Today Post:ballet released its latest film version of choreography that had already been performed in several physical spaces. “say i am you” was created by Moscelyne ParkeHarrison and premiered at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive in March of last year. It was next performed outdoors at Salesforce Park. This past fall Heron Arts provided its gallery space for another performance. All of these iterations have now been integrated into a film which is available for viewing on YouTube.
Screen shot of “say I am you” showing different combinations of dancers (from the YouTube video)
ParkeHarrison herself performs along with Post:ballet dancers Charmaine Butcher, Mia J. Chong, Landes Dixon, Colin Frederick, Emily Hansel, Caitlin Hicks, Zaria Jackson, Babatunji Johnson, and Benjamin Warner. Cinematographer Ben Tarquin presents ParkeHarrison’s choreography as a free-flowing series of episodes in a single indoor space, seamlessly integrating individual performances with small groups and a full ensemble. The music consists entirely of “Wiegenlied” (lullaby), the first of the five songs that Richard Strauss collected for his Opus 41 collection.
To be fair, however, the music is not performed as Strauss would have anticipated. While he composed this song for soprano with piano accompaniment, soprano Tiffany Townsend gives an a cappella account of her vocal line. This makes for a conducive fit with the “bare bones” qualities of the space in which the dancers perform, as well as their almost (but not quite) uniform outfits.
The entire video is about fifteen seconds short of seven minutes. This is realized through a well-conceived balance of dancing in silence and the verse-by-verse accompaniment sung by Townsend. ParkeHarrison’s program note explains that her interest was in exploring the psychology of the body in space. In that context her “bare bones” choice involved a deliberate rejection of the traditional proscenium setting.
The resulting video may be brief, but it is likely to hold up to multiple viewings to appreciate the many dimensions of ParkeHarrison’s stimulating approach to choreography.
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