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GIMP (formerly titled From The Limb)
An evening length current
work in progress
Excerpt video from
GIMP
Inspired by Heidi Latsky’s choreographic work with performer
Lisa Bufano GIMP (formerly titled From the Limb)
is a full evening of interconnected new works inspired by the
expressive physicality of both disabled and able-bodied dancers.
This is an evening about “being watched”; about how
that feels and how one deals with it. It is about fighting spirit,
pep and vigor as well as despondency, power struggles, chaos and
misunderstanding.
The work confronts the audience with their own preconceptions
about dance, performing, and body image and embraces this process
while ultimately transcending it towards an appreciation of the
artistry, individuality, and beauty of those performing. The evening
is an examination of the sometimes harsh reality that we are identified
or define ourselves by how and why we move; an elegant landscape
of portraits, duets and group works, illuminating limbs to accentuate
their beauty and mystery; and a vehicle for dialogue, outreach,
and community engagement. Currently, the creative team includes
composers Frank Ponzio, Sxip Shirey and Randall Woolf and Lighting
Designer Robert Wierzel.
The company is working on a chamber version of GIMP
which includes performers Lisa Bufano, Heidi Latsky, Jeffrey
Freeze and Lawrence Carter-Long. Below is a list of the sections
created so far. There will also be a larger version which includes
seven additional dancers, with two group works woven into the
fabric of the evening.
"Lisa Bufano's collaboration with dancer and choreographer
Heidi Latsky has yielded a pair of solos, one for each dancer,
that complement and comment on each other. They are both intimate
pieces, with soft, quiet moments, interspersed with bursts of
sharp, quick movements. They invite us to focus on these two
women's bodies, both clothed in pared-down, tight-fitting black
dance clothes.
Putting these two solos back to back, with only a slow fade to black and
a shift of music separating them, helps us see how one body illustrates
the other body. We can't simply say that the nondisabled body is
the template, revealing what is missing in the disabled body, instead we
can see the characteristics of each body as contributing factors in each
dancer's exploration of space and rhythm.
Yet, when all is said and done in this disability-focused analysis I am
writing here, what is most significant is that "Five Open Mouths" is
a brilliant piece of theatre and beautiful dance. The audience - a full
house - went wild at the end and the tingle in the air was in part the "magnetic
tension" that Bufano described, and was also the realization that
something new was in front of them and they were privileged to witness
it."
Simi Linton, DISABILITY
CULTURE WATCH
Activist, author, and founder of Disability/Arts
^^^
Five Open Mouths is the result of an extensive
and life-changing artistic collaboration between Heidi Latsky
and interdisciplinary performance artist Lisa Bufano. Bufano,
an untrained dancer, commissioned Latsky to choreograph a dance
piece focused on enhancing her physical mobility and artistic
exploration as a finger and lower leg amputee. Bufano initially
envisioned a dance using the stilts and prosthetics. However,
in the first week of rehearsals, Latsky felt her greatest means
of expression was without the use of these. Bufano is a luminous,
intense performer whose body makes exceptionally poetic shapes
that resonate in a profoundly human way. After an intensive
work period whereby Bufano trained with Latsky in her method
and, through Latsky's sensitive choreography, Bufano shares
her exceptional and unique experience replete with moments of
alienation and connectedness, vulnerability and power, oppression
and liberation. Five Open Mouths channels the complexity
of a body's memory to create a poignant and sensual performance.
The result is a captivating and intimate movement portrait of
Bufano.
"Lisa Bufano...a dancer of hushed, serene focus and delicacy...Latsky's
brazenly expressive dances aim for the heartstrings, but for Five
Open Mouths she has made a far more streamlined creation that resolves itself
through Bufano's precision in moments of private reflection and subtle
sensuality"
© 2007, Eva Yaa Asantewaa,
http://mysite.verizon.net/magickaleva
Dance Critic
^^^
 "Choreographed
and performed by Heidi Latsky, Woman at an Exhibition
is inspired by her work with Lisa Bufano. A departure from Latsky's
usual style of quick, abrupt movement, the solo is a formal
exploration of one movement phrase that originated from Latsky's
desire to create soft, lyrical gestures for Bufano. In Woman
at an Exhibition, Latsky strips down her
performance style to create a technically challenging work that
does not reference any specific context, but rather is a deep
exploration of movement initiated by the arms. The effect is
a moving landscape and a vulnerable exposition of Latsky as
dancer.
"Latsky's bending and flexing were enough to sustain interest.
The woman has the spine of an eel and the musculature of a shark."
- Tom Strini, The Milwaukee Sentinel
^^^
 Two
Men Walking
Choreographed by Heidi Latsky and performed by featured
guest artist, Lawrence Carter-Long (nationally recognized speaker
and advocate living with cerebral palsy) and HLD Associate Director,
Jeffrey Freeze.
This dynamic duet focuses on these two individuals, both together
and apart, and reveals each of them as multi-faceted. The music
is purposefully repetitive like a procession — designed
to honor the walks of both of the performers. Unlike the real
world where people either stare or look away, the work allows
the audience to really witness the distinctive movement of each
of the two men.
Top of page ^^^
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Presenters
If you are a presenter and are interested in receiving a press
kit, please contact Heidi Latsky Dance at:
e: hlatskydance@aol.com
t: 917.929.6985
Outreach and residency program GIMP
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