BEACH SESSIONS X ANONYMOUS

When Sasha, the director of Beach Sessions, and I spoke about the choreographer’s name Anonymous, we spoke about it being disorienting, with both a feeling of everyone and no one at the same time. They were to perform a piece entitled ‘Fun Young Gods,’ an anthem, a ritual, a placebo, a conjuring, a clinical study, and a blatant exploitation of society's obsession with fun, youth, and holiness. When I think about dance, I think a lot about its relationship to ritual and, in turn, the metaphysical. This brought me back to thinking about Maya Deren’s films which intertwine dance, ritual, routine, and the illusiveness of identity and time. I first thought about using the mirrors as something we could play with to cover the face and reflect the face of the other dancer that played with the expression of rock hysteria, which was the goal of the dance piece.

I used mirrors to play with the sense of time and identity by reflecting other things in the surroundings, such as the sky or sunlight. I wanted the mirrors to become a beacon of light or another part of the work that creates the feeling of disorientation. I put handles on two of them, and the other two could be used to lay against different surfaces or play with in other ways. Adding the handles allowed the performers to cover the face, move the body, and use it in other ways around the body and space.

The final presentation is shown on the Beach Sessions website, a large image published in New York Times, and printed in large scale zine.

http://www.beachsessionsdanceseries.com/anonymous

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/arts/dance/dance-in-nyc-this-week.html