Michael O'Connor

Project 1

Solo: You are the subject of my seeing

My body and mind hold memory of the future. Living in desire and lamenting in the past. I exist in relation to events that have already happened and will eventually happen. Harboring tension by teetering on memories and anticipations, I am actually thrown into the present moment which my body and mind can’t actually comprehend. The audience witnesses a state that actually slips from my grasp as soon as I realize it. In a time where lethargy, apathy and lack of responsibility rule everyone’s moral judgement, how can my limited body speak to anyone at all? Hopefully in the limited or limitless-ness of myself, honesty reveals itself, and that alone is all I can offer.

Project 2

Jai Jai Sincere

Neither a drag queen nor a music video is real, and yet I am fascinated with the fact we get drawn into them. We know its fake, but the elements are so well put together we listen and become manipulated, at the same time we judge. A technique has been formed over years by the media that we have become to recognize. A modern day burlesque has its home on TV and has evolved with a strict dramaturgy it can be perceived as fine art. Jai Jai Sincere is drag and the embodiment of popular media performance evolving into fine art. What elements of Jai Jai Sincere and the performance are real and which are fake? Is it sexy and alluring or grotesque and bizarre? I hope the question brings the audience further and further into the piece. The goal is dance-performance-drag

Michael O’Connor

BFA Univ. of Utah, started working with Cie. Willi Dorner in 2003. He was listed in the 2008 BalletTanz magazine as the ‘dancer to watch’ in Vienna for his own choreography and performance in his piece entitled a waiting dog dies. He is currently the Vienna branch facilitator for the Field Method, sponsored by TQW. Mike has also worked with and done coaching projects with Deborah Hay, Alain Buffard, Philipp Gehmacher, Barbara Kraus, Davis Freeman, Andrew Harwood, Ko Murobushi and Superamas. The past three summers, Mike has helped assist in the creation and performance of ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ performed worldwide.
www.awaitingdog.com