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Dance Massive 2013

2013


 Da Contents H2

dance massive 2013
March 27 2013
dance: installed, immersed, hybridised
keith gallasch: dance massive 2013


quotidian moves, gangnam-style
philipa rothfield: ben speth, wetubelive

dance massive 2013
sounds to dance to, with, against
gail priest: sound design in dance massive 2013


March 26 2013
the life in the work
philipa rothfield: tracie mitchell, dance screen retrospective

youtubing live
varia karipoff: ben speth, wetubelive

dance massive 2013
March 24 2013
dance & disorientation
keith gallasch: tim darbyshire, more or less concrete

more or less monstrous
jana perkovic: atlanta eke, monster body


realtime tv: tim darbyshire, more of less concrete, dance massive 2013

March 22 2013
ritual entwining
philipa rothfield: soo yeun you, [gu:t] [work-in-progress]

strange affliction: dance massive & transcendence
keith gallasch: jo lloyd, future perfect

March 21 2013
a not so private hearing
carl nilsson-polias: tim darbyshire, more or less concrete

realtime tv: antony hamilton, black projects 1& 2, dance massive 2013

something ends, something begins
virginia baxter: dance exchange, dance for the time being - southern exposure

dance massive 2013
the perfection of submission
varia karipoff: jo lloyd, future perfect

March 20 2013
inner fury, seductive skill
philipa rothfield: anouk van dijk, chunky move, 247 days

March 20 2013
old tropes & the new disconnect
carl nilsson-polias: lucy guerin inc & belvoir, conversation piece

March 19 2013
now, then, now
keith gallasch: sandra parker, the recording

realtime tv: anouk van dijk, 247 days, chunky move, dance massive 2013

dance massive 2013
March 18 2013
creating an affective community
jana perkovic: matthew day, intermission


fun and the damage done
keith gallasch: larissa mcgowan, skeleton

more than smoke and mirrors
virginia baxter: ashley dyer, life support

realtime tv: lee serle, p.o.v., dance massive 2013

March 17 2013
realtime tv: dalisa pigram, gudirr gudirr, dance massive 2013

the body un-mirrored
jana perkovic: anouk van dijk, chunky move, 247 days

the origins of feeling
philipa rothfield: sandra parker, the recording

March 16 2013
realtime tv: stephanie lake, dual, dance massive 2013

dance massive 2013
March 15 2013
a dance for dark times
virginia baxter: dalisa pigram, gudirr gudirr

brittle bones & internal electricity
carl nilsson-polias: larissa mcgowan, skeleton

in the thick of it
philipa rothfield: lee serle, p.o.v.

March 15 2013
inside the audience
jana perkovic: lee serle, p.o.v

the poetry of pain
keith gallasch: stephanie lake, dual

dance massive 2013
when two become one
varia karipoff: stephanie lake, dual

March 14 2013
blacker than black
keith gallasch: antony hamilton, black projects 1 & 2

life in a puff
carl nilsson-polias: ashley dyer, life support


March 13 2013
dark symmetries
carl nilsson-polias: antony hamilton, black projects 1 & 2

lines of flight
philipa rothfield: dalisa pigram, gudirr gudirr

dance massive 2013
suggestive formalism
jana perkovic: natalie abbott, physical fractals


unsettling the audience
varia karipoff: natalie abbott, physical fractals

February 22 2013
an intense manifestation of dance
philipa rothfield: dance massive 2013, melbourne

dance massive 2013: from the archive
lucy guerin inc, conversation piece; antony hamilton, black project; atlanta eke, this monster body; matthew day, intermission; jo lloyd, future perfect; tim darbyshire, more or less concrete; natalie abbot, physical fractals; ben speth, wetubelive

 

quotidian moves, gangnam-style

philipa rothfield: ben speth, wetubelive


WeTubeLIVE, Ben Speth, Dance Massive 2013 WeTubeLIVE, Ben Speth, Dance Massive 2013
photo Rachel Roberts
THE CITATION OF SO-CALLED PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENT IN POSTMODERN DANCE HAS BEEN INTERPRETED IN MANY WAYS, ONE OF WHICH SEES THE USE OF THE QUOTIDIAN IN DANCE AS AN ATTEMPT TO DECONSTRUCT NOTIONS OF VIRTUOSITY AND SPECTACLE.

WeTube LIVE offers another way to rethink the values of dance performance. Where Steve Paxton’s Satisfying Lover (1967) offered a series of ordinary bodies walking, standing and sitting, WeTube LIVE opens up another kind of space, framed in the context of the electronic everyday.

The Great Hall of Victoria’s National Gallery is vast, its Leonard French ceiling a coloured relief from vast walls of grey brick. The room is full of young people, each consumed by a particular activity performed and contained within white squares. The difference between them is marked but they are united through a sense of commitment to their task. The diversity of these performative tasks exists within a score: to source the performance material from YouTube.

The audience flows around the squares, a mass promenade, pausing then moving on at a uniform pace. At a certain point, the performers melt away and line up along the length of the wall. We are now the choreography. They watch us, then the cellular activity begins again and the promenade resumes.

Some performers have selected dance sequences or hip hop, another copied a Beyoncé routine, another executed a makeup ritual. Several performances contained an element of critique, whether through displacement, parody or exaggeration. One young woman performed a charming mittel European folk dance—in costume—another confined himself to a cardboard box.

WeTubeLIVE, Ben Speth, Dance Massive 2013 WeTubeLIVE, Ben Speth, Dance Massive 2013
photo Rachel Roberts
What struck me was the confidence of the group, many of whom are teenagers or young adults, inviting being seen very close up. The close proximity of the viewing experience engenders a certain dialogue between the watcher and performer. I feel that I am meeting these people, encountering something about them which is at the same time mediated.

A great deal of cultural theory suggests that identity comes from outside the self but is solidified through what the body does in a performative sense. In general, this is thought to be an unconscious process. We think and feel our identity as internal and intimate, not the product of social forces. WeTubeLIVE differs on this point, or at least troubles the distinction between outer and inner inasmuch as the range of choices is very much part of popular culture but, once made, the choice becomes a mode of enactive agency.

Viewed through the lens of community dance, WeTubeLIVE is a mode of group participation, individual expression and serial observation. Its form of community is two-fold, formed between those present in the Great Hall but also the virtual community of YouTube watchers. Normally we send each other links. In this instance, the links are a daisy chain of live actions.

The affective impact of WeTubeLIVE was a positive feeling about these young people and their choices. This is different (and complementary) to the darker thoughts explored in many of the Dance Massive pieces, achieved through foregrounding agency and participation rather than critique through representation. In that sense, WeTubeLIVE is a utopian gesture, a mode of agency ‘Gangnam-style.’


Dance Massive: WeTubeLIVE, concept, direction Ben Speth, project manager Bec Reid, dance facilitator Adam Wheeler; The Great Hall, National Gallery of Victroria, March 24

© Philipa Rothfield; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]

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