BRANCH is a video dance collaboration with Ellen Sebring based on the Greek myth of Daphne: the story of a young woman pursued by Apollo, who is turned by Hera into a tree to save her. It is a story of initiation and loss of innocence. Videographer Ellen Sebring and I felt it would be a potent work on screen, and expanded upon the original live performance material. In the film I play the maiden Daphne, as well as her transformed tree-self, and a contemporary Zeus.
Work on BRANCH was inspired by a residency at the Djerassi Foundation in California. The trees there are so different from those in New England. Taller, more massive and pungent, redder, stranger - the madrones and wierdly twisting live oaks especially - like limbs of a body. I became fascinated with them, and found myself bringing branches back into the studio from my walks. One day, I found myself with reddish madrone branches tied onto the ends of my hands, which became the beginning of the dance. The costume is a red chiffon gown from the 1940's, once worn by a singer with a big band,now tattered and spattered. Costume designer Christine Joly de Lotbinneire deconstructed it for the tree costume in the video.
photo by Pam White
