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Space/Body/Time by Blaine Siegel and Jil Stifel

April 10-15, 2016
Maree ReMalia and her Pittsburgh-based collaborators present Landing/Shifting: Drop In, a series of interactive and participatory installations and performances that invite all members of the community to “drop in.” These events use dance, visual art, sound, and video to explore the ways creative experiences foster resiliency, connectivity, and sustainable well-being. Join us during the events listed below and stay tuned for pop-up activities!

April 12 | 3-4:15p | Bi Hall Discovery Court | Open to the community
Facilitation in Katie Martin’s Dance Improvisation Class
Play with Movement Scores and Installation Concepts
*Rain location Bi Hall Great Hall

April 12 | 4:30-5:30p | Bi Hall Discovery Court | Open to the community
Drop In–Participate in movement scores and interactive installations
*Rain location Bi Hall Great Hall 

April 13 | 12:15-1:30p | Twilight Auditorium | Open to the community | Free
Screening of David Bernabo’s Food Systems documentary in
Diego Thompson’s Sociology of Food and Agricultural Systems Course

April 13 | 7-8p | Warner Hall Greenhouse | Open to the community | Free
Looking Out, Seeing In—Informal performance
*In case of rain bring umbrella and wear warm clothes and rain proof shoes

April 14 | 12:30-1:30p |  Ross Dining Hall Patio  | Open to the community
Drop-In—Moving Perspective, participate in movement scores, interactive installations, and sound
With local sound artist, Sean Nealon
*Rain location MCA Lower Lobby

This project is sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/Movement Matters, COTA Discretionary Funds, Director of the Arts Gift Fund, and the Environmental Council of Middlebury College. 

Meet the Guest Artists
David Bernabo has been a fixture on the Pittsburgh music and art scenes for a good while, actively participating in bands, dance ensembles, art initiatives, and filmmaking. David currently performs and composes for the band/art ensemble Host Skull, dances with Maree ReMalia | merrygogo and MODULES, and is preparing installation and video work. He recently finished work on a feature-length documentary, Ongoing Box, which documents the role of process through various artistic forms and trades. His current activities are creating the Food Systems film series, working on new group and solo music, and cultivating a MODULES-inspired movement piece called The Reduction. View David Bernabo’s trailer for Food Systems here. http://www.davidbernabo.info

David Cherry has worked with writing, artwork, film, video, music, design, and photography, through various solo projects, collaborations, and live events. He served as the creative director of Incredibly Thin, an independent press and wild-eyed ensemble of creative minds, artisans, and badasses, who helped produce, showcase, and promote the work of over one hundred local and national authors, artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Longtime collaborator, Matthew Carrick, is working with David to document Maree ReMalia | merrygogo’s performance in the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Blaine Siegel earned a BFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University and an MFA in Sculpture from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He has exhibited work in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, South Florida, New York and Arles, France. Recent exhibits of note include SAINT —–, The God of Last Things at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PROGENITOR (The Last Humans) a collaboration with his wife and dancer Jil Stifel, and an upcoming exhibition at Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, Objects for Dance. “Blaine Siegel‘s Gobdiddlymuck at Slought is the work I loved best in all the shows, a tour-de-force piece with humor and thoughts of society’s decay.” Roberta Fallon, the artblog.com
http://blainesiegel.com

Jil Stifel is a dancer, choreographer and collaborative artist who works in movement, dance and performance. She has performed extensively with various modern dance companies and shown her projects both nationally and internationally. Her work has been described in the Pittsburgh Dance Examiner as “rare and otherworldly.” She recently co-created Waywardland with Ben Sota, a hybrid performance combining contemporary circus, physical theater and dance. This work was supported by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Heinz Foundation. Her work has been presented recently by Practice Gallery in Philadelphia, The University of Pittsburgh, the Here Now Series and New Moves at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and LightLab at the WoodStreet Galleries. Her Recent performance credits include her work with Maree ReMalia | merrygogo and Dave Bernabo’s MODULES, Jennifer Nagle Meyers Translations as well as Staycee Pearl dance project and others. She holds a BFA in dance with highest honors from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. http://www.jilstifel.com

Multiple Bodies Project experiment, videography David Cherry

Maree ReMalia | merrygogo
The Ubiquitous Mass of Us
in the Performing Arts Series
Friday, March 17 & Saturday, March 18
8:00pm
Mahaney Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Theater
Tickets and more information here.

