Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) Residency: January 4 - 17, 2016
Treadmill Dreamtime, running in place is an art installation and performance project that explores the dynamics of emergent systems in performance and place, by transforming abstracted information about the environment into an experiential, embodied, fully sensory event. Treadmill Dreamtime, running in place follows a fictional tribe seeking knowledge of the evolutionary future of their species. Caught in a paradox of walking without traveling, the performers’ vision quest enacts an interface with the land through the blind belief in their machines. Delivered by gym treadmills, these machines become functional and metaphorical; referencing American gym culture, nomadic desert dwelling cultures, and the tradition of the Australian aboriginal walkabout, functioning as a contemporary ritual to activate memory and a greater understanding of the land, in an effort to make meaningful perspective shifts in how we interact with our environment.
The MANCC residency is a gathering place for the collaborators to further develop and integrate performance components while troubleshooting the composite for potential breakdowns and breakthroughs. Professors Lauren Weingarden of the Department of Art History and Tarez Graban of the Department of English visited the Black Box Studio to provide dramaturgical context from their respective disciplines. Coleman will draw from
Dr. Weingarden’s work developing an experiential model of neuroaesthetics and the spatio-temporal dimension of experiencing Installation Art. Dr. Graban offered insights from her research of not-artifact or place-based digital historical ecologies, as well as her investigations of theories of composition and feminist rhetorical theory. MANCC audiences provided audience/participant perspectives of the work during an open informal showing.
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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]