ANIMAL ESTATE 1.0: NEW YORK CITY - museum movements: ANIMAL SCORES

Commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art as a part of Animal Estates 1.0: New York, NY for the 2008 Whitney Biennial / March 6th - June 1st, 2008

Twelve New York City movement artists have written scores inspired by one of the twelve native New York City animal clients for twelve contiguous spaces in the museum. They include Felicia Ballos (Wood Duck), Layla Childs (Big Brown Bat), Alex Escalante (Purple Martin), Levi Gonzalez (Northern Flying Squirrel), Paige Gratland (beaver), Michael Helland (Bobcat), Jmy Leary (Eastern Tiger Salamander), Daniel Linehan (Opossum), Jennifer Monson (Eastern Mud Turtle), Kayvon Pourazar (Barn Owl), Anna Sperber (Mason Bee), and Flora Wiegmann (Bald Eagle). Each week during the run of the Biennial, one of the dancers will do a silent "tour" of the museum, moving through each of the "scored" rooms, performing their own interpretations of the twelve animal inspired movements. Watch a preview of the animal movements HERE. {Postcards with the portrait and movement score for each animal are for sale in the Whitney Museum bookstore}

THE PERFORMANCES

Starting at NOON at the top floor gallery of the Biennial exhibition.

#01 Wed, March 6th - Flora Wiegmann
#02 Wed, March 12th - Jmy Leary
#03 Wed, March 19th - Paige Gratland
#04 Wed, March 26th - Daniel Linehan
#05 Wed, April 2nd - Levi Gonzalez
#06 Wed, April 9th - Michael Helland
#07 Sun, April 20th - Kayvon Pourazar
#08 Sun, April 27th - Felicia Ballos
#09 Sun, May 4th - Anna Sperber
#10 Sun, May 11th - Layla Childs
#11 Sun, May 18th - Jennifer Monson
#12 Sun, May 25th - Alex Escalante

THE POSTCARDS

Postcards featuring each of the 12 written scores of movement and portraits by Nicolas Wagner are for sale in the Whitney Museum bookstore during the run of the Biennial. DOWNLOAD (pdf)

ANIMAL DRILLS

On Saturday, March 22nd at 2pm the public is invited into the vast drill hall of the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue. All twelve movement artists begin with a collective performance of all twelve animal movements. They then give instruction in the movements culminating in organized group performance echoing the military drills orignally staged in the hall

THE SCORES OF MOVEMENT

1.01 Bald Eagle {Haliaeetus leucocephalus} score by Flora Wiegmann

• With toes turned outwards, place talon fingers in between as a third point on the floor. Put the other hand on the floor and switch feet to be centered around them. This will turn you almost 180 degrees.

• Repeat until you've established your nest.

• Roll up and everything lifts towards the sky.

• Dive forward and at the last moment, catch yourself with two strong legs. You have hefty landing gear.

• Shift weight to each leg separately, choosing a new place of focus with each shift.

• Roll head forward and down, ending with head toward your right ankle.

• Loosen the joints where the wing meets the body, rolling the muscular area with intention.

• Slide into a crouch with front talons outstretched. Continue working with the wing joints, but utilize your entire wingspan.

• Repeat for awhile.

• Slide forward into a lunge, overlooking everything.

• Dip head under your arm and flap, swinging it back -- look to the left. Flap it across your body -- look right. Flap to the side -- look left.

• Let this take you all over the room.

1.02 Barn Owl {Tyto alba} score by Kayvon Pourazar

• Go to a vertical flat surface, (wall, column etc.) and flatten your profile by pressing your face or the nape of your neck lightly into the wall.

• Walk to the middle of the room in whatever form this results in.

• Turn to fix an imaginary gaze, as if you had eyes on your sacrum, to one corner of the room, and let the spine spiral from the bottom up until you're gazing at that point with your actual eyes.

• Repeat this a number of times and on the final spiral claw your hands on to your pelvis to lock into an extreme spiral.

• Then, slowly lower to a kneeling perch position maintaining your extreme spiral and fixed gaze.

1.03 Wood Duck {Aix sponsa} score by Felicia Ballos

• you're wading.  you're wading.

• fingertips become tips of feathers dipping into water . they drag around front, symmetrical elbows ride a wave forward.  

• hands curl around the crest & pull it into your belly hands become heads with temples touching one beak slides into the other, the wading stops when foreheads meet.  

• now it's necks rubbing, beaks pushing off each other to look into the other's eyes.

• all the while the legs are really doing the work. all on releve. toes initiate movement through the resistance.

