jay rechsteiner


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DanceWork


DanceWork is a conceptual piece of art in the form of a video installation. It focuses on the process of artistic creation rather than on the final presentation of a piece of work.

The video shows footage of the rehearsal for a the performance Dance with the Devil and Go by Godigo Dance Project (Pedro Pires, Alicia Rodriguez-Campi, Noemi Viana and Mariana Camiloti) filmed in Macedo de Cavaleiros, North-East Portugal, October 2008.

The rehearsal is the time the performers/creators are active in the building of a piece of work. It is an insight look at the creative-artistic process showing the actual creation of art. The final performance only represents this process in a crystallized form portraying an image of something or somebody. It is static and is merely a conceptual & physical result of the work, a representation of art. It has no real importance or value other than an entertaining and maybe an educational value. It, however, serves as the objective or the goal at which the work aims at. As soon as this goal is reached the work is over, i.e. dead.



During the rehearsals the work is being conceptionally as well as physically created, developed and manifested. It is the most crucial period when the initial idea, the basic concept, comes to life revealing the essence of the artistic work as well as the essence of the performer. It is a time of honesty filled with anger, joy, despair and pain. The end performance, the culmination of the work, the crystallization of the work, the crystallization of it is equally the end, the death of the work. It is a memory reflecting in the eyes of the spectator. The primary interest of DanceWork lies in the artistic-creative gaps between each element of the work. It is in those gaps where the elements are being analysed, discussed and discussed. Art is being created within those gaps that can only be witnessed during the rehearsals.

Art as the spectator experiences it is a mere reflection of the work, a representation. Art is a representation of art, never the real thing. The video DanceWork invites the spectator behind the scenes.

The video, which has not been edited.

I would like to thank Godigo Dance Project for letting me film the rehearsal. For more information regarding this dance company refer to their website: http://www.codigodanceproject.com

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2015, Jay Rechsteiner. All Rights Reserved.