The ideas expressed in the last post will be further examined through describing the creative processes of dance artists whose work illustrate the title of the essay, Bodily presence and the Massage of movement. I had the opportunity to experience Bill Shannon’s Touch Update in various stages: as a work in process, the fully produced premiere for the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival in Pittsburgh, and in a shorter iteration within a showcase event during the National Performance Network Conference held in Pittsburgh, December 2018. I interviewed Teena Marie Custer, hip-hop dance theater artist and guest performer in Touch Update. Excerpts of the interview transcript will be presented in my next posting.
Bill Shannon’s newest work, Touch Update is an interdisciplinary work that blends dance, video installation, and theater. The content of the dance tackles philosophical questions about human interaction such as will humans change? and What is the nature of dance technique and the politics of reversal with Bill transferring his movement technique using crutches (bodily extensions) to able-bodied dancers. Bill Shannon has a physical disability. He designs and fabricates video sculptures designed to interact with the performances. The sculpture is dependent on the human body to realize itself. The effect of the wearable masks that the dancers wear as extensions of their faces adds another layer of mediatization to the performance. One of the reasons why Bill created the work was to awaken the community out of a digitized slumber. He observed how mass shootings were becoming normalized which he felt was an affect of man’s reliance on digital media. One of the sections of the dance recreates images seen in the media on live human bodies that reflect stages of brutality and protests that leads to violence. The projected image in the background is an interactive 3-d video of a fire that is building in intensity until the stage is engulfed. The sound designed adds to the sensation of feeling trapped and surrounded by fire. His inspiration for the projected image was taken from watching news reports of the California wildfires burn out of control during the summer of 2017, which is now becoming a yearly occurrence. His works includes a complex interaction of skillsets coordinating movement development, video editing, 3-d mapping, 3-d printing, and assemblage and welding. This is a reflection of how mediatization has influenced dance performance, the perception of the human body and creativity.