Stefanie Batten Bland’s Dance Piece ‘Look Who’s Coming To Dinner’ Contemporary Version Of The 1967 Film

Jerome Robbins Award-winning Choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland will present her critically acclaimed theatrical dance piece Look Who’s Coming to Dinner on January 14th and 15th as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston. Additionally, it will be performed at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in New Jersey on March 31st and April 1st. The piece is directly inspired by the 1967 Stanley Kramer film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which starred Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Houghton and centered around an interracial engagement.

Look Who’s Coming to Dinner is performed by seven diverse dancers who “excavate interlaced universal traumas through imagery and ritual as they seek a seat at the table. The tables morph to become walls, doors, screens, containers and, at one point, a mode of transportation.” It explores the complexity of racial, gender and class. The show first premiered in 2020, and has been seen at La MaMa and Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages.

Forbes spoke with Batten Bland about what inspired her to create this piece. We also discussed what questions the piece poses and how much improvisation is brought to this performance from the rehearsal period.

Risa Sarachan: What inspired you to create this piece?

Stefanie Batten Bland: It is a wonderful feeling when a presenter asks you what you’d like to make. Or what are are you currently percolating upon. That is what happened in 2018. La MaMa and Crossing The Line Festival were collaborating for the 2019 edition as co-presenters and both spaces, meaning FIAF and La MaMa, are spaces I co-exist in. I had been simply awaiting an opportunity to flesh out my full larger reaction to Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. So when I knew we were the hyphenated company they were looking at (meaning French and American) it made since that this work, which would be in conversation with the film, and had been a hit both domestically and internationally would be the ideal moment bring our lets say “sequel” to light.

Sarachan: How familiar were you with the film before you started rehearsals? What made you think to revisit it?

Batten Bland: Quite, I had first seen it in high school in my film class. I was always attached to the fact that the actual table scene was at the end of the film. It brought the ritual and importance of gathering at the table, sharing a meal, breaking bread into the foreground though it was at the end. I was also fascinated by a construct that America still uses today – this boomerang toss effect of African Americans through a European lens and space and then back to United States to be more easily digestible in certain White American socio economic class contexts. There are several layers that fascinated me in the film at once. The obvious one of skin color, not so spoken about but also obvious to me of social class, education, and one of hiding in plain sight – that of the hetero-normative couples that Hepburn and Tracy played throughout their lives in public in order to protect their queer lives in private. The film has nestled inside of it several subjects and offers cultural conversation in multiple ways.

Sarachan: What questions do you feel the 1967 film contained that are still prevalent today?

Batten Bland: We still are in a systemic system that incorrectly identifies people in a cast system. We still act as if race is an actual scientific concept. We are still fighting to legalize love for all.

Sarachan: How important is the set in a piece like this?

Batten Bland: Extremely. Our tables are our doors; they are our first step into a home. I often say this piece is the sequel to the film because before you can make it to the table you have to make it through the door. At the door is where we must face our inner fear of “others.”

Sarachan: How much of your work is thought out beforehand and how much is influenced by what the performers bring to the piece through improvisations?

Batten Bland: All of it. And then I’m happy to throw all of it out the window.

Sarachan: How does it feel to finally be returning to live performance?

Batten Bland: It has been wonderful performing again. Outdoors as well as in.

Sarachan: What can audiences expect from this show?

Batten Bland: Care, vulnerability, and individuals all seeking the right to be.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tickets for The Celebrity Boston Series can be purchased here.