There's something about driving that seems to get Kiesha Lalama's choreographic juices flowing.
More than a decade ago, she was driving to Virginia Beach for a business trip when she started sketching on Burger King napkins ideas for what would become the 2009 full-length show "The Bench." The seed for her latest show took root while she was driving home from setting a work for dancers with Dayton Contemporary Dance Co. in Ohio.
She pictured a sweet story about young love and how it grows and stretches as people discover their paths in life. And maybe there could be a Western Pennsylvania twist to it? She envisioned a football game and a diner reminiscent of Eat'n Park.
That concept percolated in her brain for a while until she could find a fit for it. When she was invited to create another full-length show for Point Park University's Conservatory Dance Co. she knew that was it.
This weekend, Lalama's dance theater piece "Bound in Before" will debut in the Pittsburgh Playhouse's PNC Theatre, Downtown, as part of Point Park University's Winter Dance Concert. Performances will run through Dec. 15.
So how does this love story compare to the one Lalama brought to life on stage in "The Bench," which premiered at Point Park 10 years ago this month? In short, expect more bells and whistles.
"The audience has changed. Ten years ago, we had [longer] attention spans," says Lalama, who's also a dance professor at Point Park. "I took that into deep consideration and wrote this show to be a little fast and a little quicker."
Scenes move swiftly and are sprinkled with more spectacle, she adds, whereas she describes "The Bench" as "a little bit more heightened and extended."
"Bound in Before" chronicles Mikey McWilliams, danced by senior dance major Tyler Kerbel, and Claire Henderson, who's danced by fellow senior dance major Ashley Green. When Mikey revisits his hometown, memories come flooding back to him about Claire, his high school sweetheart. The performance takes audiences back to the 1980s and 1990s to learn more about how their romance blossomed — and eventually dissipated. But will they get a second chance?
Dancing a full-length show — particularly one that's new — presents different challenges for dancers than performing shorter works that have already been danced elsewhere.
"There is much more material on your plate," Kerbel says. "However, you're granted the gift of the choreography being created exactly how you are as a dancer and performer, so it is almost more natural in that way. When performing shorter works that have been set elsewhere in the past, a lot of the time the focus is largely on emulating the dancers in the original cast."
"Bound in Before" also is tasking dancers with sharpening their acting chops.
"This experience allowed me to step out of my box characteristically because I never really had to act like someone else. I have had roles in the past where it is about a feeling instead of being someone else," Green says. "The biggest challenge for me is staying genuine to myself as a performer while still portraying Claire's character."
Lalama wanted audience members to be able to see reflections of themselves in the characters and their experiences.
"Every coming-of-age moment in your life comes to life on stage," she says. "There's spin the bottle, there's a scene where we have a Halloween dance, a football game, a pep rally. There's flashlight tag outside. It's very reflective of what I know of my childhood and my family and the culture I was brought up in."
Her 21-year-old son, Jacob John White, a rising author who's at work on his fourth novel, helped her co-write the show.
"He brings the younger male perspective in a way that I don't know if I had been able to see truthfully as a middle-aged woman," Lalama says.
For her son, working with his mom in a professional capacity felt natural.
"We have a very close relationship," White says. Growing up, he and his brother would regularly weigh in on their mom's projects while sitting at the kitchen table. "Being able to understand the process and to have contributed to the process feels like an evolution of what I was doing when I was a little boy."
For the music, Lalama's original plan was to weave together songs by British folk rock band Mumford & Sons. But when she wasn't able to secure the rights to use them, she enlisted longtime friend and collaborator Jason Coll to compose original music and lyrics for the 90-minute show.
"Stylistically, it's kind of all over the place, but in a good way. There's classical, jazz, pop, metal — it's so many genres," Coll says. "A lot of it's told in flashback, so there are a few nods to the late '80s and early '90s in terms of some of the vocal stuff. There are songs you would think were plucked from the radio."
Any Point Park University student, regardless of their major, had the opportunity to audition to be a vocalist on the soundtrack. Music was pre-recorded to give the show a "cinematic experience," he adds. He produced the tracks in his home studio in Bethel Park and recorded the vocals at Wrecking Crew Media's studio in Aspinwall.
It's not in Lalama's nature to do a show and then just be done with it. "The Bench," for instance, has been tweaked over the years for performances in Boise, Idaho, and with Dayton Contemporary Dance Co., in hopes of turning it into a touring dance theater piece. With more than 40 dancers in the "Bound in Before" cast, the show is too big to be suitable for the road.
"There's been a little talk of it being an independent film from people who have read the script," Lalama says.
For now, though, she's focused on producing a solid show that moves the audience.
"It's a roller coaster of emotions that kind of just consumes every ounce of your being," she says. "If I'm not feeling something and I'm not moved by this, then why is it in the show? There's a lot of laughter and it's charming. I really wanted it to bring joy."
First Published: December 5, 2019, 1:00 p.m.