A visual description of “already there” Descriptions written by Britta Joy Peterson, director and choreographer of “already there” Illustrations by Amanda Blythe, performer within “already there” Consultation from Janice Majewski, Institute for Human Centered Design; and Beth Ziebarth, Access Smithsonian Contents

General Overview: 2 Space 1: Page 3 Space 2: Page 4 Space 3: Page 5 Space 4: Page 6 Space 5: Page 7 Space 6: Page 8

General Overview

“already there” is an installation of sound, light, and projected dance performance within six adjacent spaces. The spaces are created by black and grey fabric walls with metal trussing, and are bordered by the cement walls of Studio K. Within the first space, there are two benches in the center of the room, as well as a small 3-D printed model of the full installation. The second space includes two couches in the space. The third space is a long, narrow hallway with three couches on the right hand side. The fourth space is an open room with a small structure in the middle. The exit is located within this space, to the left of the structure. The fifth space is inside this structure, and includes a bench covered in grass with a drooping roof. The final space is the open space, with two benches arranged to the side of the structure. The exit is found to the right of these benches.

Space 1

The space has two black leather benches with metal arms arranged side by side. The walls are made of grey and black fabric. As the music shifts into a melodic low sequence on the piano, a miniature model of the installation in the center of the room is revealed by a light from the ceiling. The model can be touched! When the music shifts into vocals, a small, dim light turns on about twenty feet away through a sheer fabric wall. The light reveals a small room on the other side of the sheer fabric wall. The light diminishes as the music shifts into a trio of voices. As the piano returns, a trio of simultaneous dance solos is projected on the two screens on either side of the room. One dancer appears at a time on each screen. One dancer is Black, wearing a chartreuse tank top, with her braids gathered on top of her head. The second dancer is white, with light brown hair shaved at the sides, and wearing purple trousers. The third dancer is tall, white, with a shaved head. They perform a recognizable gesture - waving their hand or offering their hand to shake. These gestures ripple into the full body, where it is transformed to a full dance movement. Their movement is passed back and forth between the screens, almost like a conversation. Then, as the music builds in a repeating pattern, two dancers are projected at once, dancing together at the same time. Suddenly, the dancer in the chartreuse top appears on a third screen that is centered in the distance. It is the same fabric wall that we saw the light through earlier. All three dancers are finally seen all together, dancing the same movement. As the music winds down, they each look up at the audience, smiling, and then exiting. The dancer projected in the center puts her hand on her heart, smiles, and exits to her right. The light in the hallway that she seems to walk into illuminates, beckoning the audience to travel in the same direction - past the benches and model, and around the corner to the left.

Space 2

Travelling into the hallway, there is a fabric wall on the right. There are two more black leather couches, one in front of the other on the diagonal, arranged along the fabric wall. There is a large cement wall on the left illuminated from the bottom with lighting instruments on the floor. The wall ripples and waves as the cement is textured and three dimensional. Audiences are welcome to touch the wall! As the music shifts, the same dancer who led us into this room is projected across a 30ft x 30ft surface, standing tall and reaching her chest towards the sky. The dance is larger than life, performed by eight dancers dressed in casual clothes that are brown, lavender, cranberry and chartreuse. The dancers sweep in and out of the space, seeing one another, reacting to the energy that seems to emanate from the bodies as they move. There are ripples of action, almost a cause and effect from one dancer’s gestures to another. Their movement is sometimes synced together, but often not. When it is out-of-sync, it is clear that they are dancing the same movement vocabulary, almost as if they dance the same language. As they dance together, the projection is such that the dancers overlay each other - we can see the dancer behind through the image of the dancers in front. As the music winds down and the voices sing a prolonged “ahh” there is a final close up on each dancer as they see each other. A Black dancer in a lavender long sleeve shirt with curly hair pulled back walks off towards the right. There is a rolling fan sound, and a burst of light scrapes up the wall, punctuating the end of the dance.