Writing by David Bernabo on collaborative art-making and post performance experience on Recital.

photo Renee Rosensteel

The Ubiquitous Mass of Us is an evening-length, escalating journey where nine performers from across artistic disciplines question the bounds of their identities. Moving in and around the set designed by visual artist Blaine Siegel, they explore the way they take up space. Watch them bare a broad range of physicality and newly discovered expressions to an original sound score by David Bernabo. For all ages, seasoned performance goers, and those new to the theater.

OUTREACH CLASSES THAT ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theater
No previous experience necessary!

Tuesday, March 14 | 3:00pm-4:15pm
Gaga, Improvisation, and Rep Experiments in Lida Winfield’s Advanced Improv Course Led by Maree ReMalia and Friends
To warm up, participants will be guided through playful improvisational explorations intended to increase self awareness and build group connection. Facilitators will then teach repertory material from The Ubiquitous Mass of Us that includes movement, sound, and text that will be used as source material for experimentation in developing original, small group sequences. No previous experience necessary!

David Cherry (Videographer) is filled with vim, vigor, and vehemence. His heart beats at twenty-four frames per second, which makes him appear to be moving seamlessly. He wears many hats, and has written, performed, sang, produced, and drawn several bottomless conclusions. Lately, he focuses much of his attention upon creating (admittedly subjective) video renditions of compelling, thoughtful, and lovingly delightful experiences such as Wayward Land, Movement Matters – Landing/Shifting: Drop In, and The Ubiquitous Mass of Us.

Michael Giannitti (Lighting Designer) designed lighting at Middlebury for “Tzveta Kassabova and Friends” last year. He designed lighting for the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and for its pre-Broadway resident theater tour. He has designed extensively for Studio Theatre (Washington, DC), Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, Weston Playhouse, and the Dorset Theatre Festival, where he is Director of Design and was Producing Director from 2011-2015. Mr. Giannitti has also designed for Barrington Stage, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Virginia Stage, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, George Street Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, and the Spoleto Festival. New York credits include Dance Theatre Workshop, Danspace Project, The Joyce, The Kitchen, P.S. 122 and Sounding Beckett off-Broadway. He has been on the faculty at Bennington College since 1992. As a Fulbright Specialist, he taught in Romania and New Zealand.

Joseph Hall (Performer) is a black, queer transracial adoptee, facilitator, show off, podcast lover, creator, critic, and youngest of five. At work, he is Deputy Director at BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance as well as a producer, curator, and performer working in NYC and Pittsburgh. He is Company Manager for NYC-based choreographer Marjani Forte, a Bessie Selection Committee member, and co-curator of Pearl Diving Movement Residency at PearlArts Studios in Pittsburgh. Before relocating to New York in 2014, he was Producing Director at Pittsburgh’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater where he created original programs including My People, a film and performance series celebrating the lives of queer people of color, and the residency and showing series Fresh Works. As a performer, Joseph has worked with choreographers Staycee Pearl, Maree ReMalia, and Jasmine Hearn, video artist Suzie Silver, and hosts The Andy Warhol Museum’s annual Trans-Q Live!. IG: pizzatime_usa

Taylor Knight (Performer) is dedicated to broadening the scope of multi-disciplinary performance. Through movement, sound, and visual expressions, he explores and develops ritualistic practices, pushing himself to new frontiers. Taylor attended the Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts and Point Park University. Taylor spent multiple seasons as a company member with The Pillow Project, and was a founding member of Ate9 dANCE cOMPANY. Taylor and his partner, Anna Thompson are co-directors of slowdanger, a multi-disciplinary performance duo based in Pittsburgh. slowdanger’s full length performance works, original music productions, and workshops are rooted in somatic, mind body centering, and improvisational methodologies. slowdanger has presented at the VIA Festival, Honcho, The Kahlon Party, TEDx After Party, the Andy Warhol Museum, The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, The Wild Project, Triskelion Arts, Creative Mornings, The New Hazlett Theater, Pittsburgh Pride and more.

