Surrounded by sculpture and art, black-clad female dancers, in leggings and leotards twisted and turned through a make-shift stage, on the marble floors of the museum’s main room. Unlike your ordinary dance performers, these dancers had musical sheet compositions duct-taped to their backs. Male musicians, also in black, followed them, playing their instruments.
A violin, a trumpet, a voice…
There was a seductive undertone between the male musician and the receptive female, undulating to his lead. An opera singer, with a deep, strong tenor voice overpowered one dancer. Subdued, she fell to the ground. The music stopped. He then thrust her around so he could again see the music sheet on her back. If the dancer turned her back on the musician, making the composition sheet invisible to the player, the music stopped. Without human movement and emotion, music dies.
Another dancer broke down, weeping in response to the beautiful, elegiac, sounds of Victor Young’s trumpet composition, “Stella by Starlight.” She was given a loud applause by an audience of about fifty people.
The performance portrayed the energy behind making music as masculine vs. receiving it. It would be interesting to see the relationship between a female musician and a male dancer. Some may argue making music is not always masculine. Some instruments, like the harp, are more feminine.
“I wanted to explore the relationship between sound and movement.” Pioneer Winter
I met Pioneer Winter, choreographer of “A Perfect Marriage,” at the live exhibition of “A Perfect Marriage/My Eyes Move You.” When asked what inspired the piece, he said, “I wanted to explore to the relationship between sound and movement.”
In the spirit of interactive film, “My Eyes Move You,” a film co-created by the Indie Film Club played in the background. Close-up shots of musicians’ naked eyes reading and playing Cole Porter’s “Easy to Love” were portrayed. Through this aspect, the relationship between reading and playing musical compositions was further explored.
The event is part of New Work Miami 2013, the museum’s current, experimental exhibition. NWM 2013 is an ode to the city of Miami and its artists. Developed by SPRING BREAK, a Miami-based collective, the exhibition echoes the vibrant, collaborative art scene flourishing in the city.
It is on display at the MAM until June 2, 2013, when the museum will reopen as the Perez Art Museum Miami in downtown Miami’s Museum Park.