Dances with Dogs: This is no puppy walk

At choreographer Allison Orr's production, no dogs have four left paws.

BYLINE: Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
DATE: May 11, 2000
PUBLICATION: Austin American-Statesman
SECTION: Lifestyle; E1

Jennie is in the front yard, leashed up and ready to go. From a boom box comes the rich bluesy voice of Etta James. As the music swells, Jennie is supposed to be moving -- dancing, actually -- but suddenly she's distracted. She stops, stares out at the street and refuses to budge. C'mon, Jennie, c'mon! coaxes choreographer Allison Orr.

But Jennie, a friendly 7-year-old black and brown pound pooch, has her attention elsewhere. You see, ANOTHER DOG IS WALKING BY! And that is distraction enough.

Pull her leash! Give her a tug! Orr says to Ava Sonleitner, 6. You're the one who is in charge.

Putting all her weight into it, Ava gives the leash a big tug, and girl and dog are off.

To that passing dog, this might just look like another dog and its owners romping around the yard. It's not. It's rehearsal time for Jennie, Ava and Ava's father, Steve. The three are practicing their trio dance for Orr's upcoming Dances For Dogs and People Who Walk Them.

Come this Saturday in Zilker Park, Orr will assemble a group of dogs and their owners to perform a series of short dances. But Orr's vision isn't some canine version of Lippizaner stallions prancing fancily around. Instead it's a celebration of the dance that just naturally erupts when dogs and humans interact.

The movement of people and dogs together is fascinating she says. Everything from the habitual ways people walk to the goofy accidents that occur when people and dogs get tangled up in the leash.

For Orr, 29, everyday movement has an aesthetic all its own. In other words, the physical activity of ordinary life is poetry in motion. To create a dance for Saturday's show, Orr isolates a few movements, maybe slows them down or speeds them up just a little bit, perhaps repeats them, stylizes them just a touch and then presents the finished product in a performance context. Everyone is a dancer and everyone should get a chance to perform, she says.

Is it a challenge to work with canine dancers?

Let's just say our rehearsals are not like regular dance rehearsals, laughs Orr.I have to bring plastic bags in case accidents happen. And the advantage to working with dogs? They don't get pretentious.

In addition to the trio by Ava, Steve and Jennie, Saturday's 30-minute program includes a dance by children and their dogs, and two adult pieces: a quartet titled “Four Hands/Two Leashes'' and a group dance called “A Dance for Dogs and People Who Walk Them.'' Big band music of the 1940s provides the sound track for all three dances with dogs.

And the grand finale – Insta-Dog Dance, taught and performed on the spot to any dog (to any Spot?) on a leash with its owner in attendance. And that sounds like spontaneous fun.

But spontaneous and fun though it may be, Orr maintains this is no spoof.

I really think of this type of performance as art and as dance, she says.

Try telling that to Jennie. Her tail wagging happily back and forth, she seems little concerned about artistic definitions as Orr starts the music for one more run-through. For Jennie, this is just a good romp around the yard.

Dances for Dogs and People Who Walk Them.
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where:Zilker Park Rugby Fields
Cost: Free
Information: 477-1566