Uncle Bill's Tavern, one of the new works on the shared bill, is based on Townsend's recollections of the walk-up apartment she and her husband shared in New York. One of their neighbours was William Douglas, a Canadian choreographer who died from AIDS-related causes in March. Kirsch's new work, called Pasture, is a piece for five dancers that features several towering sculptures by artist Veronica Verkley as part of the set design. I think rhythm is so essential to dancing. If the rhythm is monotonous, the dancing is monotonous.
Rhythms can have interest all of their own in a compositional sense.
In the new work, for instance, all the dancers have different training. What I am trying to do here is to harmonize them by getting them all to dance rhythmically together. Both Townsend and Kirsch were influenced by Douglas Dunn, a New York postmodern choreographer with whom they danced in the 1980s. The same, she adds could be said about her own work. I try to be funny.