1. On the videotapes: So much of this work still looks so contemporary. For a relative newcomer to the scene (I started watching dance here in 2003), it’s surprising to see that work from the 1980s is not so very dated. People with longer perspectives have been telling me this for a while, but seeing the evidence makes it real. Because of the nature of dance, it’s possible for artists to go in circles, reinventing the wheel. It’s good to be reminded of what’s been done, in a concrete way. That doesn’t happen a lot.
2. On the live writing: I usually feel an obligation to the performance I am discussing, but in this case I felt it more strongly—probably because I couldn’t take time to ruminate, because I had to get it right, convey it, at that moment. It’s salutary for a writer to think like a dancer—now, this moment. (I am also a dancer, but I mean, to think like a dancer while writing.) It makes me wonder what dancers experience when, for example, making dance films, when suddenly they have the luxury of time and editing.
3. On the performance: I’m remembering now how good everything looked and sounded—the bright white lights, the retro sounds, the clean space, the colors. Laurie was backed up by great design and tech here. I’ve lost the program but I know a nod is due to Elliott Durko Lynch. Also to the space itself (Shawn McConneloug and Robert Rosen’s Studio 206). . . performing in non-theater spaces is nothing new, but it’s always somehow exciting when dance takes over new territory.
4. On dance as installation: Well, this thought demands more space. You’ll have to follow me over to mnartists.org, where a little think-piece on Eiko and Koma’s recent installation at the Walker will be going up before long.