I choreographed my live dance in relation to Sandra's video, which originally integrated abhinaya and theory on exoticism.
password "NET"
Here is the latest experiment with expanding Tell Me, Sister. I post this only for the sake of dialogue, for the footage taken this day stays zoomed out the whole time, which unfortunately means that you can't see any of the video on my back or the nuances of abhinaya, and thus lose the majority of the intent of the work. However, several things may be useful to watch. If you watch the end starting at 9:30, you'll get a sense of the transition from the sitting abhinaya to skin. Currently I don't think this works, as it seems to visually distract from my performance rather than undermining the courtesan by inscribing her with societal discourse or making the audience aware of their gaze upon her. Also under debate is how I transition from widow to courtesan, which not everyone is finding believable. To see this transition as currently stands, watch from 5:50.
At the moment I feel this solo is no longer holding together as a cohesive whole -- like it's trying to accomplish too much and exploding at the seams. At this moment I'd like to let it explode, fragment, be blown apart and freed from the narrative structure it's currently encased in to see what might happen. Incidentally, a friend who's experienced abuse compared the experience to being exploded apart -- fragmented -- and that as you try to put yourself together, you never quite achieve the same "wholeness" as before. So too the histories of the courtesan are fragmented, incomplete, and irrecoverable. I wonder if we can reflect this compositionally.
Also, here are notes I took based on the feedback session we had after the Sunday show, with respondents Carole Kim (who focuses on live video performance and performance-based video installation) and Carol McDowell (dancer, improviser, interdisciplinary artist).
This is so interesting....in one way it seems Cynthia is Sandra's mirror (in the very beginning), but then it evolves a relationship of longing between Sandra and Cynthia like a long distance love relationship. Love in separation...
ReplyDeleteI think it holds the long-distance communication idea in it, and also, like Anj see the potential for the long distance love. The problem I had when directing it for the love relationship, is that Sandra's gaze is always above Cyn and looking out to the distance, whereas Cynthia is actually right there under her nose!
ReplyDeleteThis center view is how we imagined the audience seeing it makes it really like two people. However, I have another video with the camera angle from the side and it starts to look like trio, cause the placement of the shadow vs Cyn's body is really different. Would be interesting if one of the Cynthia's liked Sandra and the other one didn't. I can't imagine how to do that though!
I've been wondering about the scale of Sandra's video - maybe I should try working with it at a more human scale?
ReplyDeleteNOTE 1: I think it could be a series somehow, maybe of live/projected duets, OR of different people dancing with same projection
ReplyDeleteNOTE 2: It should include the whole movement section, as this way one sees only part of how it develops. I have a feeling the later parts with more movement give more scope to respond/duet. Might clarify intention. Would be hard to re-tape now with the same scene, since the construction site is no longer there.....but same location will have different stuff there now. Except, right now full of snow....
NOTE 3: I miss the text in this version.
If you're interested I'll try re-choreographing what I do to one of your clips of the entire movement section without the words. We did try it with the text earlier, and the people watching found the words hard to read/distracting/giving the wrong sort of message about our relationship.
ReplyDeleteMight actually be interesting to have you do the same (or similar) movement sequence at the same site but in the snow and with different objects there: showing that time has passed.