Peter V. Swendsen : rest full

rest full was the first collaborative effort of Thorndike, Swendsen, and Gray. While each contributing to particular areas of the piece’s realization, the three artists strived to create a work unconcerned with disciplinary boundaries, a space where an audience’s experience is always newly informed through the layering of sound, video, and movement. Conceived as a long-running (36 minute) installation, Thorndike’s choreography serves as an exploration of clarity in shape and in time, while the challenge for Gray, the dancer, is to recreate and refine the movement through each subsequent repetition. The movement is framed by Swendsen’s score, a strata of simple sounds manipulated and intensified as they define the acoustic space. Finally, the element of video creates for the audience an opportunity for choice and perspective. A window on the dancer – her ankle or scapula – is projected, expands to fill its frame, becomes a moving detail.