Kyle Loven
RETRACES (2015-16)
Performer and choreographic collaborator
Photos by Tim Summers
Category: Choreography
Centrum Residency (2015)
(2015) Centrum Residency at Fort Worden in Development of Psychic Radio Star
In residency at Centrum, Paurl Walsh, Anthony Rigano, Danielle Blackwell and myself worked to generate source imagery and build a sound library for use in development of Psychic Radio Star. Paurl Walsh took sine wave recordings of each unique room/space with any amount of reverberation. This allowed us to extract an exact copy of the echo of each space at Fort Worden. Photographic documentation by Anthony Rigano created the building blocks for ideas that would grow into the performance work Psychic Radio Star.
Photos by Anthony Rigano
Listen (2015) film
(2015) Short film (Related project with Mother Film and Performance)
Listen is meant to show the feeling of isolation that can be felt when dealing with a loved one’s mental illness.
Listen is part of an ongoing investigation in creating work for my schizophrenic mother. Footage from Listen has been meshed with footage from the 2013 performance Mother for you I made this.
Collaborators credits:
Filmed by Ryan Adams, Jacob Rosen and Doug Arney.
Sound by Paurl Walsh.
Edited by Doug Arney.
Concept and performance by Ezra Dickinson.
Screenings:
(2016) Film Installation in exhibition The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human. ArtEast, Issaquah WA.
(2015) Film Installation. The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human exhibition, City Hall, Seattle WA (premiere)
Dinosaurs And Sea Hawks (2014) film
(2014) Video, short film.
Sleeping under a bridge is a man and his dinosaur mask. Waking up, he walks into the heart of the city and puts on his mask. A friend, a stranger, a kindred soul emerges and the mask is passed off and traded. The man watches and then walks away with a Sea Hawks hat.
Inspired by creating performance gifts for my schizophrenic mother Dinosaurs and Sea Hawks is another story in my ongoing performance works. The dinosaur mask is intended as a reminder of childhood and quite literally a mask to hide from the harsh reality of the world through my mother’s eyes.
Directed, filmed and edited by Linas Phillips.
Written and acted in by Ezra Dickinson.
Featuring Melinda Fraizer.
Screenings:
(2015) In Flight Film Stream, Alaska Airlines.
(2014) Film Screening, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle WA
(2014) Film Screening, Milwaukee Film Festival, Milwaukee WI
(2014) Film Screening, AMFEST, Moscow Russia
(2014) Film Screening, Next dance Cinema, Seattle WA
(2014) Film Screening, Jaipur International Film Festival, Jaipur India
(2014) Film Screening, Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival, Mumbai India
(2014) Film Screening, Shorts Premier, Chile
ArtZoom Gigapixel (2014)
(2014) performed for photograph
I was one of the hundred artists performing in various ways, dispersed throughout an image of Seattle stitched together from 22,000 photos, taken atop a tall building. For this Microsoft project, I used my Allosaurus head mask, standing outside the Science Center, carnivorously perched atop a large rock.
Gigapixel link. A short video of the making of this project.
Photo Anthony Rigano
Mother for you I made this (2013) film
(2013) Film (related to Mother… Performance)
Stand alone video documentation from the performance and audience experience of Mother for you I made this (2013)
Fillmed by Ryan Adams and Jocob Rosen. Edited by Ryan Adams.
(2019) Film screening with post-screening Q&A, radio interview. North Star Ballet, Fairbanks AK
(2015) Film screening, ArtEast, Issaquah WA
(2015) Film screening. TEDX Adventure, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA
(2014) Cornishʼs Our Creative Society, Seattle, WA
(2014) TEDX Rainier, Macaw Hall, Seattle WA
(2014) Film Screening, Fidalgo DanceWorks, Anacortes, WA
Mother for you I made this (2013)
(2013) Performance Premiere
Part performance and part activism, Mother for you I made this is aimed at activating a conversation about the failed mental health care system in America through memories of my childhood as I lived with and unknowingly cared for my schizophrenic mother. This hour-long solo is built from a series of performances I made as gifts for my mother over a seven year period.
Audiences were guided through forgotten public spaces by ushers and given a personal audio sound score composed by Paurl Walsh. Weaving conversations between myself and my mother with sounds from the actual landscape.
Mother for you I made this was commissioned and produced through Velocity Dance Center‘s Made in Seattle dance development program with support from 4Culture, ArtsFund, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
Collaborator credits:
Paurl Walsh Sound/composition.
Christopher Stewart Sound Tech.
Christian Swacker Stage manager.
Kim Lusk Tech Director.
