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S E L E C T E D T H E A T
R I C A L P R O J E C T S THEATRE, MUSICALS, OPERA AND DANCE |
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The
Kevin Wynn Collection
Kevin Wynn, Choreographer, New York Premieres: 1993-1996 Black Clouds Over My Head; Itipua II; Begat, Begat, The Joyce Theatre Of Sushi, Collard Greens & Salsa; De Toi A Moi; Solo; Mawulisa; Frozen Garden; After Image; Itipua, Dance Theatre Workshop |
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| Article published in Lighting Dimensions International. March 1996 | ||||||||||
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Journey
through colored lands
This is a story of three painters, each of whom use a different medium. Kevin Wynn, artistic director of the Kevin Wynn Collection, creates kinetic paintings with dancers’ bodies. His new piece, Black Clouds Under My Feet, which premiered at New York City’s Joyce Theatre in January, was inspired by the last exhibition of paintings by Ross Bleckner. Wynn gave this name to LD Chris Dallos as a starting point for painting the dance with light. “His paintings are thick canvases with a lot of color, and I really pulled my palette for this piece from his work,” says Dallos of his research into Bleckner’s art. “What I love about Kevin’s work is that it’s just non-stop movement and this constant blending of pictures. It’s a lot more free form, a lot more painterly, which is how I treat his work.” Wynn said he wanted the lighting kept simple to highlight the dancers and action. “I try to let the dance speak for itself. I just try to follow with him,” agrees the LD. He does this by responding to the tide of dance sculptures across the stage. “My cueing is largely informed on how he treats the space. When there are 14 people on stage and the movement is very big, the lights are bigger and brighter and clearer, and when we get down to solos, I like to pull it in and be tight and more mysterious. I try to create a journey with his journey.” But this free-form approach to dance and lighting stops short of anarchy. Wynn has several rules of visual design: Costumes are always either black or white with lots of skin showing, and the background is always black. Black Clouds Under My Feet, performed to live percussion, and animalistic vocalization, is no exception. The dancers are clad in shiny beige leggings, shorts, and cropped tops, and gauzy white shirts and short slips. These barely-there costumes by Rosie Kanellis, along with the different shades of skin in Wynn’s mulit-culti dance company, provide the cyc for Dallos’ palette of deep blues, greens, and purples. One setting was particularly striking: Dancers were lighted with magenta from one side and turquoise from the other, like a 3D movie without the glasses. “It pops and vibrates. I love to play those games. A certain vibrancy and a certain electricity is something I like to get out of it, and depth and visual interest. And I like to flow from image to image as we go along.” However, these images are more impressionistic rather than specific. “I juggle colors and come up with different combinations and go through a cycle. I’ll do a section of blues and greens that will drift into purples and than we’ll get back into the blues again. For me, it’s a journey through colored lands and not necessarily verbalized images.” Amy L. Slingerland
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Copyright © 2005 CHRIS DALLOS LIGHTING DESIGN |
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