If you've read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), you might just be able to picture the protagonist sliding into madness: tearing yellow wallpaper, seeing people emerge from it, ultimately believing that she also emerged from the wallpaper. It is, after all, a highly visual and evocative work of classic literature.
Alison Cook-Beatty, Artistic Director of NYC-based Alison Cook Beatty Dance, took the next step there; she brought the concept into space, unto moving bodies. First it came together on film, then on stage. Through (necessarily) different casts and changing design elements, the work retained its spirit and aesthetic.
Maddie Burnett and Emily Masia City Center Studios, 2024, photo by Russ Haydn
A spirit of rigor, yet also allowing the process to flow and be fun, allowed the work to become something memorable. To learn more about the process and the creative fruits that it ultimately bore, I spoke with Cook-Beatty as well as Madelaine (“Maddie”) Burnett, an Alison Cook Beatty Dance company member and the dancer portraying the protagonist in the stage version.
A work takes shape: in spite of, because of…The Wallpaper on film
Cook-Beatty described how the film version of In Spite Of, Because Of…The Wallpaper sprung from the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was quite the process. We made it over Zoom…many good things came through those little boxes,” she noted with a laugh.
It was one of eleven works that she made during that time – even while her dancers were leaving the city and she was doing her best to keep the company together. “I had to create and to stay busy,” Cook-Beatty recounted.
Photo taken by Artistic Director Alison Cook-Beatty of YouTube Performance on the computer of dancers Nika Antoinette, Vera Paganin, and Sasha Rydlizky of greenscreen film 🎥 2020
She found inspiration for the In Spite Of, Because Of…The Wallpaper film not only during COVID, but at its height, in New York City: when ambulances constantly darted by and residents weren’t supposed to leave home even to go jogging. At that time, Cook-Beatty received a piece of music from composer Jonathon Howard Katz — Ipseities, No. 6. For some reason, it made her think of Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.
She started moving – “throwing myself around in my apartment, ripping huge pieces of paper that I had painted yellow.” She also reread the short story, connecting back to a stream of inspiration. Dancers were cast — Nika Antuanette as the protagonist, Sasha Rydlizky and Vera Paganin as dancers “in” the wallpaper — and Zoom rehearsals began. Corporal Movement Coach Steven Colucci joined in the process to coach dancers.
When the work was ready to film, they used a green screen studio as well as Cook-Beatty’s apartment (under COVID protocols). Ali Taghavi and Mary Noonan contributed costuming, an edgy take on Victorian period wear for the protagonist and yellow unitards for the “wall” dancers. Nicholas Morgulis served as Videographer. Jeff Keller edited the footage to create the final work, released on October 3rd, 2020. It was viewed many times on YouTube, and did well at several dance festivals. Even so, at the time, Cook-Beatty didn’t think that the concept would go any further than that. “I thought that’s all it would be.”
Photo taken by Artistic Director Alison Cook-Beatty of YouTube Performance on the computer of dancers Nika Antoinette, Vera Paganin, and Sasha Rydlizky of greenscreen film 🎥 2020
Bringing a dance film to stage
That was until, four years later, she felt a desire to bring the work to the stage – even while also feeling uncertain about the how of that vision. She knew Burnett would do a fantastic job as the protagonist. “But how would I build the environment on stage?,” she wondered.
She consulted her father – the company’s set designer, informally speaking. Cook-Beatty envisioned mobile walls, but the challenge there was finding wood that wouldn’t make the set pieces too heavy for the dancers to move. Luckily, they found a light enough wood, and then it was weeks of painting (with lots of yellow paint) to make the wall set pieces.
When the walls were ready to use, the company had a blast experimenting with them in rehearsal, Cook-Beatty and Burnett agreed. They iterated to create effects such as the walls surrounding Burnett’s character and dancers coming out of the walls.
The mobile walls allowed for effects like that, many of which just weren’t practically feasible for the film version, Cook-Beatty explained. “In the story, it’s like she’s hallucinating…the dancers coming out of the walls, in the stage version, fits that better.”
Maddie Burnett with Jacob Blank and Emily Masia at City Center Studios, 2024, photo by Rob Klein
Cook-Beatty and Burnett also described how the movement “lineage” worked well, because all three dancers in that lineage – the two of them as well as Antuanette, who originally danced the protagonist role – dance with a similar quality of “abandonment.” The protagonist pedals her feet, covers her face, slides down a folding chair: all in a spirit of desperation, of wanting to escape the (imagined?) apparitions closing in.