1.04 Purple Martin {Progne subis} score by Alex Escalante {video clip}

• The Purple Martin only eats and drinks while in flight.

• 4 sharp directional changes in the positon of the head

• Chest puffs up 3 sharp directional changes in the positon of the head

• Chest puffs up

• 1 sharp directional change in the positon of the head

• Chest puffs up

• Send weight through feet and pitch torso to one side

• Fall and recover with several jumps while grabbing at the air (food) with your hands in all directions

• Slowly land and settle

• Repeat head with one pivot and only one chest puff

• Pitch torso again but stay closer to ground and hover while grabbing at air with hands and dragging feet.

• Settle

• 2 sharp directional changes in the positon of the head

• Chest puffs up

1.05 Big Brown Bat {Eptesicus fuscus} score by Layla Childs

the bold words indicate the bbb's movements

They call me Eptesicus or "houseflyer " for I make my house in human made structures such as barns, silos, eaves and porches.   In nature, I live inside caves, tree hollows and rock ledges. I begin by finding the right spot.

• I close my eyes and imagine I am furless for this is how I'm born as a big brown bat. Big is relative for I weigh merely three grams at the start, but will grow quickly to my full size of about 15 grams as my mother nurses me in a maternity colony with up to 300 others.

• I squeak to communicate, especially when I fall from my mother's safe wing to let her know where I am so an owl or snake doesn't get me

• I begin to practice my turns and landings, and hanging upside down until I'm satisfied and can feed on my own

• I spread my leathery dark brown wings and go out to feed shortly after sundown. I change direction rapidly and frequently to eat a beetle, bee or fly in mid-flight with my 32 sharp teeth I chew.

• My shiny brown fur grows in and I have a broad nose and fleshy lips. My voice is a click or a sound like steam releasing and I find my way through the night skies by use of echolocation, making ultrasonic sounds through my mouth or nose as I fly.

• I mate in fall, hibernate in the winter and give birth in the spring to my one or two pups. When I'm nursing my young, I can eat my full body weight in insects and then I will take a night roost spot to digest before returning to my day roost to feed my pups.

1.06 Mason Bee {Osmia lignaria} score by Anna Sperber

Find a nook, or corner, to curl yourself into. 
You are beginning this score in the larva state.  
You are warm, safe, and insulated from your surroundings.
You have not yet encountered anything in the world beyond this dark hole you are nestled inside of.
Settle into a restful, nourishing state.
Become aware of your inhale expanding your ribcage against the surfaces you are nestled into. and your exhale letting your whole structure soften.
After you feel completely settled, wait a little longer.
Begin breaking the confines of this hole with small isolated movements. 
Rotate around yourself repeatedly - spinning a cocoon.
Spend as much time as you desire in this cocoon.  
When you feel ready to emerge, move freely throughout the space -  your path with be guided by your attraction to floral prints and bright colors. 
(Feel free to buzz gently)

1.07 Opossum {Didelphus virginiana} score by Daniel Linehan

• You move slowly, quietly, and nocturnally with your hands in your pockets. (You are North America’s only marsupial, so you have a pouch!).

• You spot an onlooker. Danger! You “play dead”: You unconsciously go catatonic and drop onto your side, lips drawn back, all 50 or your teeth bared, eyes staring fixedly into space. (Also: saliva foams around your mouth, and foul-smelling fluid is secreted from your anal glands).

• You slowly regain consciousness.

• You slowly climb a tree with your five limbs: Tail – Foot – Foot – Hand – Hand. You eat a cockroach with your 50 teeth. Yum! (Your feet have opposable thumbs, which makes climbing very easy! And you like to eat what humans think of as pests! You can even eat rats with rabies, but you will remain disease-free because of your strong immune system! You also like to eat dead animals, which helps to keep the roads clean! That’s right: You are “Nature’s Little Sanitation Engineer”!).

• You slowly and nomadically move to a new environment, with your hands in your pockets.

• Repeat: You slowly climb another tree. You eat a piece of fruit with your 50 teeth. Yum! (You are an omnivore, too!).

• You quickly get old. You die. (The aging process happens very rapidly for you, and you die after having lived for only 2-4 years).

1.08 Northern Flying Squirrel {Glaucomys sabrinus} score by Levi Gonzalez

• Find a corner to hide in. You are an excellent hider and you are nocturnal. Generally Flying Squirrels hide in hollowed out trees which is why clear-cutting forests has a devastating effect on their populations. In your hiding place take a moment to feel totally enclosed, private, and still.

