PULSE is a continual work-in-progress that will evolve with me as a performer, creator, collaborator, and artistic researcher in the near and distant future. The idea for this project has emerged from the intersection of numerous interests, experiences, and events related to my personal life and artistic practice
Since 2019 I have called Capestrano (a small village in Abruzzo, Italy) home. This place has heightened my desire for deeper connections with community and to explore the possibilities of harmonizing my day-to-day living with my artistic interests in the wider world. In 2009 this region was devastated by an earthquake that severely damaged numerous villages. Restoration of these is ongoing, but in the past few years, several of the area’s historic churches have reopened. With PULSE, my goal is to connect with the local communities through singing and dancing in these revived spaces and interweaving themes of hope and recovery in troubling times. These goals exist alongside the practical necessity for a production with minimal technical requirements and limited financial support.
The production is structured around the concept and experience of pulse in music and everyday living. Although its principles can be associated with most music, it is frequently associated with early music before the existence of metronomes or conductors. The regularity of this beating is often related to the pulse of the human heart at rest. The performance plays with this foundation of an ever-continuing beating in relation to my own changing pulse rate as I dance (accelerating), sing (decelerating), dance and sing together (accelerating), and stand in silence (decelerating).
The video production, while maintaining the overall structure of the live performance, has sought to translate and adapt it to the specific limitations of our COVID-19 world but also the advantages of film and audio production/editing.
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