Kickstarter

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We have been invited to show our exuberant dance, I made this for you at Dance Place in Washington D.C., June 15th & 16th. This includes a week long residency where we will set the work on a talented local cast. Since it is a co-production, we are responsible for costs associated with producing the show. Expenses include lighting design, technical staff, promotional materials, travel, housing, food, costumes, props, and possibly kittens.

I made this for you is a raucous, playful, yet earnest dance about audience engagement and community building. The dance was conceived of by Gabrielle Revlock for The A.W.A.R.D. Show! and was co-choreographed by Nicole Bindler and Gabrielle Revlock. The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is a national dance competition with audience votes determining the winner of a $10,000 cash prize. Through I made this for you we challenged notions of competition and conventional forms of beauty by using biting wit and playful commentary. Our choice to critique from within was a riskier option than boycotting or writing letters to the producers. We felt trepidation about the possibility of being disqualified but the risk proved worthwhile. (We actually were voted to the finals!)

In the process of making this large group work we created a community of artists that would not have existed otherwise. We invited over 20 movement artists to participate. We asked them to improvise short solos based on their various expertise-- in this way they were all collaborators in the work. They felt a sense of ownership and agency in a context that had been disempowering and alienating.

I made this for you is a dance that breaks barriers. Limited to 15 minutes for the AWARD Show! we challenged this time constraint by allowing the piece to spill over into the Q & A where Gabrielle answered questions in an opulent evening gown, carrying a shedding cat. No longer limited by time, the current version of I made this for you continues with no set end point. The curtain call bleeds into a dance party where the audience is invited to join the performers onstage. The DJ will spin as long as people remain in the space. I made this for you deepens the intimacy between performer and audience and allows for everyone to see and be seen.

For info about Nicole Bindler, check out the kickstarter profile or go to: http://www.nicolebindler.com

Gabrielle Revlock, director of Mano/Damno Projects, seeks to blur the line between living and performing to create works that spark curiosity. Inspired by any and everything from interpersonal dynamics to survival manuals to biblical stories, Revlock infuses each project with her characteristic wit and structural ingenuity. Imaginative and sincere, the works invite the viewer in and are intended to evoke emotional reaction and stimulate intellectual exploration. Speckled with humor and surprise, they also entertain. Gabrielle is the recipient of a Rocky Award and her work has been presented by The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Joyce SoHo, Bowerbird, Philadelphia Dance Projects and the Korzo Theater (The Hague, Netherlands) among others. http://www.manodamno.com/