Alice Gosti, Dance

Contact gostia@u.washington.edu

Airport Dance

Dance, especially choreography, is a never ending research
process into oneÕs self and oneÕs understanding of the world. My
project involves the creation, production, management, documentation
and transmission of a dance/performance piece in unconventional
performance spaces: airports.
This project is about creating a performance piece that in ten days
will travel from airport to airport all around the world. It will
interact with a characteristic shared by all airportsÑthe power to
alter oneÕs perception of space and time. I am interested in
juxtaposing the airportÑa place where space and time are warped or
even suspendedwith dance, an art form completely dependent on
how we perceive the body moving in space and time.
The idea of airport-dance, as a touring performance, is something
that has never been done before in dance. During my research, I found
a great amount of public art developed in airports, but all of it was
visual, stationary; in some rare cases music concerts were hosted.
The kinesthetic and visceral aspects of art are completely absent from
these spaces. I think now is the time for this innovative research
project.
The anthropologist Marc Augé defines airports as non-places.
With this concept he refers to places of transience that do not hold
enough significance to be regarded as places. Airports are like time
warps, gateways of transition between places and time zones. When one
visits an airport it is only to transition from place A to place B and
to get to B at a set time after a set amount of traveling. There is no
real consciousness related to the airport itself as a place. This
sense of non-place that an airport generates has always fascinated me.

