One of the more ingenious choreographers to embed technology into his work is Zvi Gotheiner. In Zoom (2010) he chanced having audience members snap photos with their iPhones and email them to be posted on a large screen. As I reported in this review, one of the dancers “invited a shared stream of consciousness via texting.” That delightful encounter with techno-improv will no doubt turn darker in the new work at New York Live Arts.
Surveillance, photo by Hertog Nadler
Gotheiner is not one to shy away from trouble. When he premiered Dabke (2012), although he intended to make a dance about the melding of Arab and Israeli cultures, he was accused of “appropriating” a traditional Arabic form of dance. (Click here for the strong statement of New York Dabke dancers who felt exploited by Gotheiner’s use of the form. “Our cultural heritage is not your natural resource.”) Now, with Surveillance, he plans to delve into issues of privacy infringement that’s such a hot topic today. How do we consent, he asks in this work, to the technological invasion of our private lives?
ZviDance’s excellent dancers will no doubt perform his athletic, inventive choreography with their usual gusto. June 11–14 at New York Live Arts. Click here for more info.
Surveillance, photo by Hertog Nadler
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