Ideologies

As I finish my second year writing ScreenDance Diaries for Cultural Weekly, and before we break for the holidays, I wanted to leave you with something a little more personal: a glimpse at some of my own work. By now many readers know a bit about my tastes, writing style, and aesthetic predispositions, but very little about what I do either live or at the intersections of dance and film.

Kalin Morrow reaches upwards in Ideologies
Kalin Morrow reaches upwards in Ideologies

Ideologies is a bit of both. In its original form, it came from a live work I had been commissioned to create for MOCA Santa Barbara’s opening of the On Edge Festival, exploring how human beings are hard wired to follow leaders and gurus for answers – something that seems these days to come with increasing risk. The day before the production, my father passed away, and in the wake of a performance that felt like a blur, I needed to keep working and wanted to do more with the material.  The idea came to me to explore having dancers moving towards camera from, and disappearing back into darkness.  Only later did it occur to me how metaphorically apropos this was to my father’s passing.

Charissa Kroeger in a moment from Ideologies
Charissa Kroeger in a moment from Ideologies

Beautifully filmed by Caitlin O’Rorke, an extremely talented young Spanish cinematographer and director in her own right, and gorgeously danced by two amazing dancers, Charissa Kroeger and Kalin Morrow who also contributed movement moments, we shot this work with a single camera in 2 ½ hours and edited in another twenty five plus. In its original format Ideologies was presented large, projected on the side of a building (Electric Lodge, Venice) without sound. But wanting it to have a bigger and longer life, we made it shorter and tried a few pieces of music finally settling on “Dead & Gone” by MWTE, the Chapelier Fou remix – not chosen for the lyrics, but fitting yet again, I know.

I hope you enjoy, and I wish you a truly magical, joyous, healthy holiday season, and most of all a safe and Happy New Year.

[embedvideo id=”137788071″ website=”vimeo”]

IDEOLOGIES by Sarah Elgart from Caitlin O’Rorke on Vimeo.

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