performance

Baroque? Thematically and presentationally oppulent. Hmm, presentationally minimal but exertionaly opulent. Well, the dance was meticulously choreographed and executed but still minimal in that contemporary dance way, it was the set and the costumes that were pregnant with iconography. ? The Pieta and a line of Sarah Michelson loggo-ed track suits. Plus the Richard Maxwell text, being read aloud live by Sarah herself. Oh yes and running. Lot and lots of running. Over and Over again. With the mesmerizing spinning – I was suddenly struck – Beautiful! Truly.

Not something one usually says about a contemporary dance. Usually my hallmark is intellectually challenging, but this piece was all that but also on an emotional level just beautiful. I was entranced. The endurance of the dancers, the swells in music, courtesy of one Phillip Glass. All of it, at times, a repetitive drone. Yet all so grand.

An apt analogy of the entire experience comes (recursively) from the dance’s own set piece – a giant hanging bulge of scoop lights. At one point they all come on at full brightness and the whole contraption starts to swing like a giant bell. The light is harsh and hard to ignore, yet it is mesmerizing. The repetition is grating, yet the motion is enticing – beautiful.

Sarah Michelson is considered a choreographer, and she is a brilliant one, but for me it is her mastery and attention to detail over all the elements, the dance, the music, the set, the lighting, the costumes, the subject matter, the sum of all of these that I really enjoy.

Glad I made this trip, all the way to Minneapolis, to see this.

I got to catch this performance, Shana Moulton’s one-act opera, at the New Museum. I missed it when it was at the Kitchen and I have a feeling I would have enjoyed it there even more. I love the Kitchen and its space, as much as I dislike the oddly conference roomy feel of the space at the New Museum. Though oddly, both performances I’ve seen at the Museum so far, seemed to have been served well by that atmosphere.

Anyhoo – Whsipering Pines 10 – I really enjoyed this show. There was a vibrance too it, a liveness if you will, despite the heavily reliant on digital projection set, that I really enjoyed. It mighty have had something to do with the live singing. Also it was unapolegetically kitschy! And funny! Whimsical? “In touch with current trends in performance.” A fun ride, even the digital backdrop, as super-low tech as it was, was engaging. Does any of this make any sense? no? well, the point is – I really enjoyed the show!

What a wonderful intimate experience this was. And the first of it’s kind since moving to Chicago. I wonder how audiences here feel about it, in Emily’s native Alaska they were not as excited about it as I am. For the first few minutes of the piece, the people sitting to the right of my wife kept asking each other rather loudly, “Where is the dance?” And were quite excited when deliberate movement finally made it’s appearance. I guess calling the whole thing a dance piece might be a bit of a misnomer, since dance is not the centerpiece, but simply one of the many tools Emily Johnson uses to create the atmosphere for the evening.

An atmosphere focused on storytelling in general, but also her story in particular, on issues of culture and identity and native peoples, but also the particular history of each space she performs in. An atmosphere evoking a campfire gathering, complete with a dim glow lighting all of our faces and fall leaves rustling among us. An atmosphere that feels interactive and inclusive but not annoyingly so. An atmosphere beautifully underscored by live music, but also at times focused on sonic/movement exploration. In short an exploration, an experiment, a wonderful shared journey.

Check to see if Emily Johnson is coming to your city or town on her website.

Photo: Salzburg Wolfgang Kirchner

It starts with a “Re-Enactment.” Ooh, I love those! Except the artifice is palpable. Not quite sure what to make of this, but suddenly a camera rolls on “to film” a number of close ups of fallen soldiers. This part is beautiful. I feel like I’m under water while one of those submarine thingies with the lights illuminates the depths. So this piece is about mediation? When are they gonna roll the live video feed from the camera?

Not quite, suddenly the scene erupts into a party and post production celebratory congratulations. In between this and the end we also get to watch a “documentary” set in Afghanistan. The beginning is slightly comical, but I’m not sure. Again the artifice is there, but we go with it, when the scene erupts into sudden violence. The credits roll. But this is only the middle of the performance – it ends not with a climax but silence, at least on the part of the performers as they stand still watching some fireworks – loud, colorful and possibly lethal, as the explosive sounds they make are not unlike those on a battlefield (mirroring the re-enactment in the beginning). We also get snippets of atrocities in Africa, and dealing with cancer and infidelity, just like the different moments that make up our lives. These are not poignant diatribes or admonishments or calls to action, but mere mentions, asides, things that get lost as new things come along or the action shifts.

