BOREDOM!!! (as an amplifier), was recently featured in a NY Times article by Claudia La Rocco. The article is about PERFORMA and the blurring of various forms in performance work being created these days.

I found the article to be a great read and was happy that Claudia used recent New York dance performances as examples of this blurring and challenging between various mediums.

Although PERFORMA features dance performances and dance related happenings, including a number of events surrounding/exploring the influence of Judson Dance Theater, the New York dance scene was largely disregarded by the curatorial team. This is a disappointing move especially considering that PERFORMA director, RoseLee Goldberg, states that PERFORMA is trying “to open the doors and windows between the dance and art world, to find the conceptual underpinnings where there could be a crossover.” She continues to ask “How come this conversation was so profound and rich in the ’60s and ’70s?” “Can we reinstigate that?” I would challenge her that this crossover is happening and very active right now. But if RoseLee hopes to open doors between these worlds, I wonder aloud how this is going to happen when a large and active scene of dance artists based in the same city as PERFORMA is pretty much ignored…

The Kitchen’s executive director and chief curator, Debra Singer, seems to also think this crossover between the dance and visual art worlds is lacking. She is quoted in the NY Times article as saying “There seems to be little time spent either studying or taking in things that might be just to the left or the right of your primary interest,” “In New York, we’re so blessed with so much that you can indulge your primary passion.” “At the artist and audience level, almost ironically, it can perpetuate a kind of parochialism.”

I would love to see more of a crossover between the two forms in regards to economy.

But as far as artists being interested and collaborating I think that is alive and active.

I drafted a short list of recent New York performances/collaborations where this blurring/collaboration has been fertile.

Luciana Achugar collaborating with Michael Mahalchick

Maria Hassabi collaborating with Marcos Rosales, Scott Lyall and THREEasFOUR

Ei Arakawa working with students from the Martha Graham School

robbinschilds (Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs) collaborating A.L. Steiner

Dean Moss collaborating with Laylah Ali

RoseAnne Spradlin collaborating with Glen Fogel

Miguel Gutierrez collaborating with Christoph Draeger

The collaborations between Chris Peck and Charles Atlas

The work of Fritz Welch

The work of Julie Tolentino

Mike Pride / Drummers Corpse

The work of Jillian Pena

The work of lower lights collective and it’s individual artists (Matt Bauder , Aki Sasamoto, Lily Skove, Kate Ten Eyck, Dan St. Clair, and Arturo Vidich)

The collaborations between Okkyung Lee and Andrew Lampert

Sam Kim’s recent show had visual artists as performers.

The work of Sarah Michelson

Trajal Harrell collaboration with assume vivid astro focus

The work of Eagle Ager

The work of Vlatka Horvat

The work of lucky dragons

Noémie Lafrance video for Feist

The work of Julia Mandle

Melinda Ring collaborations with Martin Kersels

The work of Claude Wampler

The work of the New Humans

The work of Michael Portnoy

This is an incomplete list.

It seems to me that the real door that needs to open is the conversation between artists and curators.

And to famously quote Timothy Leary from the 60’s maybe curators need to “Turn on, tune in, …..”

Chris Peck and I were interviewed awhile ago by Levi Gonzalez for Critical Correspondence. It was recently published. Check it out. It is a great interview.

Last Saturday we had an awesome Live Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Thanks to all the performers:

Anna Sperber with Charlotte Gibbons

Peter Jacobs and MKS Volcofsky

Nate Wooley

I haven’t written anything on this blog in awhile. Jon Moniaci and I had our show BOREDOM!!! (as an amplifier). It was received well and got some nice press. Gia Kourlas at Time Out New York wrote a great preview of the show. It is well worth the read. Claudia La Rocco at The New York Times wrote a nice review. Here is a short excerpt:

“New Yorkers do impatience like pros. Boredom, not so much; the city’s denizens are far too overstimulated and attention-fractured to approach anything like the drifty languor of this underestimated state.

But it’s the rare artist who can create worthwhile work without healthy doses of it. In their illuminating new duet, Boredom!!! (as an amplifier),the choreographer Chase Granoff and the composer Jon Moniaci cultivate a little square of boredom, and invite audiences in for the nonride.”

