Francesca Harper

Francesca Harper, when did you begin singing in performance? Years ago with the Frankfurt Ballet. William Forsythe asked me to sing in some of his productions and when he heard that I had a voice, he started creating roles for me that required singing. A producer came to one of the performances and asked me if I wanted to start record-ing, so that’s when I started recording.

What pieces by Forsythe included these vocalizations? “Isabella’s Room” was one; “Sleepers Guts” and “Alien/A(c)tion” were other productions I sang in …

Have you been trained vocally? I have, I’ve done a lot of training. Especially since I’ve been back in New York.

Are any of your current performances just dance or singing now? I combine the genres all the time if I’m creating my own work on my own company. If I’m doing a commission for a company, I’ll do a straight dance piece.

So when you choose your company members, they have to both sing and dance? Sometimes I hire some that don’t, but pretty much all my dancers now require either acting and dancing, or singing and dancing. So they have to be multifaceted. It also  helps them trust themselves more, and creates this vulnerability, that usually if you’re dancing ...