Presented With: Emily Gastineau + Red Eye Theatre
Designs By Søren: Lighting
Minneapolis, Saint Paul — MN
Production Copy
Generic Specific is a contemporary dance work that examines affective economies through the lens of the generic and the personal. The piece explores how feelings circulate, how value is produced through proximity, and how normativity is constructed through repetition. Generic Specific will premiere at Red Eye Theater, April 28-30, 2022, with collaborators Valerie Oliveiro, Anna Marie Shogren, and Judith Holo Shuǐ Xiān.
Yeah, I said it. But in truth: Minneapolis isn’t generic at all. Especially after all that has happened. And neither is anywhere else, really. But you could name something, couldn’t you? An image that came to your head? Is it Grain Belt? Is it “the lake”? May Day? Spoon and…don’t say niceness. Um, do you mean white things? Is it about feeling invisible? Scratch that, this isn’t right. What you think is generic about Minneapolis says more about you than about Minneapolis. It tells us something about what we take for granted. So for three nights, we’ll excavate the generic in the specificity of this town, in this performance community, in me, in you.
Generic Minneapolis is a research extravaganza, a collective brainstorm, a conceptual swap meet, a provocation. It greases the gears for the premiere of Emily Gastineau’s work Generic Specific in April 2022. Each night of Generic Minneapolis features a different grouping of thinkers: a poet, a comedian, an academic, an artist. And each night there will appear a generic evening-length work by rotating casts of performers, DJs, and lighting designers. The work is score-based and instantly activated, because if we are working with generic objects, then the material is already known and we can step directly into the performance. Minneapolis. We are ready.
SØREN OLSEN 