Here is the beginning of my post.
And here is the rest of it.
You can use some or all of this, or use the project description of “too” on the tinyrage website on the projects page.
I have been working with Zeke Keeble as locust for the past decade. We know each other really well. We have great thing going and want to continue to explore and celebrate what we do. I came to a point in my life where I needed to be testing some things without Zeke. I have been questioning what has become comfortable and safe for me. AmyO/tinyrage is a place for me to ask those questions in a context that is not always related to the same people. I am such a collaborator and I wanted to question what my defaults are and what do I really love about collaborating by challenging myself to work with other people and to work alone.
“too” the project happening at the Northwest Film Forum March 25-27 started as a project while traveling a lot 2007-2008. I am pretty shy with people I don’t know well and while on the road, I started asking people to dance with me on camera. I had also been wanting to make an evening length duet for Ellie Sandstrom and I and work with some composers I had never worked with before. The process of “too” very foreign to me and it was good to do it with someone I had been dancing with for 10 years so that when it came time to put a show together, I knew it would happen. I worked with an editor to sift through several hours of Ellie or I dancing with 35 other people in different locations in the US and Japan. The choreography was created by the cutting and pasting of this material and thinking how we would interact with it live. The piece is in 2 separate parts with very different moods and different composers, Ivory Smith and Ollie Glatzer. While we perform, we have to watch a video monitor of what is being projected so we know what is going on. It’s kind of like dance karaoke. We have to keep up with what is on the screen.
With locust projects, the process is different with each project, but choreographically, it always starts from a phrase of movement I have made that I teach to the dancers, then we play around with that and sometimes make things together. In “too”, there is one phrase I made, but the rest of it is appropriating these experiences that I may or may have not been involved it. It’s a strange mimicry of memory that feels very physically removed. It prompted me to think about how this is how we are choosing more and more to interact with humans, via screens. I am emailing this to you right now and we have never met. It is equally awesome and strange.
I will also be premiering another piece with AmyO/tinyrage in the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards June 5-6. It is a solo called “In the Fray”. I am challenging myself to see how much I can do on my own, the sound, the lights, costume, ect. It is a practice in self sufficiency. More details about that will be up on the tinyrage site soon.
AmyO/tinyrage is one of those moments you have with a really good friend that no one else would get. This moment turned into said friend and I both getting the words “tiny rage” tattooed on our feet. Since then, it has been a reminder to own my anger and do something good with it especially as a southern woman who was not taught to express anger an any healthy way. This doesn’t mean that all the work I make under this name will be related to the subject. I like the 2 words together and as artists, we are in the business of rearranging and recontextualizing to give new perspective to how we see ourselves and the world around us.
locust came about when Zeke and I were visiting his family in Spokane in 2000. We had a discussion about grasshoppers vs. locusts and how when they are singular, they are grasshoppers, but in a swarm, locusts. Then Zeke said, that would be a cool name for what we are doing, locust. Zeke ends it there, but I got to thinking about the duality of the creature and I liked that. I could relate as a human and how dual our own existences can be. We have made many pieces about how humans cope with anxieties, how we are alone vs. in the public light.
Feel free to use the night vision photo!
I kind of went on a tangent, but I got really inspired. Feel free to ask questions or even send me a draft of something you come up with, that would be great!
Thanks so much!
Amy O
copied, like the other marches
AmyO/tinyrage “too” at Nortwest Film Forum
March 25-27 8pm
tinyrage.com
more info on the show on the projects page.
you can contact me, Amy O’Neal with ant questions.
Thanks!
Amy O
Seattle Premiere: Live at the Film Forum- Seattle, WA- March 25-27 2010 (supported by the Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs)
too is an ecstatic interplay of live and recorded movement by dancers Amy O’Neal and Ellie Sandstrom presented in two parts. The duo interacts with strangers, friends, acquaintances in a cut and paste dance of physical extremes. Drawing inspiration from the rural/urban divide, karaoke, and Japanese love hotels, too ruminates on our increasing desire and preference for virtual contact instead of human to human contact. too is an attempted mimicry of memory, an attempt to keep up with the challenges of contemporary life, and an attempt at dance karaoke. The performers have to watch a monitor of the video the whole time in order to keep up with what is going on.
too (2009)
“Aside from being technically impressive and downright humorous and a hell of a show, it was also emotionally affecting.” – Mathew Korfhage, Willamette Weekly, 2009
Premiere: T:BA (Time Based Art) Festival, Portland, OR – September 7-8 2009
Seattle Premiere: Live at the Film Forum- Seattle, WA- March 25-27 2010 (supported by the Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs)
too is an ecstatic interplay of live and recorded movement by dancers Amy O’Neal and Ellie Sandstrom presented in two parts. The duo interacts with strangers, friends, acquaintances in a cut and paste dance of physical extremes. Drawing inspiration from the rural/urban divide, karaoke, and Japanese love hotels, too ruminates on our increasing desire and preference for virtual contact instead of human to human contact. too is an attempted mimicry of memory, an attempt to keep up with the challenges of contemporary life, and an attempt at dance karaoke. The performers have to watch a monitor of the video the whole time in order to keep up with what is going on.
Previously filmed duets across the US and Japan include on-screen performances by Reggie Watts, Tommy Smith, Melanie Kloetzel, Kathleen Hermesdorf, David Dorfman, Sarah Gamblin, Corrie Befort, Lane Czaplinski, Sara Edwards, John Paulson, and many more.
“too leaves one with the desire to maybe grab the hand of the person waiting patiently next to you in the elevator, and spin them around–it feels like it might be a better way to say something, sometimes.”- TBA Blog, 2009
“I found the performance to be both energetic and intriguing. The interplay between live dance and video was thoughtful and by no means a gimmick.” Neighborhood Notes, Portland, OR 2009
Choreography, cinematography, and direction: Amy O’Neal
Performed by: Amy O’Neal and Ellie Sandstrom
Music for Part One: Ivory Smith
Music for Part Two: Ollie Glatzer
Video editing: Michele Witten
Lighting Design: Ben Zamora
Projected video stills:
Video from her website
AmyO/tinyrage-too (excerpt 1) from Amy O on Vimeo.
