While the majority of the UCLA student body is sitting and digesting the last remnants of Thanksgiving dinner before returning to class come Monday, 15 UCLA student artists will be hard at work, under pressure to create a unique performance and art show based on a theme given to them just 48 hours prior to curtain time.
The show, named “48 Hours to Action,” is the culminating event of World AIDS Day and will open on Monday at 6 p.m. at the Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater with a multi-media performance including music, dance, spoken-word, video and fashion.
Now in its third year and hosted by The Art|Global Health Center, “48 Hours” this year will also include a feature performance by the LA-based funk, rock, hip-hop and all in all genre-blending group Elevaters, who in addition to playing a set of their music, will also produce their own original piece in the designated 48 hours.
“The idea is that the fight against HIV and AIDS is an urgent one. It needs to happen right now, there’s no time to waste,” said Robert Gordon, one of the event’s producers and a recent UCLA graduate who also took part in last year’s show. “The hope … is that the urgency of the art-making process will echo the urgency of the content.”
The show will be made up of a series of one-acts, performed individually or within a group. Artists and organizers will have to finalize the order of these performances during the 48 hours allotted and weave together one whole act, united by one common theme.
This year’s theme will be delivered in an envelope to each artist, to be opened privately exactly 48 hours before showtime. The theme will also be revealed to the audience before the performance begins on Monday evening.
According to Gordon, organizers of the event started the process with 30 potential themes before narrowing it down to two and finally deciding on one. The winning idea is currently under wraps and known to only five people, the so-called “inner-circle of organizers.”
“I will say what you get will be a very exciting evening,” said Noel Alumit, one of those five special organizers. “Because as we’re producing this, we really don’t know what’s going to happen … This year will be particularly provocative.”
Last year’s theme was “Unite to Fight.” Gordon is confident that this year’s topic will present a greater challenge to the participating artists, who will be pushed to think harder and on a deeper level.
Jonathan Corps, a fourth-year world arts and cultures student with a concentration in dance, will be participating in “48 Hours to Action” for the second time.
“The product that came out (last year) was so intense and raw and interesting, that it … surprised me as an artist,” he said.
Artists are given the opportunity to take charge of every single aspect of their performance, from the major workings of choreography, light and sound, to the seemingly lesser details of when and how to make an entrance and an exit.
“We had these big, red headpieces that I wove myself,” Corps said of his dance routine last year. “While I was thinking of the choreography … I was splicing the music in my head and then had run to the computer and do that.”
He plans to perform a character work this year to create and embody a fictional persona on stage.
My-Linh Le, also a fourth-year dance student, is both nervous and excited to engage in such an intense and creatively demanding project for the first time.
“It’s a great concept,” she said. “”˜Act now.’ That’s the important text.”
According to Alumit, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report indicating a rise in HIV cases in the United States.
“And that’s alarming,” he said. “We definitely can’t forget it. We definitely can’t let young people forget about (AIDS and HIV).”
The collaborative and creative event provides a platform where young artists can come together to create socially relevant work, inform and raise awareness of the still prevailing problem of HIV and AIDS, and entertain an audience.
“My goal isn’t to convince someone to think in a particular way,” Le said, “It’s not the role of the artist to point.”
Instead, she hopes that by presenting her perspective through the visual, moving medium of dance, the audience will find something provoking and relatable.
For those not necessarily gifted in dance, the folks behind Dance Marathon will also make an appearance to teach and demonstrate some dance moves.
Closing an entire week of World AIDS Day events that began yesterday with a procession and rally, “48 Hours to Action” will offer an engaging experience for the UCLA community.
“I know the lineup that we have and it’s going to be incredible,” Gordon said. “I think all of (this) is going to go a long way towards keeping UCLA involved in the fight again HIV and AIDS, which we have been involved with since the very beginning.”