This week, justArts spoke with Prof. Susan Dibble (THA) who wrote and directed “Shoes On, Shoes Off.”

justArts: What inspired you to write “Shoes On, Shoes Off?”

Susan Dibble: What inspired me was to take the idea of a small shoe store and create a dance — a village of people, characters — who come and buy shoes, but also the idea that wearing shoes in dances is one thing, and then taking shoes off and dancing bare feet is another thing, so that was kind of a thing […] to celebrate those two things.

JA: Is this your first time directing a piece without spoken words?

SD: No, I’ve been doing this for quite a while. I’m the resident for choreography for a theater company called Shakespeare Company in Lennox, Massachusetts, so I’ve created these pieces over the years; I’ve done quite a few of them. Over the last ten years, I’ve made about eight different ones, so it’s something that I do. It’s part of my identity.

JA: Do you also have experience working with spoken-word theater?

SD: Definitely. There are a lot of Shakespeare plays; I work and I do dances for [a class] called movement direction — my expertise is to help the actors find the best way to move for a particular play.

JA: In relation to spoken-word plays, what is the experience directing movement-based plays like?

SD: What it is is that, it’s really how dance and movement of the human body can actually tell a story in its own way, without words, and I work a lot with finding that, because in dance — and in creative writing, too, or poetry — a metaphor is used, so there’s a lot of imagery. So when the dance happens, hopefully the audience can have an experience of thinking of different images that come from what they see, rather than hearing words.

JA: What was the most rewarding part of the process?

SD: I think it was the cast and the process, the design — what I think of is the whole company. I think it was very collegial, and I think that everyone learned from each other, and it was inspiring. 

JA: What was the most challenging part of the process?

SD: The most challenging part was schedules. I guess that was it, but we had a good amount of time, plus a tag team to get everything together. 

JA: What do you hope the cast took away from being part of this piece?

SD: I’m hoping the cast got a lot of joy, and a lot of reinforced confidence, and an experience of life — being able to perform, and perform together, and really enjoy that.

—Lizzie Grossman