I saw your company perform this summer at the Fire Island Dance Festival and was surprised to hear you using club music.

Two summers ago, I did a male duet out there. I have several male duets in my repertory, but I thought this one would be a good piece to do. I had Gladys Knight singing "I Can See Clearly Now," and we walked off into the sunset. It was perfect. This past summer, I used club music and some new moves and sequences choreographed from samples of other pieces. It was sort of an event happening in the spirit of Merce Cunningham.

I've seen you dance to Brahms and Schubert. Is club music new for you?

Club music is new, pop music isn't. A couple of years ago I did a tribute to Laura Nyro and I used five songs spanning different points in her career.

That was Art of Love, right? Was that after she died?

Yes, Art of Love was right after she died. And the weird thing was that I had started working on it before she died, I didn't even know she was ill or anything. When I started working on it, I hadn't conceived it as a tribute to Laura Nyro. I just thought I would use singer-songwriter music and I had a Laura Nyro song in there. I was just sort of dabbling with other songs, but the Laura Nyro song was the starting point. And then came the news that she died and I thought, It's got to be a Laura Nyro tribute.

How do you think your dancers would describe you?

I'm a nice guy who expects a lot and my dancers are incredibly open to trying things out. They'll look at each other and raise an eyebrow, saying, "Oh, here he goes again," when I ask them to do some impossible things. Then, after two hours, they are possible. My dancers constantly surprise me. Like the other day, I asked one to jump on my shoulder. I'm 6'2" and I thought he would take a few steps and run. All of a sudden, he goes up on my shoulder and I hadn't bent down or anything [laughs]. He just did it. He's open to trying things out. Then I jokingly said, "How about you jump on Christopher [Hadlock]'s shoulder, but don't jump on his near shoulder, jump over his head and on the other side." I really was just kidding and then Sam [Roberts] sort of mumbled to himself, "Oh, that's going to be hard." He took two steps back and jumped over Christopher onto his other shoulder. We were all laughing and I said, "I was just kidding, I didn't think anybody could do this kind of thing." But if you have dancers who are open to trying things out, it gets exciting.

What's the quickest way a dancer can 86 themselves from one of your auditions?

I can't really say that one thing would really tick me off. What I try to do in an audition is to give two or three movement phrases that are really very different just to see what kind of a range a dancer has. I'm after a dancer with a solid technique, but they also need to be musical and expressive.

How do you hang onto your dancers?

How do I hang onto dancers? Begging them [laughs]. No, right now we have such a nice group, there's real camaraderie. We all went to the N*SYNC concert last week [laughs]. I mean, not that we're all N*SYNC fans...

Oh, come on, it's okay. I'm a huge N*SYNC fan, you can 'fess up.

It was more like a company outing. We said, "Let's all go." We had a great time together just enjoying this fabulous production.

What do you think of their choreography?

It is amazing what is going on with the stage production, you know, with conveyor belts that they're on and platforms that are raised. The actual choreography, I mean, I was so far away I couldn't really see it [laughs]. But just as a production, it is really amazing. It's something that we don't have in modern dance, you know? Not that I would want to work with that regularly.

But do you think it's good?

Well, I really can't judge N*SYNC. Although I saw them, I was really far away. I can't say it's crap, I can't say it's good. I don't have television so I don't watch MTV. I really don't know what their dance videos are like or anything. When I did have a TV and watched Paula Abdul or Janet Jackson videos that Paula Abdul choreographed, I thought that was hot! I mean, Paula Abdul's "Cold Hearted Snake," my goodness, that was great dancing. But you know, I don't have a television because I want to take advantage of New York, so I'm not really up on the current pop groups and what that MTV dance choreography is.

Do you go out to nightclubs to dance?

Oh yeah, sure.

I've always wondered when I see choreographers out--are you able to turn off that choreographer head and just dance or are you always thinking about movement?

No, no. I just let it go [laughs]. When I'm choreographing, I have to watch out that I give myself my workout rather than taking a class. Otherwise, class steps come into the work. Sometimes you have to clean yourself of another person's movement vocabulary. When I'm creating, I always make sure that I'm in the studio beforehand for at least an hour so that I'm in my body. I notice that in the past, when I went to rehearsal from taking a class, I had to strip that away first and it takes a long time.

How does one get from Germany to New York?

Well, I was at the Hamburg Opera Ballet School. And that was an opera ballet school program, very rigorous, and I finished my high school there. In that time I noticed that I wanted to be a dancer, but I didn't want to be a prince on stage. I had seen some modern dance and had taken some workshops. One of those workshops was by an American dancer named Jenny Coogan and she happened to be a Juilliard graduate. I spoke to her about what I wanted in dance and she said, "Sounds like Juilliard would be a good school for you." And then right after high school, I came to New York and auditioned. I got in and stayed. Luckily, I got stuck in New York [laughs].

You also have a musical background, is that something that informs your work?

Absolutely, oh yes.

Is that where dance comes from for you?

Well, the current piece I'm working on is the Brahms Double Concerto. And that is definitely music driven. It's a piece that I have known for a long time and I've known it as a very austere or stern work. I happened across this particular recording that sort of makes it sing. I really wanted to choreograph to this and I would need an orchestra. But then the musicians would have to have that understanding to keep it singing.

You have a lot of open rehearsals, why do you show your work before it's finished?

Sometimes it gets lonely when you are working [laughs]. When you are a painter, you can have somebody come in and take a look at it, have somebody visit your studio. I guess I want some feedback, I want to see how things work while I'm midway. It's important to me that I connect to an audience. Of course, I want to do what's important to me, but if it does not speak to anybody I might want to rethink it. So an open rehearsal, where people get a taste of it and are free to talk about it and ask questions after, gets the audience more involved with the work.

What's coming up for you next?

I just got back from teaching in Germany in July and August, then I did a little showcase at Ballet Arts in the City Center building. I'll probably be showing in full later in the Fall. Next year is our big tenth anniversary season. I'm getting in gear for that [laughs], fundraising and all. If anybody wants to write a $50,000 check--anybody needs a tax deduction--send 'em my way.