Clytigation is a multi-media performance and installation incorporating a box, a bike, a typewriter, and a coin operated choreography generator. Across multiple platforms, Michelle Ellsworth demonstrates her “over-the-counter counter-terrorism” protocols for avoiding surveillance and interpersonal drama. Using a body double, an ancient text, and some modern technology, Clytigation investigates the impact of wars on bodies and legal protocols. A mobile-device-friendly website allows Clytemnestra to shuffle, technologize, and outsource the Oresteia’s unpleasant narrative.

Created and Performed by Michelle Ellsworth. Live Video Processing: Max Bernstein. Lighting Design: Ryan Seelig. Live dancer: Jadd Tank. Web programming and programming of kinetoscope, slot machine, and typewriter: Satchel Spencer. Programming of bike: Michael Theodore. Set design and build: Bruce Miller. Saxophone: Phillip Greenlief. Video Dancers: Jadd Tank, Zoe Scofield, Sonya Smith, and Ann Ellsworth. Costume construction: Ann Piano and Beth Osnes. On the Phones: Lane Czaplinski and Thalia Field.

Clytigation premiered at On The Boards in March 2015.

Clytigation was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Production residency funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Clytigation is a project of Creative Capital. Clytigation is also Funded by The University of Colorado, The Boulder County Arts Alliance, and the Boulder Arts Commission.

“Michelle Ellsworth’s Provocative Protocols”  – Brian Seibert, New York Times

“The Best Dance of 2015”  – New York Times