I attended the open rehearsal for an unconventional dance show a few weeks ago presented by Collage Dance Theatre , prior to the performance. It was a site-specific performance, meaning the performance was tailored to a specific location when it was created. The performers rehearsed in the 7+Fig mall in Downtown LA for seven weeks. The video below was shot on the last day of that seven week process a week before the performance.
After I shot the video I had the privilege of attending the actual performance. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. The performance started in a white room with blue fabric on the walls. The performance space was packed.
Collage Dance Theatre presented a site-specific performance all over the 7+Fig Mall in downtown LA Wednesday Feb. 18 called “A Material World” drawing new patrons to the mall and giving shoppers a surprise.
The dancers used the mall’s existing architecture and objects as the backdrop for their performance in conjunction with a 200-feet-long piece of blue fabric in an attempt to make the audience view Los Angeles from a different perspective than they are used to.
Volunteers lead the audience from one location to the next
In this specific performance the “stage” so to speak was moved to different areas of the mall. A trumpeter and violinist played the role of a “pied piper” and there were also volunteers from Collage who wore shirts that said “follow me” that showed the audience where the dancers were going.
This piece was a joint creation of Brookfield Properties, the mall’s owner, and Collage Dance Theatre. Brookfield contacted Collage and asked if they would like to create a performance in the mall. Then the dance company practiced in the mall for seven weeks trying different things to see if they would work for the performance and used what they learned to create the end product.
There was a large crowd of people that came to the mall to see the performance. In fact it was so large that when they were trying to follow the performance up the escalator to one of the other locations, the escalator started rolling backwards then broke down completely.
The excalator buckled under the pressure of the exuberant audience
After the opening piece the dancers moved to the street level of the mall. Here they used the handrails as their stage, laying on top of, sliding down, and leaning against them.
One of the dancers said this was her favorite part of the performance because people who were just walking by the mall without any intention of seeing the performance got to be a part of it.
“It was great to see people stop their hustle and bustle and get off their cell phones for a minute to see what we were doing,” said dancer Nina McNeely. “It was nice to see that our performance got them out of their regular routine and exposed them to the arts in a new way.”
The next part of the performance took place in the open air space on the mall’s top floor. The movement of the dancers and audience from the previous area to this one was part of the performance as well.
In this area was a large grassy area and some trees and the dancer’s took full advantage of both climbing the trees and swinging from them and rolling in the grass.
The performance culminated with the finale which was done in the atrium area of the mall the audience watched from the balconies above as the dancers manipulated tables, chairs, umbrellas, each other and the blue fabric.
The director of the piece hopes that the performance has a profound impact on the audience and changes the way they look at art.
“I think the public could perhaps look at art as an act that enhances daily life,” said Heidi Duckler Collage Dance Theatre artistic director. “That it isn’t something so pristine and elitist that you have to buy a ticket and sit in a seat, but that art is an activity that we call all participate in and that it’s something that can happen all the time, day and night.”
