Complete Program Credits for Let’s dance
“Living, the whole body carries its meaning and tells its own story, standing, sitting, walking, awake or asleep. It pulls all the life up into the face of the philosopher, and sends it all down into the legs of the dancer.” Mabel Ellsworth Todd
Text, choreography & performance ⁓ Katherine Longstreth
Dramaturgy and voice of ITA ⁓ Jen Mitas
Video ⁓ Marilys Ernst
Music ⁓ David Bowie
MARILYS ERNST is excited to be part of Katherine Longstreth brain trust in collaboration with Jen Mitas to bring Let’s Dance to life at Performance Works NW. Regarding theatrical design, as a seasoned editor, animator and video producer, Ernst has created projected content for numerous venues and screens around the world; with a range of single and multiple point installations and 360 projections for performance in the round. HorseandHay.Media is Ernst’s newly formed West Coast multimedia production company.
JEN MITAS (she/they) has worked in theatre and performance for 25 years. They began as a solo performer in New York, receiving commissions from Brooklyn Arts Exchange and Dixon Place. In 2003, Jen moved to the UK and completed a PhD in Performance with a fellowship from the University of London. After a decade of research, teaching, and performance-making, including a commission from Battersea Arts Center, Jen returned to the US. Currently, Jen works with performance collective, Slumber Party. and supports arts, culture, and place-based organizations through grant writing and fundraising strategy at CONE.
KATHERINE LONGSTRETH grew up in Manhattan where she began dancing at the 92nd Street Y. She makes dance, video and installation work which has been presented in New York City, by among others, Dance Theater Workshop, David Parker/The Bang Group, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and the 92nd St. Y and in Portland by Ten Tiny Dances, the Risk Reward Festival, The One Festival, The White Box and Reed College, and in San Francisco by CounterPulse.
I am grateful to Marilys Ernst and Jen Mitas for their collaboration; they improved the work in profound ways. The thoughtful feedback along the way from David Terry, Molly Rauch, Carla Mann, Mike Barber and Stephanie Schaaf was critical. I am so grateful to Linda Austin and Jeff Forbes for their unwavering support of performing artists and their commitment to the Alembic Residency which makes new work possible. Big appreciation to my fellow Alembic Artists - Emma, JmeJames and Patsy, and to Zach Barbour.
I have been buoyed over the past year by the steadfast support of: Susan Conley, Kelly Driscoll, Jen MacFarlane and Karen Shepard. And the timely contributions by Adam Arola, Helen Daltoso, Mary Elliot, Wendy Hambridge, Lyndsay Hogland, Carrie MacFarlane, George Thorne, Martha Ullman West, Merrill Weyerhaeuser & Iris Wolf.
I am especially grateful to my early teachers and everyone I have studied with:
Sharon Gersten Luckman, Maestro Karoly Zydenyi, Andrea Olsen, Penny Campbell, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Peter Schmitz, Judith Jamison, Martha Eddy, Simone Forti, Ishmael Houston Jones, Ann Carlson, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Gloria McClean, Catherine Duke, Young Ae-Park, Ze’eva Cohen, Joy Kellman, Blondell Cummings, Mark Taylor, Jim May, Douglas Nielsen, Ralph Lemon, Douglas Dunn, Xenia Chlistowa, Pam Matt, Daniel Nagrin, Jenny Whitehead, Suniti Dernovsek and Alexandra Beller.
Information about Jeanne Hays Beaman was accessed January 29, 2024 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center. To access the materials you must: obtain a library card, make an appointment at the Special Collections, get to the library at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, enter the building, walk down steps, go through security, have your bag searched, take an elevator to the third floor, check all your belongings except paper and pencil, go through a second security check, enter a room, don gloves, request and receive one of four boxes of material and study them with your hands and eyes. I love libraries; long live analogue.
For this piece, I have used unlicensed copyright-protected materials in accordance with the Fair use doctrine. I have given explicit credit to almost every image and all videos.
Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use. https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/
Selected Bibliography:
Basar, Shumon, Coupland, Douglas, & Obrist, Hans Ulrich. The Extreme Self. Walther Konig Verlag, 2021.
Bridle, James. Ways of Being. Picador, 2022.
Braun, Marta. Picturing Time: The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1903). The University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. Sensing, Feeling and Action. Contact Editions, 1991.
Foster, Susan Leigh. Reading Dancing. University of California Press, 1986.
