2008 Woodie Awards
Socially Loaded Art
Bailey Triggs
Issue date: 3/10/03 Section: Arts
The room was full of colorful portrayals of hands holding the world, multicultural children holding hands, and paths of good and evil asking the viewer to choose which way to travel. After a tour of the gallery and some refreshments, the audience was invited back upstairs to view the premiere of Starting Over.
Starting Over is a piece about how we can get from the state of stuck-age that we're in now to move forward to fulfill those children's visions of a new world. It is a response and reaction to the events of September 11th, but it is more than just a reaction to one specific event in world history; its message flows into our lives today as we face the eminent threat of war.
The piece begins with the dancers turning on the large television hanging as a backdrop to the stage. The television plays a show called "Adam and Eve for a Day," a take-off on the 50s television show "A Queen for a Day." Each couple announces why they would make the best Adam and Eve, citing agendas from animal rights to homosexuality to multiculturalism. The audience of the show is then encouraged to clap the loudest for the couple they think would make the best Adam and Eve. Sadly for the contestants, the applause meter breaks and they can't tell who has won.
The focus of the piece then switches to the dancers who had been watching the television. They enact the childhood game of "Stuck in the Mud," the rules of which are explained in a voice over by seven year-old Alyssa Ciera Serrambana. This game and its repeated actions become the vocabulary of the piece and many of the moves are repeated later in the piece to evoke the imagery of being stuck -- a literal reality in the game. The tone of the piece has a comic, child-like energy that is instantly engaging for the audience.
As the piece progresses, the story of one man's move to New York City and the joy and excitement that the change brings is told through text and movement by Michael Burke. As joyful as this initial telling of his big move is, it soon switches its mood as the performers reenact their personal remembrances of how the events of September 11 changed their lives. Their stories are told in a montage of voice-overs and movement.
Starting Over is a piece about how we can get from the state of stuck-age that we're in now to move forward to fulfill those children's visions of a new world. It is a response and reaction to the events of September 11th, but it is more than just a reaction to one specific event in world history; its message flows into our lives today as we face the eminent threat of war.
The piece begins with the dancers turning on the large television hanging as a backdrop to the stage. The television plays a show called "Adam and Eve for a Day," a take-off on the 50s television show "A Queen for a Day." Each couple announces why they would make the best Adam and Eve, citing agendas from animal rights to homosexuality to multiculturalism. The audience of the show is then encouraged to clap the loudest for the couple they think would make the best Adam and Eve. Sadly for the contestants, the applause meter breaks and they can't tell who has won.
The focus of the piece then switches to the dancers who had been watching the television. They enact the childhood game of "Stuck in the Mud," the rules of which are explained in a voice over by seven year-old Alyssa Ciera Serrambana. This game and its repeated actions become the vocabulary of the piece and many of the moves are repeated later in the piece to evoke the imagery of being stuck -- a literal reality in the game. The tone of the piece has a comic, child-like energy that is instantly engaging for the audience.
As the piece progresses, the story of one man's move to New York City and the joy and excitement that the change brings is told through text and movement by Michael Burke. As joyful as this initial telling of his big move is, it soon switches its mood as the performers reenact their personal remembrances of how the events of September 11 changed their lives. Their stories are told in a montage of voice-overs and movement.
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