Think Gravity - Dance Tank
Think Gravity – Dance Tank is a week-long research project symposium that celebrates and reckons with Contact Improvisation for the 50th Anniversary. This multifaceted dance and social justice project involves intergenerational collaboration through physical-creative investigation and theoretical-archival research. Critical artistic inquiry about dance history and dance futurism will center the body, the impact/absence of touch, and identity in the context of these unprecedented times — specifically related to COVID-19 and the movement for racial justice.
Think Gravity – Dance Tank asks:
How does this socially distanced time change our perceptions concerning Contact Improvisation?
How will we touch ?
How do we historicize dance legacies?
Who has been in/visible in the history of Contact Improvisation?
Who are “we?”
How do we imagine the future of the form?
How do we cultivate systemic changes in institutions of dance production and education toward more equity and inclusive excellence?
TEAM
The project is co-curated and co-directed by Anya Cloud and Karen Schaffman.
Collaborating dance artists include Ishmael Houston-Jones, Karen Nelson, Darrell Jones, Makisig Akin, jose e. abad, Ryuta Iwashita, elle hong, Eryn Rosenthal, Jun Akiyama.
Media collaboration by Tara Knight.
Photography collaboration by Tim Richards.
Production Team also includes students from University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and California State University San Marcos (CSUSM).
This project is funded by CU Boulder, CSUSM, and the generous support of an anonymous donor.
CLUTCH!
find the archival lecture tape closest to the present day.
listen to the lecture.
speak out loud what you hear in the moment.
move.
this is an observed process in embodying archive.
this is a movement happening next to the audio lectures of William R. Jones.
Time: Wednesday, March 23, 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Black Box Experimental Studio, Roser ATLAS Institute, CU Boulder
Give me your heart. No, the real one.
This work was developed in the midst of grieving the loss we have been experiencing born from the pandemic and this forced distance we had and the extreme closeness that put a crack into the structures we thought were working but were not. How do we sever ties to the things we have loved and continue to love? Something or someone that was at some point in our lives an integral part of who we are and is no longer. In our modern society, we think of breaking up as a process that has a particular need to focus on the individual process of untangling, where the only focus is to recover from this pain of grief that it created. But what about the idea of breaking softly, with care and with a particular attention to the preciousness of what has occurred here and honoring that?
Time: Thursday, March 24, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Black Box Experimental Studio, Roser ATLAS Institute, CU Boulder
Durational Improvised Performance
This is a durational improvised performance experiment inspired by the week of research, collaboration, dancing, conversation, and risk-taking. The audience is welcome to come for all or part.
Please note that the exterior doors to the ATLAS building will be locked. The audience can enter the space on the hour at 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm. There will be an usher at the door to greet you. You are welcome to stay as long as you like.
Collaborating dance artists include Ishmael Houston-Jones, Karen Nelson, Darrell Jones, Makisig Akin, Jose Abad, Ryuta Iwashita, elle hong, Eryn Rosenthal, Jun Akiyama, Anya Cloud, Karen Schaffman, Skyla Miles, Caiser Le Boss, Lesly Rodruiguez, Rachel Halmrast, and Maddie Grove.
Time: Friday, March 25, 2:00pm - 8:00pm, with audience permitted to enter ATLAS building on the hour at 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm
Location: Black Box Experimental Studio, Roser ATLAS Institute, CU Boulder