the urgent artist

On December 11th, 2009 SLIPPAGE: Performance/Culture/Technology presented a previously conceived but constantly new dance work named Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk at Joyce SoHo. “Conceived by and featuring Thomas F. DeFrantz, this solo performance explores tap dance as a narrative form of storytelling, augmented by digital technologies. New Jersey-based poly-media artist Eto Oro provides programming and visual environment.” The mood of the work is a dark jazz. There is low lighting to feature film projections and an abstract hanging wood sculpture with minimalist reference to a piano hanging from the stage right ceiling. The few props include a white laced dress and a flimsy hat DeFrantz throws and catches with no consequence.

DeFrantz takes the stage at Joyce SoHo

The artists focused heavily on two principles: narration of the important or interesting landmarks in the life of Thelonious Monk and manipulation technology through dance.  The first was accomplished more from the program notes than the staged composition and improvisation, the latter making up more than 30% of the show. At one point,

DeFrantz walks over to a “piano” takes a vase of red roses and dumps them into the “open strings.” This homage to a true event that symbolized Monk’s frustration of being passed over by a younger generation of jazz musicians. The gravity of the reinvented action showed little more than what it was on stage: tap dancing on flowers. DeFrantz face was often not as animated as his hoofing feet, but his music choices emoted enough. Billy Holiday, one of Monk’s muses was used in both film and sound and gave both soft and shrill sensory conversation to compliment the composition, or lack there of.

Through the manipulation of the technology, DeFrantz and Oro aimed to create a wide scale of musical and visual texture. The projection screen was a translucent scrim that DeFrantz could travel behind or in front of. Each video and musical clip was triggered by 10 copper plates, padded and taped to the floor which the artist danced on. At some points only one would play, at others he would trigger all 10 and improvise an entire section in disjointed noise and overlapping pictures. Eto Oro said, “this work and much of the work I create as a media artist is about ‘Sensitive Spaces,’ I give spaces sensory perception by equipping them with various kinds of hardware. Touch = trigger pads, microphone – hearing, speakers = voice, camera = sight. Through mapping of these sensibilities with software the space can then respond to activity, or the lack of activity, within it or beyond it.”

While viewing the piece, it was more difficult to recognize the importance of the improvisation and narrative, than it was to recognize the artists’ interests in finding a new way to communicate their art. The theme, mood, and power of movement were all there, but the narrative and historical significance were muted by the experimental and already traveled appeal of making the piece “poly-media.”  “One of my concerns is how to use technology to enhance theatrical storytelling, improvisation and artistic performance,” said DeFrantz, a Professor of Music and Theater Arts at MIT. “In a way, my steps are analogous to Monk’s piano keys; I’m interpreting his rhythms and collaborating with my feet. The performance is spontaneous and original.”

I find myself not thinking to review the actual movement (lanky loose tap with a few balletic tones) but the works effect as a whole, which in many ways can be considered successful story telling and performance art. But in a dance venue, how does one draw a line between movement art and art containing movement? Is there a need for an appropriate application of art in corresponding space? At the Q&A after the performance I raised a point that from

Merce Cunningham to YouTube the three constants in multimedia dance art have remained: live performance, sound and video. I asked if there are other media besides video and audio manipulation that each artist envisions or desires to be included in what has been defined as “multimedia.”

Eto Oro jumped at the question and pointed out that we have infinite technological power over moving objects. He spoke of how there is a whole world of robotics being discovered and engineered that the dance world has yet to fully explore.