Here's the story

I'm going to try to type this up for editing purposes... plus its really fun for me to imagine this all at once :) As of now, here's how I see things progressing, and I have phrases for the majority of these sections.


As the lights fade up, there is a set of semi-transparent colored screens of irregular rectangular shapes scattered on different planes and at different heights within a central part of the stage area (hopefully to be viewed in the round). The dancers are at the edges of this environment, on opposite sides of it, and the photographer is barely noticeable at the edge of the larger performance space- their role in relation to the piece begins as questionable.

The dancers (two, now- but more would be fine or good) enter from opposite ends of the labyrinth environment, tracing their own seemingly novel paths towards a common experience. Resonance seems to accidentally occur between them along the way, and they are only aware of themselves and their immediate surrounding- if even that much. They move towards the center gaining focus, at their own pace. When they arrive, they are facing where they came from, not where they are going. The photographer hovers around where the dancers began, at the edge of the labyrinth.

Together in the central space, the dancers end up back-to-back, and their movements ("babydoll" phrase) begin to align and coincide. They start to have opportunities to develop awareness of each other as they enter each others' range of vision from their back-to-back position- their bubbles are being entered. With an "anxious-ambivalent" nervousness, when this happens and their awareness is intruded upon or they are touched, they withdrawl back into the comfort of their own space and facing. The photographer enters and withdrawals during this section. As this continues to happen, their gaze solidifies into meeting of eyes; the familiarity of their movements begins to merge into one world and they understand each others' movements as their own. The photographer is able to stay closer to them, is becoming drawn into the movement and the audience sees her role as distinctly part of the piece.

When this happens, they mature together. (Incidentially, the "saltyface" phrase here is based on a more mature topic for me.) They are not doing identical movements, but each is their own contributor to the whole movement. They are aware of each other, getting to know each other more deeply through this cooperation and interplay. From their meeting point, their relationship grows and develops, expanding what it holds and refers to- deepening in understanding each other ("saltyface" exploration). They curiously, tentatively explore each other in their new intimacy and understanding, beginning to move away again from the central meeting point, but together to a new place (paper-passing). Here, the photographer is very close, practically part of the dancers' process.

The photographer can't continue observing at this point- she has to become involved. This is the point where the artist and art meld, and where the observer embodies the emotion. Before she can follow this urge, the photographer pairs with an audience member, taking them into the performance space, just to the edge, and begins sharing the photographic process (through movement only). The camera is passed on to an audience member, and the photographer reenters the main of the space, joining with the dancers on their way to the core of the environment. The new camera-holder is left to consider how they, as a representative of the audience, will carry on the process of capturing and understanding emotions/the dance. As the lights fade shortly after this transition, it is left for us to consider accepting the invitation to follow the original photographer's path of understanding and involvement in the scene.

Installation setups of the environment or the piece itself provide interesting options to extend this idea of the audience's role.