Lambda-award winning author and visual artist Sharon Bridgforth
will come to Miami this week to continue the research on her upcoming
presentation of the work ‘River See’, which will be host in the city for the
first time in 2014.
In partnership with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator
(DVCAI), Sharon will explore local artists (musicians, singers, actors, and
dancers) as well as the community, to be integrated to the show.
River See investigates blues stories as living arrangements
of jazz, through an improvisational process that happens during performance, with
singers, dancers, musicians and audience members. Black traditions are the base
for bringing together people from different ethnicities, religions,
generations, gender and sexual identities, places of origin, class backgrounds,
abilities, and aesthetics.
“This is a living composition made of jazz technologies: polyrhythms,
dissonance, simultaneity, playing time, breaking form. Bodies move in circles
and lines. Performers sing and speak bits of text throughout the entire room versus
only on the stage. During the rehearsal process I create physical language to
signal directions to the performers. What they enter the (rehearsal) room
with-their lived experiences, artistic expertise and impulses are the
architecture for the signals. The audience is invited to choose how they will
be active witnesses or participants. Some will listen or hold space. Some will
translate bits of text, some will offer gestures. Some will share in telling
the story. Some will chant. We all work to serve SEE as she tells her story.
Through a collective process, we become responsible to one another in the art
of creating a piece about love”, says Bridgforth.
River See is a NPN Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by
Links Hall in partnership with Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Living Arts of Tulsa, Pillsbury
House Theatre, The Theatre Offensive, and NPN.
Video of Rosie Gordon Wallace talking about the project
No comments:
Post a Comment