By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Contributor
It’s not uncommon to see piano or violin duets. Certain singers
have even been known to record albums with their dead fathers. But
few have witnessed a dancer perform a duet with a refrigerator.
Audiences will get a chance to see just that when the Collage
Dance Theatre performs "Mr. Westinghouse" and two other pieces
tomorrow as part of the Los Angeles County Arts Open House. The day
of free events celebrates National Arts and Humanities Month and is
designed to raise awareness of the county’s cultural resources.
Collage is also performing "Everlasting Rest," a duet on two box
spring mattress frames originally performed in the Los Angeles
River. Heidi Duckler, UCLA graduate, founder and art director of
Collage, says she thought that it would be interesting to take the
dance out of the river and put it on the stage. "’Everlasting Rest’
is kind of a joke, because there is no everlasting rest in this
piece. It’s largely about insomnia and the passion for living,"
explains Duckler.
The third piece is an excerpt from "La Brea Woman," a dance
commissioned by the Culver City Arts Committee. "It’s about being a
woman living in Los Angeles," says Duckler.
"La Brea Woman" was inspired by the 9,000-year-old remains of a
woman that was found in the La Brea tar pits. "If you go down to
the La Brea tar pit museum, they have her bones, and because we
live in a Disneyesque environment here in Los Angeles, they’ve done
a rendition of what she would have looked like, very full-breasted
etc. I’ve always been fascinated by that. I mean here are her real
bones 9,000 years ago, and here is some personification, and I just
thought that she would be appalled. So, I kind of had to make a
piece on her," explains Duckler.
The three pieces being performed tomorrow all incorporate the
theme of urbanization, a common topic in many of Duckler’s works.
"I work with a lot of found objects – vacuum cleaners, wading
pools, all kinds of domestic things that we live with. I used to
put these things on stages and do these sort of elaborate pieces,"
she says. "Then I decided, instead of bringing all this stuff to
the stage, I would take myself to the stuff. I started doing site
specific work. I did a piece in a laundromat, a gas station, a
rooftop, places where we live, we work, and we play."
The motivation for this unique dance form did not emerge from a
scholarly thinking session. Instead, Duckler says that all artistic
inspirations are a result of who the artist is. She also admits
that she has always been interested in the relationship between
women and urban objects and her dance inspiration sprang from
this.
Duckler’s unusual use of urban objects is just one example of
how she has continually sought to be unique. "I was always seeking
original ways of moving, so I never really mentored with any one
special artist. I was always doing my own thing," Duckler
confesses.
Her lack of attachment to a particular artist probably helps her
adapt to the contemporary modern dance world. "I think modern dance
now is very hybrid. It’s not the pure modern dance of the ’30s.
It’s very mixed with jazz forms and tap forms and percussives. It’s
mixed with everything from hip hop to African movement," says
Duckler.
Although "Mr. Westinghouse" is considered contemporary, it does
not employ any of modern dance’s typical styles. Dorcas Ramon, the
dancer in "Mr. Westinghouse" says, "In this piece, it’s about the
relationship between this fridge and this woman. You are not going
to be doing a specific technique. … You play with it and you
dance with it."
Ramon elaborates on the relationship between dancer and
appliance, an unlikely combination.
"It’s just like a human being having this conversation with this
fridge," she explains.
But Duckler adds that the fridge is not a prop. The refrigerator
is Mr. Westinghouse. Duckler jokes, "He’s kind of a cold guy
though. He has a little icy personality."
DANCE: The Collage Dance Theatre will be
performing at the Highways Performance Space at 1651 18th St.,
Santa Monica on Oct. 5 at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free to the
public. For more information call (818) 788-5113.