ALLEGORICA
November 14 - 17
Noon - 8:00 p.m.
Reception & Introduction by the Artist:
November 16 at 6:00 p.m.
Video and Performance Studio
Ann Arbor dancer/choreographer and U-M Professor of Dance Peter Sparling premieres ALLEGORICA: A Videodance Vaudeville in Nine Acts. Acting as both dancer and editor, Sparling presents nine improvisations--captured on video by four cameras then intricately re-configured for a large-scale space, five screens and a reliquary of provocatively lit objects. Featuring the music of Bach, Hank Williams, Frank Pahl, Prince, Al Massey, Arvo Part, and text from an anonymous “hate letter”, ALLEGORICA offers a panoramic take on such themes as greed, spiritual ambition, lost love, physical suffering, religious bigotry, and the sounding of the voice in a new century.
ALLEGORICA is an album of improvised dance solos videotaped and edited to unfold over five projection screens. Rather than appearing live from behind a curtain in a sequence of highly stylized routines as in traditional vaudeville, the dances are virtual--videotaped, edited and formatted for video projection in a space reminiscent of a walk-through art installation or exhibition. Navigating freely between the five screens, the solo dancer embarks on a hallucinatory journey through a series of dramatic or lyrical episodes, embodying aspects of morality tales, medieval allegories, and both baroque and modern-day troubadours.
The audience is invited to step into the intimate yet cavernous darkness and either sit in banks of seats or wander among the objects and screens. The complete series runs for 45 minutes without intermission, before beginning again after a 15-minute pause.
Admission is free. To park for free -- after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends -- visitors will need to park on Bonisteel Boulevard or in the visitors lot off of Fuller Road (behind the Art & Architecture Building. The Video and Performance Studio is at the far south end of the Duderstadt Center. For more information, contact Peter Sparling at petespar@umich.edu.
