Channeling Energy
Mandy Cregan Co-Artistic Director of POV is an energy worker by day, but she also brings energy work to her artistic vision – in a unique way. She and her company of dancers channel the energy of buildings. POV has created performances at the Left Bank Annex, the Ford Building, a stairwell in the Pythian Building, and in the folding seats of an auditorium – anywhere but the stage. They prefer to dance with the space instead of merely being contained by it. Draping over the railing, sliding down the banisters, leaping from the window sill are some of the ways they play off their environment. POV dancers have a skill set that interacts with structure in a way that they were initially trained to partner with bodies. The angles, architecture, and geometry of a building draws out certain movements that make the dances created exclusive to that building’s features. But how do they channel the energy of a building?? Sometimes they research the history, sometimes they intentionally highlight the craftsmanship of the structure, but mostly, it just comes naturally.