Unsquared Dance
Choreographed by Isadora Snapp
FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHER:
Working on this piece with the dancers was a joyful exercise in quirkiness combined with the choreographic challenge to make movement approachable for all levels. The end result is a lighthearted, engaging piece, brought to life by the music. Working with Ethan is always a delight and it's amazing to see how he interprets rhythm and movement.
Working on this piece with the dancers was a joyful exercise in quirkiness combined with the choreographic challenge to make movement approachable for all levels. The end result is a lighthearted, engaging piece, brought to life by the music. Working with Ethan is always a delight and it's amazing to see how he interprets rhythm and movement.
Ethan Cayko (he/him) is a playful percussionist and sound artist who’s falling in love with the Green Mountains. Originally from Montana, Ethan studied Music Technology at Montana State University and completed a Masters in Music from the University of Calgary in Alberta. As a composer, his work has focused on experimental network music performance and has been performed internationally between Canada, China, and the USA, as well as demonstrated at the International Computer Music Conference and NowNet Arts Conference. He’s performed in settings ranging from professional symphony orchestras and jazz ensembles to experimental laptop ensembles and activist marching bands. Ethan has also performed as a percussionist for theater and dance and in 2022, he had the honor of collaborating with Isadora Snapp on her work for the Open for Interpretation art project performed for the Old Stone House Day in Brownington, Vermont.
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ON THIS ARRANGEMENT OF UNSQUARE DANCE:
Music in odd time signatures, such as 5, 7, or 9 beats per measure, moves like water. The oddness makes for delightfully slippery grooves - uneven, buoyant, and natural. Often in modern popular music, odd time signatures are avoided because that very irregularity can feel awkward or stilted if not handled with care. When carrying a glass full of water, jagged and square movements will result in water spilling out, whereas smooth and floating motions mirror the undulating momentum of the water, keeping it at peace. So it goes for music in odd meters.
In jazz, the great musical traditions that came together to form the genre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries contained an amazing assortment of rhythmic variety, but odd meters like 5/4, 7/4, and so on, were absent. It was not until the genre was being stretched and pushed in the 1950s that jazz musicians started to introduce odd meters, and the preeminent composer/performer to do so is Dave Brubeck and his 1959 album Time Out which included the famous single Take Five in 5/4. His following album, aptly named Time Further Out, included this squirrely number in 7/4, Unsquare Dance.
The original tune is a relatively short two minutes in length and largely consists of Joe Morello soloing along to Eugene Wright’s steady bass line, all accompanied by clapping that outlines the 1,2,1,2,1,2,3 pattern of the 7/4 meter. For this arrangement, the goal was to lengthen it to make space for choreography, and retain some character of the original, while also embracing the affordances of the digital technologies used to rearrange it. Ultimately, this realization of Unsquare Dance is not necessarily an homage to the tradition of jazz, nor to Dave Brubeck. Rather, it is an homage to oddness.
Music in odd time signatures, such as 5, 7, or 9 beats per measure, moves like water. The oddness makes for delightfully slippery grooves - uneven, buoyant, and natural. Often in modern popular music, odd time signatures are avoided because that very irregularity can feel awkward or stilted if not handled with care. When carrying a glass full of water, jagged and square movements will result in water spilling out, whereas smooth and floating motions mirror the undulating momentum of the water, keeping it at peace. So it goes for music in odd meters.
In jazz, the great musical traditions that came together to form the genre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries contained an amazing assortment of rhythmic variety, but odd meters like 5/4, 7/4, and so on, were absent. It was not until the genre was being stretched and pushed in the 1950s that jazz musicians started to introduce odd meters, and the preeminent composer/performer to do so is Dave Brubeck and his 1959 album Time Out which included the famous single Take Five in 5/4. His following album, aptly named Time Further Out, included this squirrely number in 7/4, Unsquare Dance.
The original tune is a relatively short two minutes in length and largely consists of Joe Morello soloing along to Eugene Wright’s steady bass line, all accompanied by clapping that outlines the 1,2,1,2,1,2,3 pattern of the 7/4 meter. For this arrangement, the goal was to lengthen it to make space for choreography, and retain some character of the original, while also embracing the affordances of the digital technologies used to rearrange it. Ultimately, this realization of Unsquare Dance is not necessarily an homage to the tradition of jazz, nor to Dave Brubeck. Rather, it is an homage to oddness.