Mouth to Mouth

The following article was originally printed in the Movement Research Performance Journal #31 (www.movementresearch.org)

CPR - Center for Performance Research, a new non-profit arts facility in Williamsburg Brooklyn, is scheduled to open sometime in Winter 2008. CPR is artist-driven, co-founded by John Jasperse/Thin Man Dance, Inc. and Jonah Bokaer/Chez Bushwick, Inc. Barbara Bryan, the Managing Director of Jasperse's company and the Executive Director of Movement Research, is also a co-founder. Located on the ground floor of a mixed-use residential condominium building called "Greenbelt" on 361 Manhattan Avenue, CPR will offer low-cost rehearsal rentals in two studios. Rehearsal rentals will range from $6-12 an hour. A 30-hour one-week performance rental will cost approximately $2,080.  The bigger of the two studios, approximately 40' x 45', will accommodate artists working on a larger scale with seating for up to 70 people for performances and small showings. Jasperse hopes that within two years the studio will be equipped with theatrical lighting for which a grid is already being installed. The smaller studio will be more multi-purpose, used for everything from rehearsals and yoga classes to panel discussions and exposition space for visual art. CPR is also designed to support the organizations of its two artist founders, offering them both a secure long-term home for project development and performance preparation.

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FORCE MAJEURE: Andrea Maurer, "State of Mine"

Essay by Ryan Tracy
Photos by Chris Woltmann

Andrea Maurer created "State Of Mine" as part of Chez Bushwick's "FORCE MAJEURE" program, which is designed to foster international dialogue in dance and performance by offering residencies to artists from around the world.  These residencies, which will be fulfilled from September 2007 through June 2008, culminate in free public presentations of work created by the artists-in-residence.  Andrea Maurer's performance was presented on Saturday, December 15 at Chez Bushwick, in Brooklyn.

Our sense of place is governed by orientation, and alignment is a key factor in grounding that sense. Viennese choreographer Andrea Maurer, along with her collaborator, Thomas Brandstaetter, explore work that, for all its surface simplicity, manages to warp space and perspective through a basic re-orientation of alignment; that is, with a roll of paper, a chair, a table, some pencils and sheets of writing paper (and a little tape), they created worlds within worlds in an area no bigger than the average New York bedroom.

The entire evening was very informal, which held with the work-in-progress nature of "FORCE MAJEURE." Andrea, wearing a black knit cap, red hoodie and navy blue pants, sat and chatted with Thomas as the guests-some of them first-time visitors--cautiously made their way into the studio. When it appeared that all who were going to arrive had arrived, Andrea stood and welcomed us, then announced, in her sweetly unassuming voice, that this was a "Lecture Performance" and that soon she would tell us her "theory." Then, after pointing out a card table that she had decided to use for its particular ability to stand upright on only three of its legs, she announced, "When I sit on the chair, the piece starts," which, as soon as she had done so, it did.

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FORCE MAJEURE: Lise Vachon, "Bliss"

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Images of Alienation

Today, perhaps more than ever, concern for all of the arts is fundamental to the success of any one of the arts. The terms "interdisciplinary" and "multidisciplinary" have featured regularly over the past few decades as a defining term for works of art in all genres. From the get-go, Chez Bushwick has embodied this reality, making it a priority to present music, film, the visual arts, theater and literature along with dance in a continued effort to acknowledge the role collaboration and mutual exploration play in the progression of the arts.

In that spirit, Chez Bushwick presented an evening of video art from France, curated by Christopher Eamon, as part of the 2007 French Institute Alliance Francaise "Crossing the Line Festival." The following are impressions after viewing the films.

If any one thing can be said to be on the minds of contemporary French video artists, it is alienation. At least, that is what one would gather from "Video Art From France," a screening of eight short video works jointly presented by the French Institute Alliance Française and Chez Bushwick as part of the "Crossing The Line Festival" on Friday, October 12, 2007. Selected by Christopher Eamon, curator of the Pamela and Richard Kramlich Collection, each video seemed to speak to a dislocated sensibility by making the familiar seem foreign, nature seem cosmic, and the mundane seem capable of infinite fascination.

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The Sixth Borough

The first thing I hear after exiting the building is a loud police siren. The Institute of Contemporary Art in  Philadelphia is closing down for the day, and I'm lugging a bunch of props and set objects awkwardly out the front door. I've just said goodbye to the curators of the museum, who have been extraordinarily kind, intelligent, and accommodating. One of them even knelt on the concrete floor with me, to help focus a projector prior to the show. Aside from the brutally hard concrete floor, the performance went very well. In some ways, concrete is a small price to pay though: performing in a visual arts venue seems insulated by people who actual curate (literally, "care for") the work that's presented, and have taken special attention to the surrounding context. In addition to that, the public has come to see "Art," with a capital A at a public institution. There is an unspoken assumption that when they enter the facility, an artistic experience will occur. This forms an invisible contract, even if unspoken. In that way, there are fewer apologies for the subsequent viewing experience. Even when dance is shown within the walls of a museum, an audience is less likely to preface their observations with "Well, I don't understand dance, but....." There is more likelihood that people will trust their own vision, their own perceptive powers.

