there is light at the end of the tunnel? (premiered at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, NY)
there is light at the end of the tunnel? is a self choreographed senior capstone solo by Kelly Chase, exploring her personal history through the research question ‘can staging be used as a form of narrative through accentuating a staging habit I often use in my improvisational and choreographic processes?’ Kelly juxtaposes her point of view from the stage, where traveling on the downstage right diagonal appears to Kelly that she is traveling forward, with the audiences perspective, where on that same diagonal she appears to be moving backwards through time.
Simultaneously Flat (premiered at Florida State University Days of Dance Concert)
Simultaneously Flat is a duet exploring a slow erosion between two metal gears. When the gears work together in perfect timing, they are harmonious, but if one of the gears is even slightly too fast or too slow, it wears down not only the other gear, but itself as well, incredibly slowly. In this piece, I am interested in exploring an intimate destruction, where not only detailing the story of one person aiming to hurt the other and hurting themselves equally in return, but additionally the investigation of the painful process of watching and participating in the destruction so closely, as metal gears operate in close proximity. Juxtaposing the erosion, the mechanical and melancholic emotion the dancers exhibit forces the audience into a bystander role, watching the erosion occur with varying severities of emotional response. The duet follows the gears stripping each other away until they have become ‘simultaneously flat,’ void of their original purpose, and unrecognizable to each other.