Category Archives: Performance

Musical Performance: Right HERE/Right NOW

[UPDATE! Here/Now has finally posted the group portrait for the night and has written a short piece on the event; check it out here…]

Here/Now Group Portrait
Don't we look great?

Last night I had the pleasure of playing an improvised set at Paige Barnes’ and Christopher Hydinger’s HERE/NOW improvisational performance event. This is their description of Here/Now: ‘HERE/NOW consists of 8 Dancers and 8 Musicians randomly paired together and given 8 minutes to improvise a duet.’

I was one of the musicians and I was the last selected to play. I haven’t done a lot of improvised music so this was definitely a daunting moment for me. I have a lot of faith in myself as a performer so the fear was kept at bay easily with cigarettes and bubbly water.

Dancer Beth Graczyk and I were selectively partnered. I’ve known Beth for a minute; been fascinated with her dancing for a longer time. As soon as she said ‘hello’ on the street on our way into the performance space I had a feeling we’d be working together.

It couldn’t have been any better either. I brought silver bowls and blue enamel camping mugs, a lot of dried beans, and a set of shiny tiffin pots. Beth had her own inspiring self.

We opened with an expectant looking Beth staring at me and doing some light, jerky full-body twitching while I slowly poured beans into a large stainless steel bowl. The beans made pinging noises and the sound gradually became lower in tone as the beans filled the bowl. But who cares? What’s more important is what happened.

Beth at some point decided to throw herself into my large collection of cups and bowls and landed on her back, head shaking among the kitchen ware. Beans were splashing to the floor and over both of us. I worried that the sharp noises might injure her ears (it’s metal on metal!), but she showed nothing except abandon and so we raised the pitch.

Somehow, I’m really not sure how, Beth grabbed me, dragged me, wrestled me away from the pots and through a lake of spilled beans to the middle of the dance floor. I kept trying to keep at least one thing to bang on, but she was kicking me and I couldn’t find my feet and the beans were slippery. There was an awful lot of clanging and foot stomping and I think she was yelling, but I might have imagined that.

Eventually we separated and I made my way back to the mess of my instrumentation. We finished with some simple scraping noises and Miss Gracyk swaying. I think. I could be wrong; there was a lot going on and I was terrifically excited. I might have remembered things wrong.

The audience seemed to enjoy our duet; I know I sure did. I gave Beth a huge, real hug and we took a bow.

The organizers had the night recorded, but I won’t receive a copy for weeks, sadly. Hopefully when it comes out I’ll be allowed to display it on artofmulata.

[Update: I’ve received the DVD and it’s amazing. These guys really put a lot of work into making the disc lovely. If you want a copy go to their website and order one; you won’t be disappointed!]

Guilty, A Public Passion

Last weekend I was part of a ritualized public reading of Bataille’s ‘Guilty‘ out at the Smoke Farm complex. Photographer Dan Hawkins made a time-lapse video of our 7 hour adventure…

Guilty is the edited diary of George Bataille written during World War 2. Bataille explores the guilt and anger he experiences at not being able to join the war effort due to illness. It is at times funny, philosophical, pornographic, yet always high-minded even in the midst of literary excess.

There were four of us and we each took turns reading from the text. When one of us finished their section they’d fill our glasses with wine. Taking our glasses, we’d all rise and toast one another. Then we’d sit and some of us would light cigarettes. The next person would start reading where the last left off.

By the end of the reading we were shivering and drunk having consumed 7 bottles of pink wine. We stripped naked in the dark and folded our clothes leaving them sitting on our chairs. Each of us lay down in the frigid river. I screamed when I did so as the chill of the water was too much to bear. Then I ran to the shore and dried myself; put on my street clothes. Returned home to our camp having only thrown up twice during the entire evening.

Dead Bird Movement : TRIOS

Dead Bird Movement : TRIOS

On July 27, 2011 I participated in a 24 hour dance event.

Local arts incubator Project: Space Available recently held a week-long fundraiser, Five Fingers Fundraiser. There were 5 different events each hosted by a different artist or arts collaborative.They invited Jessie Smith, creator/choreographer/sole intelligence of dance concept Dead Bird Movement, to take part.

Jessie’s idea was to ask 5 different dancers and five different musicians to meet with her over a 24 hour span. Each group of Jessie, a dancer, and a musician would spend an hour creating a piece and then they’d present it to a waiting audience. The first piece showed at 10am and the last at 1am.

She asked dance photographer Tim Summers and myself to document the event. I came on as writer. The opening link to this article will take you to the work that Tim and did.

A lot of my favorite performers came through the space that day; I won’t name anyone in the hopes it will lure you into checking the link to actually read my writing and check out Tim’s lovely photographs.
I love photography myself, but I was too busy writing to snap many shots. During the second collaboration between dancer Karn Junkinsmith and musician Maggie Brown I did manage to step away from the keyboard and snap a few. They’re more mood-based than Tim’s work so it’ll give you another view of the event.

(Story continues after the jump…)

 

And that’s something else I should mention: Jessie had a very novel form of interaction for the audience (novel for the dance world). Each piece would occur once for viewing. She then passed video cameras to random members of the audience. ‘Tape whatever you want,’ Smith told them, ‘I’m interested in your point of view.’ Then the dance would occur a second or even a third time.

The plan is that Smith will review all the footage and create a final collage from it. When this finally happens I’ll post a link to it. She’s very good on following up on her promises so I have no doubt that will happen.

The Pink Door

This past April I once again had the pleasure of working with Dead Bird Movement choreographer Jessie Smith. Joining us onstage were Jim Kent and Anne Mathews. Jim’s a dancer and multi-instrumentalist working in Seattle and a wonderful person. Anne and I previously played in The Infernal Noise Brigade; we were the bass drummers for several years.

Copyright to Joseph Lambert/Jazzyphoto.com
Jessie Smith hangs on my poor neck.

Alice Gosti works at Seattle eatery The Pink Door in the Pike Place Market and is a modern dancer/choreographer. She hosts a regular ensemble of curated dancers called Beyond The Pink Door in the restaurant’s back room; this was its 7th iteration.

In attendance was photographer Joseph Lambert of Jazzyphoto.com. Joseph has graciously allowed me to share a couple of snaps he took from that night. Thank you Joseph.

Our set up was simple and not unlike work Jessie and I’ve presented before. Jim played a Bach-derived piece on piano (his own invention); Anne and I provided percussive elements. Jessie performed a solo and then I joined her on stage. Jessie proceeded to climb/grapple me while I attempted to continue playing music and not strike her with my mallets or bean her with my bass drum. Anne and Jim held things together musically.

I’d like to say it was a success; lots of people congratulated us and that was wonderful. Our showing (all the showings) was 5 minutes in length, but so fraught with potential hazard that it seemed much longer. I was afraid of injuring Jessie with my instruments and the stage is tiny and raised. One wrong move and either of us could have toppled to the floor.

Copyright to Joseph Lambert/Jazzyphoto.com
On my knees like a good little musician.