Daily Inspiration: Meet Skyler Meadow Levine and Lena Mazel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Skyler Meadow Levine and Lena Mazel .

Hi Skyler Meadow Levine and Lena Mazel. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Lena Mazel and Skyler Meadow Levine created Anaphase in the summer of 2021 to continue our creative projects.

We had originally met in 2013 while dancing at Nashville Ballet: Skyler was dancing in the Academy while Lena was in the Professional Training Division. Skyler had just finished a contract with Nashville Ballet’s second company, and Lena was dancing with FALL, a local contemporary ballet, and aerial dance company. Skyler joined FALL shortly after, leading us to collaborate creatively and become close friends! We realized that we worked well together. After meeting as students, we continued dancing in Nashville and reconnected at a Countertechnique workshop in 2020.

In summer 2021, we started working on a collaborative piece called “Convergence.” The piece explored quantum mechanics and theories of multiple realities. It was a way for us both to process the changes we’d experienced over the past few years and process the question. “What if I had chosen this path instead?” This question was relevant as we saw so many of our friends in creative industries (and ourselves) have to reevaluate their life paths during the pandemic. When we started the creative process for “Convergence,” we had what felt like a far-fetched dream of performing it at OZ Arts in Nashville. But early in our rehearsal process, applications opened for Kindling Arts Festival. We applied under the name Anaphase and were thrilled to have the piece accepted as part of the In Profile showcase, a series of short dance works performed at OZ.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Anaphase has been an extremely smooth road. Lena and Skyler are friends first and foremost and always take the time to grow and connect as people outside our creative endeavors. We take time during most rehearsals to catch up and check in about what’s happening in our personal lives. Like most artists, we experience creative blocks and burnout in certain projects. But because of our connection as friends, we can support one another through the challenges. Because we started rehearsing while Nashville had specific social distancing measures, we sometimes had to be creative — we held some rehearsals at public parks or even in our backyard. But overall, this process helped us be more creative and less perfectionistic about the work.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We both grew up training in classical ballet and branched out to other styles. We both have ballet, contemporary, modern, jazz, and aerial dance backgrounds. Most of Anaphase’s work is strongly influenced by contemporary ballet.

A unique element of our work is the way we structure its creation. We usually start with a focused storyline or concept and then build choreography to fit the ideas it generates. We try to show these ideas clearly through our choice of movement, costumes, props, music, and other elements. Our work sets the stage with a specific context and scene for what we want to portray. We also have collaborated with artists from other disciples, including music, poetry, film, and photography.

Our proudest piece of work is the evolution of the piece “Convergence,” not just because of our work but because of the larger project it became with our collaborators. The piece contains three movements with original music compositions by Coupler and Tristen. The second movement was an original cover by Tristen of the Leonard Cohen song, Dance Me to the End of Love. During the piece’s debut at Kindling Arts Festival, we made Tristen’s section of the piece into two solos: Lena performed in the first show, and Skyler performed in the second show. Later, we merged these solos into a duet and performed it in a music video for the cover Tristen recorded. It was fulfilling to see a new iteration of the piece and continue developing and evolving our ideas.

Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share? We’re always looking for lessons we can learn in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis.
Like many artists, the COVID-19 crisis taught us adaptability and forced us to think outside the box. We performed outdoors and on film to continue making art in a way that kept everyone safe. We had some zoom rehearsals, too. During the pandemic, we saw outdoor and zoom dancing becomes much more normalized. Dancing through COVID-19 also taught us to be grateful for every moment onstage and for the chance to engage with audience members in person and in real-time. Skyler had a close exposure five days before the show at Oz Arts last year. That was terrifying, not knowing if she could live out her dream of performing at this venue. Thankfully she maintained negative test results and was able to perform. Covid taught us to be extremely grateful for every moment we can be on stage.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @_anaphase_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voQQDJJpWT0&skip_registered_account_check=true
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlHsW50UOI

Image Credits
Autumn Wegner Noah Tidmore