Too Squared - 4 Minutes
Choreographed by Liz Casebolt and Joel Mejia Smith - casebolt and smith
Performed by Wendy Rein and Ryan Smith in there evening length collection of duets "Double Exposure"
Commissioned by RAWdance Company, San Francisco
Premiere at ODC Theater as part of “Double Exposure” July 28-30, 2016
This Review Period, Double Exposure Was Presented At:
ODC Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Henry J. Leir Stage and Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space, Inside/Out Performance Series, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, MA
The Joyce Theatre, American Dance Platform Festival, New York, NY
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Supporting Materials
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casebolt and smith was commissioned by RAWdance Company in San Francisco to develop a duet for Artistic Directors Wendy Rein and Ryan Smith. RAWdance was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant to fund the commissioning of twelve West Coast dance makers to set new original work on the company. Other commissioned artists include Joe Goode, Ann Carlson, KT Nelson David Rousseve, Holly Johnston and Shinichi lova-Koga. Too Squared is a four-minute duet: two two-minute dances performed back to back. The first half is an improvisational structure based on principals of leading and following, arriving and departing, responding only when your partner moves. It is slow, subtle, unexpected and should resist any fixed vocabulary. The second half, just the opposite, is a fast-paced unison phrase that is meticulously crafted, virtuosic and requires great precision and execution. Like an art history exam where you are required to look at two slides side by side, so too is required for Too Squared. The second half immediately begins when the first half ends: Two unrelated pieces that relate only when side by side.
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Full Work
For More Context, here is a trailer of the full show "Double Exposure"