As a part of Festival 2023, fav-favorite Dorrance Dance brought their new work 45th and 8th to the Pillow. Aaron Marcellus is the composer of the music featured in 45th and 8th, and a longtime collaborator of Michelle Dorrance. Keep reading to learn more about his musical background and history with Dorrance Dance.
You composed the music for 45th and 8th, tell us about your musical background.
I grew up in a musical family, born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Gospel music is my roots. There were always instruments in the house. My mom is a singer, my dad was a cop who could sing, step dad was a degreed music teacher, he was a musician’s musician and taught at the church and college. I sang in church, played the piano and tried playing all the stuff. I was also largely interested in musical theater and started that when I was 12 and that’s really where I got my start.
How long have you been working with Michelle Dorrance? How did you two meet?
11 years. We actually met at one of her dance classes in New York City. We meet at Broadway Dance Center at 45th and 8th which is where the piece gets its name from. I moved to New York about 14 years ago. After moving to the city I jumped into dance class and she found out I was a singer. I was struggling in the back and she was very personable and came back the next week and said “I didn’t know you were a singer singer!” and I said “I’m here to learn how to dance!”
Tell us about the process of composing the music for 45th and 8th?
It was fast and furious! It’s an oxymoron but I was forced to be open and let it flow and that’s so hard when you’re trying to create in a fast timeline. But that’s how Michelle and I work. We’re both very open and we just tried everything. We saw what stuck for three months and we spent one week putting it all together. I did it literally note by note, chord by chord, and I let it speak to me as I went along. I envisioned the dancers and I could just see the show so I tried to create something that we could all love. I went in with the intention that as we come out of the pandemic, people want to feel safe. I wanted it to feel nostalgic with old funk roots and classic jazz feel but also provocative and risque to still feel like we’re moving forward.
What surprised you the most about this process?
How Michelle just said “ok!” She’s one of my dearest and best friends, she’s like a sister. We have this trust and confidence in each other. I asked her what she wanted and she said “I just wanna feel and I want it to feel good.” I sent her demos and I’d waited to hear back. She would say “I listened to the first few seconds and I wanna tell you, I loved it.” Michelle also told me that she will choreograph to whatever music I create.
Michelle isn’t just a dancer and a tapper, she’s also a musician. She played bass in an indie rock band and she’s got pipes! Not a lot of people know that about her. She could easily get in there and say what she wanted. She would come in and say, “that’s so fun! Can we get more of that! That’s really cool and groovy, gives us more of that!” It shocked me, the process of trust, it reminded me to trust myself and a lot of the process was intuitive. My artistic direction was “whatever you wanna do!”
What inspired you the most about this process?
What inspired me the most was the process that I had to go through to get here. I’ve been co-composing music for Dorrance Dance for years alongside Gregory Richardson who is Dorrance Dance’s Music Director and Michelle’s brother Donovan Dorrance who was once in the company and Nicholas Van Young who was Co-Artistic Director. It’s always been a collaborative effort. I’ve been performing with the company in various ways, sometimes a shuffle here and there, sometimes as a vocalist, sometimes as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. This is the first time I was asked to be the senior composer for an entire piece. It challenged me personally. I was in the middle of going through this imposter syndrome as a creator for all of these things.
I was around all of these people with pedigree and popularity. I didn’t go to school for music so I was around all these people who went to school for it. When I started writing music, I didn’t write with me in mind while singing it. I said “I wanna prove that I can trust myself. I need to write and compose first before I can sing. I will sing if you want me to but I need to do this first. I need to bust out of this “I’m scared closet.”” I know there’s all these people who will come and pick me apart but I’m doing this for me to sing out in public for me. To see the response, and follow the heart ya know?
This trauma comes from someone in my past telling me I couldn’t sing or play. I was on American Idol and made it to the third season. We were trying to figure out where to go and I called an old mentor and she told me I couldn’t sing something by a specific artist. That struck me to my core. I didn’t approach singing with any kind of confidence because of this. That same person, when I got into dance, told me I was losing my focus.. If I listened to that, I would never be playing and writing music and performing with Michelle Dorrance. The universe will bring people to you who will squeeze the very best out of you. That culture forces it out of you. You will explode like a shooting rocket and I’m in that now. Michelle approached me and said “what are you gonna do? Will you compose this for us?”
What is it like to see the finished product at the Pillow specifically?
Fun. Emotional. Listening to the acoustics in the room is amazing. Since I am playing I don’t get to step out and watch it so I have to trust the sound that comes back to me and the response of the audience. I don’t wanna set music on people that they dont love. It makes me so happy to see my coworkers humming music, it’s a nice show that I’m doing the right things and on the right track.
What’s it like performing this piece at the Pillow specifically?
Ah-mazing. Again, it’s me sitting at that piano and it’s that moment of gratitude and humility. I’m learning as I go and it’s in real time. Sometimes you gotta get out of your head and perform at a place like that and just be raw. It’s a journey every time and it’s been so fun. That’s been my favorite. Getting up there and playing the music that comes out of me. That’s really cool.
What’s next for you?
Next week on Wednesday, we’ll be performing this piece at Summer Stage and Dorrance Dance graciously asked my band, The Marcellus Collective, to open up. We’ll do a whole 45 minute set. It’s an eclectic indie soul band.It’s the day after my birthday. The Marcellus Collective is also working on an album that we’re hoping will come out next Fall.
You can follow the next steps of Aaron’s journey on Instagram @TheAaronMarcellus.
This Pillow Pick was written by Lucas Esteves and published on August 11th, 2023