Features > Impressions The Dance Enthusiast's Brand of Review/Thoughts on What We See

Impressions of Rebecca Davis' "Bloowst windku"

By Deirdre Towers/Follow @deirdre.towers on Instagram
View Profile | More From This Author

Published on May 14, 2015
Photo: Paula Court

At HERE Arts Center

Date: May 8, 2015
Choreographer: Rebecca Davis
Performers: Lydia Chrisman, Carolyn Hall, Kay Ottinger
Composer: Zach Layton
Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann
Costumes: Bethany Lyttle
Set Construction: Linda Rolon, Vilem Benes, Lydia Chrisman

Two walls of HERE are papered with security envelopes, arranged in patterns by the positioning of the plastic windows, which reflect the light. Rebecca Davis, the creator of Bloowst windku(bloom-twist-windmill-haiku), wrote in an Artist’s Note that “an envelope is a carrier, a vessel. Its fullness is its emptiness.”

(From left to right): Kay Ottinge, Lydia Chrisman, Carolyn Hall in Bloowst windku. Photo: © Paula Court

BLACKOUT

For a flash, an arm thrust in an upward diagonal appears; two bodies lay curled on the floor. 

BLACKOUT

Two young women in soft, long pants and t-shirts sit/fall to their side, hold a leg up; their hips or bottoms on the floor.

BLACKOUT

The same two women sit on the floor side by side, facing stage left. Rapid eye movement (REM) of one is countered by the other’s shut eyes, then those eyes open; REM begins; the other shuts her eyes. This REM ping pong rhythm continues for some time. 

BLACKOUT

The first two women vanish. A third young woman in a brilliant blue shirt sits on the floor with a leg suspended in a diagonal.

BLACKOUT 

Carolyn Hall in Bloowst windku. Photo: © Paula Court

Variations on the above follow for another 50 minutes, with a quickening of pace towards the end involving the trio.

Davis also wrote in her Artist’s Note that “there’s movement in stillness. There’s stillness in movement and making more of it.” She created this trio over three years, as the resident artist of HERE and in residencies with the Bogliasco Foundation, Insel Hombroich, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Mertz Gilmore Foundation also supported this project.

Accompanying publication is forthcoming with writing by Marianne Shaneen, Ada Smailbegovic, and Rachael Wilson.