Notes from the Social Science Researcher and the Artistic Director before Viewing the Performance:
We hope the performance raises questions, evokes emotions, and ignites discussion. As you view the performance, you are encouraged to engage with its structure in a way that is most meaningful to you; it is your decision how to interpret the connection between the individual dialogues and dances and the organization of the concert as a whole.
The performance might best be considered a “problem” performance because it is not easily classified. Some questions to think about:
- Is this performance fact or fiction or somewhere in between?
- Is it a tragedy, comedy, or romance?
- Is it to be taken literally and/or is it open for interpretation?
- Are these coherent stories and/or disjointed ideas and concepts?
As you experience the performance, we encourage you to think in broad terms. What are the dialogues and dances communicating to you about larger social structures (that is, cultural ideas about heterosexual, middle-class, white-identified women & femininity, marriage, weddings, wives, motherhood, singlehood, and single women)? How are these social structures exclusionary, liberating and/or constraining? How do individuals and social structures interface?
If you seek more information about the choreographers’ processes and more information about the research projects and the researcher’s comments on the dances, please contact us with your comments and questions.
Enjoy!
All best wishes,
Elizabeth Sharp & Genevieve Durham-DeCesaro
March 2013, Texas Tech University: