Ball Jar Nation

"You remember the Nineties, when everyone was pickling their own vegetables and brewing their own beer?  People were growing out their mutton chops and waxing their handlebar mustaches."

"The Nineties?"

"Yeah.  Everyone was knitting and sewing clothes for their children.  People were wearing glasses all the time like contact lenses had never been invented."

"Wait, are we talking about the Nineteen Nineties?"

"No — the Eighteen Nineties."



This video is so relevant to my culture it hurts.

"Let's talk about definitions": ORE, a site-specific performance

The clouds hung over us like lead as we laid the set: tarp up against the sandy walls, benches on the sandbank for the audience, sound system in the ravine.  Light rain flitted about.  As I piled on layers and tried to warm up I wondered if I could even dance in these conditions.  The arroyo where we'd been building this dance for six weeks had turned hostile.

This is one of the hazards of site-specific performance -- but one of its thrills, too.  Because 10 minutes before our figurative curtain went up, the clouds broke and the high mountain sun tipped the mercury this side of bearable.  A crowd bigger and more varied than we expected turned out, and as we began our show I noticed how the rough weather had only immersed me in the site more deeply.

This is ORE, a site-specific dance and theater piece I collaborated on with the wonderful Sarah, Miles, Áine, Eric,  Adam.  I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it.  Special thanks to Eric and Monique for the documentation.

For a little more background, check out Sarah's write-up of the piece.



ORE Part I from Sarah Ashkin on Vimeo.



ORE Part II from Sarah Ashkin on Vimeo.