Photo by Hope Davis (used with permission)
We checked out Unison Fetish's public dance performance on Saturday at 2:00 at Bleecker Playground, and have some other video clips.
photo by Rachel Kramer Bussel
We'll have an interview with Sue here soon. Here are my photos, and here's a fabulous set on Flickr by Hope Davis. There was a pretty big crowd which grew as they danced. Here's some footage I shot (sorry about the chatting in the background):
The funniest part (to me) was that I got there just before 2, and other people were clearly waiting for the performance too, and all of a sudden this woman swoops in with cupcake carriers and starts giving out cupcakes. I'm thinking, Is this part of the dance? Then she says, "You're all here for my Sex and the City tour, right?" Hilarious.
Here's the press release from Sue Hogan:
Celebrate the Cult of the Cupcake
with
UNISON FETISH
Featuring the CUPCAKE CADET CORPS
Saturday May 17, 24, June 14 & Sunday June 22 @ 2pm & 4pm
Bleecker Playground @ West 11th & Bleecker Streets
Do you love cupcakes? Would you wait in line for 30 minutes to buy a cupcake? Do you wonder about the sanity of people who do? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, Unison Fetish is the site-specific event for you! Conceived and choreographed by Sue Hogan for six members of the Cupcake Cadet Corps and twelve cupcakes, Unison Fetish offers a satirical commentary on cupcake mania and the consuming obsession to consume.
The event begins as the Cupcake Cadets parade up Bleecker Street to the Magnolia Bakery, the epicenter of the cupcake craze, and then process past the bakery to Bleecker Playground. Holding two Magnolia cupcakes, they sing a parody of “God Bless America” that comments on the transformation of this section of the West Village from a quaint historical neighborhood to an upscale shopping area. Once in the park, they perform a series of dances that celebrate the cupcake as a cultural fetish object to music by the Art of Noise and the Comedian Harmonists.
photo by Hope Davis
Members of the Cupcake Cadets Corps include Summer Brown, Sheiline McGraw, Marla McReynolds, Joseph Schles, Becka Vargus, and Emily Wassyng. They will be dressed in snappy attire designed by Bessie award winner, Liz Prince. The event will take place at 2pm and 4pm on Saturday May 17, 24, June 14, and Sunday June 22 on the northwest corner of Bleecker and West 11th Streets with rain dates on Sunday May 18, May 25, and June 15.
Sue Hogan has been performing her choreography in various downtown venues in New York since 1992, including solo concerts and collaborative duets with John Morris. She has been a guest choreographer at Pomona College, California Institute of the Arts, and the University of Memphis, and her work has been presented throughout the country. The Philadelphia Inquirer described her work as “devastatingly deadpan.”
Her choreographic career began when her routine won the California State Championship for her high school pompom squad. Encouraged by this early accolade, she earned a BFA in dance from California Institute of the Arts and migrated to New York. In 2004 she completed a MFA from California State University, Long Beach, and co-founded ThreeWay…a tri-coastal dance project, with Seattle-based choreographer Erin Mitchell and Los Angles-based choreographer Colleen Dunagan.
Unison Fetish has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s MCAF fund.1 Her selection as a Dance Theater Workshop 2007-08 Outer/Space Creative Artist-in-Residence gave her the opportunity to begin developing this project.2
photo by Hope Davis
1This project is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
2Outer/Space is a program of Dance Theater Workshop and is supported in part, by JPMorgan Chase, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Council.
photo by Rachel Kramer Bussel
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