographed my own piece for my solo for a competition. Looking at the difference between the first choreographed piece to what I'm choreographing now and it's completely different. As you know, I danced at a dance studio, so it was very strict and very, very deeply [technical], and very set. So, my solo was very set with like, you know what I mean, very, very, set, and organized -- no disruptions or anything like that. And like, looking now, its completely different - in a good way - and I became more interested in taking what I have learned into that, where it wasn't completely set, it wasn't completely organized, it wasn't going with the music and going with the groove, and everything. It was a lot of separation and learning to not be so organized and so set making my piece now.

Alright, thank you! So, I know that because of the feedback session, we were talking a little about music, and a lot of people were thinking that the music might not fit your piece - I'm not sure if you also think that or if you really like the music - but has music been a really important inspiration for your choreographic process? If so, who are the artists that have inspired you and/or what music are you working with in the piece?

I don't have very specific artists but I do have a very specific type of music that has inspired me. I am very inspired by instrumental music. Growing up, my grandmothers played piano and that kind of inherited into me, even though I am not good at piano, but I do love instrumental music, and so those are what I have been using in my piece because I just love it and I think it's incredibly beautiful and that you can really do anything you can do with instrumental music than with music that has specific lyrics.

Thank you! Just because we are about to wrap up in 2 minutes, is there any way that this interview process has infused into your piece at all? Has it helped you realize certain things? has it helped you build upon your own choreographic process in the future, even now, and more?

I think it does inspire me more in the future as I graduate from college and move onto the next chapter of my life where it definitely would help, especially when I come on to interviews for job applications, I do think think this will help me in the future.

Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your process and work with us!

Hi! Good afternoon, how are you today?

I'm great, thanks for asking!

What is your name and pronouns?

My name is Julz Fernandez and I use she/her pronouns.

Can you talk briefly about your background in dance in 1 minute or less?

I started to dance in my sophomore year of high school. My dance background consists of contemporary, beginner ballet, and Modern dance. I fell in love with dance and have devoted myself to the art form ever since.

Alright, let’s get on with the questions!

So it looks like you are working a lot with repetition and I was wondering if you could give some more insight on it and how this process is going?

I am working with repetition to give some more insight on variation in my process and I feel as if the cast and I have cultivated a way to utilize repetition in an un-precious way. To elaborate, repetition is dance making commonly emphasized, makes meaning of, and adds more importance to movement, but in contrast with this piece, I feel like we cultivated a way to have repetitions just be repetitive and not so noticeable even. Some movements almost seemed less important to show up twice, and some movements were so varied that they didn’t quite resonate as the same movement again.

As a dancer in your piece I have a solid understanding of how rehearsals go as a dancer, but I was wondering if we could get a deeper look into the rehearsal process as the choreographer. So, can you describe your process in rehearsals? What does a typical rehearsal look like for you?

A typical rehearsal for “return.revert..relapse...” consists of checking in with one another. Nearly every rehearsal we came in and had a score of “What's up, What's down?”, where we each check-in with ourselves and each other and let the mind of the room feel where to go next. After this physical and mindful arrival, we then take time to arrive energetically and bring ourselves into score movement, warming up to serve where our body is and where the piece needs to get during that rehearsal time. Most rehearsals were solely a dancemaking process, there was an exception of some crucial cleaning of the movement we had in “Big Chunk”, so catering to where each of us was in the process and the goals we had for rehearsal was something very important for the group.

Thank you for explaining a lot about the process from the inside! Moving on to our second question here, within your piece you said a lot of the process was solely dancemaking. Are you using mainly score work, set material, both, one more than the other?

The piece is a combination of both score work and set material. While we have our “Big Chunk”, we also have score work layered inside and other objectives to meet within the entire outline of the set material. With that being said I believe this piece is about 48% set material and 52% score work. I love these percentile balances because it reminds me as a choreographer and as a dancer myself that nothing is always 100% set or scored. I feel like this piece does a great job of heightening that energy.

Since we have about 4 minutes left, is there anything else important that we missed or have not talked about yet?

Another important thing we have in this piece is the poem reading and how it feeds into the process. Due to these poems coming late into the process, I feel like these readings fed into the process of the dancers and what their role was in this piece. It was really beautiful to see these poems add more distinction to the movers and who they were in the piece and their day-to-day lives. It was an even more breathtaking avenue that all the poems were written by cast members.

Very interesting! As we start to wrap up, is there any way this interview process has been infused into your piece?

This interview has come into the process in remembrance of the work we did during rehearsal, and the work that was performed. I would emphasize this interview has given me a different avenue to think about how rehearsal time impacted the piece overall. I think it has also enlightened me on how our everyday lives were installed in the work we've done and that is something I was truly devoted to making a part of the process.

Perfect! That about sums up all the time we have left! Thank you so much for sharing your process and work with us!