BLOOM: Rob Kitsos
BLOOM KIDS 2020 is a residency for choreographic creations, in this case by choreographers with their kids. Join us for tea, laughter and short dance films in the safety and comfort of your home, and ring in the new year. This is the 16th season of BLOOM at MascallDance.
Rob Kitsos Photo David Cooper
ROB KITSOS is an acclaimed dancer, choreographer, and educator. He has performed across Asia, Europe, and the US, and at international festivals in Lisbon, Barcelona, Paris, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, Venezuela and Hong Kong. Covering styles from mime to hip hop to ballet, he has worked with Doug Elkins Dance Company, Gina Gibley Dance, Hillary Easton, Jannis Brenner, KT Niehoff, Colin Connor, Pat Graney, the Chamber Dance Company, Peter Bingham, Lin Snelling, and the Berkshire Ballet, among others.
He has created over 100 choreographic works, many involving collaboration with artists from a range of disciplines. He studied Mime at L’ecole Jacques Lecoq (Paris), drummed in a rock band in clubs such as CBGB’s (NYC), with musicians with whom he continues to record. Rob composes and performs many of his own sound-scores and video projection elements of his choreography. Recently, he received a commission from Dancing on the Edge in Vancouver BC and by tanz&kunst (Baden, Switzerland) to join Brigatta Luisa Merki in co-creating ‘IKARUS, stirb oder flieg' combining flamenco, hip hop, and contemporary dance artists in the early 14th Century Königsfelden Abbey in Windisch.
For the past two decades, Rob has also been teaching dance in universities – at Virginia Commonwealth University (guest artist, 1998) University of Washington (Faculty, 1998-2002) and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (Senior Lecturer). From 2004 to the present, he has been a full-time Professor at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University, where he teaches contemporary dance, composition, repertory, dance aesthetics, improvisation and interdisciplinary collaboration. He received his BA from Bard College (1990) and his MFA, from University of Washington (1997). Rob has received the support of the Social Science and Research Council through SFU, BC Arts Council, and Canada Council of the Arts for a range of projects including Wake and Saudade. He was awarded support from the Leisure and Cultural Council of Hong Kong (2003) and the Donald E Peterson Endowed Fellowship for Excellence at the University of Washington (2001, 2002).
Gabriel Kitsos age 17, is a cook at Autostrada- an Italian restaurant in Vancouver; he does visual art and is interested in Journalism. Beatrice Kitsos is 15 and interested in performing.
They’re midstream in a BLOOM choreographic residency with “Well figt þat wel fligt (he fights well that flies fast)” - a short movement film based on English proverbs from the middle ages. Strategy, speed, alliances, kinship and battle will ensue. Created and performed by Gabriel, Beatrice and Rob Kitsos, with Music by Westport Sunrise Sessions.
How is the residency going?
It's been fun to work on. Gabriel and I came up with an idea for a video around a game we’ve played since he was very young.
What’s the game?
Ever since he was very young, we’ve had these nerf gun “battles” - in fact we have a whole arsenal of nerf weapons! Gabriel loves to do a nerf battle – we hide in the house, go up and down. Both of us like action films - Bourne Identity, for example, and my son has done some cool school projects emerging from this. So we’re looking at fighting, war, and started thinking about proverbs from the middle ages that we still have - strike while the iron is hot, look before you leap, that kind of thing. So we’re using them to inform the narrative. What would happen if “blood were thicker than water”? And so on. We’re shooting it all on our phones. The light is amazing this time of year and we make discoveries like recently we caught the shadow of his shooting, on the ground and that led to stuff.
Are you making the music for it too? I know you’re a musician.
No, we’re using music I recorded with friends in a band to accompany our material. But we’re editing and so on.
How are you working together?
We’ve been outside a lot, figuring out how to get movement, running and rolling, a focus on the physicality.
Have you and Gabriel collaborated before?
No, Gabriel and I haven’t done dance together before. Beatrice, my daughter, is interested in the performance side and makes appearances in the video. She and I have done live dance performance together. He’s not a performer type, and wouldn’t like to perform live, for instance. He’s a behind the scenes guy, and we’ve done film stuff, concepts and editing videos. I am doing the organizing - it’s hard to figure out when we’re free - the kids are so busy.
I gather you and Gabriel are also interested in cooking? Does your interest in cooking find parallels in BLOOM’s concept of (wine or tea) tastings interwoven with (dance) viewings?
Yes, we do cook together - he’s passionate about cooking. My parents, who’ve moved here, are also foodies - we’re a foodie family. Gabriel had a high school program that allowed him to work toward a Red Seal - he has tons of cookbooks, and since age 14 has been working at an Italian bistro named Autostrada, not far from where we live. It’s been really something watching him move from working front of house to working in the kitchen and he now cooks full meals there.
I’ve attended a BLOOM showing with wine pairings - it’s a great idea. I was talking to some students about the whole idea of cooking and creating. The first piece I made was called broke, about cooking, and an old guy at a diner. The physicality, precision and speed in cooking and the flavours and bouquet all these ideas about cooking fascinate me and have parallels in creating, choreographing.
Talk about how CVD19 has affected your process:
Teaching this semester within CVD19 restrictions has meant much of the work in dance is funneled into media. There’s certainly some frustration and burnout – but I find I am learning a lot – thinking talking, seeing what students are coming up with is pretty amazing work. The idea of accessibility at home is also engaging. And this is a medium that kids are good at. It is kinda cool the way it has brought the skills the younger generation lives with into the art scene at large.
Any reflections on this process?
I love that we’ll have the result forever. Gabriel was born in Hong Kong and we have lots of video of that time - we were always trying to keep family back in North America seeing what he was up to. I am so grateful that we made those videos. I’ve been watching in case there’s a way to use them in this project but they haven’t come up thus far.
I appreciate BLOOM, and particular this iteration involving kids and family. In the past few years, a lot of dance artists are having kids. As we know, dancers don't get a whole lot of support; for instance at SFU there was a class for a while just for moms - a really important means to attend to their own body practice and catch a breath. BLOOM is a great way to support parent dancers, I’m grateful for the platform.
Thanks for saying so! What’s up next for you?
I’m starting a new duet in the new year (right now I’m holding auditions on video) I’ve received a DOTE commission which part live and part film, which I hope to project in different places. I’m also editing a film I made in New York, and am looking forward to seeing the result.