For Ailey II’s current season, former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer Chalvar Monteiro created a new work, Berry Dreamin', inspired by the life and music of Chuck Berry, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on October 18 of this year. In the following conversation, Monteiro describes why he was drawn to Berry’s legacy, his own choreographic process, and what it’s like returning to Ailey as a choreographer. 

What initially inspired this new work?   

Berry Dreamin’ is kind of a love letter to Chuck Berry—this year will be his 100th birthday. We know him as the “Father of Rock and Roll”. We know him to kind of be at the forefront of defining a new sound for a new generation and what rebellion looks like. Looking at his deep lyricism and his inspiration that comes from poetry, I was moved by the hypnotic nature and sound of his music and wanted to kind of introduce my own movement language as a response to what he created. From there, I started to think about the origin story of Chuck Berry and where he came from: the story that came up in his own backyard, what it was like with his friends, what were the scenarios that he may or may not have passed through that kind of gave birth to this loud, live, in-charge character and personality that he presented on stage.  

How did these ideas translate into your movement vocabulary and the choreographic choices you made? 

My movement language is very much informed by my formative years, my training, looking at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a backdrop for a blend of dance, classical training, and theater. I looked at this as an opportunity to see how I combine those elements of theater and classical movements and even contemporary modalities. I’m also very much a fan of improvisation. I start with improvisation, going into the studio to film myself moving, looking to see what patterns are emerging, what themes are coming up, and which parts of the body I'm paying the most attention to. I then look at what the movement can represent so that we can build solid themes internally for the artists, so they have a playground for building their own stories and bringing their own instincts to the forefront. 

Tell us about the production elements in this piece and how they helped support your vision. 

I'm looking to capture something very playful in contrast to the somewhat serious nature of the subconscious. Danté Baylor is constructing the costumes, and Brandon Stirling Baker is designing the lighting. I'm looking forward to seeing how, with those added scenic and design elements with costuming, we capture and recreate a playful environment with berry hues. We decided to play on the name Berry and think about raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and the different hues of the berry family to give us a backdrop and a storyboard or a color board for the costumes. We’re also looking at the scenic element of a clothesline and thinking about how a lot of things that we engage in the world happen at home. The types of people we meet, the feelings that emerge throughout our lives, we usually encounter those things and people at home, and then we learn how to manage them in the waking world. We’re also looking at lighting to help create intimate and expansive moments and costuming to either mask or expose the body.

Tell me what it's been like coming back now on this side of things as a choreographer. 

I love this opportunity to pay it forward, to not just be a choreographer and to be heavy handed in the creation, but to really make sure that these artists leave and feel affirmed by asking them to engage with the vulnerability of being seen, of trying things for the first time, feeling awkward in something, and knowing that on the other side of that commitment is a very beautiful, refined, grounded, expansive vocabulary to pull from. To know that I'm able to create an environment where those things can emerge—where people feel safe to add their voice to the space, to give feedback, to question my choices as I question theirs—has been a beautiful process. 

What would you like for audiences to feel after seeing this piece? What emotion would you like the work to evoke? 

I can tell you how it made me feel. With this work, as I aim to reimagine and recreate what Chuck Berry's home life might have looked like, what his friendships might have looked like, I would love for our audiences to reflect on and even be in dialog with each other around their own origin stories, and how it is that they arrive at certain choices, how they arrive at processing and moving through different feelings. How do we calm each other down? How do we afford each other care and community in spaces where we feel like we're holding weight by ourselves? I really would love for our audiences to see that it is through community that we achieve our dreams. It's through community that we understand what it is to create something beautiful and how it really does take the effort of someone else or something else to try to achieve something higher and better and more beautiful.