[ ] - BODYCARTOGRAPHY PROJECT

Home » Works » Past Works » Performances » [ ]

This work plays with the aperture of space, focus and time between two people as a generator of dance. A duet for the spaces in between.

“This was not lighthearted stuff, but singularly emotional, and moving.” Jeffrey Kalstrom, mnartists.org, August 2006

This dance work travels along the fine line of dance and pedestrian movement through focusing on the spaces in between (in between the performers and in between the performers and audience) and will unfold in relationship to the architecture it is performed in. As physical brackets the space between and around the performers will expand, contract, bend and transform physically and perceptually for audience and performers alike revealing and accentuating the angles and volumes of the location in which it is performed. It is performed with sound by Alice Kemp.The sound creates a context, subtly revealing the new acoustic environments of the theater or architecture and offers an enhanced presence of the performance. Marina Ambroavich and Uli’s duet “Imponderabilia,” was one early influence on the work.

“I do not distinguish between the inner and outer landscapes, between the environment as the physical world out there (the hard stuff) and the mental image of that environment within each and every individual( the soft stuff). it is the tension, the transition, the exchange, and the resonance between these two modalities that energize and that define our reality. The key agent in this exchange of energies is the image, and this “space between” is precisely the place in which my work operates.”
Bill Viola from Reasons for Knocking

“Body Cartography (the partnership of Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad) uses a dance discipline that attempts to integrate contact improvisation with mind-body mediation techniques. The two dancers enter, and from across the room mimic and match each other’s movements. The movements tend toward “micro” muscle twitches as opposed to covering a lot of ground. After several minutes the dancers break and remove their clothing except for matching “tighty whities”. In some unexplained way it was a relief when the dancers disrobed. It was as if the extreme intimacy of the dancing was ‘lightened” by the partial nudity At times ten feet apart, often just inches away from each other, the dancers vibrated in silent dialogue. Spooky electro drone sounds with sketchy rhythms ground the work. This was not lighthearted stuff, but singularly emotional, and moving.” Jeffrey Kalstrom, mnartists.org, August 2006