Gallery Xue / London
30 March 2012
What if, in one moment, the whole world started dancing?
In 2005 choreographer Beth Fein asked that question. For 8 years now her answer has been Dance Anywhere, one hour out of the year when people across the globe, from 6 continents, drop everything and dance. Professional dancers, carpenters, athletes, stock brokers, everyone willing to move. On 30 March, at exactly Noon PDT / 20:00 BST, Vaneeesa Blaylock / Company made our 1st appearance in Dance Anywhere by dancing in the great fountain at Trafalgar Square in London.
We thought about how, on average, it seems like people dance more in virtual space than in the “real” world. In thinking about the spirit of Dance Anywhere, is it literally to move your body? Yes! But perhaps also to be in your body. To pay attention to yourself as a physical presence, as an embodied, corporeal being. The word “dance” might at times conjure visions of heroic movement or incredible rhythm, but stillness, calm, presence, can also be powerful experiences.
In VB36 – Dance Anywhere, we chose to have it both ways. To be still for “Part A” and to cut loose for “Part B.” In “Part A” we created an ambitious, gynmastic, tableaux vivant in the fountain at Trafalgar Square: 30 avatars joined their bodies to create a living, human dodecahedron. In “Part B” we did indeed cut loose and danced in the Trafalgar Square fountain.
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- PARTICIPANT LIST
- MACHINIMA
- DANCE ANYWHERE WEBSITE
- THE MINORITY REPORT ON SAVEME OH
- PERFORMANCE DOCUMENT
Virtual Performance Artist, retired, turned Virtual Coffee Shop proprietor, now also retired. Pretty much just a pensioner these days.
