The Convenient Woman blends dance, video and spoken word to consider our culture’s obsession with convenience and constant dissatisfaction.
The dance theater production is a collaboration of the UH School of Theatre and Dance director Steven Wallace, faculty Teresa Chapman and Leslie Scates and accomplished designer Frederique deMontblanc.’
‘It’s inspiring that women today can ‘have it all,’ but it can also be overwhelming,’ Chapman said. ‘To have a successful career and be the perfect wife, mother, friend can lead to loss of self.’
Inspired by the 1969 how-to manual-style book The Sensuous Woman by ambiguous author ‘J,’ Chapman said she felt inspired to dig deeper into the things women do to make ourselves more convenient for our lovers.
Her curiosity then led to conversations of how women make ourselves more convenient for other people, and how easy it is to sacrifice personal needs in the process, Chapman said.
People-pleasing, things that are very inconvenient and things we do to make our lives more convenient were all subjects in the writing process, said Leslie Scates, an adjunct faculty member who teaches improvisation.
Less like a diary and more like a gushing of universal experiences, Chapman and Scates developed the show out of ideas on some of society’s fixations, like codependency and online shopping.
‘Sometimes, I’m telling (Scates’) story, sometimes she’s telling mine,’ said Chapman. ‘Maybe they’re the same story, maybe they’re every woman’s story.’
Describing it as a theatrical dance experience, Scates said the only recorded element in the show is its music.
Never the same performance twice and under an hour long, each night will have a different cast performing tasks and supporting background action. DeMontblanc will be providing a video installation of projections created during the show, and Wallace is the lighting designer for The Convenient Woman.
Comprised of 10-12 sections implementing various types of improvisation, a main dance cast of four as well as six or seven extras, the performance aims to be intimate while still reaching out to the audience.
‘We’re not engaging in man-bashing,’ said Scates. ‘We’ve really stuck to our own personal experience, which I think has some commonality with a lot of different people’s experiences ‘hellip; also, I think we’re doing some really kick-ass dance.’
Adryanne Rozo, a freshman kinesiology major, said at first she didn’t know what to expect, but after knowing, she became more excited.
‘We trust Teresa,’ Rozo said. ‘She’s a really good choreographer and she knows what she’s doing.’
After performing in front of an invited group of UH Women’s Studies students during a run-through, Rozo said she is used to performing for her peers and hopes the piece’s message is made clear.
‘If anything, I just really wanted them to understand what the dance was about and respect it,’ Rozo said.
The performances will be at 8 p.m., April 3, 4, 10 and 11 in the DiverseWorks Theater at 1117 E. Freeway. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for members and $8 for students and seniors.
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