By Ann Hicks
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Choreographer/writer Diane Germaine has been busy this year. Fueled by project grants from the City of Cincinnati and the Ohio Arts Council, she's put together what she calls a provocative evening of dance. A premiere work, a revival and revision take place this weekend at the College Hill Town Hall.

We caught up with her recently to ask her a few questions.

IF YOU GO

What: A full-evening Choreography Project by Diane Germaine When: 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday Where: College Hill Town Hall, 1805 Larch Ave. Tickets: $15. Reservations: 731-8847

How would you describe your work?

Theatrical, multi-layered, very physical, strong, guaranteed to make one think about what they experienced, viewed.

In some pieces there is a comic element - usually a satire running parallel with the core of the work.

Usually my work presents some element of the human condition - questions I am always thinking about and probably will never solve (origins of violence and competition, indifference, loss, memories, beauty in simple moments) - and seen usually from the point of view of one of the characters.

What will audiences see at this concert?

This concert is a triptych comprised of Fallout (premiere), signature work Playground (from 1975 and reconstructed), and Such A Landscape (2000). The three works have a similarity (no doubt because the same individual created them), yet are different.

People will come away with differing thoughts and feelings about what each work meant to them and it will depend on what they are allowing themselves to identify with.

Ideally people would come back more than once - as with a film they have found provocative. I see life as beautiful in the one moment, but at the same moment there are also the sadnesses. I am intrigued with the kinds of things that happen in parallel time, like deaths and entrances.

What inspires you?

People and their feelings, their experiences, their abuses. How we treat one another, how we hope, dream, remember, endure losses, keep going.

Life has light and shadow ... and what may be beautiful also has a dark side, undertone ... and hope in tragic circumstances lies in the insistence of holding onto/remembering what was wonderful and might be/could be again.

When the show ends, what do you hope audiences will take away with them?

My hope, my wish is that everyone in the theater will be touched by something they experience and go home thinking about it.

What one thing about you would surprise people?

I don't feel anything about me should surprise anyone unless they are hidden themselves and are not open and cannot see.

What may surprise some ... that I'll need a "real job" when this concert is over. I am grateful for individual artist project funding both from the City of Cincinnati and the Ohio Arts Council, but in truth, it cannot cover both the dancers and all the production expenses.

E-mail ahicks@enquirer.com