Fiddler on the Roof: Associate choreographer Christopher Evans restructured revival

choreography for national tour, playing at National Theater Dec. 10-15

By Daniella Ignacio

Professional productions of Fiddler on the Roof traditionally feature the iconic Jerome Robbins
choreography from the original production. The 2015 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof
was the first major production to get permission to use new choreography, created by Hofesh
Schechter and his company. That revival is now on tour across North America, with the
choreography restructured by Christopher Evans, Schechter’s associate choreographer.

Evans has a long working relationship with Shechter, having worked with him since 2005, and
was instrumental in the process of developing the choreography for Broadway. I caught up with
Evans in the week leading up to the national tour’s stop in D.C. at the National Theater.

Tell me a bit about your background as a choreographer and dancer. I understand you
work closely with Hofesh Shechter and his company.

CHRISTOPHER EVANS: I met Hofesh Schechter when I was probably just in the middle of
graduating, actually, from the London School of Contemporary Dance. I met him quite
haphazardly outside of the school at one point and we got talking. He’d never made anything at
this point, he was kind of just starting out, and he asked me if I wanted to be involved in
something. I actually said I couldn’t, because I’m literally still a student at the moment, and I
couldn’t...escape. (laughs)

His attempt to make a show fell through initially and a few months later, as I got into my third
year, he approached me, said “Yes, I’m thinking about making a show, I need seven guys, I’ve
got six, you’re kind of young but maybe we could do an ‘apprentice-y’ type thing.” And I kind of
shruggingly said yes, not knowing anything about him or what he just started out, and that
began my finishing dance school at 6 in the evening, going into a studio, working with Hofesh
until 10 in the evening, and we made one of his first pieces, called “Uprising.”

What intrigues you about Israeli styles of dance - particularly Hofesh’s style?

EVANS: I met Hofesh at such a young age that I wasn’t really that hardened by training yet. I
could still kind of go anywhere with my training, I hadn’t been fully disciplined, there wasn’t a lot
of “unlearning” to do with me. And I think, naturally, that kind of grounded, slightly animalistic
way of moving really suited me because I was into martial arts. I always found dance to be just
another kind of movement that I had been doing previously. Martial arts is just movement and
dance is just movement. I wasn’t interested in particular styles or vocab, I just liked moving.

[Hofesh] came from a folky background but then got involved with Batsheva and Gaga. His way
of moving was more about turning imagery into flesh, rather than having very recognizable
technique. For me, when I first met him, it was like watching him through the Wild West, I
couldn’t categorize it, so I was really enjoying that. Learning how to move like that whilst making
a piece was really useful because it meant you could really understand what was going on, not
just do the movement thing, but how it’s used to communicate.

How does the choreography differ from the original Jerome Robbins choreography in
specific movements?

EVANS: It feels, as far as I’m concerned, very far away from what I would consider musical
theatre vocabulary, or how [that vocabulary] can sometimes present itself: that kind of
cleanliness or the frontal nature of how that dance could be. For me, Hofesh’s movement could
be very grounded in detail and grounded in community. When people watch Hofesh’s work,
whether they’re dancers or not, they always get the slight feeling like, “I can do that, that looks
like something I could do,” it doesn’t look like that kind of virtuosity that’s flashy where you enjoy
it because you could never do it. Like, this is connected to something quite human, which I think
is perfect for Fiddler because I think it’s ultimately about a community of people who celebrate
being alive at every opportunity and any opportunity to dance, and move, and be physical and
be perfating with life is taken.

What [Hofesh] enjoys communicating with Fiddler, is that in every movement, is this feeling of
“we are together, and there is something above us, there’s something bigger than us.” In some
moments, it sits slightly more into the ancient or timeless, almost tribalist, message of “we are
humbled by something bigger than us, in service to something great.” And in other moments, it
has that kind of bravado [and] virtuosity, that comes, in my opinion, in a very small, undulating,
articulate way.

What I always loved about Jerome Robbins’ choreography is its strength, and drive, and its
lines, and its very sure, defined gestures. The power that can come from his choreography is a
lot about definition and throwing energy in very specific directions, whereas Hofesh’s work’s
power comes mainly from its use of unison: how you can get a whole group of people to do very
very tiny things that are actually quite smoky and you’re seeing a lot of unity onstage but you’re
not seeing clones of people, you’re seeing people who are sharing some very specific idea, but
they don’t have to be exact movement in the same way. So it looks very complex and quite
organic. I guess that’s the best way I could articulate dance over the phone. (laughs)

Which moment do you think defines that the most in the show?