Zac Lounsbury (Performer) is a theatre maker and body shaker currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He, additionally, graduated from Middlebury LAST YEAR with a degree in theatre. Perhaps you saw him in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Spring Awakening, or In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play). Anyways, he’s ecstatic to be back and can’t thank Maree enough for inviting him to be a part of this awesome piece!

Moriah Ella Mason (Performer) is an interdisciplinary artist, bodyworker, and educator. Mason has performed throughout Pittsburgh with the Pillow Project/the Ellipses Condition, Maree Remalia/merry-gogo, and Mark C. Thompson. Her original performance works have been presented at a variety of venues in Pittsburgh, Tucson, and NYC. Ella is a professional massage therapist with a private practice specializing in treating chronic pain, injury recovery, and trauma. You can follow her work at www.moriahellamason.com

Jennifer Ponder (Technical Director) has been the Lighting Designer and Technical Director for the Middlebury College dance program since 1997. She has designed lighting (both pre-meditated and improvised) for theatre and dance in the US and abroad including Flynnspace, Shadowland Theatre, SUNY New Paltz, Bennington College, the Yard on Martha’s Vineyard, the Kennedy Center, the Dallas Theatre Center, Glimmerglass Opera, the American Dance Festival, Cuba, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, most recently at the Angela Peralta Theatre in Mazatlan, Mexico. She holds an MFA from Southern Methodist University.

Blaine Siegel (Set Design) is a multi-disciplinary sculptor working across diverse mediums and disciplines in his studio practice, set design, and socially engaged projects. He received a BFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University and an MFA in Sculpture from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Blaine has exhibited throughout the United States and in Arles, France. He is the Education and Outreach Director for Conflict Kitchen, a public art project/restuarant and the Studio Director for Radiant Hall Susquehanna.  Blainesiegel.com

Jil Stifel (Performer) is a mover, maker, teacher, learner, activist, mother, environmentalist, feminist, cancer survivor, bee lover, prairie obsessed person. She has spent the last five years cultivating an acre of wildlife habitat which is now home to native grasses and flowers, blue birds, owls, monarch butterflies, some really interesting bugs and it’s own colony of feral honey bees. Jil is inspired by neuroscience, time and sensation. She has a wild love for diversity and is super pumped to be back at Middlebury to share UMOU! www.jilstifel.com

Anna Thompson (Performer) is co-founder of the multi-disciplinary sound/movement duo, slowdanger. Alongside Taylor Knight,slowdanger uses collected field recordings, the voice, and contemporary/postmodern dance frameworks to create their episodic body of work, ‘the memory series’. Anna is a graduate of Point Park University Conservatory of Performing Arts (’12), and has performed nationally and internationally with Maree Remalia, Jasmine Hearn, Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson, Beth Corning,and the Pillow Project/Pearlann Porter. Her work with slowdanger has been performed in venues including The Wild Project (NYC), Silent Barn (BK), 368 PONCE (ATL), the New Hazlett Theater (PGH), the Warhol Museum (PGH) and the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater (PGH) and in festivals such as VIA New Music and Media festival (PGH), NewMoves Contemporary Dance Festival (PGH), theCURRENTSESSIONS (NYC) Honcho (PGH), Pride(PGH), and Kahlon (BALTO). slowdanger debuted their full-length work memory 4 as a part of the New Hazlett 2015-2016 CSA season, supported in part by the Heinz Small Arts Initiative.
www.slowdangerslowdanger.com

