Teaching Dance

Artist Molly Brennan installing sculpture At a faculty event recently one of my senior colleagues shared that she just doesn’t get art, or dance. While that disappoints me in some ways, I found her honesty refreshing. The natural urge to search for meaningful patterns in life, leads many, when looking at art, or dance, to the same exasperated revelation: “I don’t get it.” The truth is, more often than not, there is nothing specific to get. Art can be, but is not often, about communicating a clear, specific message. From my perspective, it is most often about the experience, the spark of connection, between the artwork, the viewer, and the artist—not the message. For example, a series of singular events, makes no attempt to convey a message. Rather, the work developed out of an exploration of three continuums: the micro to the macro, the biological to the technological, and the fragmented (singular) to the connected (series). If I arrived at any final me...

Be warned, these are clips from a studio rehearsal with unfinished costumes...just a peek (quite literally) into what is coming up this weekend!

In a week I will premiere my first work for the Webster University Dance Ensemble. The piece, a series of singular events , began as the Singularity Project and I have shared elements of the creative process that went into its creation here on this blog. While movement phrases--and their development--have been posted here, I have not talked much about the technological aspects of the work. First, I created a soundscape by editing and mixing recordings of Tibetan singing bowls, electronic chamber music, and good old analog television static. Does digital cable television have static? I wonder if there soon will be a day where, when I use the word static, young kids will look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language—much like they do now when I mention a typewriter. Anyway, I used Logic Express software on a MacBook Pro to create the soundscape. In addition to the soundscape, I created a video collage from public domain footage I gathered from creativecommons.com. I edited th...