Extra Extra read all about it: News is overwhelming…we have reached media saturation…

Yeah…

I know. We all know.

2010 is drawing to a close and we are still dealing with haywire news sources and mediums messaging messages of all sorts – not much conducive to a good night’s sleep or to enjoying seasonal holidays designed for celebrating peace on Earth.

I was shown this (once again) on December second, at the Firehall Arts Centre in Downtown Vancouver. Extra Extra is a fast paced dance piece sourced from mass print media, meant to “reflect, magnify and then fracture our perceptions of our evolved contemporary lives”. ??Choreographed by Judith Garay, artistic director of Dancers Dancing, with commissioned music by Theodore Hamilton, costumes by Margaret Jenkins, lighting by John Carter and video by Patrick Harrison.

While I didn’t particularly engage with the piece’s 90’s movement vocabulary and incongruous costume changes, I think it hit the mark by centering its exploration on media saturation as a cause of great frustration, contributing to massive contemporary disengagement.

During the Artist Talk Back we were able to see the dancers hold the image of one of the photographs from which the piece was sourced: a line of silhouettes (women apparently) on a sand dune…one seemed to be holding a basket. They only held it for a moment – but long enough to begin to appreciate that the entire, relentlessly active piece was built from these absolutely static moments.

The last image offered to the audience was of the 10 dancers seated on their stools at the stage’s apron, gazing out to the audience. This posture was held only briefly before the lights came down. It was not held long enough for the audience to absorb, digest or engage with in a meaningful manner. I felt frustrated.

But perhaps that was the point?

Like the dancers, maybe I was being asked to embody and thus fully experience the frustration of relentless mass media messaging….

But I know what that feels like already…don’t we all live that?

I wanted to see what happens next. The steps we are all taking towards art-full re-engagement.