Presented by Shana Simmons Dance, Relative Positions was a unique way of viewing the variety of dance work currently being explored in the Pittsburgh area. Held at the Union Project in Highland Park, this interactive event gave audience members control of their ways of seeing dance on a physical level. With three floors and nine separate performance spaces, viewers were welcome to come and go to different viewing areas as they pleased.
Being a hyper-organized person myself, the more open set-up initially caused me a little bit of anxiety. You mean no one is going to tell me where I should sit, how long I should stay seated and when I should get up? This experience of being an audience member is not a choreographed sequence? No. But I did get over it and begin to truly enjoy the freedom that this set-up offered. What I noticed, and kudos to all the performance groups for this; is that although in this context they had less control of how spectators would see their work, each group found inventive ways of encouraging viewers to take on specific ways of seeing dance.
Continuum Dance Theatre, presenting a colorful and energetic trio of Jazz Dance in the tiny Boardroom set the dancers up on a small wooden table at a level higher than the chairs offered to audience members. Seated viewers were required to look up in order to see the dancers and votes were taken using little paddles for who was the best dancer of the three. Outside, Murphy/Smith Dance Collective presented their dance interpretation of the Murder of Halls-Mills. Littering the ground right inside the building and down the stairs leading to the performance space with love letters, viewers were led to the performance space by following these letter-like bread crumbs and then presented with an open-ended dance theatre piece with an interactive choose-your-own-ending conclusion. The Pillow Project's I need you to hold all the the worry for me for a little while used the gritty and sweaty back room on the lower level to create a compelling piece on two dancers entangled in relationship. The interplay of lighting and text literally displayed on the dancers' bodies drew viewers into an intimate landscape of tortured intimacy on secret display. For the Girl Who Sleeps in Snow, a traveling piece on the lower level, drew audience members to the starting location of the piece through the use of song. Viewers were then given flashlights and specific instructions on where to go and how to see. Directives included "You Can Survive" and "Don't Be Afraid" which successfully planted anticipation about the participatory nature of the work itself and personalized the witnessing of danger and peril strongly explored by Sophia Levine and other characters/dancers in the piece. Strong is the New Skinny, my personal favorite of the evening, was choreographed and presented by Haley Harrison and Melanie Gallo in the small back room on the lower level. Given the juxtaposition of the small presentation space with the powerful and athletic movements within the piece, I felt that I was looking into a window on the force that is built up when big strength needs to be contained in tiny spaces.
Overall I found the experience of Relative Positions to be liberating in many ways. I left feeling inspired by the great mystery that is dance, excited by infinite possibility and wondering if I should be driving home floating and dancing on the roof of my car as opposed to behind the driver's seat...
Being a hyper-organized person myself, the more open set-up initially caused me a little bit of anxiety. You mean no one is going to tell me where I should sit, how long I should stay seated and when I should get up? This experience of being an audience member is not a choreographed sequence? No. But I did get over it and begin to truly enjoy the freedom that this set-up offered. What I noticed, and kudos to all the performance groups for this; is that although in this context they had less control of how spectators would see their work, each group found inventive ways of encouraging viewers to take on specific ways of seeing dance.
Continuum Dance Theatre, presenting a colorful and energetic trio of Jazz Dance in the tiny Boardroom set the dancers up on a small wooden table at a level higher than the chairs offered to audience members. Seated viewers were required to look up in order to see the dancers and votes were taken using little paddles for who was the best dancer of the three. Outside, Murphy/Smith Dance Collective presented their dance interpretation of the Murder of Halls-Mills. Littering the ground right inside the building and down the stairs leading to the performance space with love letters, viewers were led to the performance space by following these letter-like bread crumbs and then presented with an open-ended dance theatre piece with an interactive choose-your-own-ending conclusion. The Pillow Project's I need you to hold all the the worry for me for a little while used the gritty and sweaty back room on the lower level to create a compelling piece on two dancers entangled in relationship. The interplay of lighting and text literally displayed on the dancers' bodies drew viewers into an intimate landscape of tortured intimacy on secret display. For the Girl Who Sleeps in Snow, a traveling piece on the lower level, drew audience members to the starting location of the piece through the use of song. Viewers were then given flashlights and specific instructions on where to go and how to see. Directives included "You Can Survive" and "Don't Be Afraid" which successfully planted anticipation about the participatory nature of the work itself and personalized the witnessing of danger and peril strongly explored by Sophia Levine and other characters/dancers in the piece. Strong is the New Skinny, my personal favorite of the evening, was choreographed and presented by Haley Harrison and Melanie Gallo in the small back room on the lower level. Given the juxtaposition of the small presentation space with the powerful and athletic movements within the piece, I felt that I was looking into a window on the force that is built up when big strength needs to be contained in tiny spaces.
Overall I found the experience of Relative Positions to be liberating in many ways. I left feeling inspired by the great mystery that is dance, excited by infinite possibility and wondering if I should be driving home floating and dancing on the roof of my car as opposed to behind the driver's seat...