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Solo performance in a contemporary context usually involves the creation of a performance or piece of theatre which involves only one actor or performer, often playing many different roles.
Lisa Mayo of the Kuna and Rappahannock Nations was a founding member of the Native
American women’s feminist theatre group, Spiderwoman Theater. She was a singer,
actor, and playwright who wrote and performed with Spiderwoman Theater for 35
years.
Part 1 of the 80th Year Retrospective. Includes the ‘Undressing and Dressing’ and ‘Paper Dance’ from the ground-breaking interdisciplinary performance Parades and Changes.
Filmed in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Body Without a Brain is a
high-risk, physically demanding dance for camera. Rianto seems to be in a trance as
he creates an unpremeditated encounter with the elements. He describes the work as
like a tree without roots. The piece embodies anxiety as the natural world becomes
ever more threatened.
Gavin Krastin is a choreographer and performance artist. He
describes himself as “a gay, white, South African of a certain privilege and
class in relation to other bodies.” He suggests that BODY/BAG deals with race
and is intended to “expose and speak to the larger politics that affect us
all.”
Strindberg Laboratory’s “demonstration project” through California
Arts Council’s “Prison Project” involving people who are about to be released
back into society.
Conquest and Prison is a two-part suite of site-specific dance films set
in Grahamstown, South Africa. The two oldest historical sites in Grahamstown are Ft.
Selwyn and the Old Gaol, which imprisoned thousands of black South Africans. The
choreography of Part I "Oscar's Journey" is Oscar Buthelezi's personal response to the
history of colonialism commemorated at Ft. Selwyn. Part II "Child's Play" is similar to
the approach in "Oscar's Journey." "Chorographers Lorin Sookool and Julia Wilson reflect
on the past as the sounds and images of the gaol continue to echo and resonate today.
This video is documentation taken from a weekly contact jam session with the
actors in the MFA Actor-Training program at UC Irvine. Contact Improvisation is
a large part of the movement arc in the first year of actor training, and jam
sessions are held weekly, integrating all three years of MFA actors.
Someone happened to video this session, and I give a brief description of
our use of contact as a tool for actor training in the
voice-over.
This video is documentation of an exercise with 3rd year graduate actors at
the UC Irvine Actor-Training program, speaking a monologue while contacting with
a silent partner. At a moment of heightened activity, the silent
partner is removed, and the resulting delivery of the monologue is focused and
intensely communicated.
The athleticism and sensitivity of the contact created a culture of
expressivity. Tenderness as well as rage and challenge emerged in the contact
session and remained present in the solo monologue. So, the complexities of
emotion that were embodied metaphorically and rhythmically in the extreme lifts
and rolls and balances of the partnering could be seen as an emotional
“rehearsal” for the solo performance. But once the partner was removed, the
speaker had to reach out to us, and address each deeply felt idea to the
audience in the room.
No longer in a contact with the literal “other,” we, the audience, now become
the necessary focus.
This piece is an excerpt from a half-hour documentary shot in Grahamstown,
South Africa, during the annual National Arts Festival (https://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/2016-festival/).
Interviews were conducted with a wide range of choreographers. This
selection focuses on up-and-coming artists Julia Wilson, Lorin Sookool,
Athena Mazarakis, and Kamogelo Molobye. The works are inspired
by challenges facing women, gays, and lesbians in contemporary South
Africa.
A work that built on Baker’s experience of using autobiographical materials in performances such as My Cooking Competes, blending this with a commentary on domesticity, motherhood and art.
A relentlessly monochrome solo performance inspired by avant garde grotesque dancer Valeska Gert, this defiant work explores female sexuality, mixing humour, absurdity, dignity and vulnerability.
A performance piece which saw Baker open her kitchen to the public and display a set of live actions, making performance from everyday tasks which nevertheless require skill, dexterity and endurance.
Pangaean Dreams is a multimedia piece which leads the audience on a shamanic journey back 250 million years to the time when the earth’s continents were all fused into one.
The Soul of Dance is an introduction to the vibrant diversity of contemporary dance
in Indonesia. Rooted both in tradition and the idioms of modern movement this half
hour documentary introduces audiences to work ranging from site-specific solos to
multimedia musical theater.
The Organs’ Presence in Voice, Movement and Expression Workshop, Patricia Bardi holds a workshop on combining somatic practice and improvisation in integrating voice and movement in a creative process.
Malika Ndlovu excavates universal themes of
self-discovery, the claiming of voice for the silenced, personal and social
transformation and the continuous awakening of the human spirit.
Inthis lively performance, Patricia Bardi shares some of her discoveries and insights that have developed over many years of independent research and performance practice of Vocal Dance. Performed at the SDNO, School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam, 1995.
Malika Ndlovu excavates universal themes of
self-discovery, the claiming of voice for the silenced, personal and social
transformation and the continuous awakening of the human spirit.
Contact improvisation is a form of dance improvisation based on energy and weight
exchange, incorporating elements of aikido, jitterbugging, child’s play, and
tumbling
Bobby Baker is a woman, and an artist. A performance career spanning four decades once saw her make a life-sized edible version of her own family. She is the Artistic Director of Daily Life Ltd.