Based on the notion that choreography might function somewhat like a path, I was simultaneously drawn to the codified and orderly structure of Baroque dance notation, and to visual parallels found in period landscape architecture.

 

This was a collaborative installation created with Linda Sormin whose interpretation of the dance notations became like archtectonic structures in unfired red earthenware, highlighted with fold leaf. The notations rest upon a path of moss, rising and falling as it follows hills and valleys in the moss landscape. Projected onto an adjacent wall, a dancer floats through the dance movements in a decelerated and silent video. Here, the original notations are simplified and stretched out to emphasize lightness and movement through space.

 

From the suite of dances La Bourgogne, this Sarabande was first choreographed and performed by Guillaume-Louis Pecour (France: 1653-1729) and notated by Raoul-Auger Feuillet (France: 1660-1710), who was the first to publish a system of dance notation in 1700.