Stephan Koplowitz: TaskForce UK 2009 Performance Excerpt from Buckland Abbey (site-specific dance)

Director/Choreographer Stephan Koplowitz with TaskForce collaborates with video artist Dan Farberoff (who created the projection seen on the back wall of the Great Barn) and TaskForce composer Hugh Nankivell (performing live) on this site-specific performance that highlights the architecture of the Great Barn at Buckland Abbey which was the home of Sir Francis Drake, the first person to bring fresh water to the city of Plymouth.

videography: Gorav Kalyan
video editor: Mitchell Rose

TaskForce is a site-art dance touring company, established in 2008, that works on a project-to-project basis. Fluid in its conception TaskForce is made up of selected artists and performers drawn from the cultural landscape of its host city or region. It is a process oriented performance laboratory where artists are asked to draw inspiration from the architecture, history, culture and ecology of multiple sites within a single geographic area all connected by a common theme.

Working within an intensive time frame (three weeks of rehearsal + one week of performances) under the direction of veteran site-artist Stephan Koplowitz, each artist is given a different creative "task" to be explored and performed at the various sites. The content of each performance is made up of a combination of site-specific choreography, site-adaptive material and improvisational scores inspired by each performance site.

The core of TaskForce is an ensemble of eight highly trained dancers, a composer/performer and a documentary filmmaker. Supplementing the core are visual artists, film makers, singers, dancers, musicians all drawn from the area. Each are given a specific creative task that is site-specific and complements the overall conception for a given site.

Bringing together new partners and collaborating artists for each location, TaskForce builds creative networks that span the globe. Its current project Liquid Landscapes, is based on the theme of water which began in Los Angeles, California (2008) and then travelled to Dartington/Plymouth in June 2009.
For more information: http://koplowitzprojects.com/

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• contemporary
• dance
• site-specific
• Sir
• Francis
• Drake
• history
• English
• music
• video
• art
• modern
• choreography
• visual
• public
• performance
• dancers
• Buckland
• Abbey
• Plymouth
• United
• Kingdom
• Dan
• Farberoff
• CalArts
• site-art
• Dartington
• The
• National
• Trust
• Liquid
• Landscapes
• environment
• dancing