(duet) (2000)

A duet for dancer and videographer in which a tragic heroine is presented in a world of her own onstage- dancing, smiling, shaking, crying, laughing, answering the telephone-- accompanied by cello music by JS Bach. A voyeur (a videographer) is onstage with her and live-feed video of the dance is being projected on a white drapery to the side of the stage so that the dance you are seeing is being edited by the videographer's point of view even as it is being performed in front of you. The audience is invited to look either place or both at once. Both worlds eventually merge in fruition.

"Using loaded elements in costuming or props - a dish of fruit, a black bodice tightly lashed across a bare back, a rose - Germond encourages us to search for meaningful connections. A moment later, she forces us to ask if that meaning was a cheap illusion or even a chance juxtaposition. The fact that we remain unsure is, of course, disturbing. The uncertainty creates a tension that is compelling and demands a unique type of attention - to what? Oddly, I think it is to the consciousness of the dancer/s. Which is different from attention to beautiful movement, beautiful bodies or to evocations of emotion. An attractive, though unfamiliar, presence emerges in this work. Before we know it, we have leaned over too far in our efforts to peer into the peculiar void she creates. Our disequilibrium seems to make us part of the performance. "

- Linda Duke, 2000
Curator at the Krannert Art Museum
Urbana, IL

Music: JS Bach
Videographer/Set Designer: Julie Farstad
Running Length: 10 minutes
Photo: c. 2000 Corny Casaclang