In Performance: Catch Coil III (COIL)

Co-presented with The Invisible Dog Art Center

Jan 15 – 7pm

at The Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn

Eleven acts participated in a special COIL edition of the CATCH series at The Invisible Dog. The series – as described by curators Andrew Dinwiddie, Jeff Larson & Caleb Hammons – is an “Obie award-winning, itinerant, rough and ready series of performance events that whirls through Brooklyn every month or two”.

Performances came from groups like Aorta Films who make “lusty opulent ethical fuckery.” Aorta Films’
“Porn Theory 3 (manifesto in 10 parts)” is a thoughtful meditation on sex and queerness. Images of naked bodies of all shapes, sizes, color, and gender copulating played while the group read it’s inspirational manifesto.

Experimental dance duo Chelsea & Magda presented an excerpt from their piece “The Shame”. The performers in grapple with the shame of being viewed as too aggressive and too cute. Their exploration sparked conversation about gender norms. The piece makes a point to explore how silly shame can be when it is embraced.

Saxophonist, composer, and the leader of Battle Trance, Travis Laplante performed a very poignant tenor saxophone solo called “Thank You Is Not Enough, for solo tenor saxophone”. Another apt title for his solo could be “Gratitude”. The power in his piece does not lie in the music or even his technical prowess (although both are peerless). It’s the way he performed the piece that was the most impactful. Laplante simply steps on stage and begins playing the solo with no breath. With no breath, there is no sound. It’s a humorous moment that patinas into a performance so genuine that the whole audience was in a trance. Just like gratitude the piece was melancholic, expressive, and vulnerable.

Photo Credit: Terrence I Mosley