Monday, October 3, 2011

gloATL performs "Livers" at Flux 2011

Do you understand the title? If you do, you were probably there. If you don't, then follow gloATL and Flux Projects on Facebook, @gloATL and @FluxProjects on Twitter.



Flux 2011: night of art + experimentation September 30, 2011 8 pm to midnight castleberry hill arts district (pictured below D'AIR Aerial Dance Theatre at Flux)

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gloATL: a collaborative platform of exceptional contemporary physical performance. gloATL’s mission is to create exceptional contemporary dance through live performance, public works, and a choreographic LAB

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"Livers": A contemporary physical performance...Sonic Gestural Kinesthetic Being Together “We are all Livers.” Guy Debord...

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"Livers" was one of 34+ happenings on Friday night. Livers alone was too much to take in. Flux was overwhelming.

I'm afraid my little camera could only manage a blur, a poor substitute for being there.

A dancer waited alone in the fog between two buildings, a stage of wood chips.

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Meanwhile, the company gathered on the Peter's Street railroad bridge.

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They bolted and stopped unpredictably in their lumpy leotards. Did they notify the Ministry of Silly Walks?

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They knew where they were going but we didn't.

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They stopped to twist and shimmy to shake and wave. The man pushed the music in a grocery cart.

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Look at the faces in the crowd. Most were seeing the dancers for the first time. "What is going on?" They moved fast. They turned right on Fair Street. I had to run to keep up.

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When we'd stop to grok, shapes would slink by.

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The crowd was thick as the company raced north on Walker. I could barely keep up with the gloATL piggy-backers making their way though the crowd.



The company arrived.

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I'm at a loss: It was a mystery. It was mesmerizing, unpredictable.

Not everybody enjoyed that sort of thing.

I was happy to lose myself for a little while.

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The crowd was part of the performance. For most gloATL performances, there isn't a specific place for the audience.

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There were several pas-de-deux's.

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There was some fun. I called this the turtle-back.

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gloAtl leader and "dancemaker"Lauri Stallings looked on.

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It wasn't all smooth ballet moves.



The troop climbed out though the balcony...

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...leaving a pair alone in the fog.

It was magic for a while, disorienting, mesmerizing, memorable. There will only be 2 performance of Livers. This was the first. The 2nd began an hour later.

They needed a rest but the rest was part of the performance too.

And it didn't break the spell.

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Now do you understand the title? I don't think I've explained a thing.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

My 4th Stop: South-View Cemetery - APC Sacred Spaces Tour

I wasn't expecting this to be the highlight of the tour. Prominent Atlantans led us to graves of several extraordinary folks resting there.

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Rev. Dr. Michael N. Harris pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church.

South-View Cemetery was my next stop for the Atlanta Preservation Center's first "Sacred Spaces" tour. South-View was the first resting place of Martin Luther King Jr., here:

'The oldest African-American “non eleemosynary” corporation in the country (1886), South-View Cemetery is the final resting place for over 70,000 African Americans. Many of whom have made significant contributions to American history and the struggle for freedom and peace. Among the many notables are men and women who were scholars, business owners, pastors, professors, military heroes, musicians, athletes, and civil rights activists.'
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It's on quiet rolling hilltops on Jonesboro Road, about 4 miles north of Scott's Antique Market. You've probably never been in the neighborhood just east of Lakewood.

Atlanta's Oakland and Westview Cemeteries have many extraordinary monuments. The wealth of South-View in the legacy of those interred there.

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We gathered at the angel for an introduction by Dr. D.L. Henderson, a board member of Historic South-View Preservation Foundation, and of Oakland Foundation.

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We hiked the hills.

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We stopping at balloon marked graves.

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We heard the histories.

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We headed the the next one.

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It was and impossibly beautiful late afternoon but warm enough that we sought the shade.

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Our procession stretched out as the tour continued.

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I was so fortunate to be there.

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