Distance Measures and Orbit Design (2012)

Choreography: Abigail Levine

Music: Derek Bermel

Dancers: Abigail Levine, Aaron Mattocks, Storme Sundberg

Musicians: Derek Bermel, Eric Lamb, Alex Sopp

Duration: 18 minutes

Performed in darkness but for illuminated plastic containers, Distance Measures borrows formal elements from mathematical models of chaotic systems, creating a choreography of task in which the dancers are both the system's moving bodies and the forces that propel them.

Performance history

Movement Research at the Judson Church (2012)

Mount Tremper Arts Festival (2013)

Press

“In Distance Measures, Abigail Levine ingeniously turns a task-oriented arrangement of synthetic light objects into a sacred ritual that suggests nothing less than the creation of the universe with light. The work is quite simply inspired.” choreographer Mark Dendy

“Another summer of adventurous dance, music, performance art, and barbecue in the Catskills begins with the choreographer Abigail Levine. Her “Distance Measures” set to a skittering Derek Bermel score for flute and clarinet, is illuminated by L.E.D. lights that three shadowed dancers rearrange during a structured improvisation.” The New Yorker

“The dancers curled around the lights, or the lights curled around the dancers, it was difficult to tell as they were equal partners in the choreography. Towards the end, the lanterns were lined up on a table. Their pattern reminded me of a skyline and I suddenly missed my cramped city apartment. It was a quiet and determined piece.” Andrea Kleine, The Dancers Will Win

Video

Distance Measures at Movement Research at the Judson Church (2012)