Plastic Flow is a dance that mourns the loss of our glacial landscapes.
Plastic Flow is a dance that captures the changeable essence of glacier landscapes and mourns their loss. This summer it will be presented as part of the NOW Fest at REDCAT.
Plastic Flow is a multi-media experience, integrating the bodies of the dancers into the constantly shifting stage materials of paper, fabric, black wrap, and clip lights. All of these suggest the variety of glacial landscapes in their shapes and textures. The sound score is a combination of recorded natural sounds that occur in response to the dancers, and a solo opera singer performing a elegy for our collective loss. The piece is animated by grief for our changing land, and a sense of awe at how even mammoth objects can and do disappear.
It has been created in collaboration with dancers Arian Winn, Roberta Shaw, and Louie Cornejo; lighting designer Christopher Kuhl, sound designer Joe Court; painter Claire Anna Baker; geologist Carolyn Dowling.
Plastic flow is the process whereby solid ice begins to move under the surface of a glacier in the manner of a liquid – it is what makes a glacier flow downhill. As global warming accelerates so does plastic flow. The piece takes its name from this process, exploring the ways monumental objects can rapidly transform and disappear.
Plastic Flow grows out of a series of explorations called Couds and Claves that approached the body as topography. Previous versions of Couds and Claves were presented by Diavalo Space, Electric Lodge, South Coast Rep, Iridian Arts, and Ball State University. While these pieces examined caves, clouds, mountains, and rivers, Plastic Flow hones in on glaciers, working to understand the processes of glacial melt, sublimation, and disappearance.
Your funding helps pay for the collaborators:
$2000 – Dancers
$1000 – Lighting Designer
$1000 – Sound Designer
=$4000
While REDCAT is paying us for our performance it is not enough to cover all these costs. We need your help to make ends meet.