PERFORMED BEFORE A LIVE, IN-PERSON, SOCIALLY-DISTANCED AUDIENCE IN LATE SUMMER OF 2020.
PS21, Chatham NY
30 minutes
4 performers
"Field Notes: Outdoor Dances for this 21st Century" is an original site-specific work for four dancers, performed in the apple orchards at PS21 on the late summer afternoons of September 2020. “Field Notes” is uniquely conceived for socially distanced audiences, with spectators seated in pairs in the open air of the orchard.
This 30-minute work was created during the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. Thanks to a development residency at PS21 in Chatham, NY (2 hours north of New York City), the creative team quarantined together following rigorous testing protocol, and built the work on site in 6 days. Audiences were seated in pairs and spaced 6-10 feet apart.
We went with bold colors for costumes (designed by Karen Boyer) so that the performers would pop against the landscape even from a distance. The music by Dave Cerf and Catherine McRae was wistful and mysterious, playing through 25 battery-powered radios in low-fi surround sound.
"Field Notes" was a continuation of a series called Of Iron and Diamonds, inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, which Galasso began in 2017. This new piece, while connected to the earlier, pre-Covid chapters, was at the same time in direct response to the current moment of great uncertainty and uprising. It conjured a space of wistfulness, melancholy and delight, acknowledging the weight of this unprecedented epoch, without overstating the obvious.
Field Notes
Premiere
September 18-20, 2020
Choreography
Catherine Galasso, in collaboration with performers
Performers
Doug LeCours, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Tara Sheena, Meg Weeks
Assistant Director
KC Athol
Music
Dave Cerf, Michael Galasso, Catherine McRae
Costumes
Karen Boyer
Voice Over
Tess Dworman
Cinematography
Catalina Kulczar-Marin
Support
"Field Notes" was created with residency support from Performance Spaces for the 21st Century in partnership with the Town of Chatham, Magazzino Italian Art, Margaret Avenia of Columbia County Real Estate, and generous individual contributions.