That was important to have for this role, Cook-Beatty notes; “I wouldn’t ask a dancer who doesn’t have that quality to take on this role…it would be too much of a stretch for them. If the technique is too polished, it just doesn’t work.”
The way Burnett sees it, she needs to know the “why” of the movement. It’s not doing a penché to do a penché, but to contribute to something bigger. She learned the choreography from video, with assistance from Cook-Beatty and Annuanette when needed. Colucci also coached her, and the other ensemble members (Jacob Blank and Emily Masia with Madeline Kuhlke, Ioanna Ioannides, Tomislav Nevistić, and Payton Primer), on movement aspects such as mannerisms.
Choreography, performance, and design meeting to take the stage
“The choreography for the stage version was the exact same, but [Burnett] was able to create her own individual performance. The performer in future iterations of the work will do the same,” Cook Beatty noted. That’s where the artistry comes in, she believes: throwing the “technique” away, in a sense, and making something your own. “If you hold the bird too tightly, it can’t fly.”
Maddie Burnett and company in 2024 at ARTS ON SITE, photo by Russ Haydn
Burnett, for her part, believes that the work’s atmosphere helped her to craft her theatricality for the role. Daniel George Cook’s set design, as well as Ali Taghavi and Cook-Beatty’s costuming, helped to build that atmosphere. The character’s hair is askew, and she smears her makeup during the work. Jonathan Howard Katz’s score accompanied the stage version, as well.
“I might have questions or feedback, but I mostly give my design collaborators full reign,” Cook- Beatty said. “I trust who I work with…I get a good gut feeling about them.” She also considers who is the best fit for the aesthetic of a particular work, she notes.
With all of those elements coming together, the stage version of In Spite Of, Because Of…The Wallpaper premiered on February 24th, 2024 at Arts on Site (Manhattan, NY). Yet it doesn’t end there; both Burnett and Cook-Beatty see embodying the protagonist, and the work as a whole, as an ongoing process. They believe that it shouldn’t feel, and shouldn’t be, the exact same every time. “Different images and sensations, for example, can help keep it fresh,” Burnett says.
An intriguing challenge for her – something that she’s focused on more lately – has been creating an emotional arc for the character over the course of the work. “At the beginning of the work, the character is anxious and frustrated…then she gets more manic. It’s important to start at a place where audience members can relate more easily,” Burnett explained.
Building those sort of dynamics and nuances is part of embodied performance technique, Cook- Beatty says. Burnett has honed it for this character with extensive research (such as revisiting the short story several times, reading analysis on it, and journaling as her character). “We can’t leave that out,” Cook-Beatty argued. All in all, “it’s a liberating piece to dance,” Burnett shares.
Dancers Jacob Blank and Ioanna Ioannidis at City Center Studios 2024, photo by Russ Haydn
A dance and a short story, today and beyond
One might wonder: is In Spite Of, Because of….The Wallpaper a dance adaptation (film and/or stage version) of Perkins Gilman’s short story? “I wouldn’t want to say...I wouldn’t want to put that on audience members,” Cook-Beatty said. “They can have different interpretations. With what they’re coming to the work with – they might see a whole different story. They might hear something different in the music or see the dancers doing something different.”
Cook-Beatty was quite clear that she doesn’t want to dictate how audiences receive her work. At the same time, her work “always has a message,” she noted. “Audiences can take home the message or not…but I also do try to end in hopeful places – we need hope!” For Burnett, there’s hope in the advancement we’ve made for women’s rights and empowerment, but we also still have far to go. “I take portraying this character seriously because it’s the experience of many, many people,” she affirmed.
Yes, portraying such widespread experience is serious business – yet both Burnett and Cook- Beatty stress the importance of having fun through the process. “You can’t try to control it too much, and also be able to throw things out the window. When things are flowing, you just have to let it happen,” Cook-Beatty said with a smile.
The alchemy of creative process can then blossom into something unexpected. Jonathan Howard Katz, who had composed the score for the work years before, came to see the work onstage. He was astounded to see what the final outcome was, wondering where it had all come from. That’s the magic of artmaking. How In Spite Of, Because Of…The Wallpaper came together is a wonderful example of that magic shining sure and bright.
Black and white photo taken over Zoom rehearsal in 2020 of dancer Vera Paganin, photo by Paul B Goode
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