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ICA/Boston Presents Faker, a Dance Performance by Morgan Thorson

Boston Premiere Inspired by Karaoke and Elvis Impersonators

By: - Nov 30, 2007

ICA/Boston Presents Faker, a Dance Performance by Morgan Thorson - Image 1 ICA/Boston Presents Faker, a Dance Performance by Morgan Thorson - Image 2 ICA/Boston Presents Faker, a Dance Performance by Morgan Thorson - Image 3 ICA/Boston Presents Faker, a Dance Performance by Morgan Thorson
    ICA/Boston presented "Faker" the Boston premiere of Morgan Thorson's spot-on dance performance for a cast of seven. Faker's carousing slacker's parody of all that glitters was inspired by karaoke and the Elvis impersonators Thorson 'studied' in Las Vegas, on a grant. In a culture obsessed with celebrity and often degrading entertainment, Faker distinguishes, Thorson says, 'between theft and emulation'. Sampled pop culture dance moves applied to classical music collapsed high culture into low in a delightfully spasmodic dance version of air guitar. Faker is as fresh as YouTube and, as headily unpretentious as Twyla Tharp's innovations.

    The last of two ICA/Boston performances is Friday November 30th 7:30 p.m. Originally commissioned by the Walker Art Center and Southern Theater in Minneapolis, in 2005. Thorson also directed Faker, presented at the ICA/Boston in collaboration with Critical Moves Contemporary Dance that features contemporary dance "willfully connected to the social, political and/or cultural fabric of our everyday lives."

    Casually revving-up the dance with tension relieving exercises, stretches and yelps, Faker left a residue of brilliant vignettes from jerky renditions of Elvis' quivering hips by dissociated individuals to lip synching couch-potatoes and a rodeo queen who morphs into Marilyn Monroe to a cadre of sleepwalkers whose off-key, fitful rhythms imitated reverb, ambient sounds and records stuck on a single groove.

    What is authenticity in a culture of copies? Thorson regards authenticity as 'people stealing from one another to both know and validate what they think is real'. Impersonation, she says is 'about being literal-looking outside of yourself, observing, imitating, and repeating yourself obsessively . . . It deals with getting stuck in your own fear, then finding a way to come out on the other side."

    Since 1994, Morgan Thorson, an independent artist, has taught at the University of Minnesota both dance improvisation and a Skinner Releasing Technique, a dance based exercise designed to release tension, correctly align the body and "awaken creativity and spontaneity".  Site specific performances danced outdoors, solo and in ensembles in local, international and national venues include The Crossover Dance Festival in Seoul, Korea; London Improvisation in Performance at Jackson Lane; Seattle Festival for Alternative Dance and Improvisation and Dance Theatre Workshop in New York City. Commissions include the Walker Art Center for the Momentum Series; Split Britches Theater Company; Gustavus Adolphus and Carleton College and the Zenon Dance School scholarship program.  Numerous awards for Thorson's work include Bessie Schonenberg Memorial Endowed Fellowship (2004) and fellowships from the Bush (2000) and McKnight Foundations (2002) and Jerome Foundations (2002).

Performed by Ryan Billig, Jessica Cressey, Joanna Furnans, Chris Schlichting, Karen Sherman, Anna Marie Shogren, Morgan Thorson and Kristin Van Loon.

Sound by Morgan Thorson and Karen Sherman.

Costumes by Morgan Thorson, Leah Nelson and Heather Wilson.

Set Design by Morgan Thorson.

Lighting Design by Juliet Chia.

Video Design by Morgan Thorson and Eleanor Savage.
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