Critical Correspondence
Responses: Yvonne Meier’s This is not a Pink Pony
by Melanie Maar Experiencing immediacy, aliveness. The dancers engaging fully in potentially dangerous operations with jump ropes, their bodies, gravity and the first row audience. Immediate, live, anything can happen. These tuned bodies go beyond the comfortable, the ‘planable’. In the artistic environment it engages me on more than an athletic body plane. This moment, […]
Responses: Best Performances of 2006 by people who aren’t my friends
by Chrysa Parkinson INCUBATOR, by Philipp Gehmacher, premiered 2006 performed by: Sabina Holzer, David Subal, Clara Cornil and Philipp Gehmacher Like having your brain licked by distant rabbits. A few times I thought “what is this? Laban with no legs?” because there’s some sense of geometry/order that you can feel is known to the performers, […]
Responses: The Sixth Borough
by Jonah Bokaer The first thing I hear after exiting the building is a loud police siren. The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia is closing down for the day, and I’m lugging a bunch of props and set objects awkwardly out the front door. I’ve just said goodbye to the curators of the museum, […]
Responses: Tere O’Connor’s Baby
by Abigail Levine I usually go about creating performance material with the aim of making an audience think, but I have come to realize that, as an audience member, I am most affected by dance that makes me feel something first. In these best instances, I have a feeling that I can’t quite identify or […]
Responses: Koosil-ja’s Dance Without Bodies
by Rachel Bernsen I was mesmerized by Koosil-ja‘s Dance Without Bodies, performed at The Kitchen in December 2006. What really stuck out was Koosil-ja and Melissa Guerrero’s absolute focus on multiple TV screens, playing three different loops of evocative moving images. The act of miming and/or interpreting what they saw forced them outside of the […]
Responses: There are places I remember…
by Sarah Maxfield I fell in love with performance because of its ability to transport me to another place. As a kid in the Midwest, I could find this transformative magic in the touring company of a Broadway show. Now, as a working artist and ever-more-seasoned New Yorker, I find it harder and harder to […]
Correspondence from Levi Gonzalez: Thoughts on Springdance Dialogue
The US component of the Netherlands’ highly regarded Springdance festival is a multinational partnership between Springdance, Dance Theater Workshop, and Dance Agency TSEH in Moscow. For a two–week period in October 2006, ten artists–in–residence at Dance Theater Workshop will engage in a dialogue about their artistic inspirations, ideas and working methods, leading to a series […]
iLand: Impressions from Jennifer Monson
Some notes after Friday, September 22nd Discussion with iLAB participants. We sat at the park by the East River in LIC on the grass and on a stonewall. Bright sun and clear skies and a breeze. Loud sounds of the building being constructed next to us that quieted at noon for the lunch break, mocking […]
iLand: Feedback & Final Impressions from Lise Brenner
I appreciated how carefully [Michelle and Hope] worked to make this an evolving experience that stayed true to both of your interests, and also took into account the feedback of the group. That worked very well, and I think it was reflected in how differently Soundwalk #1 and Soundwalk #2 went – not really that one was better than […]
iLab: Feedback/Final Impressions: Laura Hymers
From the first day of iLab, I had great respect for the investigative, supportive, and creative environment Michelle and Hope established. It was evident that you respect each other as artists/collaborators and trusted yourselves as well as the group of people invited to work with you. The collaborative/open energy was wonderful and allowed for what […]
iLand: Feedback & Final Impressions from Biba Bell
Thinking about sound and movement: Often times when I’m dancing I experience this sense of conversation, of dialogue — drawing me into the moment, the space, relationships, etc. Working on the iLand project I was able to more fully explore and articulate this dialgue with sound — sound as a medium, sound as a force, sound as a description, […]
iLand: Feedback & Final Impressions from Alejandra Martorell
I tend to latch on to something visible and repeatable from an experience, in order to fool myself into thinking that I got it. Yesterday I sat down for a few minutes to meditate using my ears and the sounds coming and going as a way in—and out—thinking, being, finding the present moment. This was […]
iLand: Feedback & Final Impressions from Yves Musard
Just wanted to add to the correspondence some thoughts that came to me after our two week laboratory. It is still quite early this morning, just after the last star vanished. Leaving tomorrow to France for two weeks. Short visit between Paris, Grenoble and Marseille, combination of dance project, applied dance project and support to […]
iLand: Feedback & Final Impressions from Robbie Cook
Although, for various reasons, I was only able to be there the first week sans both soundwalks, it was a great lab for getting back into a personal practice of being. I was really inspired by the open environment created by Michelle, Hope and the group, and the baby Uta. He was a special auditory […]
iLand: Feedback & Final Impressions from Rebecca Wender
For me this process was most unique in how it simultaneously nurtured me as a person and artist and pushed me to reach outside my comfort zone with my perception and my body. I think this is an ideal state of process for any artist, and I don’t know if I’ve experienced it in such […]
