Hey all,
i just got back from Plainfield Massachusetts, where i was in residence for a week with Pedro Alejandro dance. we went to participate in a festival called SEEDS (somatic experiments in earth dance and science). (http://www.earthdance.net/). while i think this name was a stretch for the festival it was a good opportunity to get some ideas out that i had been sitting on for a while. the core element of my participation in the piece was to build a sound suit for one of the performers. In this implementation, this is simply a suit (WOOL IS HOT) with a small lm386 op amp chip, a few capacitors, a 9v battery, and 4 4ohm speakers wired in series. i sewed the speakers into the suit, threaded the wires under the lining and put the amp/battery in the front breast pocket. the original intention was to have an FM transmitter that would let me compose live, and radio the composition to the suit. in the end we used an ipod with a prerecorded score, because i couldn't get a high powered transmitter for the performance (FUCKING FCC CAN SUCK MY DICK).... but, in any case the future versions of the suit will be way sweeter technically.
the festival itself was an interesting experience....i'm not sure i'm meant to work with dancers much more..... (except you awesome friends!) i found being the only non dancer at the festival to be alienating.... i'm not sure if this was due to a language barrier, or just that came to make some fucking art, and my art does not involve engagement with therapeutic practices for performers, or provide me with a platform to overcome emotional/spiritual issues......grrrrrrr.
i just feel that much of the dance world produces content that is a beneficial experience for the participants, but ultimately as a performance/ art object is not worth my attention, or is not accessible to those without the knowledge of the movement/dance vocabulary. While i think it is great that many people can use creative work to overcome challenges in their lives, i dont feel that this necessarily makes for good art.
one of the ideas i've been trying to get around in working with dancers is the problem in site specific dance/performance of the audio/sound scape. frequently i find that technical aspects of the performance are given secondary priority to choreography/ setting/costumes/ everything. i find my self getting really stressed out every time i do a performance, because i'm asked to do a weeks worth of prep work and setup in 4-5 hours..... and ultimately i end up having to sacrifice my vision for the piece to facilitate more rehearsal time/runthroughs....
one of the things that we started doing in performances was begin to dismantle the theatrical conventions of much dance work. I try to remove the proscenium line (read stage outline) established by a stereo loudspeaker setup. frequently a stereo pair of loud speakers forces the audience members to stand "in front" of the line drawn between the speakers. stereo is a lie. we try to make the audio sources for the piece site specific as well. by putting the sound source actually ON the performer, the focus of the viewers attention is directed to that position across multiple senses, rather than the sound "environment" in which the performer is situated and operates within. i'm done with being stuck in a static position, where my relationship to the performers is simply one of staging/establishing context.
so yeah, probs gonna take a break on dancers for a minute. ('cept at the club!)
lastly, i'm moving to austin with Cara and Elizabeth, across the street from Claire. i'll be there on the 30th. come visit us and make work!
love you guys,
R
1 comment:
i really agree with your thoughts on collaborating with dancers. i often feel like i'm speaking a totally different language from the "dance people" i've collaborated with.
i've found the dance world to be really open to discussion of emotion, spirituality, and energy-- concepts the fine art world generally dismisses for (perceived) lack of intellectual rigor. A lot of dancers are being genuine when they drop the A-word-- "authentic"-- while many contemporary fine artists and musicians are deeply skeptical about the viability of Authenticity as a measure of art (enter: Irony).
I think that us cold, detached fine artists (and our work) could benefit by occasionally letting down the irono-guard and allowing our Feelings to dictate decisions once in a while.
That said, I think that many choreographers could benefit from a cold, hard, product-oriented analysis of their work. Often the dance process is so sacred that the final product suffers. It's not okay to leave huge chunks of your performance (lighting, sound, staging) unconsidered until the last minute. I've seen professional dance companies do this and I'm so shocked by the crappy presentation that I can't focus on the movement. The only time crappy presentation is okay, of course, is when the conceptual goal is to Unperform, to snub Product-oriented art altogether, to point out that product-oriented process is an oxymoron. If that's the case, this point should be made clear.
Maybe if we knew as much about dance history as we did about art history, we'd work better with these mysterious people.
Maybe both teams should take a time out, read up on each other's history and theory, and then come back together to collaborate-- in the same language.
-katie
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