Spotlight on The Tank!

Mary Love Hodges's lovely article in the Brooklyn Rail gives a shout out to The Raw and the Cooked series, as well as Tank dance programming in general. She writes:

"In a crowded landscape where young people struggle to be seen, the empowering presence of The Tank is an alternative to burnout. Further, while these young curators had all invited friends and colleagues whose work they felt deserved more attention, they were at least as excited to discover unfamiliar artists, often making intuitive programming decisions based on the uniqueness of a proposal or an artist’s confident vision"

Long live the experimental theater collective...

Videos from Dec 9th

Aperture
Performances in order of appearance: Chisa Hidaka & Margaret Paek with video by Jung Woong Kim, Eryn Rosenthal, Sam Haar, Leah Nelson & Chris Delporto, Alejandro Acierto, Michele Torino, Jake Wise, Stephanie Fungsang & Jeremy Finch, and The Stochastic Ensemble (Fabrice Covelli, Melissa Guerrero, Kayoko Nakajima, and Margaret Paek).


Vascular
Performers in order of appearance: Ava Heller & Matthew Ferry, Mark Messer, Ezra Tenenbaum & Ashley Martin, Tatyana Tenenbaum & Jo Morris, Lucinda Segar & Ethan Cowan.

Derivations

Food for thought: Ethan Cowan directed me to this NY Times article about Claude Levi-Strauss, who coined the phrase "the raw and the cooked." For the full article, click here.
-Tatyana

Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Two-Part Harmonies
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: November 7, 2009

THE RAW AND THE COOKED “Raw” and “cooked” are shorthand terms meant to differentiate what is found in nature from what is a product of human culture. That dichotomy, Mr. Lévi-Strauss believed, exists in all human societies. Part of what makes us human, however, is our need to reconcile those opposites, to find a balance between raw and cooked. But where is the dividing line between nature, which is emotional and instinctive, and culture, which is based on rules and conventions? In a metaphoric sense, a cook is a kind of mediator between those realms, transforming an object originally from the natural world into an item fit for human consumption. So by “cooked,” Mr. Lévi-Strauss means anything that is socialized from its natural state. Yes, the definition of what is considered edible varies from one society or religious group to another. But all have binary structures that separate the raw and the cooked, the fresh and the rotten, the moist and the dry or burned.

Scores and other images

Photos by Jake Wise. Videos to come...

The Raw and the Cooked Show's Last Run!

"Everyone-I-ever-wanted-to-see-improvise"
or "Rock and Roll Miniatures"



Wednesday, December 9th at 9:30pm, $5
@ The Tank 354 West 45th Street

Dance and performance by
Ava Heller & Matthew Ferry
Bradley Teal Ellis
Chisa Hidaka & Margaret Paek
Hannah Carpenter with Cassie Roberts and Tatyana Tenenbaum
Jeremy Finch
Jo Morris & Tatyana Tenenbaum
Kayoko Nakajima
Kevin Ho & Rebecca Bliss
Lucinda Segar
Michele Torino Hower and Ava Heller
Stochastic Ensemble (Charlie Mosey, Elise, Knudson, Fabrice Covelli, Kayoko Nakajima, Margaret Paek & Melissa Guerrero)
Teresa Smith & Dancers

Music and performance by
Ezra Tenenbaum
Jake Wise
Kyle Jacques
Loop 243
Matthew Ferry
Michael Beharie
Sam Haar

Upcoming Raw and the Cooked Shows!

New Schedule
The Raw and the Cooked will now be on Wednesday nights bi-monthly, alternating months with another offbeat performance series at The Tank called p.art.ies. For other these and other dance events check out www.thetanknyc.org/dance.

Upcoming r&c shows:

• Wednesday, August 26th
• Wednesday, October 21th
• Wednesday, December 9th

All shows are 9:30pm, $5. Cheap beer. Come support improvised, experimental performance!

If you are interested in performing at The Raw and the Cooked, you can email tatyana@thetanknyc.org

Dancing with Feedback

A colleague of mine from Oberlin, electronic composer and multimedia artist Thomas Arsenault, recently shot some videos my way of a collaborative project we did in 2006. I thought the footage could be relevant to this blog, seeing as it deals with interdisciplinary collaboration and improvisation. At the end of the 30 minute performance, in which I play Arsenault's alter-ego, a little bear named "Marble Fresno" (check me out in those pajamas), Marble is raised to ascension by a strange creature and his brown fur is turned white. In the final scene shown below, Marble's ascension is depicted through video feedback designed by Matthew Lippincott.


Not the greatest document, but you can get an idea of how I improvised and worked with the video. Often, these sorts of elements are added at the last minute and this can be a real challenge for performers. All the conceptualizing and talking about the technology won't necessarily prepare you to work effectively with it. The rest of Arsenault's show featured a painstakingly crafted animation (where I also appear, green screened below) accompanied by a live ensemble. Check out the beautiful animation below: