History

HISTORY is a new dance work directed by Bebe Miller in collaboration with long-time BMC collaborators Angie Hauser, Darrell Jones and Talvin Wilks, premiering in Fall 2012. An evening-length duet for Hauser and Jones, with video by Lily Skove and accompanying installation by Maya Ciarrocchi, the work is designed to invite audiences into what dance making feels like, sounds like, thinks like. Set to tour in 2012-13, these projects offer the uniqueness of a joint performance, installation, and interactive website, ultimately shifting the paradigm of an artist's archive from artifact to artwork.

HISTORY can be viewed as both the evidence and performance of a creative process. All four BMC collaborators – appearing live and virtually – create a dynamic exposure of how we do what we do and in turn catalyze the next questions. Performances are coupled with media installations offering dance “tracks” and thematic journeys that audiences try on for size, experiencing our process and arriving at new conclusions of their own. This guerrilla mode—nimble, strategic, with multiple points of entry—is designed to give both artists and audience the interactive spontaneity of truly accessible theater; make use of the flexibility of digital media; and minimize production and touring costs. Both the theatrical work and installation will contain media suitable for a range of spaces and be available virtually, strategically entangling audience with process and performance; events will be developed in close dialog with presenters.

HISTORY reveals the interpersonal subtext that drives our particular mode of inquiry. As such, it connects an audience to their own experiences of creative partnerships. It is filtered through the collaboration between Hauser and Jones that began with the Bessie award-winning Verge (2001). HISTORY probes findings from a 10-year perspective to expose the collision of their internal processes as dancers. It shares that vulnerability in an interactive format, creating something new.