SOUL LEAVES HER BODY [2010]
Created with Jennie MaryTai Liu
SOUL LEAVES HER BODY is an integrated-media performance synthesizing theater, dance, live video, music, and cinema. Inspired by a thirteenth-century Chinese story about a young woman who rips her soul from her body to pursue her destiny in the city, this original, contemporary work explores the soul-body relationship in todayÕs networked, electronic culture. An inter-disciplinary team of international artists create a multi-channel film live onstage, mixing pre-recorded images with a multitude of onstage cameras. Lush cinematic visuals appear on ghostly panels, reshaping and obscuring the glass stage. Outside the cameras' frame we are drawn into an integrated folk dance for modern life.
A Work-in-Progress showing of SOUL LEAVES HER BODY was presented at HERE Arts Center as a part of the Culturemart Festival in February 2009. SOUL LEAVES HER BODY was made possible with a lead residency and support from the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI); a development residency at the Corporation of Yaddo; a grant from The Experimental Television Center; and by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space program, which was created with lead support from the September 11th Fund. Project space is donated by Capstone Equities.