Dancers incorporate many artistic elements

In an attempt to draw digitally dazed audiences back to the theater, local artists created "Foci," an experiment in time, space and forms of expression.\nVideographer and musician Rob Dietz set up cameras to film the dancers from different angles, which will run simultaneously with the live dancing at the performance at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Rose Firebay room of the John Waldron Arts Center. This non-traditional performance will appeal to viewers used to the flickering pace and action of television and movies.\nThe cast met at several early rehearsals to improvise and allow their unique artistic elements to interact. Each rehearsal builds upon the last, and the performance will be slightly different from each rehearsal. \n"At times, the video projection becomes the center of attention, while at other times, it becomes an abstract background environment for the dancers to exist within," Dietz said. \nThe show is improvisational and displays the ambivalence of art.\nSaxophonist Marty Belcher said the performance music emphasizes this point. The two saxophonists and the drummer who play for "Foci" call themselves Guth 3-tet. \n"The sound combines two contradictory influences -- an ancient element of hand drum with a contemporary vocabulary of jazz and classical saxophones," Belcher said.\nShe directs the musicians during the performance, ever-cognizant of the other media forming around them.\n"It's a directed piece. In other words, we work through a series of improvised situations designed to compliment the dance and video. At different times, the music plays as lead or support," Belcher said. Dietz agreed that the video sometimes takes center stage over the live performers and at other times fades into the background.\n"The video's task is to both document and extend the dancers' capabilities," he said. "The musicians are playing a score that should work on its own terms with or without the visual element."\nLaura McCain, a teacher at Windfall Dance studio, said there are many factors that influence movement.\n"The two dancers are influenced by the music and the video, as well as by each other," McCain said. "The movement can be soft and circular, harsh and angular, heavy or light." \nAs the three media combine, the audience is drawn to different foci. \n"The audience will become conscious of multiple points of focus among the three elements of the piece," Dietz said. "Their eyes and ears will shift from one element to another, and everyone will experience something different."\nBelcher said he hopes the production will help the audience develop an appreciation for experimental art forms.\n"Most observers to our rehearsals have been drawn to the video, which might say something about our culture, which is enormously visual," he said.\nThe show also features dancer Kay Olges and musicians Chris Rall and Lee Guth. \nTickets are $8 and may be purchased at the door. \n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.