As director, the artistic control has been in the research, the investigation, the choosing of collaborators, the defining of the topic areas and the creation of the structure. But that control stops when the performance begins. Painter Richard Lopez will be working live throughout the event. Choice means that as improvising performers we are looking for spontaneous materials that we turn into composition. It is easy to follow impulses when one is working solo, but it is much harder to do as an ensemble.
Structure becomes the performers' meeting ground, the agreement with each other.
The performers are juggling motifs, topics, interactions, responses to the moment and choices as designers. This format expresses my concerns and aesthetic as a concert choreographer, which are different from those in the strictly improvisational dance world. I'm interested in this mix of structure and spontaneity, performed by a group of dancers trained in both. Livingston credits Luckman Fine Arts Complex Executive Director Dr. Clifford Harper with being willing to present this atypical performance format. For this first performance of Dances for White Rooms Livingston and her collaborators have been working with the intersections of time, terrain and point of view.