A flash-mob of Busby Berkeley-inspired synchronized swimmers and a Brooklyn running club dance to a live disco score on treadmills.
DANCE/FIELD* is a live, large-scale, multimedia dance and performance piece performed only once as part of the curated series DanceRoulette in Brooklyn in February 2014. At the heart of the piece is a large-scale flash-mob dance which bursts in to the actual performance space from the streets of Downtown Brooklyn. Co-choreographed by Andrew Schneider and Vanessa Walters (Fischerspooner), the dance is an explosion of energy and athleticism. The choreography co-opts the movements of synchronized swimming, speed skating, and running, into a simple but powerful set of movements which accumulate as the performers enter the space one by one over the course of a single 8 minute song. The dance uses every level of the Roulette performance space, filling the balcony, the aisles, as well as the stage. A live-feed camera tracks the runners through Downtown Brooklyn and into the space to join the performers already there. Hyper-precise LED concert lighting, lasers, and confetti canons pile-on the exuberance and joy of the dancing until the dance itself can’t take any more. The dance eventually cracks and reveals intercuts of an intimate conversation between two fighting lovers over the phone. The woman is live in the space on her cell phone. Computer controlled LED lighting systems intercut the action of the dance with the action of the cell-phone breakup (much like the instantaneousness of changing the channel on a television). The two performances begin to occupy the same space at the same time. The intercutting becomes so rapid as if these two disparate performances are different frames of a film reel becoming cut frame by frame together. They become interleaved. They become lenticular. We experience the unhinged, over-the-top exuberance of the dance at the same time as the awful banality of witnessing an over-the-phone street scene breakup. The two things occupy the same space at the same time.
all photos courtesy of James Sprang
DANCE/FIELD
by Andrew Schneider
Co-choreography: Vanessa Walters
Production Manager: Emily Rea
Sound Consultant: Bobby McElver
Sound Engineer: Radoslaw Konopka
Production Assist: Andy Sowers
Drums: Max Bernstein
Bass Guitar: Jay Foote
Guitar / Music Director: Ellis Traver
Percussion: Jessie Nelson
Trumpet: Mike Irwin
Featured Vocals: Micah Freedman, Emily Rea, Sean Brennan
Speed Skater #1: Laura Neese
Speed Skater #1 Jessica Lee
Treadmill #1: Joy Agner
Treadmill #2: Peter Musante
Synchronized Swimmers: Vanessa Walters, Jennifer Sydor, Lucy Struever, Kirsten Schnittker, Leslie Cuyjet, Mary Ellen Carafice
Flash Mob Dancers: Alessandra Callabi, Alex Tkill, Andrew Sowers, Ariane Bernier, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs, Ciera Coyan, Clara Lipfert, Danielle Romeo-White, David Rysdahl, Emily Pintel, Emma DeCorsey, Eric Cotti, Hannah Son, Jane O’Hara, Jenna Purcell, Joy Agner, Justin Adhoot, Kylie Alesso, Laine Bonstein, Laura Hartle, Lily Azrielant, Lisa Reynolds, Marissa Molnar, Mary Karl, Matthew Brown, Mia D’Avanza, Michelle Cahn, Nic Adams, Peter Musante, Sade Namei, Sandra Garner, Sevrin Mason, Stephanie Willing, Sebastiani Romagnolo, Taylor Myers, Terence Anderson, Zonia Pelensky
Woman on cell-phone: Kristine Haruna Lee
Video Shoot
Director of Photography: Xavi Medina
Producer: Wes Auburn
Production Manager: Emily Rea
PA: Andy Sowers
Runners: Andrew Schneider, Andy Sowers, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs, Emily Pintel, Eric Cotti, Jenna Purcell, Laine Bonstein, Laura Hartle, Lily Azrielant, Marissa Molnar, Mary Ellen Carafice, Matthew Brown, Michelle Cahn, Nic Adams, Sade Namei, Sandra Garner, Sevrin Mason, Terence Anderson
Donors: Alec Duffy, Alexa Smith, Andrew Nolen, Ben Williams, Benedetta Piantella, Bruce Odland, Carol Ireland and Ben Dent, Chip Rodgers, Chris Kairalla, Christine Shallenberg, Christopher Paretti, Claire Vitto, Dan O’Sullivan, Daphne McCoy/Northfield Dance Academy, Ed Purver, El Schneider, Fiona Carswell, Gabe BC, Gary Wilmes, Gracie Terzian, Gregory Mehrten, Jackson Taylor, James Nick Sears, Jennifer Lim, Jeremy Coffman, Jeremy Lydic, Jo Equality Lampert, Joe Beuerlein, John Jahnke, John Taflan, Joshua Dickens, Kaneza Schaal, Kate Valk, Katie Maietta, Kelly Ullom, Kent Barrett, Libby King, Mandy O’Brien, Marin Ireland, Matt Kubacki, Matthew Burton, Megan MacMurray, Meredith Block, Michael DelGaudio, Nancy Hechinger, Patricia DelGaudio, Rachel Chavkin, Rich D’Amore, Rob Reese, Rob Seward, Roger Bechtel, Rory Nugent, Ruth Alyce Graham, Ryan Dillon, Sade Namei, Sally Bell Pierce, Sandra Garner, Sheena See & Roy Faudree, Shelley Carter, Stephen Stevo Arnoczy, Tamara Jafar, Tanya Meunier, Tom Smith, Toni Dove, Tristan Perich, Warren Fischer, Weston Auburn
Special Thanks: AVAN LAVA, Casey Spooner, Enver Chakartash, Ian Pai
DANCE/FIELD was made possible with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
*DANCE/FIELD was formerly called ‘FIELD.’ The name was retroactively changed when a new, then-in-development, light and space durational art piece being developed had the working title ‘FIELD.’ That piece is now titled ‘AFTER.’