The Pittsburgh Tatler: In one of the vignettes in Corning Works’ new dance theater piece six a breast, dancer Sally Rousse twists and contorts her arms and legs on and around a trapeze-like swing hanging low to the ground. “Sorry!” she occasionally blurts out, in a vaguely familiar, business-like tone. Twist, contort, swing, “Sorry!” What is it that is so familiar about this scenario? And then, with her last “Sorry!”, the penny drops: she mashes the clear plexiglass seat of the swing against her breast, and the connection between her tortured contortions and the awkward discomfort of the annual mammogram (in which, my dear young and/or non-female readers, the boobies get squeezed between two plexiglass plates, often accompanied by brisk, unconvincing apologies from the tech whose job it is to make that squeeze as tight as possible) pings into place.
1 comment:
Using the arts to talk about social issues like gender roles is amazing. That’s what the arts are there for, to start a conversation and to be used a s a vessel for new communication about things that occur in our society. This can be done in so many forms. When most people think about art that is discussing a political or social issue they think about a dramatic piece that could be dark or sometimes even disturbing in order to shock the audience into awareness about the topic. And those dramatic pieces are effective and beautiful, but what’s interesting about this piece is that they ingenuity in the use of comity and satire in dance to talk about woman’s gender roles in society. The use of satire allows the audience to see the subject matter in a different light. It helps them realize the absurdity of these issues by making them laugh at them. The use of comity is all to rare in art talking about social issues. If used properly comity can be an effective performance tool in art for social and political awareness.
Post a Comment