On Friday night I went to go see the BalletLab: Miricle and walked into EMPAC when Wilderness was just starting. I did not enter the performance space (a.k.a. the mulch pit) because I was too nervious to become involved in the performance, but I decided to stay and watch Wilderness.
What can I say about it...WOW...never seen anything like it before and really had trouble trying to figure out what the old man and then the 4 other dancers were doing. I couldn't tell you whether I liked it or not, I was more confused than anything. But I am glad I exposed myself to this type of performance.
When the old man was kind of running in place, struggling to take off his shirt, and finally when he did get his shirt all the way off, he started to kind of make this shirt into something that he was very protective of. It sometimes seemed like the shirt took him over and he was controled by this object, his shirt, he was holding. After he took it off, he asked some of the audience to touch it and interact with it. Some people he reacted very charming to, almost comical, and others he pulled away and became seemingly angry.
Then he left the shirt and strated interacting and molding the audience. This was very comical, in the placement of the audience and also the sounds and movements the man was making. He was reacting to how the audience was reacting to him which I was very impressed with. In the filament booklet it says that 'no two performances are the same' and I think that is where the audience come into play.
He continuted to interact with the audience but he started to wonder to the outside of the performance space and it seemed to become more of a dance performance. He took breaks and looked up and brought his hand up to kind of summon something, or look for insperation from a 'higher being'.
Towards the end of his performance 4 other performers came onto the performance area and danced in and around the audience. Seemed like these dancers were dancing then there bodies were taken over by something else and they would kind of act posessed, and then this power would leave and they would continue to dance as they wanted.
With both of these performances, I think the dances and performance were inspired by the audience and I am amazed that someone can think on the spot how to perform when they don't know what to expect.
I am glad I saw this performance. It was an experience, that I probably would have never otherwise had. I don't think I will see something like this again, because I this was not and now I know, is not my cup of tea, but for those that do like this type of performance and understand it, I am very impressed and wish this was something I could understand.
-Sarah
I saw the tail end of this performance, Saturday at almost 8, from the possessed dancers to the people being buried in mulch. The whole experience looked very detached from sanity and reality. I try to be understanding to the causes of artwork, even if I don't like them, but I don't even want there be a circumstance for which this piece was reasonable response. Some people use way too much artistic license. I'm tired of "Art with a capital A" trying to weird me out. I wash my hands of this weirdness.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Sarah's last statement leaves me questioning - can a work of art be considered successful if it becomes something people "wish they could understand?" I think it's a rather cruel idea that an artist would want to create something intentionally convoluted. What happened to art aiming toward higher understanding? What's the purpose of an elite culture that claims that an extra skill set is required to understand a piece of art? And, sure, there can be different levels of understanding, but to make an audience feel demeaned and confused (that thought of "Ah, yes, there must be something great about this piece, I just can't understand it!") is odd. To try to instill a fear in an audience that makes them like, or be impressed by, a piece that they don't understand, is a very odd thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not claiming that was the intention of this piece - to me, it seemed that they did have a clear message in mind. I attended the first dress rehearsal for this piece, and I thought it was pretty entertaining. I was smiling and laughing throughout the majority of the performance. Whether or not this was the "right" reaction is unimportant to me. It was my reaction, and it happened. And, one of the dancers wiped the sweat from his face all over my jacket. Funny, and gross.