Choreographers Struggle With Cultural Gap : Dance: The five members of a multicultural collective had to ‘invent a common language to discuss our differences.’

Los Angeles Festival Director Peter Sellars says he had a multicultural dream he wanted to give to the local concert dance community.

“How about drawing together five of L.A.’s emerging black, Asian, Latino and Anglo choreographers and offering them an unprecedented chance to make a collaborative piece for the festival?” he says.

But working together hasn’t been so easy, according to the five choreographers associated with the project, called the Dance Collective. “The four-month project has been difficult, and the work is pretty much a failure,” says choreographer Rene Olivas Gubernick.

“We’re not unified,” says choreographer John Pickett, adding that each of the choreographers is making separate works “rather than offering one piece to show how we might have transcended cultural differences.”

“It’s a miracle we’re still together,” adds choreographer Young Ae Park.

“Multiculturalism isn’t easy,” says choreographer Stephanie Gilliland. “We had to invent a common language to discuss our differences. We disagreed and spent more time explaining our backgrounds than creating.”

Only 10 days before the premiere--scheduled for Friday and tonight at Wadsworth Theater--the choreographers first showed one another the dances they had privately been rehearsing. They said they wanted to link the different pieces into one seamless evening.

“In truth,” says Gubernick, “we’re more like a microcosm of L.A.--full of tension.”

Choreographer Sarah Elgart says she was fired by Sellars a month ago for not subordinating her aesthetic vision to the collective. Eventually, she compromised with the other artists.

“It was agony figuring out how to communicate with each other, but we learned,” Elgart confesses, adding that it was a departure for her to ask choreographer Stephanie Gilliland to work with her.

Gilliland says that since finances were limited choreographers couldn’t hire their own companies. They settled on using the same five dancers, auditioned specifically for the Dance Collective. Dance Collective producer Neil Barclay says that festival production costs, not including Wadsworth Theater rental or promotion fees, amounts to $20,000. Each choreographer was paid $2,500.

Sellars says that despite the budgetary restraints, “this (was an) attempt to inspire debate in the dance community.” He says that the project “placed no strictures on the choreographers whatsoever.” He adds that it was even up to the artists to pick a venue. “It’s been up to them to decide how the art looks.”

Choreographer Pickett, who calls Sellars’ vision “daring,” worries that “the complex process of building trust among the five artists may not register to audiences.” But Park says she’s not worrying about the piece cohering. “What matters is that we created a ritual of working together--despite our differences,” she says.

“It’s a hint of how that buzz word multiculturalism might actually be realized in the L.A. art world--but people must attempt such experiments thoughtfully and (be) aware of the pitfalls.”