New Work!

Sacre Bleu! Or, Camembert 8 Euros. is an investigation into what it means to allow one’s self to be seen.  This performance-as-research project has grown out of readings by/about strippers/peep-show dancers, and well as a visit to Amsterdam’s famous Red Light District.  I am exploring the implications of putting the body on display, and subsequently the affects of viewing the human body as commodity.  Is there a difference between being looked at and being seen?  Where and how do these women (as well as the performers) grant permission to be viewed, and what is it they really show?

I currently envision the work as a series of experiments, each structured in response to the setting.  I have applied for stage performances and studio residencies (very “safe” environment)s, but ideally I would like to have a development phase situated in a window/storefront space, so that the investigations take place under the real experience of observation (“risk-taking” environment).  Also, time and duration in an installation setting are completely different than in stage performance, which adds interesting factors to the research.      

The first experiment of Sacre Bleu! had three sections and was performed for the Micro Museum’s 25^th anniversary.  First, arms and legs appear through slits in a glitzy fabric.  Next, the performers emerge (currently two women) and text based on images from French Vogue is introduced.  Finally, the third and least developed part, fondly referred to as “The Cheese Section,” is a monologue en Francais, professing love of the food.

I began working on the first two sections during a residency at Performing Arts Forum in St. Erme France in August, although the idea of putting body parts through fabric came into being during a Movement Research workshop with Barbra Dilley in June.  I am interested in the simultaneous show girl/display and disconnection for the whole that happens when a leg is seductively exposed.  I am curious what affect fragmentation of the body will have on the viewer, and think I can push further toward disconnection here than I have thus far.  There is also potential for humor, and I am not yet sure how that fits into the work.  The type of fabric used in this section also requires further experimentation in order to achieve greater isolation of limbs. 

I brought an issue of French Vogue with me to St. Erme, and began by writing in response to images I saw.  Once my poem of sorts was created, I began to source movement invention ideas from images in the magazine.  When I returned to Brooklyn I set the movement on another body (Tara Sheena) while I remained the vocal presence on stage, further exploring disconnection of the body, and bringing up questions about how power shifts between performers.  

Initially imitating the calls of a Dutch cheese monger, The Cheese Section finally clicked for me after an improvisation session with Contemplative Dance Practice NYC.  I began playing with a declaration of love to fromage (Oh, camembert! Gorgonzola-la-la! Bleu!).  While the latter worked in performance, the idea of selling and commodity disappeared.  I need to reconsider what purpose this material serves in order to rework it.

After this experiment, an audience member suggested play with the idea of antique peep-show machines, where viewfinders limit and focus the individual viewer’s gaze.  This would be perfect to play with in a store-front setting.  Also, after passing an advertisement for it near Times Square, I’ve become fascinated by Nyotaimori, or the eating sushi off of a naked woman (or man).   

The connection between food and pleasure is age-old, but it is the body display and proximity to those viewing is what intrigues me.  Examining “looking” at such a micro level, the shift from “looking” to “touching” seems a massive one.  Perhaps there is something in that ot explore as well.   

Ten Months Later...

Wow. So I sort of left things hanging with this blog. At some point the process gets too big, unwieldy and fast-moving for me to keep track of it in writing (beyond my trusty notebook). And that's when I always let blog updates lag.

We created THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES OF MATERIAL. From October to March. Good material, mostly. But we had to pare it down to TWENTY-FIVE minutes. And we did. We cut. First large sections, then more surgical incisions were made - little bits (even single gestures) were taken out. We overlapped, increasing visual juxtaposition, filling out the space. We got into a rhythm. And it was great. I've never been so proud of something I've made. I've never felt so rewarded and fulfilled by a process of creation. I was sad when it was over - but it hasn't left my mind these ten months hence.

My next project, Sacre Bleu, or Camembert 8 Euros, has been trickling into being since the summer. It began with some reading, a trip to the Redlight District in Amsterdam, and a residency at Performing Arts Forum in St. Erme France. I workshopped a duet version, with UM alum Tara Sheena, at Brooklyn's Micro Museum in October. Now that it is January 2012, I'm planning the next steps. Part of beginning something new is reflecting on what you've done last - and this next project seems a natural continuation of Secret Poets to me. And since (after a long break) I'm about to dive back into the written portion of my thesis, I should have plenty of avenues for reflection.

Here are some images from our dress rehearsal:
Secret Poets of the Crushed Shadows - Photos by Suby Raman

And here are some hastily cobbled together video excerpts I needed for a proposal:

More Titling

And some interesting text...

Nola lent me Jim Carroll's book of poetry Living at the Movies because of some of the ocean imagery, and I've been drawing some lines from it, and from my imagination.

The current lead is: Secret Poets of the Crushed Shadows

The first half was sprung off one of Carroll's poem titles and crushed shadows are a loss of definition in the shadows of an underexposed photograph or film.

