Scenario for STRIKING OUT in Anger (1998)
Two people are filled with anger from a shared expenence. Their initial
rantings feed each other's anger until the hostility reaches a peak. It
is at this climax in which one of the women begin to "see the other
side" of the argument and her anger begins to abate. The calm and
understanding, represented by the presence of a young child, increases
the other woman's rage. This new level of vehemence literally consumes
the remaining enraged woman and her life. Her fury is manifested in the
form of a serpent."
Denise Szykula 1998*
For insight into the choreographer's process.
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"I was thrilled when Szykula asked if I would be interested in making
a snake costume. The first attempt utilized something called "Insulated
flex". This is a large tube made of silverzed mylar laminated to a
wire helix. I assembled sections of graduated diameters into a snake form
large enough for two dancers to wiggle into and fashioned a head with an
articulated jaw and fangs.
It was spectacular! Unfortunately, it was also delicate and destroyed
itself in a couple of rehearsals.
My second attempt, utilising a material and technique I had used before in museum installations, consisted of a painted polyethelene tube inflated by a blower. This is rolled up in such a manner that once the dancers are in it, it is inflated and thus makes it's entrance by "growing" onstage. The dancers inside guide and animate the tube to perform a pas de duex with the angry dancer who is eventually engulfed by the serpent for the finale.
The Snake hypnotizes the angry one.(rehearsal)
And consumes her!
Assistance from the people at Carroll Products in Sterling Heights, Michigan (810)-254 6300, a company with expertise in printing on plastic films (flexographic), were very helpful in solving the problems of locating the proper plastic tube and applying color to it
Incidently, Yvonne Maes who dances "the angry one" says "...sooner or later we all have to live outside the intestinal tract.."
