Merce Cunningham trained dancer, writer, and one of my favorite conversationalist (how can you not love speaking to someone who can discuss Sartre, Merce and Ferris Buller with equal authority?), Preston Burger talks sabout the Feldenkrais Method (an educational system centered on movement, aiming to expand and refine the use of the self through awareness). (Excuse the bad frame; I was focusing partially on the food!)
1. What was the first creative moment you remember?
My sophomore year of college I was writing a paper on Eugene Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano,” and I just hit a brick wall. The assignment was to pick an object in a play that we had read (this was for a class in dramatic literature), and I had chosen the clock in “The Bald Soprano.” I had spent the past three hours writing and regurgitating (through my fingers onto the computer screen) all of the historical bases for the play, not really tying it into any sort of coherent or unifying idea. And as the typical college paper-writing story goes, it was 3 am and I was pulling my hair out of my head trying to figure out how I would get something feasible done by 5 pm. Being left with no choice but to keep typing given my time constraints. I started talking about the stage directions for the clock: the clock strikes once, the clock strikes five times, the clock strikes, twenty-seven times, the clock strikes AS MANY TIMES AS IT WANTS. Writing those final words, my fingers just naturally lead me to the following conclusion: if Ionesco’s objective was to create a nonsensical universe, then it makes perfect sense to include a clock that can operate like a human being. The clock can make decisions on it’s own. It is as though the clock is another character…In a rush of energy, I proceed to finish the remaining four pages (it was a five page paper) in one hour. The reason I consider this the first creative moment of my lifeis because it was the first time I ever came to a conclusion that was new, original, and entirely my own. I had argued passable theses before and quite convincingly, but I always felt while I was writing these previous papers that I was restating the obvious in my own words, or if I was coming to conclusions that their originality extended no farther than an arms length. This was the first time that an idea came to me from completely out of the blue and I followed through on it successfully.
2. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?
I grew up in Massapequa Park on Long Island and graudated with a BA in Psychology and Certificate in Dance from Princeton University. I have been freelancing as a dancer and in countless other jobs ever since.
3. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?
“West Side Story.” It was the first musical I ever saw and I just fell in love with it. I wanted so badly to be a Jet. I realize now, in retrospect, that I loved it so much because it introduced me to the broader concept of musical theater, which was a perfect sweet release for me. When I was a child I loved impersonating all of my idols, who included Michael Jackson, Raffi, Seymour Krelbourn in “Little Shop of Horrors,” and Paul Simon, to name a few. When I say impersonating, I mean I would embody everything about them: the way they talked, the way they sang, and the way they danced/moved. When I saw “West Side Story” something just clicked. I don’t know what I was, but in impersonating the Jets I began to realize that I was combining all of the elements: singing, dancing, and acting. From then on, I started seriously looking for ways in which I could actually start performing more seriously.
4. What is your ideal creative activity?
I’d have to say writing is my ideal creative activity. Academic writing, I mean; I’ve never been good at writing stories.
5. How do you begin your day?
It depends on what you classify as beginning the day. Literally, I wake up, shower, grab coffee and breakfast, and then hop on the Long Island Railroad. The first activity I do for the day is usually take a dance class.
6. . Have you ever had to make a choice between you work and your art? What did you choose, why? Did you make the right choice?
I’m currently going through that dilemma. I’ll get back to you once I have a full story.
7. When you work, do you love the process or the result?
The result. I by no means devalue the process, but when the piece is actually done I find myself feeling much more at ease in finally having something concrete.
