by Simone Baechle, Company Member and Interim Managing Director
Dancing for Shirley Mordine is a truly singular experience.
As Jan Erkert, head of the Department of Dance at the University
of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
There are days when I’ll leave the studio with a sense of
accomplishment and pride. Shirley asks a lot of her dancers—being able to fully
express a movement idea is a real achievement. There are other rehearsals when
I’ll feel frustrated and stunted. The most disheartening aspects of these
rehearsals, though, is that Shirley is rarely wrong. She never misses a beat. It’s purely my responsibility to “step up my game.”
Sometimes I feel like I can’t stop over-thinking things, or
that I’m having trouble breaking my predictable movement patterns, or that I’m
failing to connect with my partner. Lesser choreographers might not care about
these nuances. Lesser dancers might get defensive, or choose not to work on
these skills. This is what makes working with Shirley Mordine so gratifying. Even
though it may seem like a lot to handle, we become greater performers by
learning how to integrate all aspects of our bodies and utilize all tools of
our craft for the task at hand. Shirley is authentically invested in each
company member’s evolution into a fully realized movement artist.
Every Mo & Co piece is conceived holistically- not just
in terms of the choreography, but in terms of the whole experience. Lighting,
set design, soundscores, visual projections, text—Shirley frequently works with
all of these. It is an honor to work with someone whose vision, not just of how
the steps should function, but of how the whole aesthetic sensibility should
coalesce, is so complete.
