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Sunday, September 08, 2002

By Jane Vranish

While out on the street in front of her apartment in Battery Park, choreographer Sarah Skaggs heard a jet crash into the World Trade Center. She ran inside and turned on the TV, then hurried to the roof, where she had a clear view of the events that followed.

	New Yorker Sarah Skaggs, right, works with Dance Alloy and artistic director Mark Taylor to prepare her new work "Get Out of This House." Of the effects of Sept. 11 Skaggs says, "Like [Picasso's] 'Guernica,' artists will respond to drastic political events." (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)

Now, sitting inside the comparative comfort of the Dance Alloy studios, she admits, "I was a mess for six months."

Skaggs has been in Pittsburgh for almost three weeks constructing a new work -- not for the streets of New York, but for the streets of Pittsburgh. She wants Pittsburghers to "Get Out of the House" to see art that is designed to appeal to dance and nondance audiences and nondancers, to draw them into the movement. The piece, set for five Alloy dancers, already morphed into two landscapes -- the Kelly-Strayhorn in East Liberty and the Town Center at the Waterfront -- and moves tomorrow into Dominion Tower, Downtown, and then Saturday atop the First Avenue Garage (Over the T station) as part of a fund-raising benefit.

While this work is a fusion of all that is bright and physical in dance, Skaggs also is in the process of creating a work based on Brian Eno's "Music for Airports." And that piece, she explains, is something less than cheery.

"Unlike my piece for the Alloy, which is high-energy and athletic, this work is slow and meditative. It deals with the frustration and fear and anger."

A reflection of 9/11? Of course. But in dance circles, artistic interpretation moves slowly from street to stage. So, initially, Skaggs -- like most other choreographers -- rolled up her sleeves before rolling up to the barre.

She's a member of New York City's Pentacle Help Desk, an organization that jumps to the aid of small performing arts companies. Between Sept. 11 and Oct. 31 last year, more than 416 companies in the five boroughs of New York reported losses of $30 million, mostly a result of canceled performances and box-office fallout.

It was symptomatic of a nationwide epidemic that resulted in loss of touring and funding. Hardest hit were dance organizations that don't have the cash reserves or endowments of larger groups. Los Angeles' Lula Washington had to delay the opening of her company's new home when funds were diverted, leaving her dancers without rehearsal space. Pittsburgh Dance Council reported a 50 percent decline in tickets sales and a higher than normal "no-show" rate for local performances.

Pentacle executive director Ivan Sygoda recently commented that many artists told him, "My creative muscle has withered.' But they put one foot in front of another, make a step. The creativity comes back."

Which means now is the time to roll up to that barre.

Skaggs feels that the effects of 9/11 will infiltrate artists' work during the "next two to five years, either directly or indirectly. Like [Picasso's] 'Guernica,' artists will respond to drastic political events."

Although the Alloy performances of "Get Out of the House" continue tomorrow and Saturday, Skaggs will be unable to stick around. She returns to New York today "for the anniversary."

Jane Vranish is the free-lance dance critic for the Post-Gazette.