• Imagine a rapid pulse of the heart. Magnify this pulse with small ripples through the spine emanating from the heart center. Other than this you are completely still and noiseless.

• Begin sniffing the air rapidly. You have an excellent sense of smell. Your eyes are large and you can see well. Also heighten your awareness of sound.

• When you move, you do so without warning and stop suddenly. Play with this idea of sudden bursts of movement (either the literal scurrying of a squirrel or your own fanciful interpretation), followed by stillness with the exception of your rapidly beating chest.

• Decide to glide. You crouch down quickly and extend your arms and legs in all four directions (or three since we cant actually glide like a flying squirrel). As you fly, shift your tailbone (tail) right and left rapidly to help steer and adjust your limbs in the “air”. Just before you “land” come upright and latch on vertically to a surface, then scurry to a side to avoid predators.

• Find food. (Flying squirrels are partial to truffles, nuts, insects and fungi spores). Standing on your hind legs (your legs) bring your hands to your mouth and chew rapidly. Lower your hands and continue rapid chewing with your jaw.

• Continue to play with the idea of stillness and noiselessness, followed by quick, rapid movements. Avoid being out in the open for too long. Play with your sense of perception as being acute and your nervous system quick. When you have had enough, crouch down and glide away.

1.09 Bobcat {Lynx rufus} score by Michael Helland

part 1: INVOKE THE SPIRIT

I. Enter into the bobcat's territory, considering your location in relation to other bodies trafficking through the space, and chose a comfortable place from which to begin. (Like most cats the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, but recent bobcat movement studies reveal that thanks to habitat loss and fragmentation, bobcats can be found in closer proximity to humans that ever imagined!)

II. Stand in a neutral position and begin to 'bob' the upper body atop the legs, floating the spine while locating subtle multi-directional impulses from the base of your torso/pelvic region.   (Just so you know, bobcats don't really do this kind of dancing...however, people often wonder about the origin of the 'bob' in bobcat, which is actually related to the shortness of the tail, which has a bobbed look to it.)

III. Continue this bobbing action while beginning to adopt a feline gaze, imagining that the pupils of the eye can narrow to extend vertically.  Attempt to maintain the facial tension that manifests from this impossible task throughout your time as a bobcat.   (You are now just one step away from becoming a bobcat...)

IV. Begin to move your arms and upper body in swift currents, creating a stir in the air around you.  Develop this movement, either in place or by choosing to move through the space, with the goal of creating your own personal wind to effect the space, yourself and the people around you.   (In Native American mythology, the bobcat is associated with the wind...so make some.)


part 2: TIME FOR A HUNT

V. Once the bobbing-cat-eyed-wind-dance has exhausted itself, jump-cut into a tight prowling stance, with clenched hands before you (these are your retractable claws) .  Select a target (bobcats are highly adaptable opportunistic predators) and prepare to move slowly towards it in this prowl stance.  After you step one leading leg forward, step the back foot into the spot where the front foot was, replacing the front let with the back leg as you walk.   (Like most cats the bobcat directly registers, meaning that its hind prints usually fall exactly on top of its fore prints...very sneaky.)

VI. Once you have reached the target, abruptly open your hands/fingers towards them, and adopt an exasperated pondering look on the face.   (This is an attempt to embody the long-standing taxonomic debate over whether to classify the bobcat species at Lynx rufus or Felis rufus, part of a wider issue regarding whether the four species of Lynx should be given their own genus, or be placed as a subgenus of Felis.  Rest assured that the Lynx genus is now widely accepted, and the bobcat is listed as Lynx rufus in modern taxonomic sources.)

VII. Move away from the prolonged-look-of-exasperated-pondering by repeating the beginning of part V (jump cut into a tight prowling stance, with clenched hands before you) but this time select a target that is a wall/column surface at a maximum distance from you.  Move towards this target in a similar manner of mechanics as before, but with more haste, working towards a full speed chasing-step.

VIII. Upon reaching your destination, attempt to 'climb' the wall by reaching and swiping your arms against the wall surface.  Then transfer this swiping motion to your own body, and swipe your hands over your entire body surface, letting this action dissolve back into a neutral presence, and resolve towards an exit from the space and continue your Animal Scores journey onto the next animal.   (Congratulations, you have just enacted an abstract rendition of the Shawnee tale of how the bobcat got its spots: After trapping a rabbit in a tree, the bobcat is outwitted by the rabbit who convinces the bobcat to build a fire, only to have the embers scattered on its fur, leaving it singed with dark brown spots.)

