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IMPRESSIONS: Victory Project
By Trina Mannino/Follow @Trinamannino on Twitter
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Published on April 4, 2013
IMPRESSIONS: Victory Project
Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
March 22, 2013
Choreography, object design and performed by: Erica Mott
Composer, sound designer, and electronic performer: Ryan Ingebritsen
Interactive Video Design: John Boesche
Light Design: Todd Clark
Dramaturgy: Ginger Farley
Trina Mannino for The Dance Enthusiast
At first glance, Roulette is a well suited place for Victory Project, a multidisciplinary performance incorporating dance, video, an interactive sound score and even “sculptural objects." The theater creates distance between the performers and viewers with its 400 seats while lending exceptional acoustic capability to a work’s score. Yet, artists Erica Mott and Ryan Ingebritsen assault us with so many props, characters and noises, the piece overpowers the space and loses itself.
In an email, I received after the performance, Mott wrote, "There is a continuous live manipulation of sound and movement under Ryan and my working model of interdependency.There are moments within the work when Ryan's manipulation of sound dictates our movement scores and likewise, times when my choreography drives the sonic score..."
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| Erica Mott and Ryan Ingebritsen in Victory Project. Photo Day Still. |
A fine example of the musical/movement relationship occurs in Victory Project's “dinner scene.” As the performers manipulate dinnerware, their score amplifies the swishing noise of a plate sliding across a desk. We hear the clinking of a spoon against a mug. The reverberation is herculean. The interplay of disciplines is pleasing.
Later, the artists present us with a marathon of images and ideas. Mott kneads dough wearing an ironic smile and a khaki patriotic dress, then leaves; Ingebritsen balances a Barbie doll on the palm of his hand like you would an egg in a spoon race; then, Mott returns to the stage wearing an apparatus stuck to her right leg that contains three soft leg casts. Huh? I am wondering how we got here.
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| Erica Mott in Victory Project. Photo Day Still. |
Fortunately, there is a bright spot. Preceding the live performance, a film loops on a large projection screen onstage. We notice a figure spiraling under a white hoop skirt, eventually emerging from its opening. She is Mott ,who later appears onstage in the exact skirt. Introducing this image twice -live and on film - satisfies a mystery, it completes a thought, revealing the artists' affinity for combining sculptural objects, physicality and music, while considering the role of the female form.
It would serve Victory Project well if the artists selected fewer ideas and explored their possibilities more thoroughly through the powerful and multiple mediums they employ. In that case, they will be victorious.
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| Erica Mott in Victory Project. Photo Day Still. |
