Atlas Moves Watching

Premiere: 1985
Choreography: Bill James
Music: Matthew Fleming
Set & Lighting Design: Karen Amyot

About

Atlas Moves Watching was originally created for Inde85, an independant dance-music festival held in Toronto in October 1985. It was remounted by Dancemakers in the fall of 1989, and again by Atlas Moves Watching Dance Projects in the the fall of 1997 as part of Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter.

The production is one hour in length and is designed to be presented in a storefront setting, on an urban street. The performance is viewed from inside the space with the street as a backdrop. The sidewalks on each side of the street are used to allow passersby to interact with the perfomance, which takes place both inside and outside the storefront.

Atlas Moves Watching is built from treatments of the mythical Atls, the Greek god who holds up the world. The text is adapted from a poem by the late American monk Thomas Merton. The themes of extreme weath and poverty are used to view life in a comtemporary city. These extremes contribute to a world out-of-balance, which is what happens when Atlas decides to move, thereby reating havoc and destruction on the earth.

Merton's test forms the opening sequence, as the audience is introduced to the characters in a play who speak, pose, and sing. THe second sequence juxtaposes "have" and "have-not" in scenes taking place in the street and interacting with passersby. During this sequence, a tender and simple duet displays the calm before the devastation which Atlas effects upon the earth. The third sequence is a wildly kinetiv, tilting, off-balanced enactment of the earth's shifting plates, using ramps and dancers inside and outside of the storefront. The final apocalyptic scene is a swirling of bodies leading to the ending.

The four treatments are layered and interwoven so that movement and images echo throughout the depth of field presented by the perfomance environment. Each performance is unique, given the interaction of the performer with the street and the nightly events that occur there.