Laviers, Amy & Maguire, Catherine. Making Meaning with Machines. The MIT Press, 2023.
Krukowski, Damon. The New Analogue. The New Press, 2017.
Magsamen, Susan & Ross, Ivy. Your Brain on Art. Random House, 2023.
Matt, Pamela. A Kinesthetic Legacy. CMT Press, 1993.
Olsen, Andrea. BodyStories. Station Hill Press, 1991.
Olsen, Andrea. Moving Between Worlds. Wesleyan University Press, 2022.
Todd, Mabel Ellsworth. The Thinking Body. A Dance Horizons Book, 1937.
Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information. Graphics Press, 1990
Online Resources:
Choi, Yejin, speaker. “2082: An ACL Odyssey.” Paul G. Allen School at the University of Washington & A12, 31 July 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLCEy2mu4Js
Choi, Yejin, speaker. “Why AI Is Incredibly Smart and Shockingly Stupid.” TED, April 2023. https://www.ted.com/talks/yejin_choi_why_ai_is_incredibly_smart_and_shockingly_stupid/c
Crawford, Kate & Paglen, Trevor, speakers. South by Southwest, 27 March 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0yEPZJnvgs
Donnarumma, Marco. “AI Art Is Soft Propaganda for the Global North.”
Hyperallergic, 24 Oct. 2022.
Dyson, Frances. “And Then It Was Now 9 Evenings.” Fondation-Langlois, 2006. https://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=2151
Foster, Susan Leigh, speaker. “What Dancing Does.” UCLA 129th Faculty Research Lecture, 23 March 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUzLjvjwm5U
Goodchild, Amy, “Early Computer Art in the 50’s & 60’s.” blogpost. https://www.amygoodchild.com/blog/computer-art-50s-and-60s
Harari, Yuval. “Threats to Humanity Posed by AI.” The New York Times, 24 March 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/opinion/yuval-harari-ai-chatgpt.html
Harris, Tristan. & Raskin, Avxx, hosts. “The A.I. Dilemma.” Center for Humane Technology, 24 March 2023.
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/the-ai-dilemma
Heyward, Anne. “How Do You Write Down a Dance?” The Paris Review, 14 Feb. 2014, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/02/04/how-to-write-a-dance/
Menard, Louis. “Is A.I. the Death of I.P?” The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/who-owns-this-sentence-a-history-of-copyrights-and-wrongs-david-bellos-alexandre-montagu-book-review
Newport, Cal. “What Kind of Mind Does Chat GPT Have?” The New Yorker, 13 April 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have
Ramachandran, Vilayanur, speaker. “The Neurons That Shaped Civilization.” TED, 9 Nov. 2009.
https://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization
Ramachandran, Vilayanur, speaker. “Embodied Brains and Disembodied Minds.” TED, 7 Jan. 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PVatC2Noyo
Schreiber, Le Anne. “This is Your Brain on Sports.” Grantland, 4 Nov. 2011. https://grantland.com/features/this-your-brain-sports/
Thomas, Ben. “What’s So Special About Mirror Neurons?” Scientific American Blog, 2012. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/
Tippett, Krista, host. “Reid Hoffman - AI, and What It Means to Be (More) Human.” On Being Studios, 5 Oct. 2023. https://onbeing.org/programs/reid-hoffman-ai-and-what-it-means-to-be-more-human/
Wingenroth, Lauren. “What Neuroaesthetics, a New Field of Research, Can Tell Us About What Dance Does to Our Brains and Bodies.” Dance Magazine, (18 Dec. 2023, https://www.dancemagazine.com/neuroaesthetics-and-dance/
Video Credits: (in order of appearance)
“Weapon Of Choice music video by Fat Boy Slim, featuring Bootsy Collins & directed by Spike Jonze.” YouTube, uploaded 21 May 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8.
“Mudwater advertisement.” YouTube, uploaded by MUD/WTR, 2 January, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxUwCIHqefE.
“Libby Sloppy Joe Advertisement.” YouTube, uploaded by [DATA EXPUNGED], 12 March 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=V9Ob0tjdr5M.
“The Gap Advertisement- Loose.” Adforum, uploaded by Adforum, November 2002, https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/25797/loose/gap.
“Apple Advertisement.” TBWA 25 July, 2023, https://lbbonline.com/news/apple-celebrates-the-beauty-and-culture-of-dance-around-the-world-in-latest-global-campaign#:~:text=%27Dance%2C%20Shot%20on%20iPhone%27,Pan%2DIndian%20Fancy%20Dance%20costumes.
