Menomena
Under an Hour
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Excerpts from the T:BA:04 Art Festival Blog.
Menomena = music
Monster Squad = dance company
T:BA:04 = time-based art festival
Marty Schnapf = artistic co-director, painter and installation artist
Tahni Holt = artistic co-director, choreographer
_____
Saturday, September 11, 2004
monstersquad is tba and today is september 11th
monstersquad is TBA
no wonder Monstersquad is on the cover for the program of TBA - it is the epitome of time-based art. with a clock clicking down (today's part 1 starting at 58:00, ending at 38:21) the dancers of monstersquad balance, weave, push, pull, splash, connect, and hover in a rhythm not quite in sync with the excellent sounds of menomena but seemingly on a clock all their own. this was my first performance by monstersquad. my friend in the audience said he had seen what he referred to as "timed catastrophes" - monstersquad's "the events preceding" from june. upon hearing that i again thought of this day and september 11th (more later). at first i was filled with mundane questions - how wet will they get? will they stay balanced on those tiny blocks forever? how do they get dry enough again before the next show? but my pedestrian thoughts quickly faded as i was pulled in by the story of isolation and reaction. the women seemed to be saying - i'm going down, i'm getting wet, and you're coming down with me. then, as the music's mood shifted, the conversation changed. the movements seemed to say -trust me, lean on me, i'm here too. costumes, lighting and set were all excellent. in what seemed like a second act of the piece, the music and lighting changed, revealing to me for the first time the ripples created in the shallow pool. even the dancer balancing on her tiny blocks alone in the corner was not unaffected by the others. then i thought about how much of TBA is connected to the theme of water - monstersquad's shallow pool, headlong dance theatre, helen herbetson's aquatic sound effects and movements, lone twin (lone twin - talk about isolation and reaction) and i thought of the hurricanes coming one after the other. i thought about myself being protected from the outside world in this black box house of art - my own isolation as a reaction to the dangerous wet outside...just a silly coincidence in my head...after the performance my friend said he's more interested in the crisp precise movements than the...i interrupted with "spontaneous?" just as he said "rounded" and we saw how the words meant the same thing. i wondered if the timing of their movements was based on the music or on each other's choreography. i also wondered how much of the process of choreography and the composition were reactive or isolated - continuing the question of the piece itself...
.....[text omitted]....
# posted by laurabecker @ 5:19:50 PM
monstersquad day two
have people been talking about monstersquad? what a difference a day makes. today i witnessed lines to get in, seats filling up and a buzz in the air. TBA is getting serious...i went into today's performance deciding to sit on stage left rather than the center. maybe the different angle changed my entire point of view, or maybe everything really was that different. sitting closer to menomena and their instruments, the music seemed louder and pulled me in more and created an entirely different feel as i viewed the dancers' story. it took me forever to realize that i wasn't even able to see the clock. perhaps that's why i felt like today's performance flew by. today, monstersquad didn't mean time-based, except maybe "time to forget about stuff like time" to be simple, i just was overwhelmed. i loved it.
the movie "we don't live here anymore" is about two couples - each co-existing in what can't really be referred to as happy marriages, though they may seem that way at first glance. one couple barely co-exists, engaging in illicit actions that may have once been meant to provoke each other but now just fill up their time of disengagement. the other couple, fiery, fierce and fragile, seem to be a few steps behind on a similar path. either they'll provoke each other into fixing things, or wind up the same as the others. this is the same story i saw monstersquad perform today. while yesterday seemed to be about isolation and reaction as an individual, today's dancers clearly broke off into two twin-set pairs. the first couple moved together mostly with violence and contempt, while the second couple, still provoking each other, did so with compassion. when each couple collapsed from emotional exhaustion, the first always fell apart, the second always pulled together. at the end only the second couple were still continuing their dance.
at a certain point today, like yesterday noticing the ripples in the water, i noticed the smoky dust created by the flour that started to fill the room - like a cartoon character creating a dust storm around a fervent burst of energy, in this case the energy it takes to continue the sometimes exhausting dialogue with someone you love. i also decided that menomena's music created a beautifully surging soundtrack to the dancer's world that wasn't necessarily on the same exact rhythm - sometimes things you should be noticing need a chance to have a slightly different beat for you to pay attention to them.
