Stephan Koplowitz:TaskForce UK 2009 Perf Excerpts:Dartington (site-specific performance)

Stephan Koplowitz: TaskForce UK June 2009 "Liquid Landscapes" (a series of water-related site-specific performances).
Liquid Landscapes CONCEIVED, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY Stephan Koplowitz
ORIGINAL MUSIC BYHugh Nankivell
CHOREOGRAPHY BYStephan Koplowitz IN COLLABORATION WITH THE TASKFORCE PERFORMERS/ TASKFORCE COMPANY Philine Janssens, Rosalind Noctor, Ezekiel Oliveira, Megan Saunders, Caitlin Smith, Kylie Sudds, Alexandria Yalji, Kevin Williamson
(Anders Duckworth, soloist at the beginning of the performance)
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Lara Lloyd
COSTUME DESIGN BY Rachel Weir
VIDEOGRAPHER Gorav Kalyan
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR Clair Beckett
GUEST ARTISTS/Dance artists (performers) from King Edward VI Community College, Anders Duckworth and University CollegeFalmouth -Emma Bass, Joni Brown, Meghan Carney, Emma Hurman, Nicola Langley, Josephine McCourt, Louise Moxhay, Minou Polleros, Christel Preux, Isabella Shirley-Miller, Sarah Stone
Dartington, the Tiltyard Saturday 19 June 2009 3.30pm
Excerpts from a 30-minute, three-part site-specific performance.
For the entire TaskForce UK project documentation: www.skoplowitz...
At Dartington TaskForce collaborated with student dancers from University College Falmouth and King Edward VI Community College to respond to the architecture of the tiltyard and at a critical time when vital work is carried out to replace the systems that carry water throughout the gardens, respond to its water connections.
The Tiltyard was also selected as a site not only for its connection to water but because of the historical connection to Rudolph Laban and his creative explorations with movement choirs on this very site.
TaskForce is a site-art dance touring company established in 2008 that works on a project-to-project basis. Fluid in its conception, TaskForce is made up of selected artists and performers drawn from the cultural landscape of its host city or region. It is a process-oriented performance laboratory where artists are asked to draw inspiration from the architecture, history, culture, and ecology of multiple sites within a single geographic area, all connected by a common theme. Working within an intensive time frame (three weeks of rehearsal + one week of performances) under the direction of veteran site artist Stephan Koplowitz, each artist is given a different creative "task" to be explored and performed at the various sites. Each performance is content comprised of site-specific choreography, site-adaptive material, and improvisational scores inspired by each performance site. For more information: www.skoplowitz...

So so so so beautiful. We watched this for my Site Specific Art class today...

[@StephanKoplowitz]

Thank you for your comment! What school do you attend?

[@alisonswann8593]

Love this 😊

[@Sheppshedder]

Wish you could give more that one like! This is truly stunning. Thanks so much for posting!!

[@StephanKoplowitz]

There was live and recorded music composed by Hugh Nankivell, who composed all of the music for the TaskForce performances in Devon.

[@StephanKoplowitz]

Thank you so much!

[@marynorkus9747]

My middle school students have loved seeing your works, especially as we are outdoors dancing in these days of Covid. Is there a video of "Mill Town" from the Bates 30th anniversary event?

[@StephanKoplowitz]

Dear Mary, I am so glad to hear this! If you go to my website, you can see a very short six-minute excerpt: www.stephankoplowitz.com/milltown There is also a short film that edits together much of the site-inspired filmed footage used in the production. I am planning on providing a LONGER excerpt of the entire work,...however, I'm at the moment trying to finish up a book on how to create/produce site-specific performance works (for Oxford Univ. Press)! Will keep you posted!

[@marynorkus9747]

@@StephanKoplowitz Wow! Thanks so much Stephen... and good luck working on your book. I admire how you share and make your work available. It has been especially gratifying in the void of Covid, and out of this has come some really powerful thought and connection.

[@skellies100]

Watching Mr. Koplowitz's work brings to mind environmental place as stage. If there is a spectrum of site-specific work (neither being better than the other) where one end is clearly "dance actions in designed places" and the other end is "non-danced action or unconscientious, everyday, pedestrian activity" then I think UK 2009 is more towards the "dance actions" in designed places end. I'm interested in this and also pedestrian activity made hyperconscious or magnified utilizing dancers' facilities.

[@tribalfromthetrapdontrappi3030]

Nice!

[@3113official]

I wish I could be a dancer in this, looks fun to do! rolling down the hills lol

[@aidaredza]

was there music played during the performance? I can hear that it is pre-recorded but was it also played during performance - or they were performing to the natural sounds? Great work!