'Kinetogenesis' — a dance thesis by Chokr '01

With his long muscles and graceful carriage, one would imagine that Michael Chokr '01 had been dancing all his life. Carefully sketching dance floor patterns on scrap paper, his eyes light up as he talks about his idol — Merce Cunningham.

"He opened up the space on stage," Chokr began, then goes on to patiently explain Cunningham's theory of organic movement, a style which Chokr invokes in his own work.

Chokr is well versed in the history of choreography, as he deftly steers the conversation from the religious connotations of costuming choices in Mark Morris's "Falling Down Stairs" to the heavily ensconced traditions of ballet to the artistic arc of George Balanchine's depiction of the biblical story of the prodigal son.

Though he has such an impressive range of knowledge, it is surprising that Chokr has a mere two years of formal dance training under his belt. He joined DiSiac in the fall of his sophomore year at Princeton, took his first dance class that spring and just started ballet this past summer. Yet movement and a love of music have been part of his life for a long time.

Although he studied the piano, bassoon and clarinet as a child, Chokr's dance experience was limited to dancing around his house when he was left home alone. He valued music and his periodic private dance performances as "the opportunity to express myself in ways that words could not." It was only upon his arrival at Princeton that he was able to fully connect dance with that need for expression.

The culmination of the discovery of that outlet at Princeton — a thesis in the Department of Theater and Dance in conjunction with the Religion Department entitled "Kinetogenesis," or the "origin of movement" — explores the relationship between religious rituals and movement.

"Dance is ritualistic for many people . . . it's part of praise and worship," Chokr said. "All religions have certain attitudes towards the body and its finite existence. For me, dance reveals the mysteries and pleasures of the physical world."

Chokr's approach to choreography focuses on those capabilities of the body, very much in accordance with his limited dance training. "I just turned on the video camera and did what felt good on my own body," Chokr said. Rather than follow entirely in the footsteps of another choreographer, Chokr's goal is to instead "reveal a lot about how we perceive time, space and force. We move in time and space with force, and dance is a way to experience that."

His experiments with these three themes have resulted in the creation of four pieces which challenge previous conventions concerning movement. The first piece involves three dancers who control pulleys made of aircraft cables and chain link, providing the only sound, as there is no music. Three other dancers engage in continuous movement across the stage, only remaining in synchronization by being attuned to each other's bodies.

Moving as a corps while being provided with no measurement of time or rhythm is an extremely challenging mission for the dancers — Suzanne Bermann '04, Hana Ginsburg '04, Jordan Robinson '01, Coco Stiff '04, Taryn Wayne '01 and Amanda Whitehead. Yet, that is precisely what intrigues Chokr so greatly.

"I invited the dancer to move in a way that doesn't look natural. I challenged the dancers and their centers of gravity and also skews it for the audience," Chokr said about his vision of movement. This stylistic choice also informs his final piece in which the dancers' movement is restricted to linear front-and-back motion while they stand on rotating platforms.

Chokr's work isn't limited only to experiments with pure movement. He also has delved into narrative form, choreographing a piece drawing on the story of Genesis in which the dancers present the legend behind scrims through which the audience can only see the shadows their bodies create.

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"I chose the story of Genesis because when you add narrative to a piece, it won't always resonate with everyone in the audience," Chokr said. Because it is a familiar story, "people can interpret evolution if they like, or they can just see a pictorial landscape in the movement."

Chokr wants to make dance an art form which is more accessible to audiences. He fears that people are hesitant to attend performances out of anxiety that they won't understand the meaning behind them. He takes a very different route in his own work. "Nothing needs to be said to [the audience]," Chokr said with a mischievious glint in his eye. "Things will be revealed for them."

"Kinetogenesis" will be performed in Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau St. on Friday, May 18 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, May 19 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday evening's performance will be followed by a discussion by the choreographer, Religion Professor Elaine Pagels and Dance Professor Ze'eva Cohen. Admission is free.