Visiting Artist | December 8 - 16, 2020 // Second Residency 2021
'lectric Eye
Joanna Kotze came to MANCC in December 2020 to work on her film called Nothing’s changed except for everything with Tallahassee-based video artist and MANCC Media Specialist Chris Cameron and remotely with New York-based musician/composer Ryan Seaton. This film takes solo movement from her larger project,’lectric Eye, that she has been working on for the past two and a half years, to tell a digital story of personal and collective loss and the human body’s potential for persistence, resistance, and power. Kotze and Cameron visited multiple sites in Tallahassee, from city parks to campus garages, to film footage. Kotze looks forward to engaging with School of Dance students via Zoom in January, during which she, Seaton, and Cameron will discuss the residency and their process.
In 2021, Kotze will return with her group of collaborators to continue creating ’lectric Eye. This ensemble residency, originally scheduled for spring 2020, had been postponed due to the pandemic. An evening-length piece, ‘lectric Eye highlights collaboration between movement and music while exploring how humans keep going, day to day, surrounded by conflict and bias, yet celebrating connections and beauty while fighting to put one foot in front of the other. A diverse group of dancers and musicians, this cast asks: How do very different people experience boundaries with joy and struggle as they push to physical and sonic limits? How do they come together to traverse something difficult and how do they see themselves in these situations? How do they see others? ‘lectric Eye is personal and communal, intimate and exposed, social and political. It is an ensemble work that highlights the individual. It is violent and playful, intrusive and inclusive, calm and chaotic. It highlights the desire for privacy along with the desire to be seen. In a life full of contradiction, what rises to the surface and how does each person decide what is meaningful? These crucial questions will be asked through the prism of this particular group’s experiences and physicality.
This residency was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.