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by Alex Cuff and Dee Gray
“Dance was the topping on the cake of satisfaction at that time, mm…hmm…” JR let out a laugh the began as a knowing
murmur resembling skekSil the Chamberlain from the Dark Crystal and trailed off like a slowing metronome…huh huh
huh. “I’ll never forget going to a place on 47th street in Chicago called Peps where I grabbed a young lady and started dancing
with her and it was as if we danced into another dimension - that's how well I remember dancing…” When JR tells you
something, his stare has a way probing which suggests he’s just reminding you of something your already know – as if
subtly revealing to you something you’ve forgotten. “…and as a matter of fact I never found someone that I danced
with that was that wonderful again.” I switched the surprisingly heavy microphone into my left hand and rubbed my
shoulder, smiling, as I imagined JR - wearing the same chestnut Tyrolean hat he now had on – dancing himself off
into his own convoluted melodic cosmos. I sat as close to JR as I could without pulling the cord to the DAT out of
the electric socket that we were temporarily borrowing from the coffee pot. The din of voices rose and fell
throughout the art filled space of the Hospitality House where I caught up with JR this past Monday to talk about
dancing.
I met JR a week or two ago at Poor Magazine where he was invited to newsroom as a special guest who’s interpretive
dance was the grand finale to a performance art piece by Dee Gray, which sought to cure a couple of us interns from
our travel habits. At Poor, travel is seen as one of the modes in which capitalism exploits indigenous people in
other countries – a sort of ethnographist voyeurism. After his dance, JR revealed that he’d been quite active in the
Chicago dance scene decades ago. This aroused Dee’s curiosity which led to my interview with JR as a story for Poor.
Before we settled down among the sculptures and clay-throwers that were getting ready to leave for the day, I was
shown around the gallery where JR showed me a few of his eccentric/erotic pieces, some of which he’d worked on for
years.
The extent of my Chicago dance scene knowledge of any era comes from the 2 hours I sat in the Metreon watching
Chicago, the film, which admittedly says nothing, so I wanted JR to give me a snapshot of the scene he was involved
with. For twenty minutes he let me into his world of “Billy Eckstine shirts, Stacy Adams and Hickey Freeman shoes,
and Borsalino hats…”
“When I discovered dancing I was perhaps 12 …late 50s early 60s…there was a place called the 5th Avenue Ballroom
where it all really began to take place. At the 5th Avenue Ballroom you had bopping and you had walking that were
very important methods of dance at the time. And happily I was able to have a friend who's sister taught me how to
bop and then it was later on that I began to develop my own steps and unique …”
”It was basically a teen/young adult thing and later on after I got married me and my wife used to go out dancing
maybe once a week - we would go on the far south side. We'd go places like the Dating Game - well there were just so
many things out there, well there was always someplace new to go. One of the break through periods in terms of
dancing is what we all knew as disco era. During the disco era, I remember going to a place on Madison street in
Chicago in about the 5400 block and I heard this different kind of music where as previously the music was basically
dedicated to bop - this was different, this was geared towards personal improvisation, and I think that is actually
the kind of dance that I can scope - I can still realize the glee at being able to dance without any fetters. That
era lasted for quite a long time; it took in the period of skating even, even in roller skates - if you go to
Chicago right now, the south side of Chicago, you will still have people skating with the rhythm of the disco as the
beat, okay?”
After years of tap dance lessons which only seemed to lead to nerve racking recitals where I always seemed forget
the routine as soon as I saw the serried blurred faces out in the auditorium, my fondest memories of dance are still
of my dad waiting for my mother to finish dressing…Lucky Strikes and after shave flavored the air as my dad waltzed
me around reminding me the secret is to be light on foot….
The interpretive dance that JR performed at Poor last week seemed to me far from disco or waltzing... I asked him when
he discovered his own style or as what today might be called interpretive dance…
”It was difficult for me to learn how to bop, if someone hadn't taught me how to bop, I think....well I probably would
have overcome it eventually, but that fact that she was able to show me the exact steps I was able to teach a couple people,
in particular my sister, how to dance, okay. So there's definitely a purpose behind the seeming madness. On the other hand,
through the interpretive dance you are able to, well the spirit is different so you're able to do more things - not only that but
you're probably able to interpret and express on issues and items that you may not have thought it was possible before. “
”Whatever issue is being dealt with on a record is the stuff for unique expression - its no different than the music
itself - depending on the music that is going to establish the mood and the mood is gonna be the stimulant that which you
find a way of expressing it. To some degree I think you can express great joy or even great sadness in dance as well as you
can in some lyrical form.”