Also on the Movement Research Critical Correspondence Forum there was a mention and I guess a short discussion of our show.

Jon and I recently showed a video excerpt of the show and gave out mix cds at Food For Thought at Danspace Project at St Marks Church. I wrote a short statement about our use of the word boredom for the cd insert.

Our Thoughts On Boredom.

The use of boredom in our titles refers to work that does not attempt to entertain. Boredom is thought of as an active place of thought and contemplation. By titling our work boredom we do not claim the work to be boring but rather is an investigation into a specific passing and development of time. Boredom is seen by us as a place of production. It is not a static state but rather something more along the lines of feedback. The use of boredom allows for discussion in regards to the performance and content of the performance. Boredom is a slowing down of time, an opening of space that allows for interpretation and possibility.

Here is some other text and quotes from others I included in the insert.

Some info on boredom from WIKIPEDIA.

The first record of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, written in 1852.

Time often seems to move more slowly to someone who experiences boredom.

Boredom also plays a role in existentialist thought. Without stimulus or focus, the individual is confronted with nothingness, the meaninglessness of existence, and experiences existential anxiety. Martin Heidegger states this idea nicely: “Profound boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals being as a whole.”

from The Open by Giorgio Agamben.

“profound boredom as a fundamental emotional tonality,,, or the animal’s relationship with it’s environment, man’s relationship with his world… World-framing… poverty in the world.”

BOREDOM!!! (as an amplifier) is over now at least until we go to Berlin in late August.

all photos by Alex Escalante.

Last night Chris Peck and I were interviewed by Levi Gonzalez for Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence. The discussion was very fluid and engaging. It gave Chris and I an opportunity to discuss our series Live Sh– at the Chocolate Factory. We talked about why we started it, what our interest is it, ideas surrounding organizing an event and curating performance. We discussed a lot about what we see the role of curation as being and how we find ourselves and interests within that position. I am excited for it to come out on the site as an audio interview and hopefully as a text transcription as well. I am posting a couple of pics that Chris took during the interview.

(me)

(chris)

(levi)

The cowboy and horse makes a special appearance during the interview as a musical performance.

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Jon Moniaci and I are continuing to work on our new performance BOREDOM!!! (as an amplifier). The show is just about a month away and we should be getting the postcards back from the printers tomorrow. Here our some recent pictures from rehearsals and discussions we have had in preparation of the piece.

(light)

(crazy digital light)

(me and jon in our band photo)

(noisedanceseminaractionshot)

I am really excited at how this piece is turning out and am looking forward to sharing it with an audience. We are at a pivotal place right now where we are pretty happy with all the content that has been generated. But now we are trying to find the composition and placement of that content in relationship with the whole piece, the individual elements and the physical space. I find this part of the process super challenging. I guess this is what choreographer is about. At least in some ways. Luckily we have received very helpful feedback from Chris, Levi and Luciana Achugar.

A excerpt from the most recent rehearsal. This shows a re-working of the ending.

Today I edited a video of a recent rehearsal video. I have put up a bunch of clips in sequential order of the piece.

A short piece description.

BOREDOM!!! (as an amplifier) is a performance that exposes the intersections of dance and sound through the vibratory presence of both forms. This is a performance in which the live manipulation of electronic sound equipment creates the basis for the movement vocabulary, which shuffles between a contemplative static quality and a quietly explosive shaking. The performance addresses the place of presentation and collapses the magic of the theater, thus creating an exposed and complicated situation for both audience and performers.

This is a fairly long clip of performance that was presented by Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church. It was part of their ongoing series Food for Thought. The evening which was curated by Miguel Gutierrez was titled The Young Americans. I apologize for the poor quality of the video.

Some reviews here and here and here. Not the most interesting though.

This is an excerpt from the performance Boredom with objects! It was performed at Dance Theater Workshop in November of 2005. Here is a review from Gia Kourlas of the NY Times. This performance was part of the Fresh Tracks Residency Program of 2005-06.

I am starting to upload short excerpts from rehearsals of the performance Jon Moniaci and I are working on. The title of the performance is BOREDOM!!! (as an amplifier).

This is the first one. More to come soon…