HAIKU SUITES
SILENT PARTNERS will touch
your soul and tickle your funny bone. A powerful commentary on contemporary
life, these vignettes are witty, revealing, surreal, and ridiculous. Inventive
choreography, text, props, and costuming enhance the intimate yet universal
metaphors of the pieces.
"This show is as sweet and goofy, as provocative and contemplative, and
as creatively conceived and expertly realized as any you might see this year."
– Post and Courier, Charleston, SC, Piccolo Spoleto Festival 2000
SHOULDS
This piece is a romp through the tape in our heads that is constantly telling
us what to do. It opens with a girl who is authoritatively "pushed"
around by a gigantic hand. As the sketch develops, ensemble choreography reflects
the relationship between fitting in and scapegoating in our mass psyche.
SHOPPING FOR LIFESTYLES
A woman in a black box, with only head and hands visible, struggles through
life's many options. At various turns, she states emphatically that she has
found herself, only to change her mind when she discovers a new option.
WHITE SUITS
Dressed in white costumes that obscure gender, two performers engage in a movement
theater dance that reflects the obsessive need for attention as well as distance
in many relationships. This piece is performed in black light to music by the
Kronos Quartet.
JACKIE
An innocent know-it-all brings home a "pet" –
a head in a cage. She proceeds
to care for the pet according to expert advice. Unable to see the real needs
of the pet, her actions become abusive while she fully believes she is taking
good care of her charge.
CHANGING
This humorous interlude, performed between "White Suits" and "Jackie,"
comments on society's hang-ups about nudity. An actor discreetly changes costume
onstage while discussing the difficulty of changing clothes in public places.
NOVELTY SWEATER
A woman purchases a novelty sweater, believing it will make her beautiful. As
she tries it on she loses herself in a maze of pockets. The sweater literally
swallows her. Her dilemma is a statement about advertising and the fashion industry.
FRAME OF MIND
The set consists of an 8-foot open frame enclosing a bench. On the floor under
the bench is the Monk. Using only her mouth, she reverently and methodically
creates formations with shiny white pebbles. Positioned in the frame is the
Inquisitor. Jealous of the Monk's contentment and creativity, the Inquisitor
embarks on a dialogue with the Monk centering around the choices we make. The
Monk guides the Inquisitor with very simple responses, unconsciously prompting
her to physically explore more and more possibilities within the frame. These
explorations become quite acrobatic until the Inquisitor eventually finds her
way out of the frame, which has symbolized her limited perspective.
LINE DANCE
A playful, childish character is slowly influenced by the presence of a "perfect"
icon who never steps off a series of beams placed diagonally across the stage.
The child is intent on achieving the same stoic manner, but gradually she starts
to fear all that she once felt comfortable with. When the figure passes offstage,
the child is left frozen and unable to cross the largest space between the beams.
SEAT OF REASON
A woman is forced to "be in the place where she is" as she discovers
the limits of the "vacation" she is on. She has landed on a stool
that is 6 feet in the air. The piece is lit so that the woman appears to be
in a void. As she realizes the limits of her environment, she also discovers
a freedom she has never before experienced.
FROM HERE
This piece is about contentment and conflict in a relationship. The two characters,
a Realist and Dreamer, "live" on a stool surrounded by household items.
But the Dreamer also exists in a world beyond their shared reality. The Realist
is incapable of seeing or accepting what the Dreamer experiences, despite the
Dreamer's efforts to explain it.
FUSION GAME
This piece deals with the complex ways cultures appropriate styles of dress,
speech, music, and interaction from each other and examines the role the dominant
culture plays in this exchange. Two characters are dressed in contrasting costumes
– one is black and white and angular, and the other is colorful and circular.
As the piece progresses, the two characters offer and steal (appropriate) parts
of each other's costumes and movement styles as they move through an array of
personal interactions. The end is a bittersweet surprise!
MIXED MEDIA
In this solo piece, a girl looking at magazines is torn between wanting to be
like the images presented to her and the "tape" in her head. The soundtrack
(a sung collage of womens voices juxtaposed with phrases from the magazines),
combines to highten the tension of the girl's conflict as she eventually throws
all caution to the wind and fully enjoys the fantasy of being a fashion model.
HAIKU FABLES REVIEWS REPERTORY GIRLS WEAR SHIRTS