ALL THAT SPECTACLE: DANCE ON STAGE AND SCREENS
A RESPONSE TO BOB FOSSE’S SWEET CHARITY (1969)
PERFORMERS: Michael Blake, Joyce Edwards, Julia Foulkes, Hsiao-Jou Tang, and Megan Williams
TEXT: Julia Foulkes
RUNNING TIME: 27 minutes
ESSAY: All that Spectacle: Dance on Stage and Screens
COSTUMES: Magdalena Jarkowiec
“Bob Fosse created an iconic style of turned-in feet, cocked hat, and jazz hands, and that style circulated through Broadway and Hollywood, unlike the works of Balanchine, Graham, and Ailey that existed primarily on concert stages. How does that commercial circulation change dance and our perceptions of moving bodies? Sweet Charity illuminates the cultural stratification of modernism, poised between high art and abstraction and commodified popular culture, replete with racial appropriations and sexualized movement. In a battle over cultural capital, Fosse sets up dance as a shiny but haunted spectacle.”
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
Prismatic Park Residency / Madison Square Park, NYC / 2017
Williams Museum of Contemporary Art @ Williams College / Williamstown, MA / October 26, 2017
Live Artery at New York Live Arts / New York, NY / January 13 + 15, 2018
Jacob’s Pillow / Becket, MA / August 8-12, 2018
Wexner Center for the Arts / Columbus, OH / February 7-9, 2019
Live Artery at New York Live Arts / New York, NY / January 7, 2019
New York Live Arts / New York, NY / March 14-17, 2019
Bates Dance Festival / Lewiston, ME / July 25-28, 2019
Wesleyan University / Middletown, CT / October 4, 2019
PHOTOGRAPHS: Maria Baranova ( 1 ); Hayim Heron ( 2 , 3 )