On Sunday December 13 at On the Boards, independent choreographer Amelia Reeber was chosen the winner of Seattle’s first-ever A.W.A.R.D. dance competition — a strange, high-stakes way to watch dance. The purse of 10K for the winning choreographer had imbibed the sold-out houses with a kind of giddy disorientation at first. But as the weekend progressed, the post-show Q&A sessions about art & commerce & judging grew more inflamed and hostile. By Sunday, OtB staffers looked a bit like hosts of a party that had traded effervescence for danger.
And yet — AMELIA REEBER WON!! Audiences and judges picked an artist who built her career here in Seattle, bearing the same quality of intelligence and wit as many of the great female Seattle choreographers before her.
I asked sublime choreographer Deborah Hay, with whom Reeber has danced extensively, how she would sum up Amelia’s talent. She wrote back right away.
What do you appreciate about Amelia’s work as a dancer/choreographer?
Amelia’s humor is not only spoken word. Her physicality seems to draw humor from every pore in her body. She is a fearless player of dance. And her level of attention more constant than almost any performer I know.
Why do you think she connects with audiences so well?
She connects with audiences because they are included in her performance of dancing.
Have you ever seen anyone else like her? In what ways?
She is closer to Buster Keaton than any other dancer I know.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyRhRR5Iu4&feature=related]