by Susan Reiter
The hallways of the Juilliard School in Manhattan were dark enough to require a flashlight for navigation while the students were away on winter vacation. But the spacious dance studio where the members of Buglisi/Foreman Dance were spending long days last month during the holiday week's icy chill was a cauldron of activity. The center of the room was a scene of intense, passionate dancing as several of the most articulate torsos in the business shaped preliminary outlines of new dances by Jacqulyn Buglisi and Donlin Foreman. On the periphery, during breaks, cellular phones rang frequently and hurried consultations about costumes, posters, flyers, music rights and a myriad of other details took place.
Ms. Buglisi and Mr. Foreman, who are married and both former principals with the Martha Graham Dance Company, radiated enthusiasm. They focused on the two premieres and three recent works that the company will perform during its five-day run beginning on Wednesday at the New Victory Theater off Times Square. (In addition to maintaining their troupe, they also keep track of their teaching schedules. Ms. Buglisi is the head of the modern department at the Alvin Ailey School and is on the Juilliard faculty; Mr. Foreman is associate professor of dance at Barnard College and a guest teacher at Juilliard.) During the rehearsal, their 12-year-old son Bradley, arrived and sat on the floor.
Although both dancers had been choreographing for years, they formed their company officially in 1994. Joining them as associate founders are the veteran Graham principal dancers Terese Capucilli and Christine Dakin, who became associate artistic directors of the Graham troupe in 1997. The four are close friends as well as longtime colleagues, each having more than two decades of association with the Graham company and school.
"It wasn't that we sat down at the kitchen table and said, 'Let's start a company'; it started with the work, in the studio," Ms. Dakin said during a rehearsal break. Ms. Capucilli said: "Jacque and Donlin did a 'Carmina Burana' in 1991, and that was when it really started; we did a lot of work together on that. The next year Jacque did a solo for me, `Molting.' When Martha died in 1991, it became necessary to continue working together."
During a late postrehearsal dinner in the Juilliard cafeteria, Mr. Foreman said: "We wanted to create a company and develop a certain kind of theater that we love. In whatever we present, there needs to be something inevitable, that draws you from the beginning to the end, an urgent physicality, a dramatic sense and purpose about what we're doing."
The influence and essential spirit of Martha Graham figure significantly in their work, and they speak proudly of this heritage. Ms. Buglisi said: "Her technique makes beautiful, exceptional theater and bodies, an expressive way of moving that is different from any other. Part of our mission is the continuation of her technique. But there's both a curse and a blessing to coming out of Martha's house. We're trying to develop our own voices."
Ms. Buglisi and Mr. Foreman, who met in 1975, when they were with the Joyce Trisler Danscompany, are a striking couple. She is petite and dark, artfully dressed and accessorized. Her manner displays both a native New Yorker's pragmatic intensity and an earthy voluptuousness. He is tall and ruggedly handsome, with an openness and warmth that reflect his Alabama youth. She came to dance early, studying Mary Wigman's technique from the age of 10, while he had his eye on a marine biology degree before discovering dance at 21.
They married in 1976 and joined the Graham company a year later. Ms. Dakin had just joined and Ms. Capucilli followed in 1979. With the Graham company having suspended operations since last May because of a dispute with the Martha Graham Trust, they are even more focused on carrying on the choreographer's legacy through Buglisi/Foreman Dance.
"Both entities are very important to me," Ms. Capucilli said. "I feel that Buglisi/Foreman has always been a continuation of the early days when we worked with Martha. Her ballets really dealt with the individual. Jacque and Donlin seem to be taking that further, but in a different way. They are finding new ways of bringing a sense of humanity to the stage, which not too many people are doing in dance."
Mr. Foreman said: "We never map a work out in advance. It's pulled out of the individuals. We have a great responsibility - not just to ourselves but to those individuals with whom we work, to bring out their best qualities, to give them a vehicle to explore their potential."
Ms. Buglisi drew on all of Ms. Capucilli's highly individual technical and interpretive powers in the 1998 extended solo "Against All Odds," an exploration of Sarah Bernhardt's life and art. "She was a woman who defied the norm," Ms. Buglisi said of Bernhardt, "and I think that's an inspiration to women today."
As she runs through the fiercely demanding work in the studio, Ms. Capucilli evokes the passion and ferocity of the legendary actress, even without the aid of elegant gown, shawl and scenic effects that will enhance the characterization at the New Victory. She is technically precise yet emotionally abandoned, and the intensity of her dancing is a match for the Rachmaninoff piano concerto Buglisi chose as her score.
Like Graham, Ms. Buglisi favors dance evocations of larger-than-life women, but hers tend to be groundbreaking artists rather than figures of myth and legend; she has created dances inspired by Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe. In making such works, Ms. Buglisi said: "I find myself going further and further into that person until eventually she becomes Everywoman, in a sense. I begin to feel her subconscious."
In last year's "Suspended Women," which she describes as evoking "the vulnerability of women," Ms. Buglisi has created a stage full of mysterious Everywomen. A dozen haunting figures in rustling antique ballgowns, designed by the company's frequent collaborator, A. Christina Giannini, resemble ghostly half-remembered figures.
Ms. Buglisi's "Sand," which has its premiere at the New Victory, is set to two movements of Philip Glass's Quartet No. 5. During an early rehearsal, three men and three women display a remarkable quality of suspension, their movement forceful yet fluid. During a section of slow, luxuriant partnering, she encourages them to make it "sensuous," reminding them that "the focus is important."
"I'm using more Graham style than I usually do," Ms. Buglisi said. "I find myself going into a certain place that conjures up a visceral kind of movement. This piece, for me, concerns a feeling about the earth - the soil, the sand, the preservation of all that. I see people needing space, needing a connection to their humanity and vulnerability, delving inside the inner landscape. The music fit right into that feeling."
Mr. Foreman, who will be dancing in several works (Ms. Buglisi does not dance on this program), has eschewed the Romantic scores he often selects, turning to the blues as he began listening to B. B. King as the inspiration for his premiere, "Mean Ole World." He developed the initial movement to Mr. King's recordings, but the work will feature an original blues-flavored score by Lisa DeSpain, performed live by the six piece band Catfish Corner.
Mr. Foreman said this new music posed new challenges. "The dance is strictly about rhythm, about the physical sensation of the music. I want to find a place where it focuses dramatically."
The couple are particularly excited about performing at the New Victory which has become a vital part of the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood where they live. "The New Victory offers a different kind of feeling - an intimacy, charm, beauty and history that are very distinctive," Ms. Buglisi said.