I was not satisfied when I left the MCA that night, nothing seemed solid enough to merit reflection and deep analysis. Too many genres and topics mixed in. Did I see a performance or watch a documentary or just some people who wandered on stage – a few were performing “themselves.” But in retrospect I wonder if this performance was an all too accurate reflection of our times. Genres and media, personal and global tragedies and triumph are flying past us each new one capturing our attention but the overload not allowing us to delve deep and focus on any one of them.

Just look at those amazing dancing robots! Dancing to Ravel’s Bolero no less.

<mini-rant> Is this the future of “live” performance? At first it’s amazing to watch all of these robots move in a synchronized fashion and I’m sure the effect is multiplied the more robots you would add, can you imagine a sea of thousands of them?

But after a while it becomes tedious to watch a machine go through the motions. They never tire, there is no discipline or hours of training and practice involved. As a performance I think it’s an interesting novelty but it lacks precisely the exact elements that make watching a live person perform so fascinating. I’m not saying robots have no future in performance but I don’t think this is it.</mini-rant>

Just saw it at the MCA Chicago. A lot of creative talent went into this thing, a fashion designer, an architect, musician and composer, and of course a choreographer, but at least for me, the sum may not have been greater than the parts in this piece. I was distinctly aware of all these different elements and found myself examining them separately instead of a cohesive whole. This is my first experience with the Seldoms, so I’m curious to see some more of their work. I’m also really curious to see what you thought of marchland, so let me know.

march 12 – 14
museum of contemporary art
chicago, il

Young Jean Lee interviewed by Richard Maxwell

I just love artist interviews. I love being able to see into an artist’s mind.

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Speaking of Videos, On the Boards recently launched a new project called OnTheBoards.tv. It’s a paid content site where you can purchase or rent videos of contemporary performance – theater, dance, performance art, etc. For example you can purchase a right to watch the entierty of Young Jean Lee’s excellent and thought provoking “The Shipment.” (see my review here)

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When I saw this at the MCA chicago this past weekend I was not aware that it is a re-enactment, re-creation, “re-activation” of a piece that was originally performed in 1965. I wish I could have seen the original, in it’s original time more than 40 years ago, as such I am grateful I was able to at least see a re-activated version. That would explain why it felt not entirely current, I felt like there was an element missing, but now I understand that feeling to simply be the result of watching a re-doing, instead of the original doing.

Even so, I thought they did a remarkable job of altering the space with their actions, movement and props. The stage was continually evolving and morphing, we were part of their collective reshaping/constructing, and each scene created a full powerful landscape complete with new inhabitants embodied by the dancers.

I think a classically trained ballet dancer would have a hard time seeing any dance at all, but it was perfect for me, despite the fact that it felt a little like an extended exercise. I think any re-enactment will always feel like that, but I will gladly take that in exchange for a chance to see something resurrected from the past I would otherwise not get to see.

NOTE: you can catch it in new york city, it will be at DTW next week, part of the performa 09 biennial.

Heaven is visually quite stunning. If performance simply existed for the sole purpose to be photographed, or if this happened to be a site-specific installation with a live performance component, where the audience was free to come and go and experience it on their own terms, this might have been perfect.

I was very excited to see the ps122 space transformed into something so white, yet plush, a matressy, doily, embroidred, bandaged, quilted space. From the pillars to the audience seating to the onstage sound equipment everything was transformed to fit into this new environment. As the audience was filling-in, the dancers were already in movement, setting the mood, with their slow deliberate and trance like circling of the space. This movement tableaux was quite arresting with the performers moving in and out of your consciousness.

Morgan Thorson’s pursuit of a “a real-time performance ritual” that moves from the “religious to the theatre world” is commendable. However, I’m not sure it worked. I was intrigued visually, I admired the lighting (and the haze machine) while listening to the sublime trance inducing slowcore of LOW (Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker), but overall the performance was a little too stuck on ritual and I wasn’t able to get much more out of it.

In general I think re-enactments, and experiments in liveness are great, but for many of them, when they start to go into religious, or even simply, spiritual territory, as this show does with a few overtones, as long as they are in a theater, along with us (an audience), all of their attempts at authenticity only serve to highlight the artifice of what they are doing.

At first I was surprised by the very formal and literally very colorful exploration. James Dean? Crisp and minimal. Is this really Miguel? If there was any doubt in the beginning by half-way we are in familiar territory laughing along. A threesome follows, and the biggest 3 person party/rave I have ever seen. Extreme catharsis followed by a return to darkness, restraint, structure and even 3 body doubles.

The whole thing seemed extremely theatrical, what with the scripts, repetition, and performance within a performance. I particularly loved the parts where the movements were meticulously narrated. A glimpse into the dancers/performers brain?

Obviously he is doing something right, tonight it was sold out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the remaining two nights were also.

how ’bout a video? (scroll to the bottom)