BOP Jazz Theatre Company will present Jazz Conversations, “a double bill of soulful jazz dance and live jazz music,” at The Place, London, on 20 and 21 September. The programme combines two of BOP Jazz Theatre Company’s best-loved jazz dance productions, Footprints in Jazz and Touches of Miles, performed by dancers including Nafisah Baba, BBC Young Dancer 2017, and by a band featuring Julian Siegel, Jay Phelps and Rob Barron.
Footprints in Jazz is an original BOP Jazz Theatre work and also the collective name that describes a suite of original BOP jazz repertoire. “We often present our jazz theatre piece entitled ‘Footprints’ as the opening to Footprints in Jazz,” says Dollie Henry, “taking inspiration from Wayne Shorter’s ‘Footprints’ and Dee Dee Bridgewater’s rendition on Red Earth – A Malian Story. Since Footprints in Jazz premiered in 2011, we have developed jazz theatre works using original choreography and compositions to underpin and reflect the many ‘creative footprints’ of the jazz idiom. We use the music of other artists, but we always aim to share our original work as a jazz composer and a jazz choreographer. That’s the unique underpinning of BOP.”
Paul calls Footprints in Jazz “a metaphor for our narrative work that expresses the journey of jazz, from Africa to America and then to the World.” His composition, “Directions,” is always part of the suite. He explains that “The music and the dance represent the different directions jazz artists creatively explore. Dollie’s choreography reflects this with its style and energy, giving the dancers the opportunity to share their individuality through solos and improvisation, as well as ensemble choreography.” Another consistent piece in Footprints in Jazz is “Last Dance with my Father.” Paul refers to it as Dollie’s “autobiographical work” following her father’s death in 2009 and notes that “as Dollie says, it was her way of saying goodbye in the only way she knew how, through dance! The dance explores the special relationship between father and daughter and that unseen connection through dance. The choreography has changed very little: the original solo performer, Valentina Dolci, will bring the piece to life again at The Place.”
BOP Jazz Theatre has drawn inspiration from Dizzy Gillespie (Dizzy Heights), Duke Ellington (Echoes of Ellington) and Maya Angelou (Through the Eyes of Women) and, in 2021, set the narrative jazz dance piece I.AM to poetry written by BOP’s non-binary dancer Jahmal Chase. “We try very hard to give a platform of representation to the artists that share themselves with us,” Dollie explains, “At The Place we will be adding a new piece, Tapestry of Life, a solo for female company member Nafisah Baba. Paul’s score combines Western and Eastern instruments including Mongolian vocals, with spoken word devised by me.”
Touches of Miles premiered in 1995 at the South Bank Centre, as part of Nubian Steps, a dance theatre event supported by Arts Council England. “I had the opportunity as a commissioned choreographer to bring together my vision for jazz theatre with six dancers and six jazz musicians, which ultimately enabled me to bring BOP to life as a company,” says Dollie. “I first heard Miles’ music as a child, from my father’s jazz collection. I always wanted to create to his music, so this was my opportunity. As we grow and change so does the piece, but we continue to keep Miles’ music, voice and energy alive in a theatrical way.” The music in Touches of Miles includes “All Blues,” “Flamenco Sketches” and “Milestones.” “The choreography has evolved,” says Paul, “So even if you were in the audience in 2001 the performance you will see in September will exhibit a different creative output, in dance and music. The main melodies remain the same but the improvisations are obviously very different with each performance. Part of the excitement of jazz theatre is that no two performances are ever the same.”
Selecting from Davis’ extensive catalogue wasn’t easy, Paul explains: “It’s important to choose compositions that allow us to create jazz dance and jazz music in a more theatrical setting. Therefore, the compositions we choose tend to create a ‘cohesive’ work, rather than trying to represent the full spectrum of Miles’ music. That said, some of his compositions are particularly narrative in style and conception and lend themselves more readily to interpretation in jazz theatre. To generate a cohesive theatrical setting throughout Touches of Miles, we use voiceovers of Miles and projections showing Miles on screen, enabling a theatrical and creative overview of Miles the man and musician!”
The choreography grew from the selected music, Dollie recalls: “Sketches of Spain is the inspiration for a solo dance work, ‘Aranjuez.’ ‘Flamenco Sketches’ offers a beautiful narrative storyline for a couple to perform a jazz pas de deux, bringing to light the fact Miles was a painter and once married to a dancer. ‘So What’ is a great vehicle to use in a more contemporary setting; changes in tempo allow for more lindy hop and hip hop flavours. Of course, the classic ‘All Blues’ lends itself perfectly to a lyrical 3/4 jazz dance interpretation, with everything from lighting to costumes in a hue of blue. There are also several instrumental pieces, where the band can improvise without having to respond to dance.”
Dollie and Paul always aim to achieve the best outcome for the productions, but the creative process differs depending on the music’s source. As Paul explains, “Creating original music for jazz dance theatre is generally a much longer process and needs a lot of discussions until completion of the final work. With pre-existing music, Dollie generally needs me to edit down, reshape musical tracks or add live instruments as additional soundscape, to achieve her vision and narrative ideas. Although a choreographer, her ear for music is immense! Dollie has many decades of experience creating dance for TV, musical theatre, concert dance and jazz theatre. She has developed the ability to ‘see’ a lot of the choreography in her mind’s eye before working with the dancers, which does speed up the creative process. However, the dancers’ creative responses and abilities are paramount, which generally means the work will develop and evolve and need reworking for a considerable period of time.”
Paul and Dollie are a husband-and-wife team so, says Paul, “We are used to each other’s creative flow and madness! We have been creating and devising BOP Jazz Theatre for over 25 years. We both understand the importance of respecting and appreciating each other’s creative processes — the most important facet of any creative partnership is creative trust. With original music and original dance, our initial discussions are concerned with the arc of the narrative, the differing sections of a piece, the orchestral size and instrumentation, the various tempos and time signatures of the work and whether the music will be performed live or recorded or a combination of both.” Dollie considers the number of dancers needed for each of the works, Paul sketches out a basic overview and records various sections, Dollie gives feedback that Paul acts on to continue composition. “This continues until the composition is in a reasonable state to move into the dance studio,” Dollie continues. “It’s not easy to write music for dance. I have worked with musicians who do not understand the nuances of creative dance or recognise the movement and how a choreographer/dancer needs to feel the music to create to it. In Paul I have found my soul mate in life and creativity. He understands dance narrative and the importance of creating and producing music with enough depth and gravitas for me to create too.”
For Paul, “The collaboration between choreographer and composer is unique. The composer must take into account all the rhythmic diversity, movement and emotional depth that a choreographer needs to express through their creative work. Similarly, the choreographer needs to effectively articulate the images in their mind’s eye, recognising that composition is a long and involved process. Above all, choreographer and composer need to respect and understand the difference between their disciplines.”
Pairing these works together, as Dollie says, “Offers the audience two sides of the BOP Jazz Theatre canon. In Footprints in Jazz the audience get to experience original jazz theatre works and compositions. Touches of Miles brings the past to the present and pays homage to great jazz icon. We feel very blessed to once again share our work that has spanned time and yet is still current and relevant. My quote of 27 years ago still stands true: ‘To create any unique company takes many talented and creative minds. The company is a credit not to one individual, but to a BODY OF PEOPLE simply know as BOP’.”
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BOP Jazz Theatre Company present Jazz Conversations at The Place, 17 Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9PY, on 20 and 21 September 2024 at 7.30pm.
