The B-Side of Influence: Billy Squier and Butoh
2015, REDCAT, Los Angeles
The B-Side of Influence: Billy Squier and Butoh
2015, REDCAT, Los Angeles
This performance begins as an artist lecture. The audience is seated in two banks of risers facing each other. Planted performers are covertly seated in one bank of risers while the real audience is seated in the other. The Artist enters and begins to give a lecture to the audience, standing between the two risers facing the planted audience, her back to the real audience. The Artist is seemingly lecturing but is completely silent. The planted audience responds as if they can hear the lecture. Eventually the real audience detects choreographic patterns and realizes that The Artist’s subtle movements cue the planted audience to react in unison: call and response choreography. The cues from The Artist to The Audience become more complex and drum sticks and guitars get taken out from underneath the seats of the planted performers and they start playing a song riff that slowly develops into full orchestration with The Artist singing the lyrics.