Not so solitary after all...

              Solitary movement can be explored freely by contrasting polar opposite themes in time and space. In Kevin Williamson’s piece Body of Ideas (solo study), Williamson choreographed and performed a solo study in which he was able to draw from movement that he accumulated over the past five years from his abandoned rehearsal footage. Williamson’s work was debuted at the November 2014 “Alternate Currents” performance festival at the Electric Lodge, in Venice, CA. This annual festival aims to cultivate and celebrate the various artistic approaches to choreography within the Venice dance community. The Electric Lodge provided a traditional proscenium stage for which the audience’s full focus was on Williamson, the solo artist. In this piece, he acts as choreographer and performer, bridging the gap between the two roles. Ballet, modern, and post-modern movement vocabularies inspired his work, as seen in his placement, lack of main focus, and lack of showy performativity towards the audience. The musical accompaniment was John Cale’s “Sun Blindness Music,” which provided a consistent, ambient electronic sound throughout the piece, and did not impact nor alter Williamson’s movement. The constant music and dimmer lighting provided a sense of continuity that complimented his constantly flowing movement. Williamson’s Body of Ideas (solo study) explores the notion of continuity through a tone of melancholy and longing and the solo artist’s juxtaposition of movement vocabulary, such as gestural vs. circular flowing movement, thus emphasizing the complete range of his kinesphere.

            Thematically, Williamson’s work illustrates continuity through uninterrupted ambient music, dim steady lighting, and his free movement quality. Williamson began his piece with a variety of circular movements of his arms and legs. He slides his feet along the floor and creates both large and small indirect moves with his arms; he seemed lightweight and jumpy, yet he never fully leaves the ground in the beginning. Also, as he moves in and out of floor work, Williamson continues to use circular movement on a different plane–the ground. He uses locomotion through standing, walking, and crawling and rolling on the floor. His floor work is still mostly lightweight, as he is able to apply weight transferring techniques to various parts of his body in order to move around himself. He uses his full kinesphere through sustained moves, and travels along quite swiftly as he does these exercises. Williamson’s light, free movement quality seems to be derived from modern and post-modern practices. His focus is mostly internal, yet he shows either blank facial expressions, or those of longing and yearning as he reaches outwards. This type of focus may be indicative of Williamson’s thoughts in creating his past rehearsal footage. Although time is also considered continuous and one-directional, much can happen that can alter the future, and it is said that history repeats itself. His culmination and recreation of “old” works shows a cyclical, yet dynamic trend in his artistic work. Williamson mainly uses smooth transitions throughout this piece to move through his asymmetrical lines and repetition of certain phrases to emphasize stability. Although this theme of continuity provides a comforting connotation within a sense of familiarity to the audience, Williamson evokes a few moments of surprise as he breaks from the norms of his piece.

            At certain points in the work, Williamson breaks from the theme of continuity to a more frustrated and solemn mood through sporadic gestural movement and a minor shift in lighting. Amidst Williamson’s free movement comes moments of gestures: he raises his arms upwards in a questioning manner, points to himself repetitively, and waves his hand. He also mumbles incoherently to himself in the middle of the piece. Gestural movement, along with aspects of speech, connotes a “pedestrian” form of movement–one with which the audience can relate to on a personal level. While the purpose behind these gestures is unclear, due to the lack of a dramatic storyline, the gestural movement does not dominate the piece; aesthetically, gestures provide a sense of understanding and comfort to the audience since they are extremely familiar movement vocabulary to notice. These gestures are sometimes accompanied by bigger facial expressions, which are more performative–stemming from these modern and post-modern ideologies. Another example of this modification in movement vocabularies is the manner in which Williamson plays with balletic vocabulary: he plié’s, goes into fifth position, and turns out his feet. However, this balletic movement is juxtaposed with a sluggish demeanor, and not once does he point his feet or extend through the lines of his limbs. This addition of “half-ballet” vocabulary provides another break in the theme of continuity. He contrasts his dominant swift movement with a short moment of standing stillness, as well, providing a sense of tension. Additionally, the soloist becomes grounded in a kneeling position, and performs repetitive and undulating hip-thrusting movements in the middle of the work. This form of movement has a frustrated mood in its performance, and connotes sexual undertones, which can be juxtaposed with the main melancholy mood that permeates the work. Towards the end of the piece, Williamson kneels with his head bowed down and his one palm facing upwards on his lap and remains there in stillness; this gesture seems to be a moment of–possibly religiously connoted­–repentance or defeat. The lights are dimmed during this final scene, and the darkness symbolizes an “ending” (or possibly a rebirth) to both the work, and to the soloist’s practice. Moreover, complete continuity is not necessarily possible, and may be interrupted by various stimulants.

