The Seldoms will present first segments of a new work by Artistic Director Carrie Hanson inspired by author (and The Seldoms’ dramaturg) Michael J. Kramer’s book, The Republic of Rock: Music and Citizenship in the Sixties Counterculture. These early explorations will consider questions of how rock music, at its powerful beginnings in the sixties (and how does it now) operated to both unify a populace but also agitate dissent; to flatten difference but also to provoke new expression (in a sort of recurring play between formula and novelty); to incite social criticism and questioning but also perpetuate modes of passive consumer-citizenship? In collaboration with Kramer, The Seldoms’ long-running ensemble (Christina Gonzalez-Gillett, Philip Elson, Damon Green, Amanda McAlister, Javier Marchan Ramos) and sound designer Mikhail Fiksel and visual artist Bob Faust.
Kate Corby & Dancers will present their 30-minute work from 2013, Digging,which explores the possibilities of meditation for creativity, collaboration and composition. The work features six members of KC&D (Josh Anderson, Michelle Scurlock Jensen, Erin Kilmurray, Sarah Mitchell, Benjamin Law and Mikey Rioux), costumes by Chicago-based designer Maggie Dianovsky, and three distinct scores from composers Tim Russell (Milwaukee), Nat Evans and Ross Simonini (team composers based in Seattle and Brooklyn respectively) and Ryan Ross Smith (Troy, NY).
Digging was developed intensively over one month, with the ensemble beginning every rehearsal with 20 minutes of ‘sitting’ in meditation together. Each rehearsal’s tasks were informed by the previous day’s events, but meditation always preceded any proposed rehearsal structure, allowing the process to be informed by the current moment. The three distinct scores were crafted in a similar manner; the composers created the work after a daily meditation over an intensive period.
Digging is not about meditation, but is rather a product of the practice of stillness. The result is an abstract exploration of the self, intimacy and our relationships with one another.