Rachel Vallozzi (Performer/Costume Stylist) is a costume designer, wardrobe stylist, closet consultant, and personal shopper. She first became interested in a career with clothes when she opened vintage boutique Kharisma Vintage Fashions in 2002. Rachel then moved into dressing actors for camera on over a hundred commercials. She has done costume consulting for Attack Theatre, designed the costumes for “…on being…”, a Staycee Pearl dance project, and films “ Progression” and “Inside Passage” (currently in production). Rachel loves working with her private styling clients, guiding them in visual personal presentation and problem solving. Currently, Rachel is in pre-production for the pilot episode of “Intrusion.” Rachel never tires of thrift store treasure hunts and believes that the self expression involved in getting dressed in the morning is an opportunity to celebrate each day. You can find out more about Rachel at rachelvallozzi.com.

The Landing/Shifting projects objectives align with current campus initiatives related to practicing inclusivity and resiliency in the face of external change and are meant to help us strengthen our understanding of what contributes to personal and communal sustainability and further inform our intellectual perspectives by physically cultivating our abilities to be flexible, adaptive, and regenerative through our collaborations across disciplines.

Landing/Shifting

Landing/Shifting: Bodies, Gender, and Ecosexuality

Landing/Shifting: Drop In

Grants and Sponsorship
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Director of the Arts Do a Gift Fund
Environmental Council of Middlebury College
MiddChallenge
Middlebury College COTA Discretionary Funds
Middlebury College Dance Program
Middlebury College Environmental Studies Program
Middlebury College Faculty Professional Development Fund
Middlebury College Faculty Research Assistant Fund
Middlebury College Farm
Middlebury College Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Program and Chellis House
Middlebury College Writing Program

Thank you
Claire Adams, Ann Baker, Mez Baker-Médard, Heather Baur, Shannon Bohler-Small, Colin Boyd, Pieter Broucke, Christal Brown, Jack Byrne, Allison Coyne Carroll, Christa Clifford, Michaela Davico, Cathy Ekstrom, Sophie Esser Calvi, Stevon Felton, Dan Frostman, Gigi Gatewood, Tara Giordano, Scotty Hardwig, Peter Huffman, Amanda Kimm, Hedya Klein, Vladimir Kremenović, Jay Leshinsky, Krista Miranda, Milce Murdjeva, Ethan Murphy, Alicia Peaker, Jennifer Ponder, Liza Sacheli, Marita Schine, Heather Stafford, Luther Tenney, Missey Thompson, Trinh Tran, Lida Winfield.
Middlebury College Help Desk
Movement Matters Steering Committee
Movement Matters Phase I Team ReMalia
Movement Matters Phase II Collaborators and Participants

Collaborators and Project Participants 2015-2017
Mez Baker-Médard, Julia Beraznova, Pam Berenbaum, Shannon Bohler, Susan Burch, Miguel Castillo, Chelsea Colby, Alex Draper, Sophie Esser Calvi, Stevon Felton, Gabby Fort, Gigi Gatewood, Tara Giordano, Karin Gottshall, Joseph Hall, Hatch Arts Collective, Lucie Heerman, Octavio Hingle-Webster, Huirong Jia, Tzveta Kassabova, Amanda Kimm, Hedya Klein, Vladimir Kremenović, Hyunjung Lee, Jay Leshinsky, Silvina López Barrera, Zac Lounsbury, Paloma McGregor, Jonathan Miller-Lane, David Miranda Hardy, Krista Miranda, Michael J. Morris, Sean Nealon, Lorena Neira, Linus Owens, Andrew Pester, Otto Pierce, Haley Roe, The Drop Ins, Diego Thompson, Trinh Tran, Annie Ulrich, Ioana Uricaru, Lida Winfield, Catharine Wright, Dana Yeaton.

