Join my students of Ballet Mécanique Dance Journey, along with the students of Cinema Professors, Ariana Gerstein and Monte McCollum, and of Music Professor Dan Davis, for a Free, First-Friday, May 5th performance at Spool Contemporary Art Space, 138-140 Baldwin Street, Johnson City, NY:

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2023 is the centennial of the release of Ballet Mécanique, an experimental, largely animated film by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy.  In commemoration of such, Binghamton University Departments of Theatre, Cinema, and Music have combined forces to create a spectacle of newly-composed Dance, Music, and Cinema, to take place at Spool Contemporary Arts Space, 138-140 Baldwin St., Johnson City, NY 13790, on First-Friday, May 5th, at 7:00 PM.  The show begins at 7:00 PM and will be walk-through, installation style. It is free and open to the public.  The production is partially underwritten by Harpur Edge and will include a catered reception.

 

Graduate students of Music Professor, Dan Davis, have composed music emulating the live accompaniment that embellished the original silent film.  Students of Cinema Professor, Ariana Gerstein, have created stop-action animated films, which will be projected directly onto the bodies of the dancers of Binghamton University Artist-in-Residence, Andy Horowitz's Ballet Mécanique, Dance Journey class. Cinema Professor Monteith McCollum's students will improvise live sound-scapes.  There will also be smaller, sideshow-style installations: a self-powered Zoetrope, enormous kaleidoscopic mirrors. and a hand-cranked, magical zoetrope skirt.  An immersive experience, Ballet Mécanique, Reimagined: An Experimental Fusion of Film, Sound, Dance, and Music Celebrating 100 years revives the chaos of the original film and of the post-Cubist movement of the early 20th century.