53 Rooms / Charon

Choreography - Daniel Charon

Musical Score - In C by Terry Riley

Live Musical Performance - Salt Lake Electric Ensemble

Costumes - Eugene Tachinni

Lighting Design - Cliff Wallgren

Performers - Bradley Beakes, Alexandra Jane Bradshaw, Yebel Gallegos, Mary Lyn Graves, Bashaun Williams, and Melissa Younker

Additional Performers - Students of the University of Utah Department of Modern Dance

Premiere Date - April 9, 2015

30 - 40 Minutes

Program Note - In C, the musical work accompanying this dance, consists of 53 short musical phrases. Each phrase is repeated an arbitrary number of times with each musician deciding, on their own, when to transition to the next phrase. It’s an incredibly structured score that through rigorous interpretation remains flexible to the needs of the moment. The interpretation of these compartmentalized phrases drew me to think about the modularization of our own lives – about how a singular relationship can be perceived in multiple ways. My piece, 53 Rooms, evolved into a physical narrative by considering the balance between the constrained and free, the ordered and open, the personal and the communal. My hope is that you will  take in this event as something to be experienced without feeling the necessity to define it.