Performance art is a transformative vessel through time. What is being transformed is defined by every variable of life itself, and the greater we shape a pathway for the performance journey by setting intention and channeling total presence, the deeper we allow ourselves to receive the gifts of this practice.
Week 12, Batya brought together symbolisms of the moon and its phases. Lexi played with cables and parallel parked. Nancy came to help using her monkey impersonating super powers, and we represented deforestation. Sean and Brennan put tarps up around the space on a rainy day!
Monday September 5
Title: “Moonday”
Batya wrote melodies using the mixolydian scale as a "stream of consciousness exercise," assigned them to 5 cards, then sang each card for 3 min increments to perform 5 moon phases over 15 minutes. She wore a bright orange shirt beneath a black sweater and revealed the shirt from different angles and in different portions to demonstrate visually, the moon phases while rotating on the studio's circular rug.
Listen to our discussion following the performance here
View on Youtube -----> https://youtu.be/TfP4BBZhHQk
Tuesday September 6
Title: “vibing out with the orange electricity cable”
Instructions: vibe out with the orange electricity cable
Why? Play! These pieces are all about bringing play into the picture. Releasing shame and discovering curiosity, intuition, and channeling meaning into the moment.
Rehearsal discoveries: If I could just keep it simple and consider a couple moments, that should work.
Performance write up: What a grand time. I hope to get the word out. Play is accessible to us. At the heart of play is reverence for the moment. I went places I never would have dreamed.
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Wednesday September 7
Title: “I am a monkey. You are the forest. ”
Instructions: Monkey lives in the forest. Monkey sleeps in, eats in, plays in, and loves the forest. The forest is glad to exist and be useful. The forest holds a full, four limb pose. Forest and monkey interact throughout the performance. Every 2.5 min the bell goes off, forest symbolically lights palo santo to smoke up the space, exists, and returns with one less limb until down to a stump. At the final bell, the forest is fully burned to death, and the monkey is alone. The ghost of the forest plays a drum upon the final burn of the palo santo.
Why: At some point on the Baby Bushka tour, I think I was moving through Nancy’s legs (we do plenty of random movement exploration) or something like that, and I said, “I am the monkey, you are the forest.” Wrote it down, so here we are.
On the day of the performance, we realized the forest has been taken away from many many monkeys, so we conceptualized the instructions to represent this.
Rehearsal discoveries: I thought I would be the monkey because of the idea’s inception, but Nancy has mega experience as an orangutan from her work in “Sapience” at MOXIE theater. We decided she would rock it.
Found a singular tree pose and how it would best be adapted for the loss of limbs. Did not do so in much detail, which I later regretted because being a tree requires good footing! Discussed the tree moving in reaction to the monkey, which I also regretted, feeling that I needed to stay still to really be the tree. Nancy said later it could have been I was a young flexible, tree. If only I had made sense of that in the moment. It just felt like an error, but if I were to believe it that way and watch it now, what would I think?
Performance write up: Nancy said this reminded her of the soul challenge event because the concept was so strong, it enabled simplicity and ease for the execution. She even admitted to getting authentically teary-eyed because she had fully surrendered to the process of experiencing the loss of the forest and taken on the drum’s meaning as it was representative of her monkey demise.
We didn’t do any methodical discussion about character evolution and relationships. I trusted Nancy to call upon her plethora of skills as a monkey. She brought character into the performance that enabled me, as forest, to discover a silent dialogue.
I was stuck for a while in narrative thinking such as “I am happy the monkey makes me useful,” or “She is picking fruit/bugs to eat from my branches.” At some point after I had lost a limb or two, I switched to a silent dialogue approach (a technique taught to me by Nancy) and began thinking ideas such as “Yes, please pick from my leaves,” and “I know, it’s very sad that I lost this part of me. I love you, monkey friend. They are burning me alive.” This type of character work is how you get to the place Nancy was in when she got teary-eyed. She is really living through this dialogue and experiencing it.
I wish I had just solidified the varying postures as forest to enable a more stable stance that could bare some of Nancy’s monkey weight. I’m disappointed I didn’t get a full smoke moment out of the first round of palo santo.
View on Youtube -----> https://youtu.be/DRvx3E-XN6c
Thursday September 8
Title: “Don’t look at me”
Instructions: attempt to parallel park
Why? The hilarity of the title and its implications. Parallel parking was the first idea where I laughed voraciously.
Rehearsal discoveries: Got to the studio around 9:10am. Looked up side view pictures of cars. Attempted to configure cardboard boxes that were literally bestowed to my household as an act of God (like I had the idea last night, got home and there were these two cardboard boxes the perfect size for this representation).
Performance write up: Right off the bat, I dropped the first car. This was probably the best way to set the tone. A prop slip up is the most appropriate for the title. I looked straight in the eyes of Larry, a friendly Normal Heightsman who visits the shows regularly. He was less than entertained. It was perfect.
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Friday September 9
Title: “Tarp Event"
Feat. Sean Francis Conway and Brennen Hubbell
They put tarps up to some chill groove for 15 min.
View on Youtube -----> https://youtu.be/eEnrE4_zxtg