Americana: Entitled @ REACH Opening

Americana: Entitled performed at RedLine’s REACH Exhibition Opening.

Americana: Entitled is a dance work, choreographed by Kate Speer, that is performed upon a deteriorating landscape of the United States. As the dance progresses, the dancers’ footprints through molasses leave tracks, lines, and divisions across the landscape. With an original music score by composer Michael Clark, the sound mixes nostalgic American rock with abrasive, distorted guitar riffs to create a dystopian atmosphere. Performers are Maggie Ammons, Amy Bishop, Jessica Troppmann, Rowan Salem, and Kate Speer.

Entitled is part of the Americana creative series that exposes the underpinnings of collective American nostalgia, particularly white America. In this version, the emphasis is on the self-indulgence of white culture, here represented through Western concert dance, and the destruction–the divisions and lines–created across the United States. Before Western settlers, there were no maps, lines of ownership or division of land, at least in Western understanding. Now there are highways, state lines, reservations controlling Native resources, the list is endless. This brief performance work isolates the indulgence of “art-for-beauty’s sake” against the lasting impact it may leave behind.