Installations: The Beginning
We started the installation series in June 2006 with three goals in mind:1. Find a medium which would break down the barrier between the audience and the performers.
2. Find a medium which would allow us to become better acquainted with our neighborhood, the Chelsea Gallery District, and its events.
3. Find a medium which allows our dancers to become more involved in the creation of the choreography.
On June 8, 2006 we opened our doors for the first of what I hope are many more installations. We chose to start the installations on Thursdays when the neighborhood galleries hold their openings and our street has heavier traffic. The first installation ran for three consecutive Thursdays. By the third Thursday we had a line around the block waiting to get into the space.
We knew we were onto something.
Because of the success of the first installation, we remounted it in August 2006 to similar results. At this time we began to focus on the next new installation scheduled for October 2006.
In October we tried to structure it slightly by only allowing only 120 people to observe, so the setting seemed more intimate. The response was overwhelming. We still had a line around the block and extended the original six performances to ten.
In January 2007 during our Winter Season we remounted an excerpt of the October installation as a pre-show to test how the installation felt as part of a repertoire evening. Again, the response was positive. We have since remounted the October installation in various forms at Rutgers University, the opening of the Detroit Institute of Art and as part of a residency at Washington and Lee University.
After all of these incarnations of the installation I have learned so much and I’m looking forward to our new installation, Glassy Essence, this Spring beginning April 24, 2008, and our next installation created by Jill Johnson in August 2008. We feel we have met our original goals and are now looking to add more layers to the process.
Benoit-Swan Pouffer February 2007
In October we tried to structure it slightly by only allowing only 120 people to observe, so the setting seemed more intimate. The response was overwhelming. We still had a line around the block and extended the original six performances to ten.
In January 2007 during our Winter Season we remounted an excerpt of the October installation as a pre-show to test how the installation felt as part of a repertoire evening. Again, the response was positive. We have since remounted the October installation in various forms at Rutgers University, the opening of the Detroit Institute of Art and as part of a residency at Washington and Lee University.
After all of these incarnations of the installation I have learned so much and I’m looking forward to our new installation, Glassy Essence, this Spring beginning April 24, 2008, and our next installation created by Jill Johnson in August 2008. We feel we have met our original goals and are now looking to add more layers to the process.
Benoit-Swan Pouffer February 2007
