Performance Installation (The Seldoms: RockCitizen), 2015
216 colored bras
Premiere Storefront Theater, Chicago 2016
Presented Union Theater, UW-Madison 2018
Presented Studio5, Evanston 2018
RockCitizen presents an immersive sonic, visual, and kinetic environment that recalls countercultural spaces of the 1960s and connects them to a larger history of people pursuing breakthroughs and transformations in their lives and worlds. A companion piece to the acclaimed Power Goes, RockCitizen looks at 1960s social movements that rode waves of protest, experimentation, hedonism, and dissonance in efforts to remake what it means to be an individual and a community, a citizen, and part of—or sometimes outside, or sometimes even outright against—a civic body. At the center of and ever present in The Seldoms newest dance theater work is what we call the “Brascape.” A spectacular shapeshifting centerpiece made from 217 brightly colored satin bras, that move from backdrop, to prop to costume through dancer manipulation and a system of 11 pulleys and pick points. The Brascape, is constantly in flux and layered in meaning. It evokes the psychedelic rock poster saturated in color, military camo netting, the rainbow of the gay pride flag, and of course, the bra as symbol of the Women’s Lib movement. Additionally and no less important and impactful, are a series of 7 videos that provide historical context to the piece built from the most prevalent form of communication and messaging used today, the animated GIF.
The Seldoms were the first resident artists in the pilot summer of the National Center for Choreography Akron, an important new resource initiated by DanceCleveland for US dancemakers. In July 2015, the company, along with collaborators Bob Faust and Julie Ballard, spent nine days in residency developing RockCitizen, shaping choreographic material and installing Bob's "Brascape," a spectacular mobile visual centerpiece. The Brascape, in flux and layered in meaning, evokes the psychedelic rock poster saturated in color, military camo netting, the rainbow of the gay pride flag, and of course, the bra as symbol of the Women's Lib movement. While in the Akron/Cleveland area, the company also made research trips to the Kent State May 4 Memorial and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. These visits—walking the grounds where the National Guard opened fire on Kent State students and exploring artifacts and exhibitions from popular music history—fed our thinking and imagination about RockCitizen, a work that draws upon the intersections of these political and cultural legacies.
