Visiting Artist | Jan 4 - 17, 2016
treadmill dreamtime running in place
Tempe, Arizona-based choreographer Grisha Coleman, in her first MANCC residency, further developed her art installation and performance project: treadmill dreamtime running in place. treadmill dreamtime … explores the dynamics of emergent systems in performance and place by transforming abstracted information about the environment into an experiential, embodied, fully sensory event. The project is the second installment of a larger venture known as echo::system, which is a framework and methodology for arts-driven research and public engagement that was constructed by Coleman to mediate connections to our environment through the practices of art and science.
During the residency, MANCC served as a temporary hub for the choreographer and her 14 collaborators—dancers, singers, designers—to interface and experiment, in real time and place, with one another and the components of the interdisciplinary, modular, three-pronged project. Specifically, the performance, light and sound installation, and the interactive treadmills as the three main, integral yet discrete, parts of the project were expanded upon while at MANCC.
Coleman also engaged in dramaturgical research while in residence meeting with Professor Lauren Weingarden, Ph.D. of the Department of Art History, who specializes in neuroaesthetics and the spatio-temporal dimension of experiencing Installation Art, and with Professor Tarez Graban, Ph.D. of the Department of English, whose research interests include non-artifact or place-based digital historical ecologies and feminist rhetorical theory.
The design production focus of the residency was the creation of a screen wall, designed by architect John Oduroe, which served as a canvas for the projection designs of Emily Auble and the lighting designs of Tony Mulanix. Auble used projection mapping software to cast videos of desert and other nature scenes on to the screen wall, creating a mosaic effect of distinct yet related images. The collaborative team also tested a flooring design for the art installation component of the project.
The general public was invited to an informal showing that featured the project’s complex choreography and layering of movement, sound, video, light and projections. The showing concluded with a post performance discussion between Coleman, her collaborators, and the audience, which included faculty and students from the Department of Art, the School of Dance, the Center for Fine Arts, and community members, as well as scholars Dr. Tarez Graban and Dr. Inbal Perry (representing Dr. Weingarden). Coleman processed the audience’s impressions of the work-in-progress, while further contextualizing treadmill dreamtime running in place in relation to the larger project echo::system.
treadmill dreamtime running in place... premiered April 15 - 17, 2016 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
Collaborators in Residence: Sherwood Chen, Marguerite Hemmings, Henry Montes, Miko Smith [dancers], Ron Ragin, Monstah Black and Anitra Brooks [singers], Tony Mulanix [lighting designer], Daragh Byrne [sensor designer], John Oduroe [set designer], Tony Obr [sound operator], Will Knapp [production manager], Gia Cacalano [Choreographic Assistant]
Maggie Allesee
