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Heather Maloney's Vertical Sprawl
Abandoned Spaces
PHOTO CREDIT: Stian Roenning
The daughter of Quakers, growing up on an organic farm, Heather Maloney has heard talk of sustainability her whole life. Maybe that’s why she’s puzzled by the current vogue for going green. “Sometimes when you’re thinking about being a good citizen, you say, ‘Oh, I must recycle,” she says, her hands fluttering so gracefully to illustrate her point that she is almost dancing in her seat. “It’s not always about conservation though; it’s a question of how much do you need?”
Over dinner at Jimmy’s Diner in North Miami, she talks about the evolution of “Vertical Sprawl,” which debuts as an ensemble piece this weekend. Maloney began developing the piece as a solo work in collaboration with composer Juan Carlos Espinosa over a year ago, after the two discovered that they had both read geographer Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. The artists were struck by Diamond’s discussion of Easter Island, where warring tribes deforested the once lush island in order to build enormous stone monuments they believed would give them an edge in warfare. Summing up Diamond’s argument, Maloney says, “Easter Island is a metaphor for ecological destruction in modern times.”
Maloney sees human self-destruction in the pursuit of power happening across history, and around the globe. Last year, the choreographer spent 14 days as an artist in residence at the Mexican pyramid of Cholula, the world’s largest monument, which over the centuries has served gods and warriors only to be abandoned. Maloney says she made a pilgrimage there, looking for answers: “The residency was about listening to the space and asking questions of the space.” Those answers can be heard in the score, which composer Espinosa has drawn primarily from recordings of indigenous people speaking endangered languages which he has layered to create an ominous murmur.
Ultimately Maloney hopes to perform “Vertical Sprawl” as a site-specific piece in abandoned spaces around the globe, perhaps one day even presenting the piece on Easter Island. For now, she is presenting the work at a warehouse converted into a studio in North Miami which, like all of South Florida, has a special place in the landscape of abandoned places, thanks to the accelerated boom-and-bust real estate cycle. “There are all these spaces that have been foreclosed on, before they’ve even been inhabited,” she observes.
The big questions Maloney explores are not about what’s happening in the world outside, though, but about the human relationship to that world. “We’re disassociated from all the extreme changes around us in the environment,” she notes. “What spaces have we abandoned inside ourselves? There have to be changes inside of us.”
That’s because the planet is imperiled by what the artists call “overconsumption,” where humans multiply their impact on the environment everyday by consuming and throwing away more than we need, particularly in the United States. “Vertical Sprawl” conveys overconsumption by using video to project multiple images of the dancers behind them, turning the stage into an ominous house of mirrors.
For the ensemble production this weekend, surveillance cameras will also play tricks with the dancers’ positions, making dancers laying horizontal on the ground look like they’re standing vertical. This effect promises to be particularly poignant in the segment choreographed for quadripelegic dancer John Beauregard, who will play the revered Birdman of Easter Island ritual. The surveillance image of him lying on the floor will make it appear that he is walking, restoring his lost abilities in a dream-like state.
In earlier solo incarnations of the piece this year at the Florida Dance Association’s Winterfest in January and again at the Here and Now Festival in March, the message of overconsumption was not immediately evident. Instead, the multiplication on the screen of Maloney’s stunningly fluid movement was mesmerizing. When she held up a flip pad and scrawled messages to the audience, it was not clear whether she was crying for help or inviting us to join her. It didn’t matter; the gesture was striking. If only the destruction of the planet were so beautiful. Then again maybe it is; maybe that’s why we do it.
If you go:
What: Vertical Sprawl, choreographer Heather Maloney and composer Juan Carlos Espinosa
When: Friday and Saturday, June 19 and 20 at 8:30 pm
Where: Studio 1415, 1415 NE 129th Street, North Miami, FL
Admission: $10 (General) $5 (Students and Seniors)
Information: www.inkub8.org or call 201.736.8062