Choreography:

Michèle Moss and the dancers – through a system of devising and being alive in the moment

Music (not including fragments):

Pink Dragon (Parov Stelar)
Shake Your Body – Down to the Ground (Hot 8 Brass Band)
Clap Your Hands (Parov Stelar)
Boxes and Squares (Tank and the Bangas)
La Pègre (Nicolas Repac)
Afro Drum and Bass (Glyn Bush)

Danced by:

Scott Augustine
Cassandra Bowerman
Sabrina Comanescu
Jason Owin F. Galeos
Catherine Hayward
Kaja Irwin
Natasha Korney

Dramaturg and Voice-over Artist:

Léda Davies

Rehearsal Director:

Laura Kleiner

Production:

Cameron Clowe- Production Manager
Ian Lane – Production Assistant
Marcia Liber- Stage Manager
Jackson Buchanan-Lighting Designer
Kim Creller-Lighting Technician
Teigan Blondin-Head of Wardrobe

Extra special thanks Pierre Marlow at Orange Frog and Dan Frerichs at Soundart.

Notes from Choreographer Michèle Moss:

The invitation to work with DJD on a short project produced in odd circumstances produced an immediate “YES’ from me.  The process was undertaken with masks and is now presented to you during the COVID lock-down as a drive-in experience. The artists are still in masks and you will be in your car with an appropriate cohort with your engine turned off and system on auxiliary so that you can tune in to the FM band, 104.7.

The ‘vignette style’ I landed on seemed appropriate and allowed the dancing mind/bodies to move in an exploratory style expressing something of themselves.

The dancers have choices. You, the audience, have choices. We don’t often give you split focus – an opportunity to choose what to watch and how to watch.

I have been imagining a new approach; a unique presentational style and well I got a challenge indeed. Hopefully, I have layered it enough in the very short working time to allow you to ‘take it in’ on many different levels.

These days the world seems off-kilter, my mind overcrowded, and current affairs amazingly discombobulating!

The music was chosen to provide some grist, some groove, and some atmosphere. The zeitgeist sure is providing lots to chew on.

If you are of a certain age you may not have ever had a drive-in experience… here we go!

Don’t get analysis-paralysis!  Just sit back, listen to the soundtrack and enjoy viewing the corporeal utterances expressed by the dancers. Take deep breaths just like the dancers will do and feel the connection.

Use your audio system to create an intimate experience. An iconoclastic moment of intimacy and proximity that seems in opposition to the circumstances of the day. These are wacky times, We tried to allow you more room to manoeuvre mostly for you to fashion your own narrative, to make use of binoculars – normally used to birdwatch or at the opera…whatever, dig it however it suits you!

THANK YOU:

Thank you for the invitation to create, Kim! What an unexpected pleasure.

And thanks to Léda who served both as dramaturg and as a voice-over artist.

Heartfelt thanks to intrepid rehearsal mistress Laura Kleiner!  

To the DJD company dancers, I say Thank you, there is so much joy for me to be in your orbit. Big (virtual) kisses and hugs!

Thank you, Super Cam, and your production team

And great big gratitude to Brad Struble for engaging with me in artistic discussion and brainstorming.