“Son of Gone Fishin'”

Luis Carrasco                                                                                         MCHC 1001

Prof. Natov                                                                                              City Center

“Son Of Gone Fishin’ ”

This was a choreographed dance by Trisha Brown and the music was by Robert Ashley. I did not look at the given pamphlet because I wanted to have only my own thoughts and interpretation. At the very beginning, the dancers were all set near the center of the stage and this strange music began to play, I did not mind it that much at first, but as time went on the dancers seemed to be in despair and I enjoyed it less and less. The dancers had no emotion, and very little interactions with each other. There costumes were simple and the dark brown to golden shirt they were wearing was the closest thing to a symbol of happiness. Very few props were used. I noticed that every now and then the dancers would jump or have a fast paced movement, and who ever did that would then be slowed down and have this smooth movement right after. I felt as if they were trying to be freed from this dance to a happier dance and they couldn’t. There were only one or two dancers doing the fast paced movement, so I felt the other dancers would show them that they shouldn’t do that. The dancers had a very tight core and there back was almost always straight. I almost thought of zombies dancing at first because the music in the beginning was kind of spooky and jumbled. I personally did not enjoy the performance after the first two minutes at all, especially because the music had sharp tones that hurt my ears. I began to want it to stop and then near the middle, closer to the end, the music changed completely. I felt as if they had played the song backwards in a sense. It was more of a happy tone and although I still did not like it, I felt that it had gotten better. To me there was no story here; they were all on their own, and even when they did touch or work in pairs, I felt it was not very connected. I wonder if maybe that is what she was showing? Maybe we are all alone, no matter how we interact or how close we get. I honestly liked the performance after the change in the music. I feel that maybe this occurred because I felt uplifted, my ears did not hurt, and I wanted to feel happier rather than down.

Now that I look at the pamphlet I see that Trisha Brown says, “This choreography was a ‘doozey.’ In it I reached the apogee of complexity in my work. The infrastructure of the piece was related to the cross-section of a tree trunk. ABC center CBA. Complex group-forms of six dancers were performed first in the normal direction and then in retrograde. Bob Ashley gave us a little library of different tapes to carry with us on tour. The dancers randomly chose we music we would use each performance. Something like having the band along with us.” I realized that I had gotten it and that I was noticing the change. I would rather not go through that again, but I must say it was conveyed perfectly to me.