As young girl traveling from Perugia, Italy to see my grandmother on
the other side of the world in Seattle, I felt that airports were
magical places, capable of generating an incredible range of emotions.
The sensation of traveling around the world without ever seeing or
stepping into it has always amazed me. For example, I can say that I
have been in London once, but I have actually transitioned through
LondonÕs Heathrow international airport nine times in four years.
These transitory experiences do not equal the experience of visiting
London. This research process allows me to delve into the deep
attachment and fascination that I have had with airports since my
early childhood.
My intent is to situate a dance performance, dance being an art form
that can never be repeated identically, in a place that corrupts all
sense of time and space. The audience/travelers will decide if they
want to take the time to engage with the performance and watch it in
that single moment, or to leave and continue in their traveling. The
act of engaging with the performance invites to a more consciously
constructed sense of time and space. The viewers will watch the
performance, appreciating it in a different way because of the airport
(non-place) venue. No audience member will be formally invited to
enter the airport to see the dance performance. The airport dance
audience will be completely determined by chance.
I will develop a 10-15 minute solo work, exploring the idea of the
airport as a non-place in relation to dance as an ephemeral art. To do
this I will add the results of personal ethnographic airport memories.
Although the solo choreography will be created in a traditional studio
space, it will have to be continually adapted to fit each new airport
site
Upon completion of this choreographic phase of the project, I will
travel from airport to airport, circling the world, performing this
piece. All the performances will be digitally recorded. The recordings
and all the information about the performance (including the travel
and production logistics) will be posted on a web-site. If viewers
connect to the page at the right time, they will also be able to see
the video of the performance streaming live. To do this I will
collaborate with two students from the Digital Arts and Experimental
Media department, Jared Timothy Friend and Michael McCrea. They will
travel with me, and work on the audio, video documentation and on the
installation of the website.
Those individuals who will be able to view the performance only
through its web format will be able to perceive some of the
differences that each performance presents by seeing the same
choreography adapted to the physical differences  around the world
from airport to airport. Space and time will change, but not the
essential compositional structure. Not only will the physical space
around the performer change, but the hours of jet-lag, of
uncomfortable sleeping, of air-conditioning and poorly circulating air
will all play a fundamental role in the execution, perception and
reception of the work. As the performer I will reach a level of
exhaustion that will modify the dance from the inside. As one who
feels ill but has to keep going and make the best of the day. This
will be an experience in which I will be able to push my exhaustion
boundaries. In dance, this type of performance would be defined as a
site-specific work. It is the place, the architecture, the sounds, the
people around you that inform your performance and its reception.
Documentation of the performance sites is therefore essential to the
understanding of this performance.
This project has a great potential of influencing those that view it.
As I have said, there are two ways that the audience/viewers will be
able to engage with the dance: live performance or broadcast. The
choreography is performed live in the airports to an random audience
and it can be viewed streaming live on the archive, through the
internet. Either viewing option brings dance performance to a new
level vis a vis traditional presentation modes.
Another aspect that interests me in this project is that there
appears to be more security restriction for dance work, since it
involves direct human activity, than for static forms of art. This
performance is therefore deeply rooted in the concept of freedom of
expression. Even in an airport one should feel free to express oneself
if it is done not in a harmful way.
Dance can be a very powerful medium. It is not merely entertainment
as many people seem to believe; it is a powerful communicative art
form. Dance has a very specific kinesthetic power, that (when used
well) can generate intense emotions. As a viewer one is not solely
left with the momentary pleasant sensation of having seen something
beautiful. Instead one is left with intense emotions and questions
that might never be solved, but that have generated a profound thought
process. In my dance piece I will be working on the concept of
airports as non-places. I would like the audience for my dance to feel
stimulated and interested in understanding what the performance they
are viewing is trying to address.
My intention is to provoke thought in the audience. I would love to
have viewers start thinking of where they are in the present tense,
rather than where they will go next. For example, I would feel
successful if I were able to make their transit in and out the Seattle
airport something unforgettable, by putting dance and the place of the
airport in a new context. This will influence not only those that will
view the performance live, but also those that will only be able to
view it in its web version.  For those that are not fortunate to
encounter the performance in their traveling, the video documentation
will show a different side of the performance involving the relevance
of the place itself, and how each airport space influences the
performance outcome. The web viewers may think about this performance
and have a different understanding of airports the next time they
travel through them. It is imperative for this dance to be performed
in airports because the dance itself is about airports. My intent is
to enable people to see airports under a different light. Therefore
this dance piece is not only beneficial for me; it can become
something unforgettable for all of those that will be involved. It can
become something that might change the view that people have not only
of airports, but also of dance.
It is my intention to communicate with the different airport
authorities that I will be traveling through. At this time I know that
in the ten days I have I will very likely travel through Frankfurt,
Delhi, Bangkok, Tokyo and back to Seattle. I will work with airport
officials to inform them about my project, and work with them in
determining the best place in their airports for my performance to
happen. In the event that the airports agree to my proposals, I will
choose in each airport those places that are waiting areas behind
customs. These would therefore be the most populated and commercial
areas. My audience will be constituted by not only people in transit,
but also people waiting for their connecting flights.
In the event that the airports do not designate a space for me, I
will still perform in those public areas that are right outside of the
customs area. I will perform next to the check-in desks, or on the
unloading zones just outside the airport doors. If I am interrupted by
security, I will comply, but the videos and the documentation will
include this interruption. This raises some interesting questions
about the role of the airport in our society, a post 9/11 society.
Since then, traveling internationally has become much more stressful
and worrisome. Nowadays a traveler feels as frightened as he does
protected by security. For example most of the airports stories I have
heard in the last couple years as part of my anthropological studies,
have involved unpleasant body searches.
Last year while traveling to San Francisco to the American Collage
Dance Festival, a national dance conference, with a group of students
from the University of Washington, I decided to do an experiment.
Close to our gate, I started improvising, many travelers and custodial
personnel stopped to watch, curious about what was going on. I
improvised for five to ten minutes and nothing harmful happened. The
movement I chose for the choreography will talk about airports;
therefore no offensive material will be presented. We will perform at
every airport destination we reach.
To make this project successful I have to find what I want to
communicate to the audience as a dancer and choreographer. It is
necessary to engage in deep movement research and choreographic
analysis. What movement, what space, best exemplifies the message that
I want to convey in the movement and in the entire structure of the
dance? I want this dance to have a clear purpose, something that can
be communicated.
Mark Haim is my research mentor. Since his arrival in the Seattle
dance community, his presence has been of incredible support and
influence to all the dancers, choreographers and artists in the
community. He is respected and honored all over the world for his
artistry. His presence and experience in dance and choreography are
critical in guiding me into the production of a complete, well
conceived dance performance. Mark and I have spent a lot of time
discussing my ideas. Brain storming with him has been necessary in my
personal understanding of this project. For most of the actual
creative process, I will be on my own. Mark will come in once progress
is achieved to discuss its relation to what I am trying to convey.
Betsy Cooper has been an important figure as well, helping me to
understand the financial side of my project. This involves
researching, writing grants and clearly expressing my vision. I am
getting close to graduation and I am poised to work on a project that
seems very complicated and challenging.
When I first began choreographing (five or six years ago), I traveled
around the world and had ideas of a traveling performance with a dance
company that would entertain travelers in their never-ending hours
transferring from one flight to another. Now I have found a poetic way
to undertake in such a project, it is a work that will investigate and
comment on how people live in certain places and spaces.
I am ready to completely dedicate myself in an innovative and complex
creation. It is amazing to me to realize how much I have already
learned about all the aspects that are behind the development of an
idea and the production of a performance. I have already learned very
valuable things, such us writing for scholarships and grants, as well
as choreographic tools and performance suggestions. I also have
learned how it is important to talk and talk, to think and think some
more about oneÕs ideas, while allowing the idea to develop and grow.
This is why I feel that I cannot even imagine how much more I will
learn from this project. From trying to realize a project that started
as a dream that I always saw as impossible. I now know where to start,
and what questions to ask. I want to be a professional dancer,
choreographer, video artist and artist and I feel that I am getting
closer and closer to knowing the way to make my dreams possible.
To develop this project, I intend to do the following:
¥       Research general airport architectural plans, books on airports,
urban planning, and aviation organizations to understand as much as
possible about how these structures are conceived of and constructed.
¥       Navigate the web-cites of the airports we will be going to be able
to determine the internet connections we will need to have for the
streaming live.
¥       Develop a choreographed piece using the results of my research,
also using a collection of airport memories that I will gather using
ethnographic methods.
¥       Talk to the airport management about the project and how it can be
facilitated.
¥       Talk to airlines management and see if they would agree on helping
with financing.
¥       Plan the route of the trip and the time I will dispose of in each
place I will land.
¥       Work on a website in which all the information about the project
will be posted, including pictures, videos and audio recordings.
¥       Collaborate with a costume designer from the University of
Washington Drama Department that will work on the costume knowing the
poetic behind the piece and some of the choreography.
¥       Collaborate with two students from the Digital Arts and
Experimental Media department, Jared Timothy Friend and Michael
McCrea, which will be able to help with the audio and video
documentation and the website.
¥       Work on a possible presentational form for the documentation in a
way that the audience that will view the documentation will have a
similar reaction to those that saw it in the airport.