|
Event
HoverDive
Join the Okeanos Collective-choreographer Courtney Peix, composer Amber Vistein, costume designer Jennifer Varekamp, and scientist Larry Pratt-for the full-length premiere of HoverDive, a new evening-length work confronting our relationship to the ocean though dance.
For HoverDive, choreographer and Artistic Director of Contrapose Dance, Courtney Peix creates a stunning and unexpected movement vocabulary inspired by both principles of fluid dynamics-turbulence, entropy, chaos (all elements of scientist Larry Pratt's work), and the movement patterns of ocean life-schooling, drifting, diving, and striking. Throughout the development of this work, Courtney has worked closely with Larry Pratt to understand his research, integrating ideas of wave dynamics, eddies, molecular movement in turbulence, and patterning vs. chaos. She achieves an impressive balance of vulnerability and power, reverence and curiosity, joy and anxiety all familiar facets of our collective experience of the ocean.
The piece is exquisitely performed by the Contrapose Dance dancers: Nina Brindamour, Amy Caine, Maggie Foster, Molly Schwartz, Tony Tucker, Max Auger, Naoko Brown, and Jessica Smith.
Inspired by both underwater field recordings (generously provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and the role of bioluminescence as a kind of underwater telegraphy, composer Amber Vistein, reimagines the ocean as a site of complex interactions and highly codified systems of communication similar to a royal court. This led her to incorporate rhythmic models from Baroque court dances while melding the haunting sounds of the field recordings with a rich pallet of orchestral instruments. The result is a hybrid acoustic geography including an elegant underwater Sarabande and an energetic, aquatic Courante.
In the creation of the costumes, designer Jenn Varekamp set her parameters to use only sustainable textiles, minimize waste, and hand dye all the textiles using natural dyes to limit environmental impact. She gives form to inspiration drawn from imagery of the impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs, frozen landscapes on the ocean's floor, the movement of schooling fish, and the colors and textures of underwater life including, jellyfish and bioluminescence.
It may seem counterintuitive to address a subject as vast as the ocean and an issue of such immense scope as climate change through dance but it's that very intuition that makes the project most necessary. Using the human bodythe most familiar and comprehensible of formsto tackle issues of this scale is to bring that 'vastness' into our realm of understanding; an understanding that is not only abstract, but felt.
The Okeanos Collective hopes you will join us for a unique evening of dance that merges art and science to present a collaboration of four unique visions into one.
*All photos by Larry Pratt copyright 2014
|
|
 |
LocationBoston University Dance Theater (Entrance on Buick Street) (View)
915 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 6 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
|
Contact
|
