Light Improv for BEAM 2018

2018
public performance

Presented by ArtCity Eugene as part of BEAM 2018 - a showcase of artwork that utilizes light, on September 21, 2018.

In collaboration with Chelsey Buystedt, Denae Brocksmith, Ethan Dunn, Susanna Joy Meyer, and Sara Zolbrod.

Building on ideas developed in the Movement Lab at The New School in New York in the spring of 2018, I worked with a group of local dancers/movers in creating a roaming performance that used cellphone flashlights and the principles of contact improvisation to generate movement in public space.

It is a movement exploration of group dynamics using light in lieu of touch. One person is the focus for the attention of the others, who use their lights to prompt movement, while being moved in turn by the task at hand. The light from the phones is a kind of extrasensory device that links the group to the individual. Over the course of the performance the role of focal point is passed from one person to another.