“I don’t think any of us are going to jam, you know what I’m saying? I don’t even know how you would do that with dancing, although I’d love to see it.” Those are the words of cellist and composer Isaiah Gage.
He’s composed the score for this week’s world premiere of Joy by Ate9 Dance Company. Choreographed by the company’s Artistic Director, Danielle Agami, the performances run November 4th – 6th at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
Joy almost sounds like it was tailor-made for our post-pandemic world. The website describes the work as examining “humanity’s yearning for moments of elation amidst despair and offers intimate flashes into the mental and physical states of each cast member.”
Best known as a session player for film and television scores, Gage has performed with a wide range of artists including Gloria Estefan, Kesha, Steve Martin, Mac Miller and Pharell Williams.
He and I spoke via Zoom four weeks ago and he told me that it was through a mutual friend appearing in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Meredith Monk’s Atlas, choreographed by Agami, that lead to this collaboration.
“It was just people putting us together which I think is beautiful because nowadays it’s usually ‘we met through each other’s stuff on the internet.’ So it’s really nice to have that natural ‘Hey, I’ve heard you guys’ and ‘you’ve heard you guys’ puts us together in the real world. I think that’s a really important thing for both of us in an increasingly digital world.”
That introduction first lead to a dance film that was born out of the pandemic and the inability to perform live. Gage knew through his collaboration with Agami he had landed on a unique opportunity.
“The most powerful part of the creative process, which is ineffable, is a feeling which in turn can often times spark a theme or several themes or moods. After sketching those out and running them by Danielle, she was able to point to the things that really spoke to her and be really helpful in me expounding upon those.”
Gage is also responding to the personalities of each of the dancers and by extension the creators as well.
“The emotional world in which she was trying to inhabit really struck me as being highly relatable. I don’t know how much for her was autobiographical, but certainly for me, a lot of it felt really close to home. I think one of the special things about Ate9 is that it’s not an amorphous blob of dancers. Everybody has their own distinct personality and everybody’s very considered, highly considered. So you get a sense of everybody’s personality working with them. It’s easy to pick up on the group emotional pull.”
At the time of our conversation, Gage was still in the process of making modifications in his music which in turn might prompt revisions in the choreography Agami put together.
“We’re both constantly reacting to each other and the dancers. It’s all very collaborative in a time in which I think we all need that the most. We’ve spent the last year-and-a-half, two years, in our individual bubbles banging our heads against the wall over our creative ideas. So what better time than to make this a fluid process.”
He goes on to reveal little hints about what Joy might have in store for audiences and his description might surprise you.
“There’s several spots, without giving too much away, where there are solo numbers by the dancers. Me and Danielle haven’t quite even decided as to whether or not that won’t be entirely improvisatory on a given night. So there might be certain spots in the performing in which it’s literally just me responding and vice-versa to what the dancers are doing. Utilizing the moment to really come up with a unique approach to it every night. I think that’s exciting to all of us to have that.”
Which means, of course, that Gage will be playing live at each performance of Joy.
Yo-Yo Ma, arguably the world’s best known cellist, said, “Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity. Because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.” Gage agrees and it’s one way he defines his own joy.
“Yo-Yo Ma is a great example of somebody who is unabashedly taking risks. He really jumps full steam into what he’s interested in at that time. I never picked up the cello saying, ‘you know, this is going to be my career.’ I picked up the cello and I just had to play this thing and I couldn’t stop. It was only joy. The ability to get that back, even if it eventually is going to be honed and shaped into something of substance beyond just amorphous sort of joy, is the reward.”
To see the whole interview with Isaiah Gage, please go to our YouTube channel here.
There will be a talkback with the artists after the November 5th performance.
Photo of Isaiah Gage courtesy Isaiah Gage and The Wallis