Larissa Velez-Jackson
Star Crap Method

DATE/TIME/TICKETS

November 4-8, 2014

$20.00

Star Crap Method is Larissa Velez-Jackson’s compositional methodology that complicates and redefines the skill set of the contemporary dancer. A trio (comprised of Tyler AshleyTalya Epstein and Larissa Velez-Jackson) collectively composes the entire work in the moment, including the sound score of live vocals and digital sound. The piece is founded on Velez-Jackson’s improvisational practice that embraces technical brilliance and failure in equal measure, ushering in a form of creative limitlessness with opportunities for great humor, vulnerability and absurdity — core values in her work.

“Be prepared to be seriously entertained and simultaneously provoked to rethink what a dancer is expected to deliver onstage…with dancers I work to conjure our movement brilliance as well as our technical ineptitudes, not quantifying one over the other. We swing between being the divas and underdogs of form. This creates an altogether new skill set.”

Why the name, Star Crap Method? “Star Crap” is my tongue-in-cheek way to name the narcissistic aspects of performing. More importantly, the term signifies a play with dualities that defines my approach to art-making and predicament in life therein. Obscurity v. celebrity, privilege & poverty, ugliness & beauty, amateurism & virtuosity, high & low art, feminism & pure evil, singular authorship v. collectivism, above & below, stardust (where we come from) & crap (what we ‘hopefully’ output daily).

Is it really a Method? Star Crap Method is a compositional methodology for the cast to collectively create an entire dance in the moment, including the music score of live vocals, digital sound and accompanying narrative text. In this practice, all that is traditionally hidden from the spectator–and one’s fellow collaborators–is revealed, creating a risky and oftentimes absurd exposé of the inner workings of the dancer and the theater in process.

Directed and conceived by Larissa Velez-Jackson. Choreography, performance and live sound design in collaboration with Tyler Ashley and Talya Epstein. Lighting Design (*also improvised) by Kathy Kaufmann. Performance and production coordination by Lillie De. Visual Design by Ashleigh Wilkinson.

“Skewering the Pretensions of Their Rarefied Milieu” – Brian Seibert, New York Times