Art Off the Walls: Dance in the Museum
Art Off the Walls: Dance in the Museum
Flyover Dance Collective presents “Art Off the Walls: Dance in the Museum," a year-long series that employs site-specific choreography to create meaningful dialogue with artwork in museum spaces in Northwest Arkansas. Free public performances and outreach events took place in 2022-23 at The Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, and 21C Bentonville. Community audiences encounter contemporary dance in galleries and visual art spaces large and small across the region. “Art Off the Walls” brings dance to a wider audience by engaging people in innovative locations that provide increased exposure for dance outside of the traditional proscenium stage.
“To Breathe Full and Free”
The Momentary
Flyover Dance Collective presents a site specific collaboration at The Momentary in conversation with Firelei Baez’s To breathe full and free: a declaration, a re-visioning, a correction (19°36'16.9"N72°13'07.0"W, 42° 21'48.762" N 71°1'59.628" W, 36° 22' 0.1848'' N94° 12' 8.64'' W). Including a community ensemble and live opera singer, FDC’s performance explores water imagery as ritual, our shared sense of journey, and a critical interrogation of the home/foreign binary.
±
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
A quartet of FDC dancers inhabit a long hallway of patterned artwork created by visual artist Loring Taoka at Crystal Bridges. The piece is accompanied by a live musician who creates music in real time for the dancers via artificial intelligence algorithms, and original costume pieces are inspired by the wallpaper designs of Taoka. These performative elements explore the multiple layers of one’s identity, and how we play with and fashion these for ourselves in everyday life.
“Still Life with Discontent”
21C Bentonville
South African artist Wim Botha’s sculptures and drawings punctuate the gallery space as five FDC dancers explore the lines of flight emanating from the different winged objects. The disfigured busts and stark fluorescent lighting are paired with the haunting strains of spiritual music composed by Arkansan African-American composer Florence Price, played by a live violinist.
“What Does the Constitution Mean to Me?”
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Created in conjunction with the 2022 “Constitution Day” Celebration at Crystal Bridges, this trio explores the concept of “We the People” in conjunction with three artworks located in different gallery spaces in the museum. This embodied exploration aims to unravel thought-provoking inquiries, such as, "Who is included in the idea of ‘we the people’?” “How do protest gestures from movements like Black Lives Matter offer a choreography of empowerment?” And “How as formerly pregnant women, mothers, and sons do we understand the contemporary policing of women’s bodies?”
This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. In-Kind Support and Fiscal Sponsorship provided by the Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange.