NightDriving: Performance

Video imagery is projected on a large transparent scrim stretching across the front of the stage. On the scrim we see the video, and behind the scrim we see the dancers, live on the multi-leveled stage, sharing the visual environment with the projections. The curtain rises. Suspended over a darkened stage, ghostly apparitions slowly twist and spin. A dancer bursts into view, quickly joined by another dancer. Watching the complex interplay of movement between the dancers, it slowly dawns on you – one of the performers is live, and the other is a projection on a transparent screen covering the stage. As more dancers appear on the stage, more video dancers appear on the screen, images transforming from soft and ethereal to bright and colorful, weaving threads of digital imagery into the intricate tapestry of contemporary dance.

The name NightDriving references The Night Driver, written in 1967 by Italo Calvino. On one level this short story is an evocative narrative about two people and a night journey in which one reaches out to the other. On another level it’s about the complexity of relationships — how we construct non-linear connections (hyperlinks) among various versions of our “real” and “imaginary” selves. And on another level it depicts a virtual world where the messenger becomes the medium and the medium becomes the message We use the Calvino story for inspiration, as a springboard for images and ideas. We are not literally “telling” the story in the dance or video.