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2019 · Dance – stage work

Divining

Archive folder: Dowsing

Katie Faulkner · little seismic dance company

An evening-length work by little seismic dance company that looks at magic, ritual and divination practices as embodied ways of making meaning, set to a commissioned score by Ben Juodvalkis.

Recollections

“In past pieces, Katie's choreography always felt sharp and precise, like clockwork. This piece felt like a departure. Slower, more devotional and serious. I remember strange laughter and recordings of metal detectors…”

Ben
Premiere
2019-02-14
Venue
ODC Theater
Where
San Francisco, CA
Performances
Work-in-progress showing at ODC 'Theater Unplugged with Katie Faulkner', August 2, 2018; premiere run February 14-16, 2019.
Credits
Choreography: Katie Faulkner, in collaboration with the dancers. Dancers: Alex Carrington, Chinchin Hsu, Tara McArthur, Suzette Sagisi. Composer/sound design: Ben Juodvalkis (commissioned score). Lighting: Allen Willner. Costumes: Ciriaco Sayoc. Presented by ODC Theater.

Photographs

Three dancers in a lift: one arches backward, supported by a dancer bent forward beneath her while a third, in a maroon top, reaches in to steady her shoulder.

Stephen Texeira

A single dancer lies flat on the stage in a narrow spotlight, arms outstretched to two barely-visible silhouetted figures on either side.

Stephen Texeira

Two dancers in profile, hands clasped overhead; one bows her head forward against the other's raised arm.

Stephen Texeira

Four dancers stand loosely clustered under warm light; one faces the camera with a hand near her neck while the others turn away.

Stephen Texeira

Four dancers stand in a row with fists raised overhead, faces open and expressive, lit warmly against a dark stage.

Stephen Texeira

Four dancers stand together; the one in the center forms a triangle with her hands above her head, gazing upward.

Stephen Texeira

A solo dancer in a low lunge on all fours looks back over her shoulder, rim-lit against total darkness.

Stephen Texeira

Two dancers seated on the floor in mirrored backbends, faces turned up toward the light, reflected in the polished stage.

Stephen Texeira

Four dancers huddle close together, hands raised near their faces, expressions intense under mixed warm and cool light.

Stephen Texeira

Four dancers surge forward in a tight diagonal line, one arm thrust up and out, caught mid-movement.

Stephen Texeira

A dancer kneels in a spotlight with a searching, pained expression, hands clasped, while another stands softly lit behind her.

Stephen Texeira

A solo dancer stands laughing joyfully, hands at her chest, while a dim figure lies on the floor in the background.

Stephen Texeira

Four dancers gather around a fifth lying face-down on the floor, one crouching close beside her and another standing watchfully behind.

Stephen Texeira

Ephemera

Four dancers recline in a line on the ODC Theater stage during Divining, while a figure in silhouette raises a fist from the house.

Candid of Katie and the dancers at tech, from the house

A tan-and-black shepherd-mix dog lies curled on a dark wooden theater bench, looking up at the camera.

Studio dog, Chewie, on tech day

Four dancers mug for a selfie in a cluttered green room: one sits in a black turtleneck, one strikes a mock-thoughtful pose, one crouches on the floor grinning, and the photographer's face fills the corner mid-laugh.

The dancers the night before our work-in-progress showing

Silhouette of Molly and Arletta’s jaw’s harp phrase, from rehearsal

  • Rhythmic Sax, a sketch I sent Katie

Texts with Katie about building the score from her voice

Ben: We should make your whole score out of your voice

Katie: Sean has been bugging me for years to try to integrate my music into my dance work

Ben: I have the method

Katie’s email about the American South, while she was making the piece

Katie: the more i stumble along into the making of this work, the more i get the feeling that it in some way refers to and reminds me of something thick about the american south where i grew up. … i also feel like there's some flavor of really distant, sounds that you almost can't make out that might be interesting. i keep getting the aural image of someone whistling, in a lonely, just to themselves kind-of way.

A text from Katie about the score

Katie: Wind #8 FTW

Another text from Katie about the score

Katie: i love me some shoul train

A text I sent Katie

Ben: Follow the pendulum, as it swings.

My text to Katie during dress rehearsal

Ben: Are you texting during dress rehearsal???????

Press

“She's stacked the deck in her favor with an original score by Ben Juodvalkis”

“composer Ben Juodvalkis' soundscape alternates breaths and humming, transporting the viewer into a visceral vortex that echoes the inside of the body.”

“Ben Juodvalkis’ electronic score that grows tightly out of the choreography shares much of the credit, and a couple of times amplifies it beyond the body’s capacity. Rare in contemporary dance, you cannot imagine one without the other.”

“Ben Juodvalkis’s musical composition relies on the breath throughout, and the opening begins with breathy rhythms that seem to come from inside a body, to manifest an internal reckoning.”

“the superb music composition by Ben Juordvalkis that incorporated both familiar and unfamiliar soundscapes.”

“Composed by Ben Juodvalkis, it includes prerecorded tracks from the Alabama Sacred Heart singers and sounds of jaw's harp”

Elsewhere

More with little seismic dance company

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