Interrobang

June 15, 16, 2017
92nd Street Y, DIG Dance Festival
Choreography by Esmé Boyce in collaboration with the dancers
Performance by Esmé Boyce, Cori Kresge, Pierre Guilbault, Kit McDaniel and Matilda Sakamoto
Set design by Kit Boyce
Costume design by Sue Julien
Music Composition by Cody Boyce

"Interrobang" is an interdisciplinary dance piece that explores absurdism and delves into the deconstruction of expectations and order. It utilizes the evolution of formal movement to remove meaning, change meaning, and evoke meaning. Interrobang, the title of which refers to the nonstandard punctuation mark (‽), began as an investigation of absurdist sensibilities embodied by Dada art and theory. It evolved to be a study of shifting contexts: comically baroque movement is undercut by plainly emotional music; melodies that verge on the sentimental are rendered uneasy by dissonance and distortion; refined gestures quickly devolve through repetition.

The world we build on stage is an odd, ornate one that embraces a certain twinkle in the eye, even as the dancers execute rigorous tasks. A dancer is crowned with a bejeweled "HUH" tiara, a wearable sculpture of punctuation (the interrobang) has it's moment and there's even a prince! Dancers periodically dive behind the elaborate backdrop to change costumes, returning to lounge by the side of the stage until they re-engage with the dance. The original score, created by Cody Boyce, is performed live; the set and costumes (some with fur; some with feathers) all feed back into this idea of upended order.