Deadtech

I first found out about Deadtech in July, while hanging out with Justin. I was at his place, and Kristen stopped by. She mentioned the show (she’s in it), and told us a lot about the various moves she was learning. Lots of motion and learning how to take a fall in different ways.

The show is currently running, and ends this weekend. If you have the chance, definitely check this out. I’m not the type of person who attends many dance performances. But I gotta say – this was really cool. I had no idea what to expect. And to be honest, a big part of me wondered if everything I’d see would be over my head or draw upon dance history/forms that I was unfamiliar with.

Vignettes are the closest word I can come up with. It’s billed as a “Post-Apocalyptic Story Searching for Humanity.” They cover a wide, wide range of… aspects. There was a lot of play with defnitions, and certain words within one definition would become the focus… and then become defined.

At the start, there’s a lot of mechanical/tech going on. Blips and buzzes and metal. And as the story progresses, these become less of a focus and more of the interstitial that connects each of the vignettes.

I feel like I’m not doing this justice. If you’re able to, definitely check this out. It’s playing through the weekend, and it’s at the Chopin Theatre (Division and Ashland, pretty much).

Exterior shot, before heading in.

Oddly, I decided to attend the performance alone. Which is strange, particularly if you factor in that I’ve never even gone to a movie alone before. But for some reason or another, I wanted to go by myself.

Kristen’s bio. :)

This is a bit blurry, but it’s one of two shots that I took while sitting in my seat. I felt a bit awkward taking pictures, so I wanted to get this out of the way early on.

From this spot, the main character sets up the rest of the stories/vignettes/explorations.

And here’s the stage. Throughout the piece, they projected tons of video onto the backdrop. Terribly cool, and incredibly effective. In addition to this really fantastic interplay between video and live dance, the video work (for the most part) was really cool. There were a few moments where I wasn’t as wowed… but looking back, it must have taken a TON of time for just the videowork alone.

Here’s something – misdirection. The media (recorded and live) was so well timed and orchestrated that I was busy watching the video on the backdrop and didn’t even see the first performer take the stage until she jumped up and started dancing.

Kristen came on towards the second half, and she was involved with a particularly neat scene near the end. There were a ton of people dressed in corporate garb (suits, etc) walking slowly in maybe four rows. One woman in red, dancing between everyone who’s walking at a snail’s pace. From time to time, one of the spotlights would hit, and that person would speed up for the briefest of moments, and then slow down.

Quite possibly the coolest thing about seeing Kristen dance was remembering how she was showing us some of the same moves, about two months ago, in Justin’s backyard. It was nice to see all the stuff she was walking about in action, and seeing her shape a part of these stories.

Deadtech Check it out if you’ve got the chance.