Site-Specific Dance #1: "Vanishing Point" (2008) by Tom Pearson & Zach Morris

Site-Specific Dance / Contemporary or Modern Dance:

Vanishing Point was envisioned as both a site-specific dance and simultaneously as a dance for a theatrical space, making use of both the unique architectural features and cultural implications of St. Mark's Church as well as its function as a theater for innovative dance works.

As part of the City/Dans series, Danspace Project presented the premiere of Tom Pearson and Zach Morris' Bessie Award winning work. Wickedly funny and suddenly somber, Vanishing Point fuses aggressive, exhaustive movement, meditative nuance, and live music by the whisky-powered, alt-bluegrass ensemble The Dang-it Bobbys, led by composer Kris Bauman (performing with Andy Cotton and Bryn Roberts).

Vanishing Point was created in collaboration and performed with: Donna Ahmadi, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O'Con, Jennine Willett.

Lighting Design by Carol Mullins and Costume Design by Karen Young.

The work was presented in a three night engagement that ran Thursday, June 26th through Saturday, June 28th, 2008.

Vanishing Point won two 2008 Bessie Awards, for Music Composition and for Choreography.

Vanishing Point engages St. Mark's Church both as a sanctuary and an architectural structure evocative of the columns and porticos of the rural south. Culled from the artists' collective stories, it represents a confluence of slipping memories, improbable tales, and faulty recollections--an exploration of family legacies shrouded in secrets, blurred by liquor, or in some cases composed of outright lies. With an absurd measure of sincerity and an equal dollop of irreverence, the work grapples with both the unraveling and blurring of lines between truth and fabrication—simultaneously self-aware of performing while simultaneously evoking a fictional funeral. Ricocheting backward and forward through time in non-linear, photo album fashion, Vanishing Point shotguns from elusive impression to indelible imprint, skips decades, unearths fragments of a hidden past, and obsessively replays events in an attempt to triangulate meaning from fractured moments, tattered images, and the personal hazes we view them through.

Dress Rehearsal & Performance Footage Filmed by Kathleen Green and Ryan B. O'Connell. Edited by Tom Pearson.

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Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• site-specific
• Site-Specific
• Dance
• modern
• contemporary
• Performance
• Danspace
• Project
• Third
• Rail
• New
• York
• City
• Downtown
• Arts
• coffin
• terrarium
• sanctuary
• church
• southern
• architecture
• lamppost
• bluegrass
• bass
• banjo
• guitar
• country

[Auntartdotcom]

this video is awesome! It was so enjoyable to see in person. And this video is a wonderful reminder of an enjoyed evening watching art.

Thank you!

[thirdrailprojects]

Thanks, was so happy you guys made it for this.

[thirdrailprojects]

Some folks were asking for the citation copy from the 2008 Bessies. This show won an award for composer and for choreographer/creator. I've posted them below.

[thirdrailprojects]

Tom Pearson & Zach Morris

Choreographer/Creator Award

For creating a work suffused in memory and remembrance, at once universal yet quintessentially American, informed by love, wisdom, and humor, and expressed in luscious movement and music by virtuosic performers in Vanishing Point, presented at Danspace Project.

[missjday]

Well done! This footage nicely portrays the feel of the piece. And what a lovely, comfortable piece it is. :)

[thirdrailprojects]

Thanks, J!

[lettucemagnet]

So, beautiful. This is a nice trailer for the work which captures a lot of its spirit... though the full length piece goes so much deeper.

[SuperBrad321]

I love all the different movement textures and the energy. Really dynamic!

[amarcus13]

I'm SUPER sorry I missed this! bring it back again please! Great music too!

[muttonbutt]

Congrats on the Bessies. Didn't know what they were before, but that's so cool. Hope more people hear about you now!

[lettucemagnet]

Been a while since I saw this last and falling in love all over again. Beautiful work.

[thirdrailprojects]

Kris Bauman

Composer Award

For creating music infused with charm and playfulness, that helped bring characters and stories from rural America to life with his band, The Dang-It Bobbys, in Tom Pearson and Zach Morris' Vanishing Point, presented at Danspace Project.