OUBLIETTE

 

A unique dance event

 

19 exclusive performances in a rebuilt bear barn

12 audience members perched above a 5×8 pit

4 contemporary dancers draped in cnidarian garb

2 musicians wrangling distraught accordion and derelict piano

1 labyrinthine micro-theater forming the world all these inhabit

 

What movement language is possible with four dancers crammed into a space smaller than a wood shed? What does a zoo-goer’s perspective bring to viewing dance? When is containment a solace, and when is confinement a violation? Reflecting on communal response to the isolation and forced confinement of targeted populations, choreographer Jonathan Meyer set out to address these questions, using a regressive somatic process to cultivate a pre-vertebral choreographic palette, counterpointing the human political drama with the seabed progressions of jellyfish, starfish, and sea anemone. 

 

Twelve audience members enter an elaborate constructed micro-theater that contains their seating, elevated above the performance “stage” – a five foot by eight foot pit with six foot walls. Created by John Preus, and installed within a refurbished zoological barn, this construction is both a sculptural object and an inhabited environment. Inside, an hour-long contemporary dance performance ensues, with four dancers and two live musicians in the minute space. The work is an excavation of new movement language forced and facilitated by the unusual confines, an exploration of the related themes of confinement, and presents highly disparate audience/performer milieus despite the exaggerated proximity.

 

Oubliette is an evening-length contemporary dance work created and presented by Khecari.

 

Choreographer, director, & lighting designer: Jonathan Meyer

Dancers: Josh Anderson, Julia Rae Antonick, Maggie Koller, and Chih-Hsien Lin

Understudies: Sabrina Baranda and Sarah Prinz

Composers & live musicians: Sarah Morgan and Joe St.Charles

Costume designer: Jeff Hancock

Micro-theater designer & constructer: John Preus

Photographer: Ryan Bourque