The first conversation I had with JR took place in the few minutes before newsroom began the day our travel bugs were
quelled by Dee’s collage of cats, fake fur and Elvis’s head which served as part of the ceremonial anecdote to our capitalist
ways. The Venetian blinds clacked restlessly against the windows behind us - the light outside was flat, inside corrosively
fluorescent. I was having a bad week and not looking forward to the seemingly endless night of waitressing that lay before
me.”
Now sitting across from him in a much contrasted state of mind at the Hospitality House which offers free work space and
materials to artists, I asked JR if he saw dance as a resistance to poverty. “No, on the contrary, poverty is a kind of a
construct. In other words, it’s not poverty you must deal with but its apathy, and indifference and loss of faith. Actually, if you
can dance, you can overcome to a degree some of these bad vibes so to speak. Poverty has so many causes in a sense - I
don't think poverty is a thing that is all the fault of the individual, but each one of us have special tributes and these tributes
are crafted - that's the extent of the person's life. It’s no different than a piece of clay, one person take that clay and turn it
into a magnificent vessel. Another person take that piece of clay and think of it as no use whatsoever. The reason that I
don't make the comparison because I don't even believe there is an ‘I’ - I think there is only a ‘we’. I think the fact that we
have ‘I’ in this advanced age is because of our richness, because of our leisure - because at a much earlier stage people
didn't have the luxury in thinking of themselves as being special at something like that. So I think today with the
entertainers, I think what they do is actually give us an example of what our possibilities are, they in no way shape what your
own true potentials are.”
Do you still dance today? If so what does it represent today as opposed to as when you just started out when you were
15 years old?
”Well I got news for you, okay?” JR paused for about 20 seconds looking at me like he had just asked me a
question. “I found out much earlier that dance is therapeutic, okay. Because I used to be an insurance agent, when I was
an insurance agent, after pouring over books, for 10 hours, I would almost explode if I didn't have a place to go dance…you
need some means to express yourself and there was place on Delaware and Rush street and this is a time when integration
was at its zenith in Chicago and I used to go there and they used to have the best disco in the city and I would be able to
get down and we would boogie until the night was through.”
So you are still dancing now then?
”As a matter of fact, I was out dancing last night” JR chuckled, “hmm...I can't tell you where or who I was with. I’ll just
tell you that it was a very dynamite session. It was people in sequined outfits, okay, it was ladies of higher nights you might
say yeah, I was really thrilled okay and I was able to ....” Amused at my curiosity, it took JR at least a minute of my asking
“able to what?” to answer…”hahah...I was able to put down some of my better moves...”
Since JR wouldn’t reveal the location of where the people in sequins hang out and where JR was putting down some of
his best moves, (because unfortunately, it doesn’t describe any of the clubs I know in SF where there are usually hipsters
standing around nodding to indie rock) I moved on to my next question and asked him how often he went out nowadays….
”It doesn't happen as often as I would like you know. I find San Francisco is just a fledgling in understanding its
benefits, I’m sure that with more dancing that a person can be more sure of a better state of mind, I think they would have
better repoir with those they interact with on a daily basis. I think there's a high that comes from dancing that you can't get
from anywhere else cause you know we live in a city where everything is classified in terms of what kind of money you got.
When actually your happiness isn't based on how much money you got - its based on what kind of joy can you give
someone; it's like being rich, how can you be rich if you're keeping everything to yourself? Your riches comes in terms of
what you are able to give cause if you give, you gonna receive, it's automatic - hm hm uh huh.”
I finally asked JR what his thoughts were on the effect his interpretive dance could have had on us that day in
newsroom…
”The fact that you're having a lot of travel and your having this thing where by people go in and out without any kind of
responsibilities, any kind of payment due to those who are involved. It makes them into seeming objects and I think what
Dee and Tiny project is the fact hat we've got to find a way to demonstrate some reciprocity in our lives. And in a certain kind
of way I think that this is becoming a world issue because to a large degree unless we find an alternative to our selfishness
we will no have a future because our past, even though we like to think of what we have as something we have done, it's all
an illusion. This is taking place because of the contributions of all the people and only so long can you take the contributions
of all the people and continue to use them just for yourself. Because in essence what happens is that well, you have a
polarity in effect that just will not last so I think again that just being able to return the corner on lets say the destructive
aspects of life, and move to a new period of rapprochement…where the differences that we have can be hashed out and
compromised in some sort. I think that will stamp what our future will hold.”
Like after the first time I met JR, I left with a bit of glow…could’ve been from his coquettish charm or from his collected,
intricate person...probably a combination of both.
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