Stepping out on her own

Jean Butler has been building a new language of dance, and she's ready to perform it in her first solo show, she tells Michael Seaver

'Well Jean, it's been a while coming." And it has. Three years after beginning work on her first solo programme, Jean Butler will premiere Does She Take Sugar?at Project on Wednesday.

"It has been a while alright, but I'm really glad it didn't happen three years ago," she answers. "The original idea was over-ambitious and the work has needed the three years to breathe and get a sense of itself."

This patient chiselling away at Does She Take Sugar? shows the importance of the project for Butler. It isn't some vain exercise to demonstrate artistic coolness, slumming with the interesting avant-garde crowd in their black box. Rather, it's the culmination of a long journey from the frenzy of Riverdance and Dancing on Dangerous Ground (created with Colin Dunne), via a quiet reflective year as artist-in-residence at the Irish World Music Centre in the University of Limerick, where she obtained an MA in Contemporary Dance.

In that time she has allowed other genres to influence her Irish step dancing and guide her towards constructing a new movement language.

"Now it's time to show that work," she says. "The process has been slow because I've been on my own, but also because it's a new language. I'm a bit nervous about calling it that because this isn't about laying claim to something new or being a pioneer." There are fellow-journeymen pushing the lexicon of Irish dance, such as Colin Dunne, but in spite of some cross-dialogue it is largely a solitary process.

For Butler, the basic building block of her new language is the step.

"Over time it has become obvious that everything that I do comes very specifically from this place of 'stepping'. What is this 'step' dance I've been doing all my life? The 'step' affects everything I do, from the way I approach music to the way I step with my hands or arms."

Compositionally, she is influenced by contemporary dance and through this her relationship with music has changed. "You'd never work against the music in Irish dance. That would be sinful. Right now I'm really playing with using music that sometimes completely contrasts with the dance.

"Finding that abrasiveness will allow the dance material to be really seen, rather than hidden within the overall experience. It makes you notice the movement." In contrast, one section of Does She Take Sugar? is unapologetically married to the music. Set to Vivaldi, it was originally performed at Daghdha Dance Company's Grace and Gravity festival. "I didn't want the angst of indecision - is it this or that? - but just to make a dance that felt good and would be enjoyable to create. And that really freed up the whole process."

Following the structure of music to dictate your movement is a strategy championed by American choreographer Mark Morris and, now that Butler lives in New York and rehearses at the nearby Mark Morris Dance Center, she rubs shoulders with his company members daily.

"I'm very attracted to his aesthetic. Sometimes it can be a bit camp or frivolous, but when it's good, it's really, really good."

The move to New York has also freed up the process. "I'd go so far as to say that this show wouldn't be happening if I still lived here. I think the break has been good for my head. It's been hard in lots of ways, but I think it has given me a little perspective on myself, on my dance and probably given me a bit of confidence."

Were there too many expectations in Ireland?

"I think that's a factor why the work didn't happen until now. I was too concerned about expectations and that was something I needed to grow out of. I don't want to make myself more important than I am, but if you've had a history like I've had in this art-form, then there is a huge expectation about what you are going to do with it."

ARTISTIC IDENTITY USED to be an issue for her, but not any more. Although she has brought aspects of contemporary dance to her work she is aware of being outside of that world.

"I don't have that technique. I am doing dance that is contemporary, but I'm not a contemporary dancer. And I've given up trying to interpret the rules that dictate what my dance identity is." And that was her moment of clarity: realising she herself was the only person she had to please.

There were other simple truths to accept.

"There are things I just can't do any more. I can't dance the way I used to when I was 21. I can't jump as high or get the same adrenaline rush from dancing for hours on end. The quest has been to find something that will give me the same satisfaction that I used to get out of that." Fulfilment is now found in the intellectual and theatrical challenges of decoding her body and movement habits to create a new movement language.

Dancing a solo show for 100 people will present other challenges, and she considers it a more difficult mode of performance than starring in Riverdance in front of several thousand.

While at Riverdance she could "turn on" the performance and putting on a costume felt like an immediate transition into performance mode. Sustaining a solo performance for an hour is much more difficult and whereas Riverdance was all about the immediate look, Does She Take Sugar? wrestles with creating and sustaining an intimate performance energy that allows the individuality of her language and statement to be best read.

"I can do it in isolation in the studio, but there's no point in doing this material in a bubble." The most suitable frame is a stripped-back stage and a few blackboards.

"I have no interest in dressing it up. I hate the idea of costuming it or 'cleaning it up'. Maybe that's where I'm at aesthetically right now."

Although she is confident and sure-footed with this aesthetic, she found it difficult to work alone and missed the outside eye. Some movement might feel one way while rehearsing, but look completely different when she watched the rehearsal video later. It's a bit like hearing you own voice on a voice message: it sounds completely different to what you normally hear when you talk.

DRAMATURG STEVE VALK, who works with Daghdha Dance Company, has been a guiding hand, not revising or altering the movement material but simply constantly asking her questions about how she is performing the material. His perspective is objective and Butler values how he doesn't see her as a traditional or contemporary dancer, but rather an artist working with her body.

She's not looking beyond the final performance on Saturday night, but is curious as to how the work could be received in New York.

Having gone to performances and seen "some pretty crazy stuff", she reckons she could hold her own, but also accepts that the material resonates with Irish people more, because of their familiarity with Irish dance.

That connection is also why she believes Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels is so popular with Irish audiences: almost everybody has had experience, good or bad, with Irish dancing in their life.

"When I was in Riverdance and went to New York with the show I felt like I was bringing my work home. Now I feel like I'm bringing different work back to Ireland from New York. There's a nice kind of serendipitous route I've followed."

But will audiences only find Does She Take Sugar? interesting because she is the performer? "Well, it's a valid question. It will certainly look different because I am doing it. And so it should. This is new material for me so it should have that quality of discovery or curiosity about it."

Based on works-in-progress and watching some rehearsals, this searching is the most palpable aspect of the solo. It won't present a neatly packaged solution to the thorny issues around tradition and contemporary practice or a ready-mixed new vocabulary. Instead, it will invite viewers to be fellow-participants in a new departure.

"I really see this as the beginning. There are a lot of different elements in this piece and I need to get a reaction to them. The idea is, hopefully, to collaborate after this. I couldn't bear to face going into the studio on my own right now."

Does She Take Sugaris runs at Project Arts Centre, from Thur to Sat, with a preview tomorrow