            One aspect of performance that may interrupt the theme of continuity may be the relationship between the audience and the performer; in this case, Williamson’s costuming, apparent use of breath, and breaking of traditional stage barriers aids him in becoming more relatable towards the audience. His costume, or lack thereof, is a pair of neutral toned pants and a shirt, and he is barefoot. Williamson’s everyday, comfortable attire is not overly extravagant, and may be something that an audience member might wear. Thus, Williamson creates an atmosphere of openness and equality. Also, he is not afraid to break traditional performance “rules” in this situation; he breaks tradition by actually using the back wall and sidewalls of the stage (there are no curtains). He is able to explore the vertical planes as the “floor” during this piece as he walks along the walls, supporting himself with his upper body on the true ground. Therefore, the soloist investigates the notion of being free, yet being stuck (to the ground, due to gravity). He also stops a few times throughout the performance to regain his breath, in between long phrases of quick, free movement. He does not hide his tiredness from the audience, a technique true to post-modern ideology. This apparent use of breath displays his equality to the audience–Williamson, too, is merely a human that can get tired due to overthought or over-exercise. Amusingly, at one point during the Sunday, November 9th show, Williamson took a moment to beckon towards a woman to sit down in the audience (waving her over with his hand and nodding), as she was standing uncomfortably at the entrance of the venue after walking in a few minutes late. This instance of dissimilarity from the performance gave off a natural ambiance, as he was interacting with audience members. Thus, Williamson’s kinesphere extends towards and beyond the audience and the walls of the theater with these relations, though his movement remains mainly personal throughout the solo piece.

            Overall, Kevin Williamson’s work Body of Ideas (solo study) uses Williamson’s past rehearsal footage choreography as a means to explore the extent of his body’s kinesphere, which truly reaches out further than his own body. This solo would have taken on various changes in meanings had it not been performed as a solo, but as a duet or even as a group number. Therefore, Williamson’s kinesphere stems from within his body, reaches past the four walls of the stage, and ranges into the audience, of which there is no rigid hierarchy. He is aware of space and time: he uses the whole stage to maximize space, and uses motifs of continuity to emphasize the process of time. Gestural movement, alterations in lighting, and various other breaks in the theme of stability add a dynamic dimension to the work and provide contrast. An unwavering ambient song and the generally free movement vocabulary that he uses in Body of Ideas comments on the idea of sameness vs. difference, and contributes to the tone of melancholy and longing. Circular moves add to the notion of continuousness­; thus, the soloist traces these free and bound lines on the floor, on walls, and in space. Williamson explores all three-dimensional space, and does not hesitate to push theatrical boundaries. He pushes his body’s typical boundaries by not letting himself be limited to one dimension or plane for his vocabulary of movement. He draws vocabulary from modern, post-modern, and ballet styles, underline his range between placed and proper vs. pedestrian systems. The title Body of Ideas (solo study) emphasizes that the body itself is made up of a multitude of concepts, shapes, directions, and perspectives–five years worth of Williamson’s collected choreography. Moreover, the solo artist may be who the audience is focused on, but he is not necessarily the only performer in the show, due to his kinesphere including much of the stage and audience; perhaps the soloist is not so solitary after all. 

Photo of Kevin Williamson by Taso Papadakis.