Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi for voice and piano gets physicalized as Grammy-award winning soprano Julia Bullock and pianist Conor Hanick are joined by choreographers/dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber for a single performance at the Wallis in Beverly Hills, presented in collaboration with the prestigious Ojai Music Festival. Messiaen’s heartfelt lyrics were inspired by poetry in Quechua, an indigenous Andean language from Perú and Bolivia. The 12-song cycle also reflects searing, contrapuntal forces in the composer’s own life, emotions the choreographers sought to embody in their movement.
Singer Julia Bullock previously included several songs from Harawi in her recitals, and she was the impetus for expanding it to include dance. Smith and Schraiber were approached to choreograph and dance. Zack Winokur of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*) came in to direct Harawi for the Ojai Music Festival until the Covid-19 public health emergency cancelled the festival.
But the bug had bit, and work continued. Performances were given in France, Belgium and Germany which reopened theaters earlier than U.S. theaters. The Wallis performance is only the second U.S. performance after its debut at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach. After the Wallis, a third performance is set for UC Santa Barbara.
Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber are familiar names on the LA dance scene as artists in residence at LA Dance Project, founding members of AMOC*, and former members of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company under its influential director Ohad Naharin. Smith took time from rehearsal before the Berkeley opening to talk with LA Dance Chronicle’s Ann Haskins about the work’s long road to creation and how dance fits with what was written as a duet for piano and singer.
Q: Now I know you and Or are both members of American Modern Opera Company or AMOC* which is involved with putting this together. How did this new endeavor come to include dance?
Smith: It was Julia’s dream that it become something with a fully realized staging of the work.
Q: How long has this been in process?
Smith: We started, I want to say, we started first talking about it in 2020 and researching and doing a lot of the preliminary process, and then we started to work on it in the studio. After the premiere at the Ojai Music Festival was postponed due to Covid, it still simmered. So it’s been a long process. In a way, I think the delay has been a blessing, so the piece could develop even more.
Harawi. Photo by Hanna Engwald.
Q: I understand the first U.S. performance is at UC Berkeley?
Smith: Yes, we’re here now. That will be the United States premiere. We’ve premiered the work in Europe, in France, Brussels, and Germany.
Q: What was it about this idea or this project that you and Or thought dance and dancers would have value to add to the piano score and the soprano singing? What would choreography contribute?
Smith: I think the music feels like a dance, and especially hearing Conor, the pianist play and Julia sing this music together. There’s so much emotion and longing and desire and incredible rhythms to play off of. It felt like an incredible invitation to be able to play with that material. Then the big question was, how to do that? How do these elements work together, so that it’s not just two dancers, two musicians? How are these four people communicating?
Q: How did you answer those questions?
Smith: Everything that is at the core of the work we do with AMOC* is very much about the people first, rather than the craft first. It’s not “Oh, the singer, Julia.” It’s Julia, the person who sings, Bobbi, the person who dances, Or who also dances. Seeing how we all merge together, it’s now expression rather than just form.
Q: How is the choreography structured within Harawi? Is the dancing all the way throughout? Or do you come in and out?
Smith: We are present almost all the way through. And I’ll leave some mystery there.
Q: Mystery accepted. From the photos, it looks like there are some points where the singer Julia Bullock gets involved with the movement.
Smith: Yes, she’s very physical in this piece and dancing with us, and we all meet in that way.
Q: What was the biggest challenge in incorporating movement with the music and the voice?
Smith: Well, I think for me, one challenge was figuring where dance can contribute, and not just there for a visual effect. That it is there for a reason. Also, trying to understand and to go through this song cycle to really try to find what would be necessary. How does movement serve? With the piano and singer, it stands alone. We know that it stands alone as this incredible work. What is the movement expressing that the music cannot or where are there holes, or something like that?
Q: And what did you conclude after chewing on all those possibilities?
Smith: Well, I think that the movement can contribute. The piece is so beautifully emotional and raw and tender. And I think that dance has the capacity and the body has the capacity to contain and to express those things. I hope that people will see the piece and feel that longing in the bodies that they see moving. I hope the movement brings something that is universal in the way of the gesture and the tone and texture that we’ll be bringing.
Harawi. Photo by Hanna Engwald
Q: When was it premiered in Europe?
Smith: About two years ago.
Q: Has it evolved or been modified in any way since?
Smith: I feel we’ve been very lucky to be able to perform it in different places, to have time away from it, and then come back to it. It feels that it’s still continuing to grow and change. And because of circumstances, tomorrow will be the first time that the four of us—Or, myself, Conor, and Julia, get to be together in the show.
Q: Why is that?
Smith: Because it has had its run of covid and different circumstances, one person has always been out until now.
Q: What did you do when one person was out?
Smith: We had taught it to others. We had to have covers. It was amazing. Zach, the director, stepped in for Or for part of one show. He was incredible.
Q: So Berkeley, the Wallis and Santa Barbara are really the premiere performances with the four of you?
Smith: Yes. It’s very exciting. And then I hope we’ll bring it to New York.
Q: You and Or also are resident artists at LA Dance Project. I understand you’re working on something new for them?
Smith: Yes, we’re working together on the new Getty project which will be at Barnsdall Art Park November 16 and 17. It’s going to be an incredible art gathering installation with Rauf ‘Rubberlegz’ and Francesca Harper. The four of us are collaborating on this. We like to call it a gathering with LA Dance Project dancers. Jill Johnson is heading the project, centering around empathy. And it’s been an incredible process so far.
Q: Anything else you want to talk about Harawi?
Smith: The part that makes me so excited is listening to Conor and Julia perform this piece. It’s extremely electric and powerful. I can’t wait for people to see it.
Harawi at The Wallis, Bram Goldsmith Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills; Tues., Oct. 1, 7:30 pm, $39-$69. https://thewallis.org/show-details/harawi
Written by Ann Haskins for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured photo Harawi. Photo by Hanne Engwald
