Andy Gambrell Reflection

Andy Gambrell

Reflection

I know very little about painting and even less about dance. But I think that the idea of bringing the two together is really cool. The performers studying Andy’s work to choreograph dances was a really cool way to bring the paintings to life. I think that the space of the gallery allowed for the paintings and the dances to be viewed as a single piece. Because a gallery is the standard location for paintings, but not so much a dance performance, it really felt like the dance was an extension of the painting. If this were done on a stage, maybe it would have created an inverse feeling, like the paintings are an extension of the dance.

The dance kind of reminded me of Bruce Nauman (the guy who was stepping all over that square on the ground). It felt like all of the dancers had their own space, and each space was confined to a different painting. (Although they did come together at the end a little of both dances!) This was probably just done for practicality reasons, so they wouldn’t get in the way of one another, but I’m sure it could have been arranged differently. Whether the paintings were more spread out and allowed for more movement, or if the dances moved around from painting to painting. Not that these would have been any better or worse, they would have just created a different feeling.