Christine Fellows inspired by choreographers, TV themes and giant, wearable sculptures

It ended up sounding like a Mexican-standoff-meets-Lorne Greene's Bonanza theme, which isn't at all the kind of music I normally make, so I was happy about that.

—Christine Fellows, musician

Winnipeg musician Christine Fellows is a solo artist who spends a lot of time collaborating with artists in other disciplines.

She seems particularly drawn to dance work, and her latest partnership with Fredricton-based choreographer Lesandra Dodson, is set for a Winnipeg premiere this weekend.

SCENE asked Fellows what inspires her to work with dancers and choreographers.

Can you tell me about the project and your role in it?
The Trilogy Project features three new choreographic works by one of my favorite living artists, Lesandra Dodson. Her Blameless Mystery, In Two Days a Man Can Change, and A Leash for 2 Hounds will be performed by a group of tremendously talented dancers from Halifax and Toronto. I was delighted to be commissioned to create recorded scores for two of the pieces in the show.
 
For the Elmore Leonard-inspired male duet In Two Days a Man Can Change I created the score (in 2010) by hacking up and painstakingly reassembling a series of horn parts (played by Winnipeg hornist Todd Martin) to coax out melodic lines and harmonic structures that responded to the comical, adversarial dynamic between the two characters.

It ended up sounding like a Mexican-standoff-meets-Lorne Greene's Bonanza theme, which isn't at all the kind of music I normally make, so I was happy about that.

 
I created the score for the male/female duet A Leash for 2 Hounds this past fall, inspired by a workshop of the piece I undertook this summer in Fredericton with Lesandra, dancers Darryl Tracy and Susanne Chiu, and my frequent musical collaborator, cellist Leanne Zacharias.

Leanne and I were experimenting with the idea of creating a score we could perform live. We scrapped that idea, and instead I created a recorded score using water-filled glasses played with mallets and bows, music boxes and audio samples to evoke the series of otherworldly environments the characters moved through during the piece.
 
This isn't the first time you've worked on a dance piece, what do you like about this type of collaboration?
I've created dozens of scores for contemporary dance over the years. It's left me with a great respect and appreciation for this art form, and for the artists who create and interpret it.
 
Lesandra Dodson in particular is an artist who has had a tremendous impact on me. She possesses an explosive creativity and selfless generosity, which is a really rare combination.
Early on in my career, she encouraged and inspired me to stretch artistically, to create and perform music in collaborative interdisciplinary contexts, and demonstrated to me what true artistry was all about.
 
Do you approach this type of composition differently?
I'm primarily a narrative songwriter, and my approach to creating scores for dance is informed by the desire to evoke a location that fuels the dancers and puts the movement into context, however abstract that context may be. I have essentially the same goal when writing and recording songs--it's all about location, connecting that location to the characters, and propelling the story forward.
 
I know it probably seems odd and counterintuitive, but most times the music is composed after the dance has been created. Susie Burpee is the only choreographer who has choreographed work to my songs; most of the dance scores I create are compositional responses to the dance.
 
Although you're a solo artist, you do end up working collaboratively with other musicians and artists. Can you tell me about a particularly memorable moment? Performing in general seems to be all about adapting to a surprise element you are not expecting, which is partly why I love doing it.
 
My last performance collaboration was with visual artist Shary Boyle, who is an absolute genius. She's also completely fearless. And, not to state the obvious here, but a fearless genius makes for a challenging collaborator.

In one section of our show, Everything Under the Moon, which premiered at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre last February, Shary built a giant 20-foot sculpture which was attached to my head, and wasn't entirely stable, and required me to scrunch my head down awkwardly, with my shoulders up, while singing about a girl who turns into a mammoth. We did five runs of that show, and luckily there were no actual mishaps, only heart-pounding near mishaps.

The latest installment of The Trilogy Project runs at the Rachel Browne Theatre January 26 at 7:00 p.m. and January 27 at 3:00 p.m.