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Friday, December 5, 2008

Collaborations stack up--or not--at Skirball

Stacks--presented in a packed, one-night-only affair at Skirball Center for the Performing Arts--felt to me like a tug of war between Anne Carson's poetry on one side and the rearrangeable sculpture of Peter Cole and rearrangeable dancers of Jonah Bokaer on the other. I found myself mightily tugged in the direction of the visuals. I figure I can always go back and read Carson's lines in peace. And, in quiet, I'd like to watch the re-piling and tossing and kicking away of Cole's clutter of cardboard boxes and the clean-air look of Bokaer's movement, the silky, resilient way handsome bodies make plain the space around them as well as within them. I had a similar but less regretful reaction to Bracko--the juxtaposition of a Rashaun Mitchell duet with Carson's translation of Sappho. These artistic encounters did not work for me, which is not to say they could not be someone else's perfect arrangement.

1 comment:

  1. Feast of St. Siro
    2008

    Hello!

    "STACKS" is an original and unpublished text, so unfortunately, it cannot be read or acquired yet; that's part of why the reading at the Skirball Center was a rare event.

    The lighting design was by Aaron Copp: he was an equal collaborator on this project.

    Jonah

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