Following our successful InfoShop on October 15th I am happy to announce that we are now actively engaged in planning the next steps of the research. We will commence studio explorations for the first ‘performance prototype’ in January 2012.
The musical context for this work is John Cage’s “Haikai”, a piece initially written for the Si Pawit Gamelan Degung of the Evergreen Club of Toronto in 1986.
This work is partly in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Cage’s birth. However, like every one of the prototypes we plan to stage, “Haikai” engages with different ‘constructions’ of ‘East’ and ‘West’. In doing so, the choreography will explore the structure of the Japanese poetic form haiku as well as engage with ‘Korean Unison’ rhythms, all within the context of a Javanese gamelan ensemble.
John Cage was known for his mischievous, irreverent, and provocative questioning of some of music's most sacred canons, a penchant for experimentation with different cultural forms, as well as his enormous contribution to dance via collaborations with life-partner Merce Cunningham. An important aspect of this work was his ‘chance procedures’ and his insistence on these two disciplines (dance and music) working independently, but at the same time in collaboration with one another. This new aesthetic was known for its persistence in breaking down the chain of cohesion between the two.
Project Barca will engage with some of these ideas as it seeks to deconstruct the old as well as re-construct a new path out of its remains. Studio work begins in January 2012 for an estimated premiere in mid April. The research team plans to offer its second InfoShop sometime between these two dates.
Web links:
Evergreen Club
http://www.evergreenclubgamelan.ca/
“Road to Ubud” - Haikai
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/road-to-ubud/id320670571
Haikai
http://www.johncage.info/workscage/haikai.html
Korean Unison
http://mosaicland.com/music-lessons-bill-parsons/korean-unisons/
The musical context for this work is John Cage’s “Haikai”, a piece initially written for the Si Pawit Gamelan Degung of the Evergreen Club of Toronto in 1986.
This work is partly in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Cage’s birth. However, like every one of the prototypes we plan to stage, “Haikai” engages with different ‘constructions’ of ‘East’ and ‘West’. In doing so, the choreography will explore the structure of the Japanese poetic form haiku as well as engage with ‘Korean Unison’ rhythms, all within the context of a Javanese gamelan ensemble.
John Cage was known for his mischievous, irreverent, and provocative questioning of some of music's most sacred canons, a penchant for experimentation with different cultural forms, as well as his enormous contribution to dance via collaborations with life-partner Merce Cunningham. An important aspect of this work was his ‘chance procedures’ and his insistence on these two disciplines (dance and music) working independently, but at the same time in collaboration with one another. This new aesthetic was known for its persistence in breaking down the chain of cohesion between the two.
Project Barca will engage with some of these ideas as it seeks to deconstruct the old as well as re-construct a new path out of its remains. Studio work begins in January 2012 for an estimated premiere in mid April. The research team plans to offer its second InfoShop sometime between these two dates.
Web links:
Evergreen Club
http://www.evergreenclubgamelan.ca/
“Road to Ubud” - Haikai
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/road-to-ubud/id320670571
Haikai
http://www.johncage.info/workscage/haikai.html
Korean Unison
http://mosaicland.com/music-lessons-bill-parsons/korean-unisons/