Recent Stories with tag bridget gunning

Tuesday night just past seven, I wandered into Ballard's Copper Gate, a 64-year-old Scandinavian bar on 24th Avenue NW. I'm no doubt late to this, but the Copper Gate's an odd but incredibly charming place: immaculate and well-lit, with a copper-topped bar built into a replica of a Viking boat, the relaxed, mostly middle-aged crowd of diners sat sipping wine and eating Scandinavian classics, surrounded by classy erotica. The walls are covered in places with vintage nudes and tame fetish shots that are somehow sexy but not dirty. It turns out that when new owners took over several years ago, they found the former owner's wife's stash of pictures, and took that as inspiration. A painting of a pretty young lass on the main wall, I was told by a helpful bar manager, has been there since the bar opened, and is supposedly the erotica-collecting woman herself back in the day.

The point is, as pretty much everyone who's written about it has noted, the Copper Gate, for all the naked ladies, is still the sort of place you could take your grandma (and I'm pretty sure there was one there). And much like the main bar, "the Pussy Room" in back is not nearly so dirty as it sounds. That said, you get to it by walking through a narrow, rounded passage painted deep red that leads to a room blocked off by red velvet curtains. Ahem. Pussy Room, indeed!... (more)

Formed in summer of 2009, ticktock is an experimental dance company that produces the collaborative work of Elizabeth Rose (the Aerialistas), Jill Schaffner (DASS Dance), and Bridget Gunning (Manifold Motion).

Three modern-dancers-turned-aerialists, we met in Seattle in 2008. All of us were mid-career performers and all found we were drawn to aerial and circus because of its extreme physicality (Jill and I are both former gymnasts, Bridget a former competitive swimmer), but had a hard time finding most contemporary circus artistically satisfying because it lacked choreographic depth and seemed to be an art form based on "tricks" and archetypal character portrayals. 

At the same time, in most contemporary "aerial dance," the apparatus and the performers are sadly underutilized, and much of the work relies on its "Look! We're off the ground!" effect to impress audiences, but is ultimately unimaginative.

After a series of initial conversations and small collaborations, we went into the studio with an intention to deconstruct the language of aerial and rework our circus skills from a modern dancer's perspective. Using Mary Overlie's Viewpoints, dance composition exercises, and lots of improvisation, we began with a concept and started choreographing aerial dances, instead of making "aerial dance." 

The result is a hybrid performance medium that is more textured and contemplative than typical circus, and more sensational and extreme than typical dance. The goal is to continue refining this process of deconstruction and integration while continually pushing the edge of our physical possibilities into a realm of "expressive athleticism." We hope that with the development of this process, a choreographic style will emerge--one that inspires audiences with undeniably real surreality and fantastically literal flights of fancy.

Since the company’s inception, we have shown our work in "Circus of Dreams" at ACT Theatre, Manifold Motion's "Miscellanea II" at Canoe Social Club, and "Bedlam!" at the Emerald City Aerialdrome, where we were offered a six-month residency to produce our first show, glibly titled "No.1."

Our show premieres on January 29 and runs three performances: January 29 and 30 at 8 p.m., and January 31 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available on Brown Paper Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/93280

Video still of Bridget Gunning from one of the works to be presented at Manifold Motion's "Miscellanea II" at the Canoe Club.

Manifold Motion, an interdisciplinary performance company founded by dancer/choreographer Keely Isaak Meehan, has a reputation for ambitious and visually arresting work. Earlier this year, they staged Woolgatherer at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, an original piece that explored the psychological crisis of hypermodernity by contrasting it against a stunningly visceral premodern world realized through through a fiber art installation. Now, tonight through Sunday, Manifold Motion is presenting Miscellanea II, the second edition of their showcase series that highlights the varied work of company members and collaborators, at the Canoe Club (tickets $10-$30).

Meehan will be performing Tulipomania, a collaboration with local poet and visual artist Linden Ontjes, a version of which they brought to On the Boards' 12 Minutes Max in late October. The core of the piece is Ontjes's poetic text, which uses metaphorical leaps to connect sexuality, economics, and life tensions to the tulip, which Meehan by turns interprets and counterpoints through movement.

Meehan's choreography--in my somewhat limited experience--tends towards the imagistic rather than the abstract. In Tulipomania, she anchors the movement to a series of concrete images of a flower blossoming, in between either interpreting the emotional content of Ontjes's text or counterpointing Ontjes by interacting directly.

Miscellanea II also features a movement-aerial-musical collaboration between upright bassist Evan Flory-Barnes and movement artist Bridget Gunning. Gunning is an extremely athletic performer to say the least, and while I have no idea what this piece will look like, I've heard it's as physical for the musician as the dancer.

The showcase also features work by Nicole Sasala (a frequent collaborator who otherwise runs the Asterisk Project), video work by Meehan and Leo Mayberry, an installation by Mike McCracken, and a variety of other work. Plus, this being the Canoe Club, the bar's open during the performance, giving it a bit more of a cabaret feel.