.....[text omitted]....
# posted by laurabecker @ 5:19:50 PM
Wet and Wild!
Monster Squad and Menomena are sexy beasts. I mean, I take pretty lousy snapshots and look at how HOT these artists are!
....[picture omitted]....
But it gets better. Look at how sexy the audience is!
....[picture omitted]....
Seriously, going to Monster Squad at Machine Works is like attending fashion week. Of course, if you missed it, you can always do it yourself at home.
# posted by Bryan @ 10:09:47 PM
Flour Power.
Oh my goodness. This is not possible. I saw Monster Squad and Menomena again today and they were even SEXIER than yesterday.
....[picture omitted]....
Like white spectres in a Pawson designed powderbox. And the music just made me want a glass of Côtes de Gascogne here. This is too much!
....[picture omitted]....
Damnit! If the last Monster Squad show is going to be this sexy, then I definitely need a date. Interested parties inquire here.
# posted by Bryan @ 10:34:40 PM
Monster Squad I and II
If Monday's show is half as hot as Saturday's or Sunday's it's still worth the price of admission. Monster Squad's beautiful meditations on human relations tear down the walls of dispassion. Accompanied, and enhanced by the stunning score of the Menomena trio ....[text omitted].... the dancers move through the daily element (water and flour so far; light on Monday) with grace and fluidity. As beautiful as their relationship to one another is the relationship they have with the set. The ripples and waves of the water crossing the shallow pool, the light refracted on the ceiling, or the added instrumentation of dripping from a dancer's dress or hair make a pretty piece exquisite. The droplets flying into the audience from a slide or twirl, or the cloud of flour created with contact extend the trajectory of movement beyond the boundaries of the dancer. All this illuminates the otherwise invisible energy that ties the dancers together; an energy only sensed in other dances is here seen. This in and of itself would be commendable but the piece is well rounded and full. Striking images abound. There are repeated gestures across the days and while much of the score and choreography seem to play on a loop they do not tire. I'm full of anticipation waiting for tomorrow's conclusion. I can't imagine how they will use light to the same effect that they've used flour and water. It doesn't seem a comparable element. Of course, I'm willing to be awed and schooled, and based on parts I and II, I have no doubt that the Squad will deliver.
# posted by Rob McMahon @ 1:32:40 AM
Monster Squad/Marty Schnapf: Under an Hour
In my limited experience with contemporary dance, I have repeatedly encountered the same formal obsession with exploring the relationship between two performers, whether through play or physical assault. The collaboration between Portland-based dance company Monster Squad, painter/installation artist Marty Schnapf and music trio Menomena was based almost solely on this precept, and through the adept combination of choreography, stage design, and sound design, the results were stunning. They took a risk by dividing the hour-long show into three parts, enacted on three different days. Though they left themselves open to the possibility of dwindling crowds and decreasing momentum, they instead found a thoroughly receptive crowd and a building momentum. It was rather refreshing to revisit the same black box day after day, reveling in the inherent contradiction between the title (Under an Hour) and the 72 hour time frame in which these shows occurred.
If you've looked at Bryan's photographs posted earlier on this blog, you already know how potently sensual and delicate these performances were. Confined to an arena demarcated by Schnapf's sexy orange metallic plates with a relentless LED panel counting down the minutes, the dancers met three different elements over three different days. The first part was performed in several inches of standing water, allowing the dancers to expand the confines of the stage by flinging arcs of water into the surrounding environs. The second part was performed in a thin layer of flour that served as an obliterating force, making the dancers somewhat anonymous as the performance progressed, clothing, hair, face, and limbs coated in ghostly white. I was expecting the third part to take advantage of the tricks of Minimalist light artists like Dan Flavin, or perhaps the drama of James Turrell. Instead, lamps awkwardly tumbled down from the ceiling, the piece crescendoing in a layer of simple lamps hovering over the entire stage. Kudos to the dancers, Mr. Schapf, and Menomena for giving us such a stunning performance.
