Dance Sneaks into the Fuller Craft Museum (part 2)

by Karen Krolak

While some of the pieces in the Perfect Fit at the Fuller Craft Museum reference dance directly, others simply reminded me of specific Monkeyhouse pieces. For instance, Marjorie Schick's Chopines and Puddles, 2008 pictured at the right (Photo: Gary Pollmiller), would be right at home in the futuristic setting of Odalisque/What's Next. These puddle jumpers practically beg for someone to investigate their movement potential.

In fact, when Monkeyhouse premiered at the 2000 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, we had to build something similar but far less elegant. I had blown out my ACL a few weeks before the festival and could not manage to dance on our usual drywall stilts. Thank goodness Amelia was able to craft a suitable alternative for us. (On a related note: Nicole should share the rather humorous story about how those stilts altered her professional debut in that concert.)

After glancing around Marjorie's website,  I am fascinated by her unusual wearable art extravaganzas. Hmmm...I wonder if she would ever be interested in designing some costumes...

 

Dance Sneaks into the Fuller Craft Museum (part 1)

by Karen Krolak

I love when I stumble onto dance themes in surprising places. Meandering down to Brockton to see The Perfect Fit - Shoes Tell Stories at the Fuller Craft Museum, for instance, I was not expecting echoes of tap classes or beeswax enveloped ballet slippers. 

I caught my first whiff of dance's influence on this exhibit as I passed by Judy Haberl's Baby Opera. While I was staring at the assortment of 416 bronzed baby shoes that resembled miniature masks, a recording of someone delicately flapping, shuffling, and tapping reverberated through the hall. 

Continuing on my backwards journey through the exhibit,  I discovered Jennifer Carroll's Dancerexia. Jennifer is a professional choreographer and teacher who has trained at the American Ballet Theater School, Joffrey, Louis-Nikolais Dance Lab, and  Pilobolus. Her visual art explorations began by altering her collection of used dance shoes. "Some are perfect as they are: worn, torn, even bloody. Others I have taken the liberty of transforming." she explains on her website. In Dancerexia she revamped one of her own black pointe shoes and replaced the slipper's toe box with a scale that registers 100 pounds. 

oops...must run to a meeting but there will be more on this soon.