Interview: 'It's my happy place working with big ensembles': Stephanie Lake on COLOSSUS

Later this month, COLOSSUS, choreographed by Stephanie Lake, will be making its UK debut at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The piece has fifty dancers “performing as one,” exploring the relationships that the individual has to the collective. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Lake about bringing COLOSSUS to the Southbank Centre for its UK debut. We discussed her creative process for the piece, what it’s like working with such large groups of dancers and even advice for those looking to get into choreography!

How did you get started in the world of dance?

I got started in dance as a young girl in Canada, dancing around the house and doing occasional classes, but I didn't take it up seriously until I was in my mid-teens. I was very much a late starter, but it was an instant click. I was part of a youth dance company called Stompin that performed shows in places like industrial warehouses, in the forest and in the street and that experience was incredibly formative for me. We were encouraged to create our own choreography, and it was a very creative environment. It was very exciting and a bit punky! I ended up deciding to train in dance, and that's when I went to university and did my bachelor's in dance - the rest is history! 

So you were always doing choreography - there wasn't any specific point where you went, “This is what I want to do with dance”?

Exactly, which is quite unusual! In the classical world, for example, you would have your career as a dancer and then usually make a decision to become a choreographer after that had wrapped up, whereas for me, the two things were always braided together. From a very young age, I was making pieces and encouraged to do that, which was great. So I thank those teachers at the time who were encouraging of that creativity! But there was never really any separation. I was working as a dancer for about twenty years, and all through the time that I was a dancer, I was also making my own choreographies, so there's never really been a divide. It hasn't been something I've had to make a decision to do - I felt like it chose me. 

And what made you want to create COLOSSUS?

I just love working with big groups of dancers! There was a commission fund at the Arts Centre Melbourne here, and they were asking for pitches for ideas. I just pitched this idea of having fifty dancers on stage. I didn't know what that would be or how I would do it logistically or anything like that - it was just throwing an idea out there. I've always loved big groups of dancers. Even when I was a student, I was always roping in every one of my year group into my pieces. It's my happy place working with big ensembles. 

So I pitched the idea, we got that commission and it led to the creation of COLOSSUS.  But it was way beyond my expectations, and if you told me back then that it would end up touring all over the world . . . It's been performed by over 950 dancers around the world. It's been to North America, South America, Asia, Australasia, Europe . . . It's crazy! It's very unanticipated. I thought it would be a one-off performance in Melbourne, because it's so large and unruly, and it was specific to those dancers that I made it with at that time. So the fact that it's getting reanimated and evolving through all of these dancers all over the world is so fantastic, beautiful and unexpected.

Can you tell us a bit about the creative process for COLOSSUS?

The original creative process was very quick! I developed the ideas with smaller groups of dancers initially. I actually only had about ten rehearsals with the entire group of fifty with the original, because I was just asking, “Whoever wants to be part of this, put your hand up!” I didn't want to impinge on their time too much, so it ended up being this really speedy process, which, in a way, was good. Obviously, I was thinking about the piece for a long time, and I was developing ideas in these smaller groups, but the decision-making was really quick because I had such limited time. It was very instinctual. I had to develop ideas in this really fresh, quick way. 

So that informed the piece. It's got this urgency, it's got very clear sections, very clear visual imagery, and that's partly because of that limited time. But when we remount it with new casts, it's the same, but different. We approach the rehearsal process in the same way everywhere we go, but the outcome is really different! The show takes on a different character and personality, depending on who's performing it. Because of the cultural context, because of the individuals that are doing it, it has a different resonance. So the experience of doing COLOSSUS in Taiwan, as opposed to France, as opposed to Buenos Aires, is quite different, and that's been really fascinating and beautiful. 

