Butoh dancer needed for FIGMENT - performance installation on Govenor's Island
I am looking for a Butoh performer for a performance installation I am creating for FIGMENT, a fantastic interactive arts festival on Governor's Island June 7th and 8th.
The project, entitled Wandering Whimsy, is a site-specific performance installation consisting of seven interwoven vignettes (listed below) in a historic mansion on Governor's Island. The piece is about memory, dreams, synchronicity, strangers, and the alchemy through which the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Wandering Whimsy is a unique brand of experiential theatre that aims to awaken people’s curiosity, empathy, and wonder at the world by making them more acutely aware of the stories that surround them.
One of the vignettes incorporates Butoh (general idea below). As this is a solo performance, I can work with the performer's schedule over the next week (daytimes are preferable), with the exception of June 6th, when the full cast and crew will assemble on the Island to pull it all together. The ideal performer is a gifted Butoh dancer as well as a skilled actor, capable of delivering a monologue and engaging with the audience in an intimate one-on-one setting, a la Sleep No More.
** For this piece, I am also looking for additional Butoh dancers who will not need to deliver text, so please inquire**
Festival: FIGMENT is a huge interactive arts festival on Governor's Island June 7th and 8th. If you haven't been, imagine an entire island transformed into a bizarre whimsical playground of interactive art, music, and performance. The festival emphasizes community, self-expression, creativity, exploration, and the decommodification of art (hence, the festival is free and run by volunteers; there is no exchange of money). It's a very special event in a unique setting.
Dates: FIGMENT is June 7th & 8th. The performance installation will repeat several times throughout the weekend between the hours of 10am and 5pm (exact hours TBA, but we anticipate 6 performance in total over the course of two days.
Time commitment: Fast and dirty. A passionate group of artists, performers, designers, and musicians are pooling our resources and energy to make this happen. How much time can you comfortably contribute? Ideally, each vignette would have one or two 3 hour rehearsals (as needed) over the next two weeks, plus a full cast rehearsal on the island June 5th and/or 6th.
BUTOH: The vision is to place a performer in an intimate space lined with antique mirrors on the second floor of the house. Unlike the other vignettes, this vignette is meant to be experienced by one audience member at a time, a la Theater for One. The mirrors create an infinity room that warps the senses in an otherwise enclosed space. A marvelous spoken word poet has written optional text for the piece. Nothing is set in stone, as the performer is integral to the process and might alter what the vignette ends up being.
Other vignettes:
- An eccentric woman centuries old who invites individuals to sit across from her at a tiny, beautifully set table. She speaks to that person as though he or she is her lover from lives past
- A puppeteer on stilts manipulating human marionettes (dancers attached to ribbons)
- A woman in a bathtub filled with dirt who invites passersby to plant flowers and dig for pennies in her tub
- An ethereal architect who builds cities out of memories
- A man who hears color (featuring musical sculptures) inspired by this guy http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.
- An aerialist who extract dreams from slumbering fools
- A dream reader surrounded by a spiral of pillows who invites passersby to lie down and creats a sonic landscape out of their dreams
- A mercurial mailman who intercepts love letters to and from strangers
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