Whelmed over

Project Description

Section 1: Quartet, set to Everything In It’s Right Place, by Radiohead.

Section 2: Solo, set to Codex, by Radiohead.

Themes
The contrast between when things seem copacetic/status quo, and being inundated to the point of losing control.

Costume design: Sean Hoskins; Costume construction: Corinne Langford

Performance: Detroit Institute of the Arts, September 2024 (Detroit Dance City Festival); Hillsdale College, April 2024

Notes: I built the quartet with a strong pairing to the musical structures. The rhythm in 5 gave me a great accent to play with, and the work begins with a single dancer arcing through the space. Bodies accumulate as the music builds, until all four are onstage. Playing three against one, and two vs. two were great compositional strategies, and the group has very few fully-synched unison, though the work highlights togetherness.

The solo was a delightful contrast, as the full band electronic music gives way to a solo piano and voice. Clad in white, the single dancer and I developed a unique vocabulary and pathway through space that illustrated her “clinging to the edge”. There are sustained moments of surrender and reach through space, accented by repetitive patterns and energies that seem to envelop her in movement.