The Pelican (Revised) excerpts

THE PELICAN (REVISED)
Premiere: FETE DE DANSE, 14 August 2008, Rouses Point, NY
Choreography by Julia K Gleich
Performed by Gleich Dances Contemporary Ballet: Shay Bares, Christopher Pennix, Claire McKeveny, Johnny McMillan, Marc St. Pierre, Heidi Strohl and Sarah Tallman
Original Sound by Verbal Graffiti
Costumes and set design by Jason Andrew in collaboration with the Champlain Childrens Learning Center and the children of Rouses Point


Background:

THE PELICAN (1963)
In 1963 American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) embarked on his first choreographic venture. The performance featured three dancers. They were Rauschenberg and sculptor Per Olaf Ultveldt (both on roller skates with parachutes) and Carolyn Brown dancing on pointe. The piece was performed at the America on Wheels Skating Rink in Washington, D.C. Hardly classified as a dance the performance was a spontaneous, oddly drawn together, mini-happening.

THE PELICAN (REVISED) (2008)
Choreographer Julia K. Gleich studied Rauschenbergs hand written notes and the rare footage of the original performance to design space and time. Gleichs choreography, a clashing of classical and contemporary, was then placed along side the urban sound of Verbal Graffiti (rap artist D.O.V. and DJ Wave of Brooklyn) who mixed and performed the music live. Similar to the original, the ballet was performed in a converted ice rink. Not unlike the dance collaborations of Merce Cunnningham and John Cage, the dancers performed with music that they were hearing for the first time. The duration of the ballet was 24min, exactly double the length of the original PELICAN. The result was a performance that was at times dissonantly joined and yet spontaneously fresh.

These two excerpts are set sections of the performance.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• ballet
• contemporary
• gleich
• pointe
• verbal
• graffiti
• D.O.V.
• Rouses
• Point
• Fete
• de
• danse
• Rauchenberg
• Pelican