Interleaving

SCA Repertory Dancers Go Digital
Friday, December 4, 2020 | 6:00 PM (PT)
Free | Online   

This Fall 2020, SCA repertory dancers go digital to create Interleaving, an online performance presenting 3 quarantine technique dances. All of the works in this performance were created remotely. We rehearsed and connected with one another through online platforms such as Zoom and Padlet. Dancers not only performed the choreography, but also often recorded themselves dancing, found locations to perform, and set up their spaces for a performance.

A common thread through all of the works featured in this performance is examining our changing relationships with ourselves and others during this era of COVID-19 and social upheaval. As many dance performances turn to online platforms, quarantine technique also puts into question the very nature of dance. What does it mean when our bodily connections and movement are mediated by technology? 

We invite audience members to explore this question with us and to follow the SCA's Instagram and Interleaving Facebook event page for a behind-the-scenes look at our remote creation processes.

The live presentation of Interleaving will take place in two parts. First, audience members will join the Vimeo stream to watch the dance videos. Following this presentation, we encourage everyone to join a Zoom webinar at 6:30 PM (PDT) for a Q&A with the artists, moderated by SCA dance faculty Rob Kitsos.

Please note: sections of these videos contain flashing and strobing images that may affect certain individuals.

For the best viewing experience connect to your router with an ethernet cable or be as close to your router as possible.  We also recommend that you do not send, receive or stream any other online videos on the same network while viewing this live stream and to close any non-essential apps that might be using high bandwidth network connections such as App Store updates, iTunes / iCloud syncing, Netflix, etc... After the live stream, this show will be available to view in HD on Vimeo. 

Artistic Director: Shannon Cuykendall
Choreography: Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Shannon Cuykendall, Emmalena Fredriksson
Dancers: Sydney Bluck, Nicole Dreher, Desiree James, Sarah Kennedy, Natalia Martineau, Myah McCarthy, Taylor Noel, Alexandra Pickrell, Roya Pishvaei, Bronwyn Pollock
Music: Sebastián Ortiz Cruz and Philippe Pasquier

Program

Fourth Quarter
Charlotte Boye-Christensen

This work has grown out of this current moment in time and the pandemic that we are all living through. It addresses themes of identity, isolation, and conversation. Who am I in this moment? Where am I and with whom?

Thank you to my generous and creatively and physically fearless cast. It has been inspiring and moving to be let into their homes and to have collaborated on this work with them.

WIND EYE
Emmalena Fredriksson

The Old Norse meaning of the word window is Wind Eye. Originally used to describe a hole in the ceiling that would let in air to feed oxygen to the fire and create a path out for the smoke. In the spring of 2020 Covid-19 kept us inside our houses for months, looking out at the world through our windows, our phones and computers. For this creative process, I was curious if we could reverse that gaze. Exploring ideas of the outside looking in and the use of cameras and video to capture sensations and feelings in the moving body. If we invite the gaze in (both our own and that of the viewer), what fire does it feed and what is released? Through these questions and movement explorations, the desire to look back, to perform for the camera and the outside world, also grew. Perhaps as a way to own our experience and feel empowered in this uncertain time. The result of our process is Wind Eye, a 4min dance film that moves between dream-like and concrete realities. Through expansive and intimate movements the film connects four women in four different yet similar places, taking us beyond the screen and into an emotional landscape of the present time.  

On|Off the Grid
Shannon Cuykendall

In On|Off the Grid, I question the use of a grid as an organizing structure in the design of many technologies, everyday functional objects, and most recently a prominent layout for online dance classes and performances. The repetitive linear design of many human-made grids contrasts with the repetitive, spiral patterns often seen in nature. The grid is not just a visual element apparent in these everyday technologies and objects, but a structure of thinking that frames our beliefs and societal structures.

To create this work, dancers collaborated with AI systems that transformed their movements into poetry, paintings and grids. Regardless whether the grid is visible, all of these technological systems utilize a grid in their design principles. In this time of quarantine, many of our collaborations and connections with others are mediated by digital and AI technologies. AI is not human, but human biases and beliefs are incorporated in its creation and they become much more explicit when we see from the perspective of an AI system. In this work, I explore with the dancers how our interactions with these technologies shape our understanding of ourselves and each other.

Biographies