José A. Luis’ ‘mas y more’ invites audiences inside the dance

In a new piece by choreographer and dancer José A. Luis, the audience will have dramatically different experiences depending on where they sit in the theater.

“I had an idea a long time ago about how to get audiences to be more engaged and active,” Luis said. “I wanted to get them out of their seats.”

Luis was inspired by music concerts, especially in the way concert venues have multiple different setups for audiences and performers. Beyoncé, for instance, went from using a circle formation for the Renaissance World Tour to more of a star/guitar shape for her most recent Cowboy Carter Tour.

“That’s probably a good example of how artists change their aesthetic and their stage configuration,” Luis said. “The essence of their show is who their audiences know them to be, but also trying to show this new era that they’re in.”

For his own new era, Luis wanted to let the audience see him push beyond how he’s typically perceived in the Twin Cities. When he dances for other choreographers, he’s often told they are drawn to his focus or the nuanced way that he moves. Dancing in his own choreography, Luis is showing something bigger, more muscular and rooted in cycles of exhaustion and rest.

“This show is demanding more of what I know I’m capable of,” he said. “The title itself leads me into how much ‘more’ is there in me, how much more can I show people, and how much more I can reimagine not just of myself but of my choreography.”

The show is set up in a V formation and acts as a runway for the dancer playing the central role. “I just really wanted to walk a runway and feel this other side of my performance that usually people don’t associate with me,” Luis said.

“The idea is to give people options for seating so they can see different parts very closely or very apart,” Luis said.

A similar choice of seating options happens at the Northrop on Sept. 18-19, when choreographer Aszure Barton brings the U.S. premiere of “A a | a B : B E N D,” created with jazz trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire, to Minneapolis. For that show, audience members will get to choose whether to sit onstage or at the orchestra level of the theater.

This kind of reconfiguration challenges the “fourth wall” and reconsiders how proximity shapes perception. By giving audience members the option to place themselves inside the work rather than in front of it, the work probes larger questions about how our perception of the world shifts depending on whether our view is close-up or long-range.

“más y more” is performed by two dancers who switch roles each night for alternating performances. Part of the role-switching has to do with the feasibility of performing the more challenging “A” part each night.

“Some of the choreography is pretty demanding,” Luis said. “The two of us sharing that heaviness makes it a little bit more manageable for us, and also as performers you are engaged in a different way.”

“It’s a lot of memorization,” Hunter said.

And while the work stems from Luis’ personal experiences, Hunter has been pleased with how collaborative the process has been. Rather than teaching a set of movements to Hunter, Luis will offer a verbal description of a phrase, inviting Hunter to interpret the prompt.

“Obviously it’s super different, because we’re very different movers,” Hunter said. “Then both of those phrases get put into the show.”

There’s also strenuous physical labor, like one section that involves lifting weights. To prepare, Hunter has been cross-training.

“I’ve definitely been working on my cardio, because doing two shows in a night, especially with the amount of the physicality of the show, is going to be pretty hard,” Hunter said.

“It’s high pop energy,” he explained. The pulsing intensity of the music shapes the performer’s movement and endurance.

For sound design, Luis is collaborating with Dylan Hester, who is creating a new score for half of the piece. The first 30 minutes draw on existing soundtracks that Luis used to generate early material, while the second half features Hester’s original work — some of it sampling the earlier tracks.

“It’s like yin and yang,” Luis said. “There are parts of each inside the other, overlapping but also in contrast.”

The title, “más y more,” is a play on words. “Más” means “more” in Spanish, and then to Spanish speakers, “más y more” sounds a bit like “más amor,” which means “more love.”

Both the title and the thrust of the piece speak to Luis’ own personal experience of discovering that always pushing himself to the limit didn’t result in happiness.

“Then a friend asked me, ‘How are you doing?’” Luis recalled. “I was like, ‘I’m not happy,’ which is hard for me to say.”

He began to think about what more he had to do to achieve happiness.

Then he realized a path forward. “More love,” he said. “Honestly, for myself, accepting it from others, and giving it to others.”

Luis said he’s doing better these days.

“As cheesy as it is, being in the studio really helps so much,” he said.