What is the Telephone Dance Project?

Do you remember the "telephone" game? One person whispers a phrase to another, which is passed down a line of people until the phrase becomes increasingly distorted and the original meaning is lost.  Hilarity inevitably ensues.

The Telephone Dance Project turns the classic game of "telephone" into a long-distance collaboration tool. Over the past several months our four collaborators, spread over 4 different states, have been creating choreographic material inspired by their own geographical location, transcribing it, sending it to each other via snail mail, and letting each recipient reinterpret it as they pass it down the line.  With each reinterpretation, the movement changes until finally it barely resembles the original phrase.  These phrases are then used to create an improvisational score, directed by each participant in their own home state, that bring each location and inspiration together.  The dance will change with each performance and each new location.

Performances of the Telephone Project will happen across the East Coast, starting in Northampton, MA, traveling through Philadelphia, Washington DC, and ending in Asheville, NC.   Each performance will be quite different from the next: a concert of improvisational dance; a salon; a performance at the zoo!  The dance emerges anew each time it is performed: duration, sound/music and creative choices depend on the specific place and time occupied by the participants. 

Travel with us in person or on this blog as we reinterpret what it means to dance across the country.