“BBC News.” YouTube, uploaded by BBC 19 August 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tya-ZLF95jc.
“Joe Rogan Experience with Bryan Callen”. YouTube. Uploaded by JRE Clips, 20 March 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK1wRFyHE1g.
dem_bruddaz, TikTok, posted 26 September 2022, https://www.tiktok.com/@dem_bruddaz/video/7147631135353359622?embed_source=71929435%2C121374463%2C121351166%2C71838017%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_card_play&refer=embed&referer_url=www.nytimes.com%2F2023%2F10%2F06%2Farts%2Fdance%2Ftiktok-dancers-imitating-video-game-characters.html&referer_video_id=7148777950152838406.
Loczinki_official, Instagram, posted 4 October 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx-7uhoIWyN/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again
Spiller, Michael, director. Modern Family- Manny Get your Gun. Written by Steven Levitan, Steven Levitan Productions, 2010. YouTube, uploaded by Kshitij Kohli, 15 August 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XozEKqzG-Ic.
Nichols, Mike, director. Birdcage. Screenplay by Elaine May, United Artists, 1996. YouTube, uploaded by MGM, 15 March 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZLJ4o70TE.
Curtiz, Michael, director. White Christmas. Screenplay by Norman Kransa, Norman Panama & Melvin Frank, Paramount Pictures, 1954. Uploaded by Hosh, 2 December 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-cXP1uDFpA.
Fosse, Bob, director. All That Jazz. Screenplay by Bob Fosse and Robert Allan Aurthur, Twentieth Century Fox, 1979. YouTube, uploaded by Criterion Collection, 25 August 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2e9acreKmQ.
Kramer, Lance, director. The Simpsons - Smoke on the Daughter, written by Billy Kimball, Gracie films, March 30, 2008. YouTube, uploaded by Burns Charming, 27 December 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUnyIOo2oOA.
Reed, Peyton, director. Bring It On. Screenplay by Jessica Bendinger, Universal Pictures, 2000. YouTube, uploaded by DreamRecap, 22 August 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0nbv4MotTc.
Baumbach, Noah, director. Frances Ha. Screenplay by Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig, RT Features, 2012. YouTube, uploaded by bauhaha hahaus, 26 February 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n9MLbpmyWE.
Rema, Calm Down. Tik Tok. uploaded by Loi Creyel 28 February 2022, https://www.tiktok.com/@loicreyel/video/7069797459219729669?lang=en.
Rema, Calm Down. YouTube, uploaded by Its_Black_Out, 8 March 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xaXBFijskE.
“Columbia Sportswear Advertisement.” YouTube, uploaded by Columbia Sportswear, 14 September 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPK6faTKdm8.
Farino, Julian, director. Giri/Haji. Screenplay by Joe Barton, BBC2 2019. YouTube, uploaded by Paul_Lyk, 21 January 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYBaiJ1KQM.
Daniels, Marc, director. I Love Lucy - The Ballet, written by Jess Oppenheimer, CBS, 1952. YouTube, uploaded by Ross 117, 3 January 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yfjhjtSRY8
Donen, Stanley, director, Funny Face. Screenplay by Leonard Gershe, Paramount Pictures 1957. YouTube, uploaded by felipe febex, 23 December 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FznWwWrOIQ.
Denis, Claire, director. Beau Travail. Screenplay by Claire Denis, Pyramide Distribution, 1999. YouTube, uploaded by spepp, 17 September 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rop2r0PASlM.
Noll, A. Michael, Tomorrow's World, by Derek Cooper, BBC, 6 December 1968. YouTube, uploaded by computerartist, 23 August 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phVN_HS5Fy8.
Cunningham, Merce, interview on Charlie Rose Conversations, aired April 6, 1995. https://charlierose.com/videos/1296Cunningham, Merce, “Biped.” Merce Cunningham at 100 at The Kennedy Center Life, YouTube, uploaded by xxxx 9 August 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9BiF_6gt40&t=80s.
Schiphorst, Thelma, “A case study of Merce Cunningham’s use of the LifeForms computer choreographic system in the making of Trackers.” Semantic Scholar, 1993.
Troika Ranch, “loopdiver- Artistic Process.” YouTube, uploaded by Troika Ranch, 9 April 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcBZQA15qlg.