EVANS: I would say probably “L’Chaim” is one of those great examples. There are two
conflicting energies in the room and it is obviously loaded with tension because of the politics
and the context of the story, but all of those tensions subside mainly through this idea of “we’re
gonna loosen up and we’re gonna dance, we’re going to enjoy life and we’re going to show off.”
What I like about that scene is that it gives the opportunity for virtuosity to be the thing that two
opposing groups can share. So it’s a nice opportunity for swingy, smoky, slightly messy, tumbly
style of the Jews who are just going to get up and dance slightly drunk, but we’re going to show
off. Then there’s the very clean, powerful, sure movements of the Russians. And of course it’s
all going to be amalgamated into a big number and it’s just purely about enjoying life.

How did you restructure this new choreography for the tour?

EVANS: I think of all the things that were streamlined, the dancing element, because it always
had a feeling of being a flexible style to work with, I feel that the dancing got changed. There are
very, very small spacing changes that we have because the show now has to accommodate
different kinds of venues. I have preferred watching shows on tour in a slightly more
compromised space sometimes because I think Hofesh’s style lends itself to that feeling that
you’re in the room with the dancers, and there’s not huge leaps or crosses. I’ve enjoyed seeing
the dancers being more particular and more skillful with their bodies and space.

But restructuring things for the tour, it’s been pretty glorious and I guess the biggest, biggest,
biggest change was an enormous staircase that came up the back and underneath the stage.
On Broadway, they came from the bottom of the stage as a shadowy, ghost of the past up and
it’s a lovely image but trying to negotiate and find the same punch to start the show up was a
cool challenge. I think what we settled on, now having watched it how many times on tour, I
really can’t remember how the beginning of the Broadway show would have gotten anywhere
near the same kind of punch. We have such a percussive start to “Tradition” now. It’s one of
those creative challenges where you have to make it work, I think it really does.

What have your interactions with the current touring company been like? How do you
feel about this cast?

EVANS: For me, my visits now get less and less frequent. And I think what strikes me is the
cast that we have for the tour, I’m always completely staggered by the quality and integrity of
the people who absorb every drop of information. I’m so impressed by the cast that we have
now. I was blown away by what they achieved in the time I was there. I think it has something to
do with the touring mentality; it’s not just the show these people see, these people really travel
and they see a lot together and accumulate this wealth of experience together, which for a show
like Fiddler on the Roof about such a tight-knit community, it just matures and strengthens. I
think the touring life comes out on the stage. Every time I see it, it incrementally gets better.

As associate choreographer, how much of a say did you get in determining the
choreography when it was on Broadway?

EVANS: The first time, my job was to audition all the dancers, understand and work out which
people are going to understand that world of dance very quickly. Once we had that group of
people, there was a beautiful two and a half weeks where it was just me and them and my job
was to lead them through the style, unlearn a few habits and help them unlock parts of the body
that are really crucial to execute the movements like the pelvis as an anchor to get your agility
really from the floor. I think it’s amazing how we can train our bodies to be very specialized. And
during that journey of training up for a few weeks, we also played with choreography while
waiting for Hofesh to arrive. We’d already started playing with compositions musically and in the
movement, so by the time Hofesh arrived, we’d not only had the training in place but we had
little pockets of things for him to look at. I personally felt very integrated into the process and we
were very closely working together to work out this code of moving which has lasted all this
time.

What are some of your favorite elements of the choreography? Any particular phrases in
the choreography that you think are really beautiful?

EVANS: In terms of a pure feel-good wave of energy coming towards you, I love “Tradition”
because it’s one of those rare opportunities when the entire cast is dancing together and people
of different ages are dancing with the feeling of “we are dancing now because these are the
moves we have always had, these are the movements that represent this community and God”
and it’s nice that everyone has that at the beginning of the show.

Why should people see this production of Fiddler?

EVANS: I really think the choreography is incredible. It’s just very, very high quality movement
that slightly sits just outside of what you expect in a musical theatre setting. Hofesh is a
contemporary dancer and he created basically a small dance company within a musical, which I
think is quite rare. But also I just think Bart [Sher] is a very clever man and he made a show that
is about what it is to be a human being, he managed to achieve the action, the beat and the
rhythm, the important stuff that gets it right into that naturalism.