1.10 Eastern Tiger Salamander {Ambystoma tigrinum} score by Jmy Leary

The TIGER SALAMANDER is one of the largest terrestrial salamanders in the United States. The biggest specimen recorded was 13 inches long. They have stocky bodies with long tails and are dark brown, almost black, with yellow to olive colored blotches. Adults are rarely seen in the open and often live in burrows. TIGER SALAMANDERS are almost entirely terrestrial as adults, and usually only return to the water to breed. Like all ambystomatids, they are extremely loyal to their birthplace, and will travel quite some distance to reach it. After a brief courtship which consists of the male pushing his nose against the female's body, eggs are laid in a mass and attached to twigs and weed stems under water.

Neotene populations of the TIGER SALAMANDER are particularly common where terrestrial conditions are bad. If environmental conditions improve, such as higher levels of iodine in the water, the organism can often develop into a fully mature adult form. Neotenes have not metamorphosed at all, and are still in larval form. They have not developed legs and remain aquatic, yet are sexually mature.

You are a neotene. learn the Neotene Mating Dance.

• Find some humans who want to pretend to be a neotene.

• Chose to be male or female and don't tell the others in your neotene Pond.

• Sit on the ground in any way; you have no legs (or arms).

• Do the neotene Pond Dance
1. Move both shoulders up and down 16 times.
2. Keep doing your shoulders up and down and move your ribs side to side 16 times.
3. Sing any little humming song you can imagine a neotene in a pond doing.
4. Do it all again.

While………………

Males:
• Wiggle around doing the song and dance (you have no legs or arms buddy) to find another neotene (male or female)
• Push your nose against any part of another neotene.
• If that neotene is female, she is sperminated.
• Wiggle around some more, find another neotene

Females:
• Wiggle around doing the song and dance (you have no legs or arms buddy).
• If you are indeed female and a male neotene pushes his nose against some part of your body, you are sperminated.
• Find something in your environment to attach your eggs to and lay down next to it for a second.
• Wiggle around some more

1.11 Eastern Mud Turtle {Kinosternon subrubrum} score by Jennifer Monson

This score uses images, sensory awareness and physical motivations that combine both internal and external landscapes. It is your choice to create in "interpretive" dance or a murky, slow embodiment of states, motivations and reactions to place/habitat/estate.

Think of this score as a protective carapace - dome like and protective, supported beneath by a dark patterned plastron. The dance is the delicate, mobil insides of this form.

THE SCORE:

• Warm-up - create a protective outer covering by touching all parts of your body to hard surfaces

• These following components are to be mapped as desired-

PHYSICAL STATES

• Hibernation - a state of stillness and quiet. Listen to your heart beat

• Motivation - a state of acute sensory awareness of the external world.

• Locomotion - a state of delicate extensions from a protected center. Define what a stride is and move through space at one pace every five seconds.

IMAGE STATES

• terrestrial, leafy forest beds

• clear placid ponds

• muddy, sandy swamps

• black, tar asphalt roads

• At any point during the dance you can move into aestivation- a temporary state of torpor or if aggravated you can nudge, ram, bite or mount any nearby animate or inanimate objects

1.12 Beaver {Castor Canadensis} score by Paige Gratland

(Unlike other mammals, the beaver has no visible sex organs distinguishing males from females. Because of this, early European
cultures believed the male, for reasons of avoiding capture, castrated himself. The castor glands, which early on were confused for testicles, emit a strong smelling liquid used by the beaver to mark its territory. Humans hunted the glands for its medicinal qualities and for use in perfumes. It was a popular notion that during the hunt a beaver would suddenly turn around face its captor rise on their hind legs and show the hunter he was missing what was sought after.)

THE SCORE:

The beaver sits on its tail, with the tail coming forward between the back legs, while grooming. Start in this position with legs bent and
turned out, pelvis tipped up, hand in front as tail and other arm bent with hand behind back, head looking down to front hand, let hair fall
in front of face. Rock hand between thighs and move action backward, kind of awkwardly. (swimming)

Move around room, slowly in a circle lumbering, as leg goes forward, opposite arm comes back. Stop, with jump on the spot, one arm bent across chest connecting to other arm at elbow. Flay arm to side (a tree falls.)

Keep moving around room but a little faster (in pursuit). Turn quickly on balls of feet pelvis tipped up arms raised in surrender.

Jump to front, legs apart, right arm under left out from chest, slap right arm under left. (Tail slap to alarm others of danger- motion also used as sign language for beaver).