Space 3

As the bass guitar hits and the voices begin to speak very quickly in gibberish, lights come up in the hallway to the right inviting the audience to move that direction. There is an opening, and turning right there is a long hallway with three couches lined up against the fabric wall on the right. Above the couches is metal trussing where speakers and lights are hung. The piano returns, and light begins to appear on the cement wall. Throughout the next musical piece light slowly creeps up along the cement wall that has the same pattern and texture as the room before. The light reveals the shadows and creases of the wall. The light utilizes a spectrum of cool colors, ranging from deep blues, to icy purples. As the voices begin to sing a chord and the wind and tea kettle sounds increase, the light pushes towards the opposite end of the corridor from which we entered, inviting us to travel that direction.

Space 4

Rounding the corner to the right, we emerge into a large space with a small structure created by stretched fabric walls and a drooping fabric roof. The walls come to a point in front of us, with the angle of the walls pointing towards the corridor we were just in. A marimba begins to play and a white dancer in chartreuse pants with short brown hair is projected onto the left wall of the structure. She is walking, and because the projection has a black background and black floor, it seems like she's walking across the space right in front of us. The Black dancer in lavender long sleeves, and a white dancer with curly brown hair and a purple shirt also walk in. As they walk, they look towards the audience and round the corner of the structure, now walking down the right side. As they meet the far right edge of the structure they disappear and reappear back at the beginning left edge of the structure. They repeat and repeat, travelling across the two walls, disappearing and reappearing. As they do, their movement grows with intensity and action. They run, jump, and slide on the floor while seeing each other and the audience. With the sound of the crackling fire, they pause and stand still, reaching their hands out similarly to the gestures from the very first projections. With the sounds of waves, they melt back into dancing by moving towards the floor; scooting, sliding, rolling, and then one at a time exiting off the right edge of the right side of the structure. As the music ends, light pours from around the right corner of the structure, inviting us to move that direction.

Space 5

Rounding the corner of the structure and arriving inside, there is a large bench covered with grass in the corner. Audience is invited to sit on the grass and lay back if they’d like. The room is dimly lit with a similar color spectrum as the long canal. As the sound shifts, cascading through the sounds of our lives, the deep blues and icy purples scrape up the sides of the walls and hit the drooping fabric ceiling. The ceiling is reminiscent of a tent screen that stars shine through. As the wave sounds increase, fans that are mounted on the top edge of the structure start blowing and the fabric ceiling begins to billow upward, like a parachute. It ripples and tumbles. The fans stop blowing and the fabric slowly settles to its original shape. A brief silence happens, and with the sound of a machine being clicked on, a light comes up outside of the structure. This beckons us to leave the structure to our left and make our way to the final space.

Space 6

Within the next space, there are three black leather benches arranged in a line. An Asian dancer with dark hair pulled back and light brown pants is already dancing. She is projected on a floor to ceiling, gauzy fabric panel that is framed by grey velour curtains. The projection is up high, only on the upper two thirds of the wall. Four other dancers enter. It is clear by the movement of their mouths that they are singing the vocal work heard in the music. As the music becomes more pensive, and there is a vocal swishing noise, all the dancers exit the space. With the building piano and marimba music, light begins to come up on the audience very slowly. As it does so, an image begins to appear on the lower third of the wall. As the image becomes more clear, it is apparent that it is the reflection of the audience in a mirror, lightly covered by the gauzy fabric. The music slows down, and then the dancers appear on the lower third of the wall, mingled with the reflection of the audience. Two of the dancers dance together with the same actions, the others are dancing movement that seems to support and co-mingle with one another. As a dancer sings “ahh, ahh” the lights fully go out, both on the dancers and on the audience, even though we still hear the voice of one of the dancers. On the final note of the music, a fan mounted at the top of the grey curtain on the left turns on and blows the gauzy fabric. It billows towards the audience like a wave of water. The fan turns off and the fabric settles. After the brief moment of silence, the exit in the room opens - it is on the right side of the benches. Out of the door pours light from the hallway, beckoning us to exit the space.