A choreography of crisis. 'Cultured' marble banana peels appear strewn, not hewn, on the floors. The imminent future implied by the ‘slapstick’ humor of the pratfall is shown to be the calculated placement of the pitfall. Choreography converts the ‘slip’ into a ‘stumble’. The intractable becomes concrete. A ‘slip’ is accidental, its damage lamentable and victim sympathetic. When it ‘happens’ to someone else, it is comical. Crisis, like physical humor, is based on speed and surprise, necessitating haste and condemning circumspection. Crisis dies with analysis. To ‘stumble’ emphasizes an external obstacle or indicates impaired agency. Stumbling is an event or encounter to be dealt with. It compels a backward look, identifies missteps, and assigns blame. Choreography doesn’t find the now millions of downwardly mobile people, and the economic sleight of hand that has assisted their fall, funny at all. It is a field of injustice. Premiered at Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh

Date: 01/01/2009
Dimensions: 72” x 120” x 3”