So you find that there is definitely a cultural difference - even though it's the same piece of work, it's been interpreted. The choreography is the same, the show is the same, the music is the same, the costume is the same, but it absorbs something of the culture that it's happening in, and that's because of the way dancers perform it and interpret it. It's also because of the way dancers work, so whether they're highly disciplined or highly individual or really good at unison or really good at individual expression, that seeps into the work and affects the character of it. And then also the way the audience receives it! Audiences in different countries receive the work in different ways or apply different meaning to it, because of the culture that they're sitting inside of. All of that is quite fascinating to me! But, at the end of the day, it's a beautiful experience, because it really illustrates what we have in common - it succeeds in all of these different places with all of these different people. It's a lovely, optimistic thing, 

How would you describe COLOSSUS to a potential audience member?

It's not a narrative work like a classical ballet work would be - it's contemporary dance. The way you would listen to music and be affected or moved by it, it's similar with dance for me. You see and feel things, and you're not exactly sure why. It's not following a narrative, it's not following a story. There aren't people telling you what you're feeling or what the plot line is. So with a piece like COLOSSUS, it was a really simple premise. It was just about how the individual and the mass interact. What are those tensions between us being individuals and then also being part of this collective? 

Then also the beauty and the ugliness of crowd behaviour - how we exclude, how we welcome, how we separate, how we turn into teams, how we turn on each other. But then there's beautiful patterning, and almost a reflection on the grand cycles of nature - what what we see in nature, and how we are part of nature. So they're really big themes, but at the end of the day, it's just a banging dance piece as well, with amazing music! It's really high energy, and it leaves you exhilarated at the end, because there's fifty young dancers just going so hard - there's something really energising about that. But I'm happy for an audience to read into it whatever they wish - it's an abstract dance form at the end of the day.

What has it been like working with these large groups of dancers at the same time?

It's fantastic! It's chaotic, it's loud, it's a lot to wrangle, and I have to credit my amazing rehearsal directors who go and do the hard yards. They go ahead of me and do the teaching of the show now. They're actually dancers from the original cast, so they were young dancers in the very first season of the show, and they've been travelling around the world and teaching it! Very grateful and proud of them. But it's a really tight ship. We've got a really well-developed plan of how to teach that many dancers the piece quickly, because they learn it in just over two weeks! So it's an intensive rehearsal experience, but also, we want it to be fun, and we want it to be inspiring and challenging. We want people to feel like they're working hard towards a common goal, but at the end of the day, it has to be a positive experience. That's the most important thing for us.

And how does it feel to be bringing the show to London at the Southbank Centre?

It's wonderful! It's the UK premiere of the show, so what an incredible invitation to start at Southbank Centre. It's just an iconic venue, and we're really thrilled that the show's been picked up there. And also, the same cast will then go to the Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland, which is amazing. That's a first for COLOSSUS, where the same cast is touring to another city. So it's just absolutely wonderful, and I can't wait to get there. It's a great group of dancers, really diverse. They're excited to be doing it, and they're really excited to be performing at the Southbank Centre, especially!

You touched on this, but is there anything in particular you hope audiences take away from COLOSSUS?

I would never tell an audience what to think or feel, but I do hope that they're left with some element of hope at the end of this show. The fact that it's young people that perform it, that there's this huge collective energy, that there's this sense of moving towards something together . . . For me, it feels like an optimistic show because it's the next generation, and they're doing something so extraordinary together. I'm open to any interpretation whatsoever! This show is light and dark, up and down, funny and sad, absurd and profound. It has all the things, so people will read whatever they want into it. But at the end, I hope there's a feeling of invigoration and optimism.

Do you have any advice for those who might be looking to get into choreography?

I would say just work really hard at your thing, because it takes many hours and many pieces to find your voice. Like any art form, you really have to put in the time. I would get as much experience and mentorship from other choreographers who know what they're doing, and then you can accept or reject what they're offering you. But that was really valuable for me, working as a dancer for choreographers that I admired. And, I would say really listen to your inner voice - just lean into what is unique to you. Don't try to copy what you see around you. Just follow your instincts and do what's unique to you.

And finally, how would you describe COLOSSUS in one word?

Exciting! All around, from the beginning to the end - in the rehearsal room, on stage, all of it is exciting.