Overflow (2007)
The choreographic and imagistic impulses for Overflow came out of Carrie and Doug's discussion of the nature of water as a force of destruction that reshapes landscape and habitat. Taking images and stories related to Hurricane Katrina of 2005 and the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, Overflow considers the response of bodies to a larger, massive force - actively through rescue or isolated as when the body is being overwhelmed. The guiding metaphors are water as agent that can re-configure narrative on a molecular, geographic, and emotional level.
Credits
- Choreography by Carrie Hanson
- Music by Richard Woodbury
- Video animation by Jackie Kazarian
- Costume by Abigail Glaum-Lathbury
- Lighting design by Margaret Nelson
- Performance by Christina Gonzalez-Gillett, Jen Grisham, Amanda McAlister, Jonathan Meyer, Bruce Ortiz, and Cara Sabin
Notes on the music for Overflow
"Last spring Carrie mentioned to me that she had access to a set of organ pipes from a demolished church and wondered about their potential for making sound for dance. For the next several months I experimented with the pipes and became fascinated with their behavior under stress. I recorded numerous samples of different pipes under different conditions (overblown, frozen, crimped, crushed) and then assembled that material into a set of virtual instruments on my computer. Later I went through a similar process using samples of piano strings being struck or scraped."
"Thematic connections between the music and the dance arise, I believe, from the sound materials themselves and from our shared discussions and processes. The organ pipes evoke solemnity and ritual. As channels for flowing air they are also a fitting analog for water flow. That the pipes were stressed and damaged to produce the sounds heard, reflects the possibility of destruction and suffering as a consequence of an otherwise benign and essential element, water."