Telephone Dance Project
Mountain Empire Performance Collective
Premiere: 2014. Performances of the Telephone Project happened across the Atlantic Coast throughout 2014, including the Mascher Space Cooperative, Philadelphia, PA; National Portrait Gallery and DancePlace, Washington, DC; Workbench and Salon Showing, Northampton, MA; Blacksburg, VA; {Re}Happening, Black Mountain College, Asheville, NC.
Created and Performed by Katie Sopoci Drake, Eliza Larson, Rachel Rugh, and Barbara Tait
The Telephone Dance Project turns the classic game of "telephone" into a long-distance collaboration tool. Over several months the four collaborators created choreographic material inspired by their own geographical location, transcribed it, and sent it to each other via snail mail letting each recipient reinterpret it as the the letter passed down the line. These phrases are then used to create an improvisational score, directed by each participant in their own home state, bringing location and inspiration together. Each performance is created anew, depending on the specific time and place occupied by the participants.