Double-Sided: an HWS performance

Over the past couple weeks I have been working on a project I have entitled “Double-Sided.” After interviewing and researching so many different dancers and choreographers, I wanted to create something of my own! The project is a combination of site-specific art installation site-specific improvisational dance performance. Originally the project was planned to take place yesterday (Thursday), however the weather has been so cold and rainy we postponed it until next Tuesday, May 5, which is also the last day of classes!

            During my time at HWS I have come to realize the immense amount of paper the students use each day, and how much of this paper is only used for a short time or not at all! In the library there are two recycling bins next to the printers, and by the end of the day they are inevitably full of what I referred to as “the lost papers”—papers that students printed and for whatever reason didn’t end up using, because they printed too many copies, or forgot about them, or they were misplaced. These papers are virtually untouched by human hands, and nearly all printed one-sided! It is course the tragedy of the commons—one student printing an extra paper once in awhile won’t cause any harm, but when this is happening for every student on the HWS campus the waste is significant.

At the beginning of this semester I knew I wanted to address this issue, but hadn’t made moves to do so because I wasn’t sure how to bring attention to this problem in a way that would make a meaningful impression on our campus without sounding accusatory or critical. Part way through this semester the idea occurred to me to collect some of the discarded papers and integrate them into a dance work, either as props, a backdrop, or costumes.

As I thought about it, I realized I wanted to provide a visual representation of the paper somewhere on campus that could be seen by a huge number of students. One day it occurred to me that the windows of the dining hall, Saga, would be the perfect spot! Covering all the windows of Saga in discarded papers would surely provide a meaningful visual; not only would it demonstrate how much paper was discarded every day, but this wastefulness would then provide a barrier between the students and the “natural” outside world. My hope is the visual effect will also be stronger due to a change in the amount of light inside of the dining hall.

            Of course I wanted to also integrate dance into the project; I am especially interested in the separation of outside and inside environments that will be created by the addition of paper over the windows. Outside the windows there is one large and gorgeous tree, and several smaller trees; the space was appealing to create a site dance, yet if the dancers danced outside how would the diners inside of Saga be able to watch? To solve this problem, my dancers and I plan to cut circular holes in various sizes in the paper; by only allowing the inside viewers to see some of the dance that is happening outside due to the paper I hope to capture the audience’s curiosity and interest.

            To bring the paper theme from inside to the outside as well, we plan to also wrap the large tree and some of the small trees in paper, as well as hang the circular cutouts off branches of the larger tree. I think there are a lot of interesting metaphors and interpretations that can go along with the idea of wrapping trees in paper, and using paper to represent the “leaves” of the trees. I anticipate this will make a powerful visual image.

            As far as the actual movement of the dancers, we are planning to split the dance into several sections of mainly structured improvisation. Sections include various themes; looking through the holes (getting the attention of those sitting inside), weight-sharing with each other and with the large tree, playing in and around the trees, and ripping down the paper from the tree outside in a demonstration of carelessness and wastefulness.

            Although there are clearly many metaphors I had in mind while planning this work, I don’t expect the general audience to necessarily pick up on all of the metaphors or get one specific “message” from watching the performance. However, I plan to post signs on both the inside and outside of the windows stating where the paper came from and how many days’ worth of paper I used, so this should help guide the “audience” in the right direction.

            With this project I know it is impossible to predict what the actual event will be like and even what the paper will look like once it is covering the windows. It is especially hard to know what kind of reaction students will have to the work. I am very excited for Tuesday and I will post another update soon!