Dance form to fill High’s plaza
For the AJC
Friday, July 17, 2009
If the weather cooperates, dancers will spill onto the open-air plaza at dusk, going “gaga” to a giant video accompaniment projected on the High Museum’s glistening white walls. All the while, they’ll be inspired by a century’s worth of art and aesthetics — from the aquatic impressionism of Monet’s water lilies to the savage rhythms of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” to the funky-suave sounds of today’s hip-hop Atlanta.
The multimedia dance event is called “Rapt” and it’s the latest creation of Lauri Stallings, an Atlanta dancemaker with a burgeoning national reputation. She’s choreographed for American Ballet Theatre and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and was Atlanta Ballet’s resident choreographer for three seasons, culminating in “Big,” a modern-classical ballet with OutKast’s Big Boi.
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But unlike a traditionally choreographed dance, “Rapt” is site-specific, in the here-and-now, poignantly ephemeral. It’s designed to find permanence in the audience’s memories, Stallings says, so people will never cross the arts center’s plaza without feeling its living, dancing energy.
“As a dancemaker,” says Stallings, “I have a need to interact with an audience. That’s where our culture is heading. Sometimes I feel everything’s been done on a proscenium stage. Today we crave intimacy with art, and with each other.”
And “Rapt” fits the mission of Stallings’ umbrella project called gloATL, which she sees as a “laboratory of extremely evolved and creative dance” that’s designed for export.
And what about going “gaga”?
“I find ‘gaga’ quite delicious, it’s sweeping the world,” says Stallings, referring to an innovative dance technique developed by an Israeli choreographer that uses sensory imagery to help the body find fresh moves.
In gaga, Stallings is perhaps looking for dance with a parallel energy to Atlanta’s cool hip-hop scene. “Big Boi and I talked a lot about this last year: I’m a ‘classical’ artist, but that meaning has evolved. I’ll use the freshest [dance] language I can find, but I always come back to first position. I always come back to simplicity.”
Pierre Ruhe blogs about the arts on artscriticatl.com.
