Theater You Know What’s Wrong with Airports? Not Enough Modern Dance.
posted by on March 18 at 14:52 PM
This morning, Alice Gosti, an honors student at the University of Washington, invited us to Sea-Tac tomorrow to see her off on her “airport dance” project, in which she will fly to Germany and Iceland, dance a solo in their airports, and then fly back.
From her email:
I have been working for two years on an Airport Performance project, with significant funding from a Mary Gates Research Award and Venture Scholarship. “Airport Dance” is a solo performance piece that will travel from airport to airport all around the world within the brief time span of 10 days. The work/performer will interact with a characteristic shared by all airports—the power to alter one’s perception of space and time. I am interested in juxtaposing the airport—a place where space and time are warped or even suspended with dance—an art form completely dependent on how we perceive the body moving in space and time.
I corresponded with numerous national and international airports. Most did not respond. But there were some willing and adventuresome respondents from Seattle, Germany and Iceland.
Hmm… Flying around Europe, with some nominal art-ing on the way there and back, paid for by an arts grant?
Come to think of it, I’ve got this interview-people-waiting-in-airports-in-tropical-climates project I’ve always wanted to do…
that's a hell of a carbon footprint.
hey, brendan, you know the gig: if you can get it funded, you can do it. you know what keeps these projects from getting funded? better projects.
and people wonder why republicans hate art funding.
This post seems to denigrate the work of an artist without even seeing it. More power to Alice Gosti and other working artists like her. They find ways to get funding for ambitious projects despite cynics with limited definitions of what "art" is. Put it out there and let the people decide.
She should buy carbon offsets and then encase her legs in the carbon equivalent of dead wood that represents.
That or do the dance along the non-existent light rail walkway from the SeaTac ST station to the departure gate, to point out alternate forms of transport.
If she does this unannounced in an America airport, security will assume she's a terrorist and beat the hell out of her.
This sounds like the kind of art Slog often posts about happening in other places, asking why don't artists do something that exciting here? (I'm thinking of the big time stop project in NYC a month or so ago).
So, you go Alice Gosti! Even if the dancing is less than stellar, this project sounds fascinating and congratulations on getting funding to do something truly experimental. I wish I were able to go to the airport tomorrow and see it.
@6 - see, now that would be a great interpretive dance! It would show the difference in relative safety and culture, and how we still live in Cold War Fear here in the US, while Germany and Iceland have moved on.
Have a nice trip, Alice. If you need somebody to put you up, my brother has tons of friends in Germany and Iceland who might do so ...
What a ridiculous project. Seriously. I'm with Will @5... girl needs a reality check.
"It's called Prelude to a Cavity Search."
Am I the only one thinking of the dancers in the "Cheese Shop Sketch" that John Cleese shouts at?
This could be the first art piece to explore extraordinary rendition
Hey, I know her! we lived in the dorms together. She's an intensely cool person
It's amazing what white folks can get away with in airports (yes, I know I'm assuming).
When it comes to art in airports, this, coupled with that "How Magic is Done" mural (I don't know what it was actually titled) leaves the city with a lot to answer for.
Genevieve makes an interesting comparison between this and Improv Everywhere's time-stop flash mob at Grand Central. Improv Everywhere pieces are produced using volunteer actors and no outside funding. They are also recorded and posted on IE's site with commentary and discussion. The end result is entertaining, fascinating, and not very expensive (which enables them to do many such projects each year).
I wonder if Alice's performances will have any impact lasting beyond the time and place where they occur. If she were to break into unexpected dance and record people's responses, for example, she could create something interesting. If it's just her on a stage dancing for a few minutes in an airport, she's using an awful lot of money for a pretty mundane purpose. Way back when, my high school choir did stuff like that all the time. Too bad we never finagled a free European vacation out of it.
@3 Well this isn't public funding of the arts and even if it were it beats $200 million for the Montana Sheep Instititute (yes, sheep get more funding in this country than the arts do...)
@17:
Q: What's the difference between a performance artist and a sheep?
A: A sheep can feed and clothe a family of four.
@17 Agreed. I just was looking for something more permanant in my public arts financing. Performance "art" is pretty subjective when it comes to public financing. I like to DJ, but I don't have any paying gigs. Should I try to get government funding so I can spin records in the streets?
And seeing as probably every single person in America uses sheep products on a daily basis, a sheep institute might not be a bad idea. 200 mil in Montana does seem excessive tho...
Never forget that a grad student wanting to fund a surf trip to Australia discovered the truth that the flu and colds come from birds and migrate to humans ...
For all we know, we may learn something from this, even if we make fun of it ...
Someday I hope I am rich enough to have a foundation that can fund people wishing to travel abroad and annoying tourists.
@10 totally wins.
Yup, @10 wins.
What a load of crap! It's shit like this that makes Rethuglicans try and take away arts funding. With shit like this it's hard to argue with them. Aside from the fact that modern dance is utter crap, the carbon footprint of this project is outrageous.
They worked two years to come up with this?!
Don't quit yer day job loser.
Images and video from Dan Savages' glorious war on Iraq.
http://iraq.reuters.com/
This comment to be deleted soon as off-topic.
I think the fact that this is a dance piece instead of some other form of art is what is making folks here flip out. Imagine if the artist were a violinist, say, and they flew to a few airports, played their new piece, and then got back on a plane. Doesn't sound very crazy to me, and probably could be quite moving. But since it's modern dance it must be KERAZY and too artsy fartsy for Joe Average to unnerstan.
I love this stuff. Totally random weird art FTW!
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