Since their debut almost four years ago at the opening of Seabury Hall’s ‘A’ali’ikuhonua Creative Arts Center, to their seminal piece, “Adaptations,” presented at the Maui Fringe Theater Festival, Adaptations Dance Theater has always impressed me as the equal of a contemporary dance company from a much larger metropolitan community. Over the years, the troupe has grown from the trio of Vanessa Cerrito, Amelia Couture and Hallie Hunt, to an on-the-rise modern dance company with a passion to create a professional home for dancers on Maui.
“I’m an Upcountry girl at heart, the big city wasn’t for me,” says Couture, a Maui native who left to pursue professional entertainment as a teenager. “I knew I needed to come back home. I was teaching English in Japan and studying ballet and I think I had a quarter-life crisis. In L.A., I was trying to work as an actress, but I didn’t like TV acting, so the plan was to pursue films, but I hated it.”
The long hours and the lack of a live audience made Couture long for the stage.
“I didn’t get anything back,” she said in comparison of film to stage.
Though unsure of opportunities back home, Couture returned to Maui in 2011.
“It didn’t seem possible,” she shared, “but I decided to just see what happens. I knew it would take many small steps, but I decided to proceed slowly one step at a time.”
Her first opportunity was joining the Alexander Academy of Performing Arts where she met fellow dance instructor Hunt.
“We’re like soul mates,” said Couture. “When we first met, we helped each other get back into dance shape by giving ourselves class, which is difficult when you are teaching. In dance you need to be a student as well. We have so much fun creating new work, and if we break into hysterics we know we’re onto something.”
“They are as similar as they are different and stronger as a unit than individually in a lot of ways,” says ADT dancer Nicole Yezzi. The New Jersey native, who moved to Maui when she lost her home near Atlantic City after Hurricane Sandy, joined ADT in 2014.
“The house was ruined, but it led to a new start out of tragedy,” she said.
Yezzi previously danced in Philadelphia and in Florida, where she won three dance awards at the 2009 and 2011 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival.
“ADT has become a place for my voice,” she says. “It’s that great company I had always been looking for. They can’t get rid of me now,” she joked. “I’ll always dance with them and I’m not going anywhere.”
Yezzi met Hunt while working with Maui’s youth-based Pacific Dance Company and Hunt asked her to audition. Hunt began her professional dance career with Ballet San Jose but has also performed with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco and Artship Dance Theatre in Serbia.
Missed connections seem to be a theme to the accidental, or perhaps destined, pairings of ADT dancers. Several of the companies Couture could have performed with would have resulted in meeting Yezzi at a jazz dance program in Philadelphia, Hunt with LINES in San Francisco and Cerrito with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Chicago, to name a few. Cerrito began at Berkeley Ballet Theater in California before studying ballet, modern and African dance at Alvin Ailey, but eventually found herself in Hawaii performing professionally as Taro in “Ulalena.” It was the common thread of Seabury Hall, where Cerrito teaches ballet and where Couture graduated from in 2002, which brought Cerrito on board as the third founding member of ADT.
“Whatever this is, I want to be involved,” emailed Nicole Humphrey, formerly of the Boston Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, in 2014.
With Humphrey’s arts administration resume, ADT now had a missing essential component.
“When we met Nicole, she legitimized us,” said Couture.
Humphrey’s influence led to a board of directors, successful fundraising, record-breaking crowds at the Maui Fringe Theater Festival and their appearance at TedXMaui in 2014, which expanded the young dance company’s notoriety considerably. Humphrey has gone on to create the Dance Maui festival and for the past year, has worked diligently behind the scenes along with Jen Cox, the newest ADT dancer, to make this weekend’s “Bring It Home” production possible.
Two of ADT’s most successful dance pieces are “Pushfall” and “Adaptations.” Perhaps because of its accompaniment, “Pushfall” is incredibly accessible to all. Its 1960s soulful score tells the story of the 20th-century American woman from the Eisenhower-era stereotype to early-1970s liberation. According to Couture, “Adaptations” has evolved from its original 2013 incarnation. The reinvented popular dance piece now features original music composed by Couture’s husband and jazz musician, Toby Couture. The emotive work offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the behind-the-scenes world of ballet dancers in studio while working at a ballet bar.
“I knew that I wanted to be a part of ADT after I saw ‘Adaptations,'” says Yezzi. “The bar is a very private moment for a dancer; the dancers are exposed and it is a very vulnerable piece.”
I asked why ADT has been so successful at building a following.
“It’s a long time coming,” said Yezzi. “ADT presents itself differently, whether it’s the vignettes we perform at Art Affair, teaching at multiple schools or performing in other company’s shows, that builds an audience. The big downfall for a number of performing arts companies is business administration. Amelia and Hallie found those people – the board, publicists and volunteers. I’m impressed just to be involved.”
That outreach and islandwide exposure includes Yezzi and Couture performing at Maui Theatre’s “Burn’n Love,” as well as choreographer bonds through Alexander Academy, Baldwin Theatre Guild, Maui Academy of Performing Arts, Pacific Dance Company and Seabury Hall.
Couture also debuts “Riot of Bones” this weekend, a piece created out of her Couture Adaptive Dance Method, a dance discipline designed to codify a movement language and structure that can be used to facilitate improvisational choreography. This original and complex system is mathematical in nature, with 100 movement directives, coded 00 to 99, 10 movement families, 0 to 9, and 10 articulations, 0 to 9, which are directed toward specific body parts. In a sense, the system removes the artist from her mind, allowing instead for a random equation to generate creativity out of unfamiliar movement choices.
Through small steps, ADT is developing a dynamic and continually growing community of entertainers on Maui.
“We want to create a place for jobs for performing artists on Maui – dancers, composers, musicians and technicians,” said Couture.
That objective becomes a reality Friday night when local and international professional dancers gather to perform at what ADT hopes will become an annual event. In its inaugural year, “Bring it Home” will feature two Maui-raised dancers, Ali McKeon and Katie Istvan and Nathaniel Hunt of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
I asked Yezzi if she had any advice on making a living in the arts on Maui.
“Perseverance and hard work,” she shared. “You can’t give up. You have to appreciate the natural ebb and flow of Maui life. You have to put yourself out there, but not in a pushy way. You have to push yourself instead – constantly train to be the best that you can be, and remain open to all possibilities. If you can dream it, you can make it possible.”
ALSO THIS WEEKEND
The Maui Theatre opens “Magic on Maui” starring Seth Grabel. Best known for his appearances on “America’s Got Talent,” Grabel impressed the judges and quickly became a fan favorite.
The Las Vegas-based magician will showcase his magic and comedy skills with “Magic on Maui,” a production created especially for Hawaii and the Maui Theatre. Grabel’s versatile magic takes audiences on a journey of wonder and excitement, leaving them asking “How does he do that?”
* Performances will be at 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, this week through July 10 at the Maui Theatre in Lahaina. Tickets range from $49 to $99 and are available by calling 856-7900 or visiting www.mauitheatre.com.
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