April 3, 2012 | Theatre,

CAFÉ VARIATIONS: Meet the Choreographer

Dramaturgy student Tierra Bonser interviews Barney O’Hanlon, choreographer.

Barney O’Hanlon, aside from playing the role of Harold in Café Variations, is working as choreographer on this (as many of the designers have described) immense piece of musical theatre comparable in size and vastness even to an opera. With as many as thirty people on stage and dancing at one time, O’Hanlon said his ultimate hope in regards to the choreography is for “the audience to want to get up and dance, to tap their toes,” and to feel the joy of seeing swing-style dance in full action. He and I talked about the intrinsic joy in that kind of movement and O’Hanlon mentioned how, because humans are full of empathy ions, when a body sees another body moving in space, it cannot help but respond with another kind of movement. So, ladies and gentlemen, plan on bouncing out of your seats.

Drawing on inspirations ranging from Pina Bausch to Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, O’Hanlon said his process began with learning the music by heart. He already had his eye on two pieces of Gershwin instrumentals to be what he called “chair dances” (the name is self explanatory) and started with them alone in the studio. From there he incorporated dances from the 1940’s and 1950’s for the big group scenes and continues to develop as the process continues.

O’Hanlon has been working with Anne Bogart since before the creation of the SITI Company so her style and process are not new to him, and he mentioned Anne’s interest, even in the ‘80’s, in how people are together in both the public and private spaces. He recalled a piece that the two of them worked on called “Behavior in Public Places”, based on the book of the same title by Erving Goffman; the same book that was revisited in the work-shopping phase of Café Variations. O’Hanlon talked about the way café culture has changed and, even now, how very different it is as a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. compared to Europe. He looked at me in all seriousness and with a gesture of his hand said, “What we’re doing right now…is rare. Especially now because you have…you know,” and he pointed surreptitiously behind me to a student on a laptop, completely absorbed and ignorant to the world passing by the window in front of his face but behind his glossy screen.

I nodded and smiled because it is true. I can’t think of the last time I went to a café with the intention of meeting someone just to talk. It’s always for a meeting, an interview, to write a paper or read a book, but then I must ask, why, if I am seeking no interaction, would I even go to a café at all? And herein lies one of the many facets of the play in production as we speak.

Image 1: Gene Kelly

Image 2: Gene Kelly & Mitzi Gaynor

Image 3: Gene Kelly, Taina Elg, Mitzi Gaynor & Kay Kendall in “Les Girls”

Image 4: Pina Bausch, Kontakthof