Keith Hennessy
Turbulence (a dance about the economy)

Turbulence - a dance about the economy Turbulence, the Coaching Project, is a research laboratory for a new work choreographed by Keith Hennessy. Part workshop, part choreographic experiment, part repertory class, part collaboration. Participants will work for five days – studying, dancing, talking, making, improvising – to develop performance images, actions, scores, and texts. Additionally, we will experiment with pre-existing scores from previous Turbulence labs. The Coaching Project concludes with a public performance. Turbulence is a bodily response to economic crisis; a choreographic investigation of economic theory, history, and material reality. Turbulence is an experimental hybrid of contemporary dance, performance installation, spectacle and propaganda rhetoric. The choreographic research will explore failure as generative, crisis as movement, and momentum as tactic. Developed in response to economic instability and lack of resources, Turbulence will explore alternative models of collaboration, negotiation, and sustainibility. “Turbulence is the disruption caused by movement through a non-moving element, or an element moving at a different speed.” Physical scores will emphasise interactive labour and collapse: pushing, pulling, building, falling, supporting, breaking down, propping up. Formal and dramaturgical coherence will be sacrificed as the performance research responds to multiple questions, tensions, and desires. We will work simultaneously for and against spectacle, for and against the proscenium, for and against the collective, for and against systems of value. Our research will consider the 'economy' in both personal and social contexts. The economy of ImPulstTanz, of "contemporary dance", and the economy of each participant will be discussed, debated and danced. Resources: Book: Dream, Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy (2007), Stephen Duncombe. Documentary: Inside Job (2010), Charles Ferguson. Keith Hennessy is a performer, choreographer, teacher and organiser. He was born in Canada, lives in San Francisco and tours internationally. His interdisciplinary research engages improvisation, ritual and public action as tools for investigating political realities. Recent awards include a NY Bessie (2009), two Isadora Duncan Awards (2009), the SF Bay Guardian’s Goldie (2007) the Alpert/MacDowell Fellowship in Dance (2005). Hennessy directs ZERO PERFORMANCE, and was a member of the collaborative performance companies: Contraband (85-94), CORE (95-98), and Cahin-caha, cirque bâtard (98-02). Recent works include "Auf den Tisch!" with Meg Stuart, "Delinquent", a work with young adults investigating juvenile crime and punishment, commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and "Crotch", a solo performance developed at L’Arsenic in Lausanne, and presented internationally. Keith's recent teaching includes University of California (Davis), University of Dance & Circus (Stockholm), ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Touch & Play Festival (Berlin), Ponderosa (Stolzenhagen), Tanzfabrik (Berlin) and American Dance Festival (Durham). Hennessy is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at UC Davis. www.circozero.org