Title: Heels & Sneaks
Premiere: February 11-14, 1988. University Dance Company. Power Center, Ann Arbor, MI, as one of several works included in the University of Michigan annual major production entitled Zappa!
Set and costume design: John Schak
Lighting design: Mary Cole
Duration: 8 minutes
Music for “Heels”: “Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar”
Music for “Sneaks”: Music from “Joe’s Garage”
Performers: Laura Culbertson, Melissa Trombley, Anne Doctor, Shoshana Hellerstein, Jojo Mackay, Deniz Oktay, Patricia Plasko, Sandra Suscy, and Caroline Sutton (Clark)
Description: These were two companion pieces choreographed to instrumental guitar solos by Frank Zappa. Zappa’s music had been chosen by the Dance faculty as the central theme of our annual concert that year. I was not a particular fan of Zappa’s, but entered into the process with an open mind. All the works were performed without intermissions, as a seamless flow of works. Heels and Sneaks were separated by three other dances by choreographers Peter Sparling and Linda Spriggs.
In the “Heels” section, the dancers portrayed windup Barbie dolls, with a silver windup handle sticking out of their backs, reminiscent of the final section of my 1980 work Beast. The dancers wore mini skirts and leotards and high heels and marched around mechanically, while also lining up in unison passages. The dancers threw their high heels off at the end of this section as I recall. At the beginning of the “Sneaks” section, the dancers threw their sneakers onstage from the wings and then entered the stage to put them on. The “Sneaks” section was based upon friendships between the female cast members and a sense of comraderie. It was performed in casual clothes and the dancers wore sneakers. A memorable passage was when dancer Caroline Sutton Clark played air guitar along with the Zappa solo guitar music, and the other dancers gathered around her cheering and screaming silently, waving frantically, clutching each other in excitement, and gasping like delirious fans. Surely I used my experience of attending rock concerts in the 60s and 70s as grist for the mill here.