With collaborators Silvina López Barrera and David Miranda Hardy

Performances
Friday, March 18 | 8p | MCA 110
Saturday, March 19 | 8p | MCA 110
Saturday, April 30 | 7:30p | Castleton University, Casella Theater

Review by Middlebury College Student, Melisande Brie McLaughlin. 

Landing/Shifting (working title) is a performance work being created as part of the Movement Matters Residency at Middlebury College. Maree ReMalia (Mellon Interdisciplinary Choreographer) is working in collaboration with Silvina López Barrera (Professor of Architecture) and David Miranda Hardy (Professor of Film and Sound).

Initial lines of inquiry for this project began with questions related to the way we define public and private spaces. What happens in the liminal spaces that exist between public and private? What happens when we bring private moments into public spaces? What are the ways we are being tracked or are living within states of surveillance in private places? What are the boundaries of our public and private lives with the onset of social media and a barrage of news sources. Who or what is constructing our public spaces and who or what is invited to be present? What are the ways in which these platforms are impacting our identity, perception, and being? What are the limiting and liberating factors of various structures and spatial configurations?

9.2 Meeting

• Environmental commentary: Parklet Movement (pop-up park, auto/public, etc.)
• Watch Films for Action: http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/open_to_the_public_2011/
• Surveillance/Tracking Location, is power carried by user?
• paradigm on public space, reclaiming unused space
• space that is not public or private–in between–interesting threshold with full public transitioning to private
• Potential collaboration Fall 2016 Dance Studio Design

9.10 Rehearsal Notes

• In between spaces
• public vs. private spaces
• location tracking
• what are the limitations of spatial configurations?
• what are personal objects that could be brought into public spaces to make them private?
• what might be considered transgressive physical behavior in public spaces?
• private objects in public spaces, juxtaposition, interruption
• spectrum of subtle to obvious, texture, speed

Potential objects:

• chairs
• corrugated cardboard
• crepe paper

9.15 Rehearsal Notes and On Point Radio Show

• Suzuki/Butoh style following warm-up
• Bebe side to side
• Building of phrase from side to side inspired material
• Random chair configuration, improvising/using phrase material with chairs
• Discuss juxtaposition of organized space/random or chaotic movement and random objects/set and organized/unison movement

To Do:

• Take photos of public “Do Not” or “No” signs
• Watch The 5 Obstructions (movie)
• A More Physical Form of Mindfulness: How intelligence lives beyond the brain. In your body. Intelligence, in the flesh.  https://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/09/14/physicality-mindfulness-cognitive-science
• Building new material: explore gestures/actions/behaviors that are physically transgressive in public spaces and limitations/possibilities in public configurations (draw from 5 gestures score/5 modes of travel/etc.).

10.6 Olafur Eliasson The Collectivity Project (May 29-September 30)

For Panorama, Eliasson presents The collectivity project, an installation of white LEGO® bricks that features an imaginary cityscape conceived and designed by the public. Visitors to the High Line are welcomed to play with the installation, building and rebuilding the structures over time. As the inevitable entropy of the piece begins to soften the hard edges of the designed structures, and mounds of loose pieces gather in the corners between buildings, a beautiful collective creation takes form. Installed in the growing shadow of the real estate development of Hudson Yards, the mutable, human-scale artwork provides a compelling counterpoint to the concrete-and-steel towers that form the project’s backdrop. The collectivity project has previously been installed in public squares in Tirana, Albania (2005), Oslo, Norway (2006), and Copenhagen, Denmark (2008).

Fat Boy Slim Praise You, thanks Gigi Gatewood for sharing some dance in public space!

11.28.15

Iris Van Herpens Extraordinary Clothes are More Like Wearable Sculptures

Please Touch the Art Jeppe Hein Installation

Silvina López Barrera Wearable Architecture Assignment

Public “No” Signs

Rehearsal 10.8

10.20 No Images from Middlebury, VT and DMV