4-6 PM
The Art of Dance: Righteous Spring
Theatre
Righteous
Spring site specific collaborative happening with Kyle Abraham,
Ian Williams and Terry Young.
Righteous Spring is a collaborative happening that is new and unpredictable
with each real-time occurrence.
The experience comprises a live audio element, visual motion/dance element,
and a time-based media/slide projection.
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ABSTRACT: Righteous Spring is a performance whose title is derived from the ballet The Rite of Spring. The Right of Spring (Le Sacred u printemps) debuted in Paris in 1913. The performance drew boos and protests from the audience at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, eventually erupting into a full-blown riot; later subdued only by police intervention. The Parisian artistic establishment was not ready for the pairing of Russian composer Igor Stravinskys violent composition with choreographer Vaslav Nijinskys radical departure from classical ballet. This upset of Parisian high society with new and experimental artistic forms established what would come to be known as the Avant Garde. Collaboration and its contexts prove a powerful device for change. The original happening of Righteous Spring occurred under the auspices of an Appalachian arts and crafts festival based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The collaborators looked to the mid-century Black Mountain College (North Carolina) collaborations of John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg for an accessible model of interdisciplinary collaboration (with Righteous Spring being a similar collaboration between a musician, choreographer, and visual artist). In each future happening the artists question the role of collaboration both as artists and as collaborators within the contexts of historic sites of collaboration and their impact on and result from surrounding cultural milieus. What would John Cage compose for Vladimir Nijinsky? What would Billie Holiday sing at Andy Warhols Factory? |