About the performance
Intrigued by a wide range of random and disparate inputs from modern life, Germond employs multiple strategies of investigation, in which ambiguous juxtapositions and new, unfamiliar languages come to life.
Want to know more about Rachel Thorne Germond? Here’s a review from a previous performance:
Germond works in a purely abstract realm and yet mines subtle conflicts and animosities inherent in movement and ensemble configuration. She doesn't tell stories, but she explores battles, alliances, break-ups and betrayals, rarely relying on the traditional beauties of flowing contemporary dance.
- Sid Smith, dance critic for The Chicago Tribune
Read the full review here: https://rachelthornegermond.com/see-chicago-dance/
Performance Collage #2 (2017)– Tripod is a multimedia performance work that grapples with the nature of movement as metaphor or analogy, versus the direct literal references possible with projected photographic images. Tripod is a world on stage not dissimilar to everyday life that addresses aspects of fantasy, imagination, and memory. Metal tripods placed throughout the stage space are used both functionally and decoratively - worn on the body - and danced with as a partner. Projected images of nature, houses, furniture, rings, and other talismans from daily life present a visual journey through an apparent rite of passage. The dancers are contemporary yet archaic in their regal attire, with bulbous costume adornments made from knitted cellophane created by Chicago-based artist Pate Conaway. Germond employs an eclectic movement vocabulary that embraces pedestrian sensibility with passages of highly stylized formal technique. The sound score is comprised of nature sounds (ie. tree frogs, owls hooting), the melancholy ballad Flow My Tears by English Renaissance composer John Dowland, an excerpt from a Cat Power song, and the haunting, funereal church bells in John Luther Adams' And Bells Remembered.
Choreography, Photography/Video Projection, Costumes, Sets by Rachel Thorne Germond
Performed by Larissa Asebedo, Rachel Thorne Germond, and Kirsten Reynolds
Costume/Set Elements by Hwa Park and Pate Conaway
Music: Sound effects, John Dowland, Cat Power, John Luther Adams
Performance Collage #3 - Safety Dance (2018)
Originally performed as a duet with Rachel Thorne Germond and Roni Gross, this new freshly cast quartet version of Safety Dance serves up double the drama. Inspired by the William Golding novel Lord of the Flies and the films of Alfred Hitchcock, with a sound score that collages text and sound from Peter Brook’s 1963 film adaptation of the novel with snippets of music by Bernard Herrmann, and Charles Ives’ Central Park in the Dark. Video projection by Rachel Thorne Germond, created from manipulated, cropped film stills.
Choreography, Photography/Video Projection, Costumes, Sets by Rachel Thorne Germond
Performed by Jacqueline Calle, Sally Rhoades, Irene Siegel, and Jessica Winograd
Music/Sound: Bernard Herrmann, Charles Ives, Sound Effects
The Prudent Sky (2019)
A duet for Rachel Thorne Germond and Bessie Award-winning dancer Tasha Taylor inspired by the paintings of Marc Chagall.
Choreography, Photography/Video Projection, Costumes, Sets by Rachel Thorne Germond
Dancers: Rachel Thorne Germond and Tasha Taylor
Music: Sound effects, Marco Rosano, Henry Purcell
Shadow Box (2019)
A collaboration with video artist Charles Woodman exploring ideas of double exposure, silhouette, and layering as applied to live dance performance with video projection.
Choreography, Sets and Costumes: Rachel Thorne Germond
Dancers: Larissa Asebedo and Kirsten Reynolds
Video Projection: Charles Woodman
Music: Sound effects, Marc Ribot, Jim Morrison, Fred Frith
About the Performers
See the dancers’ bios here: https://rachelthornegermond.com/dancers-performers/
About The Collaborators
Charles Woodman
Video Artist, San Francisco, CA
Collaborator: Video Projection for Shadow Box
Charles Woodman is an electronic artist working in video and expanded media. His recent projects concenterate on the integration of video with live performance, often in collaboration with musicians or dancers. Exhibitions of his work include screenings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Block Museum of Art, Chicago, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Edison, NJ, and the American Dance Festival, Raleigh, NC. Woodman was a founding member of the video performance group viDEO sAVant and a pioneer in the development of Live Cinema - real time video editing as live performance. Recent appearances by that ensemble include ENSAD, Paris, Spazio Contemporanea in Brescia, Italy, ISEA, Dubai, UAE, and the Berkeley Art Museum in CA.
Pate Conaway
Interdisciplinary Artist - Chicago, IL
Collaborator: Costumes and Sets Elements for Performance Collage #2 - TRIPOD
Pate Conaway is a graduate of Chicago's Second City Training Center and received his MFA from Columbia College, Chicago. His work explores the connection between visual art and performance. After learning to knit, Pate spent five weeks at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago knitting a pair of mittens large enough for him to sleep in. His work explores the fusion of sculpture, installation, and interactive performance.
http://artiststatement.weebly.com/