Some other brainstorming thoughts are:

The Orchid People

Firefly People

anxious with the thoughts of bare oceans

Age of Oceans

incandescent exposure

indecent

lovely confusion

lovely confusion on a summer night

Firefly Lanterns

The Sheerlings

To the secret poets of (the dusk)

Secret poets of the dusk

(To the) secret poets of the crushed shadows

Dusk-time Poets

The age of underexposure

The Firefly Poets: Secret people of the dusk

The Firefly People: Secret poets of the dusk

Sheerlings of the Dusk

Shearlings of the Dusk

Text, some original, most Carroll quotes:

…. on the beach in a snowless winter…

… anxious with the thoughts of bare oceans

that move in the thighs of an eventual sunlight

like bathers moving closer to their season

when again gulls perch in their lovely confusion

"alone," as now, the sand sifting through

your fingers like another's darkness. it's true,

you are always too near and I am everything…

you sit to have waves rush to your open hands

and you're surprised as cities grow there

have you seen the sculptor that makes reefs out of concrete statues? who casts likenesses out of concrete? and on their (concrete) faces grow corals of every color?

do you know?

sitting on the embankment of your mind, watching the fireflies converge, i opened my heart to you on a summer night

by the bioluminescent embankment the fireflies synchronize and i open

The lines about the reefs were inspired by the artwork of Jason desCaires Taylor. He creates concrete sculptures, which he sinks in the ocean to create reefs, and all manner of sea creatures attach themselves. Pretty amazing. Here are two of my favorite images:

Big Day! Photoshoot

Today we did a photo shoot with A&D MFA Colin Mc Rae. Colin did Susie, Sean & my promo photos for our CP&D show last April, "Three Times Fast".

Our MFA show is titled En-com-pass (but with dots in between, not hyphens, like in the dictionary). It came out of the fact that we each journeyed to do our research over the summer, and we anticipate having a map as the background of our publicity materials. Encompass works because the show encompasses three very different perspective/aesthetics, but also because it includes the word "compass", and we're thinking about the different directions we have gone/are going.

Working with Colin is always a pleasure. We did some shots of me, Suz & Sean, but for my own shoot I put together two looks for the dancers - one warm and frilly, the other black and sheer.

None of the images have been retouched - for instance I'd like to photoshop out the yellow lines on the floor and crop or fix some other small things.

French Vogue + Chanson = Perfect

I'm trying to make a solo based on this image from French Vogue:

Or perhaps more specifically, I'm trying to make a dance for this DRESS.

And with the Juliette Greco version of "Sous le ciel de Paris" (as opposed to the Edith Piaf version):

Molly and I started work on this by playing with mouthing the words from the song, as if reading a letter. Letters might be a sub-theme that runs under the current of the work. We've generated material based on writing letters to our deepest darkest fears, and I found Leighton Pierce's use of a letter as an abstracted narrative in his film "37th & Lex" (which is also of interest for his use of light.) You can see it here: http://vimeo.com/8640936

I think I subconsciously stole the idea of mouthing the words from Pina Bausch's "The Man I Love", where the performer is speaking (rather than singing) along to a Gershwin(?) song, in addition to translating the words to sign language. There is something in this juxtaposition that is unsettling, and that is what I would like to achieve (and perhaps a little humor too) in this solo for Molly, whose acting skills have been quite excellent! I'm not quite sure how to achieve this exactly, but we're off to a good start!

Describing my work...

Here's what went into our press release about my work. It always feels difficult because you have to be self-aggrandizing in these situations.

Jessica Bonenfant, creative director of Brooklyn based Lola Lola Dance Theatre, presents a twenty-five minute work for five female performers. Bonenfant uses the medium of dance theatre and incorporates multimedia technology to evoke images that inhabit the space between dusk and nightfall, the hour when fireflies appear on a mild summer night. The work addresses concepts of exposure: emotional vulnerability, corporeal revelation and photographic processes, all framed by the multi-sensory human experience. Working from embodiment of embedded memories, photographic imagery, and fictional narratives, Bonenfant juxtaposes, superimposes and overlaps collaboratively created vignettes to create an intimate, moving and visually stunning experience.

Much of the imagery is based on travel to Paris, Montpellier and Marseille, France, and Bonenfant herself will be designing an immersive projection environment that will be populated by the moving, speaking and even singing bodies of Jillian Hopper, Isabella Ingles, Julie Learned, Molly Ross and Nola Smith. Set pieces (by Janine Woods) and costumes will be illuminated by LED technology engineered by multi-media artist William Stanton. The sound score will collage American contemporary folk, early country, and indie rock with French chanson and pop music.

Yelle, continued

On Wednesday I had a record hour of productivity. After a long and active day, I peaked with the creation of three phrases to “Ce jeu” on repeat. Afterward, I went home starving and dozed off at my computer (and then during a phone call, and then on the couch).

The choreography to “Ce jeu” is the first movement I have generated myself and passed off to the dancers in the traditional working manner. Thus far we have improvised and cultivated, or I have directed bodies moment by moment. I wanted to push myself past my normal boundaries with the movement, but I still wanted it to appear “signature”, so to speak. I wanted something athletic, but quirky.

The dancers picked up the material very quickly on Thursday, since we had less than an hour to work on it. Most of the cast was exhausted from rehearsing for the Power Center show, but they really pulled themselves together to learn the phrase work. I was exhausted too, still fatigued from Wednesday, and thinking less than sharply. But something about the combination of uplifting music and genuinely fun movement kept us going. The dancers are voting to use the Yelle song for the ending.