The movement:

The shapes felt more organic in a space that already held objects and art.  We as figures felt less artificial. More natural.

 

The audience:

            The most intriguing part of performing was the audience’s relationship with us.  It was a bystander audience.  They arrived at the gallery with no obligation to watch our movement and no expectations for our performance. And that made it so easy to perform. Eliminating commitment and money created an entirely different dynamic between the performers and spectators.   Instead of required anticipation brought on by sitting behind a curtain before a traditional performance, our instantaneous audiences had the freedom to stay or leave and were truly curious about our movement. 

            Practicing movement studies, Sticks in particular, in the studio is tedious and I’m focused on getting it right, moving – or not moving – my limbs to make the pattern of movement happen. But performing with this type of spectator, one with a predetermined, genuine interest for art, and one with continuous freedom to engage or disengage, allowed for an entirely different thought process. 

             In front of this spontaneous, flowing audience in the open environment of the gallery I wasn’t so separated.  The distinct parts of the shapes created by the sticks, my body, and the other dancers previously needed to be melded and pieced together.  Instead, in the gallery, the people and the sticks felt stronger and closer, like a single structure. 

 

The floor:

            In the studio, Group Primary Accumulation was about perfecting the sequence of gestures, having the mental stamina to not lose count, and staying in line with the other dancers.  In the gallery, everything changed because I lost my senses.  Performing on the terrace meant feeling the floor much more than in the studio.  The scratchy surface of the outdoor tile intensified my awareness of even the slightest movement against the ground.  The deep etches between tiles made kinesthetic spacing easier.  But direct exposure to the sun meant I was blind. Only during 4, 13-15, and 28-30 could I quickly catch a bright glimpse of the dancers around me and attempt to relieve my forced reliance on aural cues.  More than anything else, when performing Group Primary Accumulation in the lobby of the gallery, I focused on the security camera above me and thought about the permanent recording of our experience from some security office in a remote part of the building.  I liked the idea that even a security guard reviewing the tape could at any moment experience our live art.