The sirens are still blaring, and getting a bit louder. So I start making my way to the car. Philadelphia is often called "The Sixth Borough" among artists, which is not only an affectionate, double-edged joke, but also an increasing truth: artists are emigrating from New York City more often now, and the cheaper prices of Philadelphia are beckoning visual artists, dancers, musicians, and theater artists alike - all of whom are eager to find affordable workspace, and vibrant communities for alternative, experimental, or multidisciplinary work. "Sixth Borough" also refers to violence, I think. The crime rates in Philadelphia are extremely high, perhaps so high that they surpass any of the post-Giuliani five boroughs of New York City. Philadelphia is an outer, "other" borough just 90 minutes away. I hear this nickname more often than I hear "The City Of Brotherly Love," which is perhaps an outdated moniker at this point. Philly is a beautiful, complicated city, and as I walk back to the car, I catch myself thinking, "Why don't I come down here every month?" There is a burgeoning dance scene just 90 minutes away, that's completely accessible by car, train, bus, plane, etc., and it's an extremely affordable trip. 90 minutes is about the distance from Paris to Brussels as well - it's just curious that our country isolates its metropolitan areas the way it does, and I begin to think about my own participant in that isolationism as well.

My friend Michael Hart is rounding up the car, and I stop in a Seven Eleven to get a snack before the trip. Inside, there are oppressive florescent lights, packaged food in rows, Slurp-eee machines, and coolers lining the walls. I also notice a number of surveillance cameras, and low-resolution monitors behind the double counter in the center of the store. They seem to change about every 10 seconds, and skip frequently (which reminds me of the video projector in the museum - it kept flickering with its own rhythm).

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FORCE MAJEURE: Alexandre Roccoli, "The Unbecoming Solo"

Essay by Ryan Tracy
Photos by Chris Woltmann

Alexandre Roccoli created "The Unbecoming Solo" as part of Chez Bushwick's "Force Majeure" program, which is designed to foster international dialogue in dance and performance by offering residencies to artists from around the world. These residencies, which will be fulfilled from September 2007 through May 2008, will culminate if free public presentations of the work created by the artists-in-residence. Alexandre Roccoli's performance was presented September 27-30 at Chez Bushwick as part of the French Institute Alliance Francaise "Crossing The Line" festival in the fall of 2007.

Intro

It would be completely fair to call "The Unbecoming Solo" investigative art, that is, say, beyond the de facto manner in which most art investigates something either aesthetic or subjective. During his three-month residency as part of Chez Bushwick's "Force Majeure," Alexandre Roccoli went out and interviewed a handful of New York-based creative personalities; a mix of choreographers and others involved in the arts. His interviews, captured on video and in sound, became the foundation for "The Unbecoming Solo," which was presented as a two part event-a video installation and a live performance-at Chez Bushwick.

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Critical Mass

For its 2007-2008 season, Chez Bushwick has initiated FORCE MAJEURE, an unprecedented artist-in-residence program that brings creative performers from around the world to Brooklyn for two-week residencies, at the end of which, the artists present their work in a performance that is free and open to the public.

These performances have been documented through non-evaluative critical essays written by Ryan Tracy (a co-facilitator of this site, and a familiar voice from Counter Critic). Over the next week, these essays will be posted for you to read.

What is a "non-evaluative critical essay"? Good question.

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Big Bang Theory?

One night I came home to Chez Bushwick, the converted industrial loft and performance space in Brooklyn, and found a throng of people sitting on the floor, attending a party organized by Jeremy Wade and several other experimental performers. It was fantastic. Dozens of people were talking, laughing, arguing, drinking, and watching impromptu performances. Jeremy showed new choreography that he had made that week; Heather Kravas taped on an old man's beard and began a cathartic, durational episode that involved a clip light, my bathroom door, and the transformative powers of her own voice; Loren Dempster delivered one of the most ethereal solos I've ever heard playing the electric cello; and Jack Ferver performed a stand-up routine during which he scolded Jeremy with improvised text. I joined in, too, collecting props for a performance from the neighbors' detritus and the barren, often-surreal landscape of the Bushwick sidewalks, all while people watched from the windows of the loft above.

Something happened that night, and it continues to happen regularly at Chez Bushwick; performers claim a permissive space of possibilities, allowing themselves the chance to experiment free from the societal pressures attached to most performance contexts. That night in the loft, no one imposed a set of rules or regulations and no one was present for the purpose of evaluative criticism or judgment. Yet conversation did occur--this salon-style format of performance led to rigorous dialogue among the people in the loft, and had a catalytic, generative power.

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Merde!

Welcome to the blog for Chez Bushwick, an artist-run organization at the heart of Brooklyn's creative Renaissance that has been fostering and presenting interdisciplinary art and performance since 2002. In addition to offering a $5 subsidized rehearsal space, Chez Bushwick encourages artistic freedom, collaboration, and creative risk-taking through monthly performance programming.

This blog is intended to be an interactive voice for Chez Bushwick, as well as to engage the dance and performance community in creative, responsible discourse relating to topics that concern artists and global citizens.

We hope you enjoy reading this blog. We also encourage you to participate in thoughtful discourse through our comment fields.

Chez Bushwick is pleased to be joining Doug Fox and Great Dance in this significant development, which will enhance the ways that dance artists communicate about our work, and about topics in the digital and global world we inhabit.

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