For several weeks, dancers in The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts have been rehearsing outdoors and choreographing works for the new nomadic dance floor. Designed to serve many purposes, the 32′ by 32′ floor is “a dance studio, theater, gallery, screening room, political forum, music video set and a moving site-specific production,” said School of Dance Dean Dimitri Chamblas. “In short, it’s Los Angeles, where we innovate and pioneer the merging of artistic mediums.”
On Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 13), the School of Dance presented Intermission, a showcase of six new works created specifically for the outdoor dance floor: Play by Im Vorapharuek (BFA 19); Catch by Orla Regan and Alice Ortona Coles (exchange students); Spilled Milk by Lilia Deering (BFA 19); My Friend Im by Chenhui Mao (BFA 19); Gemini by Audrey Collette (BFA 19) and Nicholas Ruscica (BFA 20); and One Off by Sky Spiegel (BFA 19) and Lizzy Noriega (BFA 19).
Conceived by Chamblas and built by student dancers working with CalArts Dance Technical Director Sevim Abaza, the floor already has travel plans for 2019. In February, it relocates to West Hollywood’s MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House. Later in the year, the floor will be installed outside the Los Angeles Dance Project (LADP) and the adjoining Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles’ Warehouse District.
Check out the photo gallery of Intermission, above, and follow CalArts on Instagram to watch videos from the performance in our Stories section.