Repertory
The following is a list of pieces
that have been performed by the Vanguard Dance Company at various
venues over the past
few years.
All in a Day (working title)
– original score by Murray Gusseck
Explores the neuroticism of people confined to an office chair
for their daily grind.
Obelisk – original score
by Frank Ekeberg
Long benches, standing on their ends, give this piece, set to
a computerized original score, a "2001" feel. Dancers
approach, crawl up, and balance the benches on their backs.
Eventually, the benches are swung and moved around stage and
shapes are built with them, creating a sense of other-worldliness.
O.R.B. – original score
by Paul Schilling
This piece explores the magical sense of relating props and
dancers. Florescent spheres are attached to the dancers’
hands via invisible wire and florescent gloves. Performed in
black lighting, this piece brings the audience, young and old
alike, to a playful, yet mysterious atmosphere where the dancers
and the props become transformed into one being in space and
time.
Somebody's Child - original
score by Murray Gusseck
Movement with shopping carts, set to an original score of a
twisted children's melody, explores images of homelessness and
desolation. The piece begins solemnly as dancers climb in, out
and on top of shopping carts, builds to a dream state, as carts
and dancers fly across stage, and ends as the dancers all "fly
away" balancing on top of their carts.
On the Diagonal/Slightly Curved
- Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin from the “Hush” CD
Abstracted ballet movement is set to a modern version of classical
music by Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin. This piece examines group
structures without props and employs the body to create a physical
dialogue between the dancers. Dancers speak to each other with
their body parts in sensual and quirky qualities.
Obstacle Illusion – Suzanne
Ciani and Lori Anderson
This solo explores, with crutches, the trials and tribulations
of life without the full use of the legs. The props are used
in unconventional ways to draw upon the kinetics of being trapped
behind them.
Hung – music from the
“Benny & Joon” soundtrack
This solo investigates gravity in a physically twisted, yet
entertainingly comical array of musicality and theatrics.
Refs - Vivaldi
Set to Vivaldi, this piece was created for a younger group of
dancers. It uses baseball referee gestures and abstracts them
into humorous and complicated movement phrases.
Composers
Frank Ekeberg (b. 1970, Norway)
began exploring the compositional potential of music technology
in the mid-1980s when he got ahold of a 4-track cassette recorder
and a couple of guitar effects pedals. He received his first
music degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(NTNU) before he went on to study electronic music composition
with Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran at Mills College in Oakland,
California, and with Denis Smalley at City University in London,
UK. Ekeberg's music is frequently performed in concert series
and music festivals all over the world. As well as concert works,
he has composed music and sound for dance, film, theatre, radio
plays and sound installations. Frank Ekeberg has received several
prices and awards from
prestigious international music organizations, and his work
can be found in numerous public and institutional audio archives
around the world. For more information, see http://www.notam.uio.no/~frankh.
Frank composed the music for “Obelisk”.
Murray Gusseck studied music
at San Jose State University with Royal Hartigan, Hafez Modirzadeh,
and Dan Sabanovich. He has arranged music and instructed for
various high schools throughout the country as well as the Santa
Clara Vanguard and Blue Knights Drum & Bugle Corps. He is
also the co-founder of Tap Space Publications, a publishing
company specializing in percussion music. As a performer he
has played drums in various bands in the bay area. Bells &
Rattles is an original sequenced piece he composed for Vanguard
Dance Company's premiere of "Somebody's Child." Gusseck
endorses Vic Firth drumsticks and Sabian cymbals.
