Post:ballet Releases New Video for New Year

Late yesterday afternoon Post:ballet released a new video to bid farewell to 2022, produced with support from the Inner Child Foundation. The title of the eighteen-minute work is Mine is Yours. The film was directed by Artistic Director Robin Dekkers, working with cinematographer and editor Benjamin Tarquin. The music for the soundtrack was composed by Daniel Berkman.

Eleven dancers executed the performance captured and edited by Tarquin. In alphabetical order they are: Crystaldawn Bell, Charmaine Butcher, Mia J. Chong, Cora Cliburn, Landes Dixon, Lexi Duff, Colin Frederick, Emily Hansel, Babatunji Johnson, Molly Levy, and DeMarco Sleeper. They all contributed to the choreography, working in collaboration with Dekkers. Most significantly, Dixon’s contribution involved his performing from a wheelchair.

The best way to approach the title is to think in terms of communal sharing, where what is shared is the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. Filming took place at several of the stations on either side of the San Francisco Bay, sometimes venturing briefly into the neighborhoods where those stations are situated. Performances also took place at selected platforms and inside the cars themselves. This is a work that had clearly involved considerable planning before Tarquin began working on capturing the content.

Dancers in motion on a moving train (screen shot from the video being discussed)

Most of us, of course, think of BART only as a facility that gets us from one place to another. Mine is Yours suggests that there are less mundane ways to consider the system. This becomes particularly interesting when the dancers are executing their steps on a moving train. Those of us that made it through Freshman Physics know that there are no end of complications in maintaining balance during such executions. However, all eleven of the dancers seem to have acclimated their steps and stretches to adjust to the idea of working in a moving environment.

In that context Mine is Yours is Post:ballet’s latest lyrical reflection on movement itself, expanding into a context in which the dancers and their setting are both in motion.