Pillow Project to explore existential themes
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Kaylin Horgan and Taylor Knight are part of The Pillow Project, which continues its Second Saturdays series this weekend.
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For jazz enthusiasts, there are the swanky clubs and modern-day speakeasies. For literati, there are readings and poetry jams. And for Pittsburgh dance devotees, there are Second Saturdays at The Space Upstairs in Point Breeze.
Since 2007, dance troupe The Pillow Project has periodically transformed Construction Junction into a casual performance art gallery where audiences don't just watch an experimental modern jazz piece but sit in it as dancers and multimedia projections move around them.
"The space has a certain sort of awe about it, and it's very unexpected," said artistic director Pearlann Porter.
As the series' name suggests, audiences can expect to encounter the unexpected each second Saturday of the month, with the next performance slated for this weekend and the last in August, although more could be added, Ms. Porter said. Its no-boundaries aesthetic was inspired by the space's cozy setup.
- Where: The Space Upstairs, 214 N. Lexington St., Point Breeze.
- When: 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday, July 9 and Aug. 13
- Tickets: $10 suggested donation at the door.
- Information: www.pillowproject.org
"Its intimate sort of arrangement doesn't ask for formal, big-audience sort of things," Ms. Porter said. The space calls for site-specific work that possesses an air of honesty, vulnerability and approachability that matches the venue's close-knit layout, she said.
These choreographic demands jive with the recent evolution in Ms. Porter's movement vocabulary in which dancers are not just given a phrase of steps to repeat at a performance. Instead, she sees herself more like a conductor or director who gives artists an idea to work with and allows them the freedom to translate it into spontaneous movement.
First Published June 8, 2011 12:00 am
