CLEARLY
Choreography and video by Valerie Williams
Music composed by Matthew Coley
Images by Hiromi Okumura
Some thoughts on glass and abstraction
Picking up the pieces of broken ideas…
Seeing through to the personal…
Shards piercing the heart….
Each person has a unique reaction to art, viewing each offering through the prism of his or her own life experiences. This art is an experiment in interactivity.
Imagine an installation with over 200 pieces of handmade glass that are played like percussion instruments. Now add video, lights, musicians and dancers to fill the space with visual and aural color. Using Co’Motion Dance’s innovative Interactive DanceTech, video and processed sound combine with live music to respond to the performers and the audience!
CLEARLY is a performance, but also an installation of acoustic, choreographic, electronic, and optic wonder! An amazing mix of movement and experimental music, The CLEARLY installation is designed to react to movement and sound. Walk or dance through the installation as video projections and music react to your gestures, voice, and any contact you make with the dangling instruments.
CLEARLY can be settled into many different kinds of space. Whether you have a traditional or non-traditional performance space, museum space, or simply an open space, CLEARLY can include a performance, audience participation, or exist as an installation.
Developed by Matthew Coley and Valerie Williams, with Co’Motion Dance Theater, visual artist Hiromi Okumura, Nathan Ratliff, Keith Kutz and the ISU Gaffer’s Guild,
CLEARLY has caught the attention of audiences...
“The percussionist’s innovative use of glass evoked the spirit of scientific experimentation, making the events more than just “artsy fartsy” affairs (and pinging different-shaped glasses for different effects offered the audience-participants another invitation to take their experience home). The visual quality of the show was superb. All the detailed dazzled the eyes, from the beautiful poster to the flowing costumes and sparkling set. The dancers appeared gorgeous and free in their motions…one of the most memorable cultural events I have attended in recent years.”
"The Clearly performance at Brunnier Art Museum in Ames was a delight. We appreciated the fresh confluence of dance, percussion, and visual arts--more so after the opportunity to talk with the performers following the show. We learned that the glass instruments were locally created to produce a variety of crystalline tones and melodies. The lighting, set, and interactive digital elements were unique, supporting and complimenting the dance performance. We appreciated the opportunity to watch the dance from various perspectives--also allowing us to closely observe the percussionist at work. All it all, it was an intriguing and thoroughly enjoyable work."
Check out a sample of CLEARLY here!
The CLEARLY installation is designed to react to movement and sound. When you walk or dance through the installation, video projections and music will react to your gestures and voice. We encourage you to experiment with seeing how your actions influence the music and images, and want you to try playing the hanging glass musical instruments.
CLEARLY includes over 100 handmade glass instruments developed by percussionist Matthew Coley. View a sample of how the instruments were made as well as original compositions by Matthew for CLEARLY. Backgrounds and projections were developed by Hiromi Okumura.
