In the Use of Others...

Apr 14

Written By Norte Maar

Related Press:

Listing. “Norte Maar: In The Use Of Others For The Change,” NY Daily News, April 2011.

Listing. “Gleich Dances and Norte Maar,” The Village Voice, April 2011.

Vartanian, Hrag. “Tonight, Party for Bushwick's First Ballet, “ Hyperallergic, Apr 1, 2011. (PDF)

Listing. “In the Use of Others for the Change,” The L Magazine, Vol.9, No.8, Apr 13-26, 2011.

“Jason Andrew + Norte Maar present In the Use of Others for the Change, a new ballet by Julia K. Gleich,” Time Out New York, Apr 14-20, 2011.

Bushwick Culture Weekly Picks, April 14, 2011.

Bushwick BK, Apr 14, 2011.

Vartanian, Hrag. “Julia K. Gleich on Bushwick’s New Collaborative Ballet,” Hyperallergic, April 15, 2011. (PDF)

“In the Use of Others for the Change” James Kalm Report, April 17, 2011.

Panero, James. “Gallery Chronicle: In the Use of Other for the Change,” The New Criterion, May 2011. (PDF)

Micchelli, Thomas. “In the Use of Others for the Change,” The Brooklyn Rail, May 2011. (PDF)

In the Use of Others for the Change:

a new ballet in three movements directed and choreographed by Julia K. Gleich featuring original sound and design by Andrew Hurst with additional collaborations with artists Audra Wolowiec (sound), Austin Thomas (set), Kevin Regan (text), Shona Masarin (film), Amery Kessler (sound)

Dancers: Michelle Buckley, Morgan McEwen, Brittany Fridenstine, Kate Kelley, Claire McKeveny, Marc St-Pierre, Mary Jane Ward

Apr 14-16, 2011

Venue: Center for Performance Research (CPR), Brooklyn

A limited edition companion program / catalogue with artist bios, images and poetry including work by Andrew Hurst, Lars Kremer, Ellen Letcher, Austin Thomas, Brooke Moyse, Paul D’Agostino, Mary Jane Ward, Kate Wadkins, Deborah Brown, Brece Honeycutt, Chris Martin & The Kids of Bushwick Impact, Kevin Regan, Audra Wolowiec, Tamara Gonzales. Designed by C. J. Broughton. Purchase catalogue here.

Bushwick, Brooklyn-Jason Andrew and the creative team of Norte Maar have recruited a slew of Bushwick artists ranging from visual to sculptural, textual to musical, to build a new ballet choreographed by Julia K. Gleich. The ballet titled, In the Use of Others for the Change, will premiere with a benefit performance for Norte Maar at the Center for Performance Research (361 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn), April 14 at 7:30PM. Performances will continue April 15 and 16 at 7:30PM. For tickets and more information call 646-361-8512 or visit www.nortemaar.org

In the Use of Others for the Change, begins with a new musical score created by Audra Wolowiec, and opens in an atmosphere of sketches and studies traced and drawn by artist Austin Thomas. The ballet morphs through Gleich’s vectored choreography into a dense and psychological trip that combines text by John C. Lilly as read by artist Kevin Regan. And finally, Andrew Hurst, performance/visual artist/composer, will entice the dancers through a series of pieces involving texturally rich film and video projections enhanced by brand new sonic explorations that will feature an array of unconventional live instrumentation. Gleich will explore "decumulation", where memory builds on memory then unravels to an end, where nothing exists anymore.

These collaborations grew out of Camp Pocket U(topia), a summer project created by Austin Thomas in 2010 held in Rouses Point, NY, and continue the energy and inspiration generated from that productive summer.This ballet is sponsored by The Friends of Norte Maar, The Bodega Wine Bar, and Tandem Bar with media sponsorship from Hyperallergic.Also on the program will be two works choreographed by Gleich: Summer in Rouses Point, set to the music of Charles Avison and Ghost (for Martin) a revival of Gleich's 2001 duet, which will be performed by Jason Andrew and Julia K. Gleich.

The title of In the Use of Others for the Change comes from a text (selected by Kevin Regan, who reads it aloud in the second movement—Beliefs Unlimited Exercise) by the controversial neuroscientist John C. Lilly (1915 - 2001), who experimented with sensory deprivation, hallucinogenic drugs, and interspecies communication: ‘The unknown exists in one’s goals for changing one’s self, in the means for changing, in the use of others for the change, in one’s capacity to change … in the form of change itself, and in the substance of change and of changing.’
—Thomas Micchelli in his review of the event, The Brooklyn Rail (May 2011)

Collaborations work when artists wander together, taken in by each other’s art. Perhaps Bushwick has a particular sensibility that tends to be less armored, less ironic than other scenes, and therefore more willing to give over one’s work to a collaborative end […] Here, through the addition of each artist’s work, in the form of projections, readings, and mechanical and recorded sounds, the dancers became the art, with images projected on them and their silhouettes carved out of the projections on the back wall.
The collaborations exposed new depths of each of the artists’ practices: angular dances accentuated the “vectors” of Thomas’s stenciled works; dancers gradually entered the stage as Kevin Regan read, repeated, and echoed Lilly’s text in the mantra-like use of mirroring and repetition; dancers whipped up a frenzy for the cyclone of debris in Hurst’s collages and assemblages. For the culmination, or “decumulation” as it was called, Hurst himself performed a harmonica blues riff as he entered and exited the stage, with a lone dancer snapping alongside him.
—James Panero, The New Criterion (May 2011)