INTERVIEW: Soomi Kim, Laura Peterson create dance piece inspired by music recordings
Photo: Soomi Kim and Laura Peterson star in The Tank’s production of Testing2. Photo courtesy of Mari Eimas-Dietrich / Provided by Print Shop PR with permission.
Although dance is a movement-based art form, Soomi Kim and Laura Peterson have decided to change things up for their latest collaboration. They pooled their talents and rethought what dance can be with their new show Testing2. Rather than focusing only on the choreography, the two dance-makers drew inspiration from a variety of music recordings. The evening-length work is billed as “snippets of epic rants, meltdowns, meanderings, musings, tantrums and other sound bites from recording sessions and bootlegged recordings of famous musicians.”
Kim created the piece, and both Kim and Peterson are responsible for the choreography. Their creation, which they both star in, continues through Sunday, Dec. 15, at The Tank in New York City.
Recently Kim exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox to further explain what audience members will experience at Testing2. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Where did the idea for Testing2 come from?
My partner is a musician, and about 10 years ago, he shared audio clips of recordings that were circulating amongst (mostly jazz) musicians. They were recordings of famous musicians in the recording studio — bloopers, rants and ramblings that were hilarious. And I immediately thought they would make a good theatre piece. In 2014, I got an artist in residence [position] with Mabou Mines and made a 20-minute dance theatre duet version called Testing Testing (with dancer Mark Taylor). I had always wanted to someday return to this project. In 2022, I made a different iteration of the same concept that was performed at Dixon Place; that one I called Testing Redux, this time with artist Zoey Stewart.
This fuller version came about when last January I was going through a hard personal time. My friend and colleague choreographer Laura Peterson had also experienced personal loss, so we were connecting, comforting and supporting each other. That’s when I decided we should make something together that was about the joy and love of creating. I was like, “Fuck it. Life is short. Let’s make art. Let’s laugh, play, create and have the audacity to look stupid.” Since I had wanted to reprise Testing Testing, I proposed to Laura that we do a remake, and she said, ‘Yes.’
My work is generally biographical or autobiographical in nature with connecting threads of identity, the existential crisis, liminal spaces, as well as the space between life and death. So with Testing2, I was ready to go in another direction for a minute and just play. It’s the best form of therapy, in my opinion.
I had seen a play called Mahinerator at the black box theater (The Tanks’ 56-seat space) and loved the intimacy of the performance and began to visualize doing Testing Testing there. Since I had been co-presented by The Tank in 2022, with my show Body Through Which the Dream Flows (co-directed by The Tank’s artistic director, Meghan Finn), I reached out to them, and they suggested that I apply for The Tank’s Core Production series. I did that, and here we are!
I decided it needed a new name, so I called it Testing2. As a theatre maker and movement artist (dancer, choreographer), I am always on this quest to discover and learn new ways to integrate theatre and dance in unique ways.
Where did you get these recordings of famous musicians?
That’s a secret. Some of them are online though.
What’s it like working with Laura Peterson?
Laura’s work always involves materials. Her piece Wooden’s set/surface was grass. Failure used large wooden sculpture fixtures that were destroyed during each performance. Interglacial incorporated the folding, crumpling and maneuvering of massive pieces of paper. For Testing2, I wanted to use large piles of reel tape or cassette tape. But it was not a practical choice, as it was thin, narrow and expensive.
An artist I know suggested mylar streamers. They looked like tape, so we decided to use that — a lot of it, in black and silver. The mylar has taken on a life of their own, making the material a third character in the show.
Laura’s expertise with materials, alongside her long history as a choreographer, performer and also self-producing artist was exciting to me and made her a perfect duet partner. She is also a longtime friend, and I knew that I wanted to utilize her irreverent and sardonic sense of humor (a side she doesn’t really reveal in her own work). So she was my guide as a choreographer, and I was hers as an “acting” coach. We really learned a lot from each other. I also love that she accepts all offers in the rehearsal space. I say, ‘Let’s look at these albatross bird videos doing a mating ritual dance and imitate them.’ Her response was “Yes, I love that.” My thought was, “Yes! I love that she loves that!”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Testing2, created by Soomi Kim, continues through Sunday, Dec. 15, at
I have been following Laura Peterson’s career since the beginning. Nothing she is invoked with is ever shallow or boring. Wondertto see this collaboration.