Kickstarter

A head of time, my most ambitious and large scale dance-based work in many years, premieres March 23-25 at Imago Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Aptly, as a project inspired by the layers of time inside us, A head of time sifts together multiple modes of investigation from the 30 years of my dance trajectory: I explore the puzzle of the body’s awkward, lyrical and accidental beauty; I elicit individual performance qualities from a diverse group of performers; I forge physical relationships with material objects; and I explore concept through the composition of movement, text, sound and image.

Everyone is a time machine: The generating idea for the piece arose in a eureka moment a couple years ago. Lost in a rapid journeying through vistas of time (memories) inside my own head, I suddenly landed back on earth with a mental thunk. With an odd feeling of double-ness, I became hyperaware of both the limits of my compact and mortal body and the vast shifting landscapes of past and future inside me. “How big it is in there!” I thought. Later, a phrase encountered in Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe became another touchstone: “Everyone is a time machine.”

These considerations gather even more resonance against recent family experiences of tragedy, mortality and loss. In a very personal sense, this work is driven by the impulse to mark the presence and absence of those we have lost or will lose one day. A head of time is dedicated to my sister Kathryn Marie Austin and her son, Connor Auslund.

Strategies: In a variety of strategies to chart, keep up with, stop or alter time, the 7 other dancers and myself are creating an unpredictable array of serenely methodical, energetically agile, gesturally detailed, and playfully awkward dance movement. We are working with with a set comprised of 300 stacked blankets. We are using the blanket wall as a multi-textured surface upon which the giant faces of family members are projected, sending us silently mouthed messages. We are practicing a chant-like song as we unfold the blankets, spread, layer, stack, refold them. We are dancing with small TVs that add other layers of time: dance movement and sound recorded in the past. Seth Nehil is assembling a sound score comprising evocative drones, snatches of pop songs and field recordings of basketball games, public spaces, family table talk. All of the elements are arranged and blended in a poetic way that reproduces the non-linear ways we experience time inside our heads.

After two years of research, rehearsal, and showings, the fully staged version of A head of time is just around the corner! We are grateful for support received through the Regional Arts & Culture Council, but need additional funds to support fees for the wonderful performers and for a professional 2-camera shoot/edit to document this piece.

Thanks for checking out our project and I hope you will join us in the final push towards performance!  Tickets HERE: 

Performance Works NorthWest, the presenter of this project, is a 501(c)(3) so your donation, minus the value of the rewards, is tax deductible!

Choreography (in collaboration with the dancers): Linda Austin
Dancers: Linda Austin, Philippe Bronchtein, Jin Camou, Catherine Egan, Keyon Gaskin, Esther LaPointe, Danielle Ross & Lucy Yim.
Sound Score: Seth Nehil
Set Design: Linda Austin
Lighting: Jeff Forbes
Video: Linda Austin & Karl Lind
Kickstarter Video: Catherine Egan