Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Turning Beastly

Gurldogg is heading out of town for the next few days to premiere a pair of new puppet shows at the Oregon Country Fair. After not making any puppets for several years, it was important that the new shows be well considered, well made and unusual. Following Pepita's lead, as always, the two of us have spent the last 8 weeks crafting two wordless shows based on dance performances. One show features a puppetized version of Argentina bandoneon genius Anibal Troilo explaining, in song, the genesis of the tango. The other is a 3 minute flamenco performance by our puppety homage to La Farona, Lola Flores. I'll get some photos or footage up here when I return.

Youtube was a great help in developing the dance moves for these pieces, and one particularly helpful video was this odd little motion capture of a flamenco dancer who metamorphosed, like the characters in Ionesco's famous play, into a rhinoceros. Enjoy.


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