Artists bring ‘Rigor & Risk’ salon experience to Weston

When pianist Eleanor Ruggiero Gilbert asked her good friend Jennifer Uhl to choreograph a performance of Bela Bartok’s “Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm,” Uhl’s first thought was that she did not really like the music.

“I told her I would do a dance wearing earphones that nobody could see and I would dance to ‘When I’m 64,’ which is a silly thing that I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” said Uhl, artistic director of J2RC Dances, a modern dance company that performs exclusively for charitable and educational purposes.

Her friend said no.

Then something changed. The more Uhl listened to the music, the more she came to love it and the more intrigued she became with the possibility of creating a dance tied to the music.

She created the choreography, tapped dancer Ameia Mikula-Noble and started thinking of ways to put together a more complex performance that would combine a variety of art forms.

The result is “Rigor & Risk,” an afternoon salon experience and a collaboration of four friends and four different art forms – music, literature, art, and dance – in the style of French salons from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The salon will come to Weston on Sunday, March 8.

Julia Glass, a National Book Award winner, agreed to read excerpts from some of her works, including an as-yet unpublished book. Artist Rhonda Miller will interpret Mikula-Noble’s dancing through live painting.

“She [Miller] is this amazing, open, beautiful person and she is very vulnerable,” Uhl said. “In her artwork she is totally free and masterful and feels so comfortable during the process. But then when the product is released … when people are looking at your work, it’s risky, you’re exposed. It’s the same for Eleanor, the pianist.”

Miller’s work will also be on display before and after the performance.

Uhl’s sister Jane Clark, a Weston resident and manager of The Gertler Clark Foundation, will host the event at her home at 15 Westcliffe Road at 3 p.m., March 8. The house is currently undergoing extensive renovation, so the rooms are empty. The large rooms, surrounded by glass and dozens of large skylights, will give people the sense they are outdoors, Clark said.

“It’s the idea that we are trying to bring the outside into our house believing that it adds to mental and physical and spiritual health as you grow older,” Clark said.

“I like to imagine our fifth salon artist as Mother Nature,” added Uhl, noting that the audience will be facing windows as the performances unfold.

It may be tricky to heat the unfinished space and to bring in enough electrical outlets for the microphones, amplifiers and electric piano, but Clark says she is not worried.

“It’s very much in the spirit of Jane. She’s loving it, saying, ‘well this is part of being real in modern dance,’ which is my thing, which she knows,” Uhl said. “So it’s going to be fun, but a little risky, so it fits with Rigor & Risk.”

The afternoon will end with light refreshments and an audience discussion. The salon is open to about 35 to 40 people and tickets are free, although donations are accepted.

“The idea of a salon is that it’s intimate. You want people to have an experience of really seeing you and talking to you,” Uhl said. “It’s seeing an exhibit; hearing some classical piano performed live; it’s hearing a well-known author read from her work; it’s seeing a beautiful dancer; and it’s in an unusual setting; a little risky setting of this construction zone.”

Book tickets at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/rigor-and-risk.