McGregor, Wayne, “Living Archive by Wayne McGregor.” Experiments with Google, Nov. 2019. https://experiments.withgoogle.com/living-archive-wayne-mcgregor
Jones, Bill T. & Google Creative Lab, “Body, Movement, Language: AI Sketches with Bill T. Jones.” Experiments with Google, May 2019. https://experiments.withgoogle.com/billtjonesai
Longstreth, Katherine, “Autosolo.” Fringe Festival for Independent Dance Artists, 1995. https://www.katherinelongstreth.com/autosolo
Image Credits: (in order of appearance)
Keonwoo Kim, Masters of Architecture, Columbia University
Sharon Gersten Luckman, unknown
Balet, Dances in Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation (1701)
Karoly Zydenyi, unknown
Oscar Faulkner
Jim May, photo credit MeemsImages
Sound Underwater, by Gregory Haines, David & Charles, London, 1974, Reanimation Library, Queens Museum, New York
Judith Jamison, photo credit Andrea Eccles
Shemual Bensusan
Ze’eva Cohen, photo credit Jack Mitchell
Embodied Cognition Chart by John J. Madrid, Wikipedia
Andrea Olsen, photo credit Stephen Keith
Augenweide Josef Dabernig via Charl Malan
Penny Campbell, unknown
Art by @cpsilver.xyz
Ishmael Houston Jones, unknown
Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny, Aronada, 1971 Graphic material, 37.8 x 31.5 cm
Ann Carlson, photo credit Toni Gaultier, courtesy of Stanford Arts Institute
The Art of Memory blogspot the sound of animals recorded by Bell Labs
Daniel Nagrin, photo credit Jeff Noble
Marguerite Londe
Jawole Will Jo Zollar, photo credit Andrea Mohin, The New York Times
Lynne Cohen, Stephen Daiter Gallery
Pam Matt, unknown
Susan Johnston, ‘Ancestors & descendants from single Soay sheep "Snowball" on St Kilda.
Blondell Cummings, photo credit Jack Mitchell
Matea Bronic
Young-Ae Park, unknown
Ruth Thorne-Thomsen - Dot Lady, 1983.
Ewing, William A. The Body: Photographs of the Human Form, Chronicle Books, 1994.
Ralph Lemon, unknown
Braun, Marta. Picturing Time, University of Chicago Press, 1992:
-Emile Reynaud’s projecting praxiscope, 1879. La Nature, September 1880.
-Emile Reynaud’s Theatre Optique 184. La Nature, June 1890. New York Public Library
-Etienne-Jules Marey, Demeny dressed in black in preparation for geometric chronophotography costume of 1884, Album A, plate 12, Beaune
-Etienne-Jules Marey, Joinville soldier walking & running, 1883
-Etienne-Jules Marey, Analysis of the jump, 1884, Collège de France.
-Etienne-Jules Marey, Morin walk, 1886, Collège de France
-Etienne-Jules Marey, Walk with stiffened knees, 1884 & walk with bent knees, dynamometer on right, 1884 Collège de France.
-Etienne-Jules Marey, High jump preceded by a run, 1883, Collège de France.
-Muybridge, Animal Locomotion, plate 137: Descending Stairs and Turning Around.
-Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase no. 2, 1912 oil on canvas, 58x35 in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection.
Ewing, William. The Fugitive Gesture - Masterpieces of Dance Photography. Thames and Hudson, 1987:
-Dancing in the garden at Garsington Manor, c. 1918. Anonymous photograph
-Fan dancer, c. 1935, František Drtikol
Chorégraphie ou l’art de décrire la Danse de Raoul Auger Feuillet, 1700.
Horn, Rebecca Horn. White Body Fan, 1972.
Schlemmer, Oskar, Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo, Molnar, Farkas. The Theater of the Bauhaus. Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1965.
Kandinsky, Wassily. “Dance Curves” essay, with photos of dancer Gret Palluca by Charlotte Rudolph, 1926.
Exercise Studio, Paris, 1939, Source Gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliotheque national de France
Alwin Nikolais, Choreoscript, 1940. Feuille de notation sur papier-calque, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance Collection, Mag Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries, Athens (OH).
Dances in Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation, 1701.
Rudolf Von Laban, Games Dynamo Sphériques, séquence de mouvment “A” from Danse et architecture. Nouvelle de danse 42/43. Editions Contredance
Bernhard Meitner, Atelier Leiter, Hand Sound Objects, 1975