THE FOUNDRY
SALT FLAT PIECES 1998
Description:
Alex Ketley and Christian Burns drove from San Francisco to the Bonneville Salt Flat on the Utah Nevada border and spent a week video taping and improvising in the desert. This was the first project that they pursued, and it ended up staging the direction for a five-year exploration about how the environment affects the generation of movement. The piece is lonely, stark, beautiful, and young.
Review:
“The strongest film (and dance) on the bill was Salt Flat Pieces (1998), by Alex Ketley and Christian Burns. A man dressed in a gray suit and goggles dances with his briefcase across Utah’s sea of salt. In one section, the precise modern balletics performed on-screen were mirrored by Ketley onstage. Another slow-motion, film only sequence features the man drop-kicking his briefcase and doing a series of elaborate falls evoking the spirit of corporate hysteria and bipolar downsizing. In the case of Salt Flat Pieces, the quality of the stageand the filmic choreography was equally strong, the two media contributing to a consistent mood. The film component emphasized the kinesthetic aspect of the movement, while the live dancing drew out the sparse visuals of the film: a gorgeous thing.”
San Francisco Bay Guardian – December 1998
SALT FLAT PIECES 1998
Description:
Alex Ketley and Christian Burns drove from San Francisco to the Bonneville Salt Flat on the Utah Nevada border and spent a week video taping and improvising in the desert. This was the first project that they pursued, and it ended up staging the direction for a five-year exploration about how the environment affects the generation of movement. The piece is lonely, stark, beautiful, and young.
Review:
“The strongest film (and dance) on the bill was Salt Flat Pieces (1998), by Alex Ketley and Christian Burns. A man dressed in a gray suit and goggles dances with his briefcase across Utah’s sea of salt. In one section, the precise modern balletics performed on-screen were mirrored by Ketley onstage. Another slow-motion, film only sequence features the man drop-kicking his briefcase and doing a series of elaborate falls evoking the spirit of corporate hysteria and bipolar downsizing. In the case of Salt Flat Pieces, the quality of the stageand the filmic choreography was equally strong, the two media contributing to a consistent mood. The film component emphasized the kinesthetic aspect of the movement, while the live dancing drew out the sparse visuals of the film: a gorgeous thing.”
San Francisco Bay Guardian – December 1998
About The Foundry:
The Foundry is an evolving collection of artists interested in the exploration and expansion of live dance-theater, created by Alex Ketley and Christian Burns. The primary focus of the work is to incorporate dance and video as a unified performance medium.
For more information about The Foundry:
http://www.sfconservatoryofdance.org/company
http://web.me.com/alexketley/Site/Home.html
Presented at Edge Festival 1999 by Dancers’ Group, SF
Funding for Current Form and Dancers' Group provided in part by The California Arts Council, Grants for the Arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco Art Commission, and Zellerbach Family Fund.
http://www.dancersgroup.org/
The Foundry is an evolving collection of artists interested in the exploration and expansion of live dance-theater, created by Alex Ketley and Christian Burns. The primary focus of the work is to incorporate dance and video as a unified performance medium.
For more information about The Foundry:
http://www.sfconservatoryofdance.org/company
http://web.me.com/alexketley/Site/Home.html
Presented at Edge Festival 1999 by Dancers’ Group, SF
Funding for Current Form and Dancers' Group provided in part by The California Arts Council, Grants for the Arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco Art Commission, and Zellerbach Family Fund.
http://www.dancersgroup.org/
