Pelican (Revised)
Pelican (Revised)
Premiere: Aug 14, 2008
Choreography by Julia K. Gleich with dancers
Original sound by Verbal Graffiti
Costumes and set design by Jason Andrew in collaboration with the Champlain Children’s Day Care and the children of Rouses Point
Civic Center, Rouses Point, NY
Pelican 1963
In 1963, American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) created his first choreographic venture. The performance featured three dancers, they were Rauschenberg and sculptor Per Olaf Ultvedt (both on roller skates and parachutes) and the famous Carolyn Brown on pointe. The piece was performed at the American on Wheels Skating Rink in Washington, D.C. Hardly classified as a “dance,” the performance was a spontaneous, oddly drawn-together, mini-happening.
"Pelican is a trio for two men on roller skates and a woman in point shoes. The men, Rauschenberg and the Swedish artist Per Olaf Ultvedt, enter the rink each kneeling on an axle between a set of bicycle wheels. Parachutes—stretched open with struts—were strapped to their backs. Like giant magical insects on the prowl, they propelled themselves along by "walking" hand over hand. When finally they stood and began to skate, the wind filled their silk parachutes and the insects were transformed into mammoth mystical birds, twirling and swooping through space."
— Carolyn Brown in her biography Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham [page 368]
Choreographer Julia K. Gleich studied Rauschenberg's handwritten notes and the rare footage of the original to designed space and time. Gleich's choreography, a clashing of classical and contemporary, was then placed alongside the urban sound of Verbal Graffiti (rap artist D.O.V. (David Powers) and DJ Wave (Elisha Zeitler) of Brooklyn) who mixed and performed the music live. Similar to the original, the ballet was performed in a converted ice rink. Dancers performed with music that they were hearing for the first time, not unlike the dance collaborations of Merce Cunningham and John Cage. The duration of the ballet was 24 minutes, exactly double length of the original PELICAN. The result was a performance that was at times dissonantly joined yet spontaneously fresh. Costumes by Jason Andrew, set created in collaboration with the Champlain Children's Learning Center and the children of Rouses Point.
Special thanks to Ms. Carolyn Brown, Julie Martin, and David White of the Rauschenberg Studio for their valuable guidance and insight.
Performance at the Civic Center, Rouses Point, NY.