--Katherine Bovee
# posted by Katherine @ 9:51:19 AM
Monday was my Funday
....[text omitted]....
I did manage to catch the last Monster Squad, which was still as sexy as ever! But this time there were some new people, including a (gasp!) male dancer:
....[text and photographs omitted]....
# posted by Bryan @ 11:04:38 AM
monstersquad under the lights
it took me until now to have a chance to post something for yesterday's conclusion of monstersquad, but i'm glad i haven't done it up until now, because, as i heard at today's lively and thought-provoking noontime chat with "performance journalism" panel joseph gallivan (portland tribune), steffen silvis (willamette week) and catherine thomas (oregonian), sometimes a reviewer wishes for more time to think about a piece.
the first two parts of monstersquad drew me in swiftly and whole-heartedly and i was seeking the same feeling yesterday, but it didn't happen the way i expected. but that's the point, to let go of these expectations - to realize and embrace the fact that there truly will be twists, turns and surprises during TBA. sunday's section with flour wrapped me in an easily-readable narration. monday's piece started with sunday's remaining two dancers continuing their steps and i looked for the story to continue with them, but, for me at least, the narration soon ended. menomena's music started discordantly, perhaps distractingly, and it took more energy for me to pay attention to the dance. the lights dropping from the ceiling only distracted me more. i left machineworks thinking i had missed some meaning, patronizing myself with the thought that the concluding section was simply more focused on mood than narration. what i did notice, however, was the strength and the consistently-referred-to "momentum" of the dancers' movements. i was a amazed at their ability to support and lift each other just so they could be pushed down again and again. their dialogue, like the music, was the most raw and sensual of all three days.
today something catherine said made yesterday's performance seem to finally click in my head. she remarked on the progression of tahni holt -monstersquad's choreographer- and her artistic career in portland. she mentioned the community of dance here and their willingness to integrate other types of artists to help the community at large, obviously evident in this most recent collaboration with installation artists, designers and musicians. what it took me until to today to realize was just how inherent that collaboration was. "less than an hour" took all four forces - choreography and dance, composition and musicians, fashion design and costumes and installation idea and set - and mixed them up so seamlessly that i barely thought about each one independently. yesterday's conclusion simply, and deservingly, highlighted the driving force - the dance. it took me until yesterday to even think outside of the dialogue to notice each step going into it, to see, under the lights, the dancers' ability to tell a story of movement on their own. saturday and sunday beautifully melded the creative multi-layers to draw me in. yesterday's conclusion broke down that bond so i could realize just how intrinsic and incredibly powerful each layer was. and now...to cheesily conclude how i started, i once again insist that this aspect of monstersquad's piece - the seamless and incredibly complex collaboration of everyone involved - truly is the epitome of TBA.
# posted by laurabecker @ 4:38:05 PM
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strange creatures
author: AlexThis is multi-layered music-theatre-art... I see beautiful beasts and weird creatures dancing. Can't quite explain the images and feelings this conjures up, but it's unique, vivid, and powerful.
- author: CD Baby
Three pieces over 17 minutes long for the 2004 Time-based Art Festival in Portland, Oregon. I wish I could have seen it. Words like isolation, reaction, water, tiny, ripples, fluidity, grace, catastrophes, connect, weave, and crisp all came up in reviews. Between the comments left by audience members and hearing the music, I'm sure now that it was an undertaking that was fueled by something larger than itself... a grand collaboration of musicians, dancers and visual artists all working toward something more beautiful and true than their whole.