Mother TEDX Rainer:
Tonya Lockyer + Ezra Dickinson TEDX Talk Macaw Hall 2014
Gifts for my mother, interview with Ezra at TEDX
Mother press reviews:
Seattle Dances: Ezra Dickinson Quietly Provokes
Seattle Star: The Art of Changing How We Talk About Mental Disorders
Seattle Times: Haunting look at mental illness, laid bare on the streets
City Arts: Ezra Dickinson Triumph and Tribute
The 12th Avenue Project: EZRA DICKINSON DANCES A DUET WITH SEATTLE
The Stranger: No Two Performances Will Be the Same
Mother press quotes:
Seattle Dance Annual: Reviewers recall highlights of 2013
Mother press preview/interview links:
The Stranger: Q&A with Ezra Dickinson
Seattle Met: A Fiendish Conversation with Ezra Dickinson
Kiro Radio: In “Mother For You I Made This,” a Seattle Dancer Finds a Stage in the Streets
KUOW Interview: Weekday & Weekday With Steve Scher (Interview starts at 38:30)
Seattle Channel: Art Zone with Nancy Guppy (Interview starts at 6:30)
Mother press photo essay of performance:
City Arts: Ezra Dickinson Takes to the Streets with an Emotional Tribute to His Mother
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Photo Dan Hawkins
Photo Tim Summers
Photo Dan Hawkins
Mother performance excerpts:
Pacific Northwest Performance Platform. APAP, Gibney Dance, NYC. (2019)
For this showcase I chose to perform the section from “Mother” where I wrap a 150’ foot block printed cloth poem, pulled from my stomach around a grove of trees, in this showing I asked audience members to stand onstage in place of trees as I wrapped the length of the poem around and in between them. I was quite pleased with the result, as the length of the cloth poem filled the stage to complete capacity and used the space and the audience in a way that no other performers did during the showing.
Velocity Bash. Velocity Dance Center, Seattle WA (2019)
Pacific Northwest Performance Platform. APAP, Gibney Dance, NYC. (2018)
The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human exhibition. City hall, Seattle WA (2015)
The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human exhibition. Highline College, Dem Moines WA (2015)
TEDX Rainier. Macaw Hall, Seattle WA (2014)
“My”. Art Share. Centennial Hall, Sitka AK (2005)
“My”. Cornish Benefit Concert. Poncho Theatre, Seattle WA (2005)
“My”. 12 Minutes Max. On The Boards, Seattle WA (2005)
Manifest Destiny’s Child (2012) film
(2012) Music Video, Corespondents, Seattle WA (Related to Mother… Film and Performance)
Music video created for the Corespondents and the performance of Mother for you I made this. Filmed and edited by Douglas Arney (of the Corespondents). Choreographed and performed by Ezra Dickinson. Music video features 14 versions of Ezra Dickinson and one that is not Ezra. The concept for this video is a remembrance for Ezra of growing up with a schizophrenic mother.
Mother Printed Poem (2012)
(2012) Text block printed on muslin, created for Mother for you I made this performance.
In developing my route for the performance of Mother for you I made this, I found myself gravitating towards the Federal Court House because I felt its backdrop during the performance could stand in as a symbol for the machine of America that forgets so many of its parts. I wanted to write a poem speaking to a courtroom and its judge: an only child pleading with the court/country’s constituents to see the forgotten and vulnerable, an only child pleading for the rights of his institutionalised mother. In my short film Listen I read this poem to an empty counsel chamber in Seattle’s City Hall.
Photo Nate Watters
To create this work I first had to measure the length between a desirable grove of trees located in the courtyard of the Court House. Having the exact distances between each tree, I started to create the layout of each word and each sentence. I had to take into consideration the direction that the poem would unfurl from my belly and how the audience was going to be viewing this work as I wrapped this poem through the trees. Once I had these steps completed this allowed me to determine the total length that was going to be needed to both complete the poem and also begin sewing the full length of muslin together. In total this poem is a hundred and fifty feet long. I hand printed each letter of each word, meticulously measuring each sentence so that it fell in the middle of its allotted length. I created a special undershirt that had a built compartment that housed and allowed for the poem to look as though it was being pulled from my belly. When the poem was wrapped in the trees it created a five pointed star, I think of this as not a nod to the stars on the American flag but a ritual space delineation each and every time I completed the task of wrapping. I am truly proud of this particular performance element. I feel this work digs deep to speak truth to power, and for my love of my mother. (from Mother for you I made this performance)
Photo Nate Watters
Photo Nate Watters
Photo Nate Watters
Please Don’t Touch.. (2011)
(2011) Performance. Commissioned by the Live At The Film Forum series. Seattle WA
Directed and developed by Actually Really (Ezra Dickinson and Paurl Walsh)
Sound by Paurl Walsh
Video by Douglas Arney
Choreography/performance by Ezra Dickinson
Please Don’t Touch The Ballerina by Actually Really was the first stage in experimentation using motion sensors attached to the performer generating and modulating the sound for the performance in real time. The idea that we are playing with is filming a dancer improvising while having the motion sensors attached, capturing both movement and sound. Next the composer takes the footage of the dancer improvising and generating sound, and composes the sound by reorganizing the dancer’s movements. In the final stage the dancer learns the new composition by way of the reorganized and composed video footage. In this process we take the composer and turn him in to the choreographer, and take the choreographer and turn him in to the composer.
This work’s foundation is built on cycles. Each of the three main components has a repeated pattern built on the frame of a forty-eight minute performance. Actually Really is a collaboration formed by Paurl Walsh and Ezra Dickinson to explore new technology in performance and sound.
Please don’t touch the ballerina Press Review:
Seattle Times: Dance and wireless technology combine
