MORE UP A TREE
CONCEIVED AND DIRECTED BY EVE SUSSMAN WITH JIM WHITE & CLAUDIA DE SERPES SOARES
CO-COMMISSIONED BY BAM & PERFORMA15
PRESENTED AT 2015 BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL, BAM FISHER, NOV 2015
On one side of a two-way surveillance mirror, the audience peers in on an experiment: dancer Claudia de Serpa Soares (Sasha Waltz & Guests) and drummer Jim White (Dirty Three) attempting to create something resembling melody using movement, rhythm, and light. Created by de Serpa Soares, White, and artist Eve Sussman (Rufus Corporation) and co-presented by Performa 15, this inventive performance work—in which the fourth wall is just as much a window—heightens the hermetic world of artists and voyeuristic role of audiences as its tandem soloists go roving.
PRESS for More Up A Tree
“More Up a Tree” was a natural kind of performance — organic, joyful, generous.
— Ben Ratliffe, NEW YORK TIMES, “A Drummer, A Dancer, And a Looking Glass,” Nov 21, 2015
“As is the case with all of Ms. Sussman’s outside-the-box art (pun intended), More Up a Tree‘s strength is that it gives you something that might not be described as art yet becomes art. What she knows for sure is that the powers of collaborative talent—really sophisticated talent—can sometimes evoke something entirely new, and yes, there are new things to be found under the sun if you really look.”
— Ryan Steadman, OBSERVER, “An Exclusive Look at BAM's Experimental Performance Art Piece,” Oct 1, 2015
“The performance is interesting as an exploration of how interdisciplinary collaboration works or might work – a blueprint for a shared practice.”
— Kris Weber, THEATRE PEOPLE, Oct 15, 2015
More Up A Tree considered the surveillance-like nature of performance, and the often invisible collaborations and tensions between performers and audience.