Let’s go back to your Hysterica days, which formally ended in 2009, but you continued doing several shows through 2014. Having personally covered you since 1998, I felt that you not only had the coolest dancers—Grammy-nominated, Emmy winning choreographer, Ryan Heffington, for example, and choreographer/director Nina McNeely, who recently helmed Doja Cat’s video, “Paint The Town Red”—and über-sexy costumes, but your choreography and use of music was always so exciting, as well. What was your process—steps, music or idea first?

The idea came first, then music, then steps. I loved to mosh different styles of music: Putting something classical against Kate Bush, [for example], that was one of my favorite things to do. But definitely, the idea was first, then I would select the music and then I would typically pull images. For “Sticks & Stones” [2002], I was working with people I had at the moment. That piece was very current; Ryan danced and I used Grey Ant, Greg [Krajecki’s] fashion line. 

For “Victorious” [2004], I was working off images from Egon Schiele, and also looking at Victorian images of women. I was drawing from those two points of view and again, moshing them. Also, working with particular dancers in the company gave me so much inspiration.

It was a long time ago, but what’s exciting to me, the whole community has stuck together. We’re all kind of on this journey together. Even though the company doesn’t exist, and I’m not making work, I think out of that company, and I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but the work I did with people is kind of still living on. It’s filtered down to Ryan, Nina and their work, and [choreographer/actress/dancer] Denna Thomsen into her work. It feels like there are ripples of it that are still rippling. 

People would say I’m the godmother of this new contemporary dance in L.A.—that a big thing for me has been mentoring all those people. I’m glad they don’t say grandmother—that’s a whole other thing!

Yes, godmother, I agree! I’m wondering how has having had a dance company helped with your opera career and do you hire the dancers for the many operas you’ve choreographed?

I do hire the dancers for the opera, but for this production of “Romeo and Juliet,” it’s the chorus that’s dancing. But I do what I did for Hysterica: get a mix of people, so everybody’s represented. The styles of dance are demanded by the production. They may need classical dancers for one production, and for [last season’s] “Turandot,” we needed acrobats with special skills. But I try to represent what the world is like here in L.A., or the way the world looks everywhere, and incorporate that into the casting.

My work with Hysterica absolutely did help. I understood how to do everything: I cast the shows, I produced the shows; we did not have a stage manager. I coordinated the costumes and had Ryan making them. I did all of the jobs I’d done at the opera on a very small scale, so I was prepared for the collaborative experience that happens in the opera. It’s important, because it’s this glorious scale that they’re operating on. 

I knew a longer format, but back then, you would make a five-minute piece, a 10-minute piece, and that would be it. But I understood the trajectory of storytelling over time. That’s what really helped me the most.

Your first gig with LAO was choreographing “Romeo and Juliet,” in 2005. What initially attracted you to the art form?

I stumbled into opera, honestly. My friend Sergio Trujillo was supposed to do the original “Romeo and Juliet,” but he got a Broadway show and recommended me. I was totally hooked after that first experience. It’s like a magnified version of what I would do with Hysterica—using music and bodies to make these long-form experiences, only now we have singers who could take that musical experience up to another level that I couldn’t have imagined. 

In the dance world, only in my mind’s eye could I imagine the scale of these productions. What I really love about opera is all of these elements—the music, the costumes, the singing, the movement—everything coming together, making this immersive experience.