Biography of a Body (2017)

Commissioned by Scotia Festival of Music

Premiere: Scotia Festival of Music, Dalhousie Arts Center, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Choreography & Performance: Rebecca Lazier
Music: Alberto Ginaestra’s Punena No. 2, op. 45
Music Performance: Denise Djokic
Costume Designer: Mary Jo Mecca
Duration: 13 minutes

Recessed is a physical allegory of Alberto Ginastera’s Punena no. 2, op. 45. The music was commissioned by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in 1976 to celebrate the conductor Paul Sacher’s 70th birthday. The composer was inspired by the dizzying plateaus of the Andes Mountains and describes the piece as an evocation of mysterious landscapes and ancient melodies. The structural blending of emotional states with metaphysical imaginings creates a work that is at once rhapsodic and fervent, vehement and contemplative. The dance evolved from these ideas and uses the body to house the sonic compulsions of the Punena, at times being ruled by the music in other moments surrendering.