Choreography, Video & Sound Design: Tatyana Tenenbaum
Music: Tatyana Tenenbaum, Ezra Tenenbaum, Stefan Weiner, Molly Krifka, Mary J. Blige, Justin Timberlake, and Charlie Smalls Lights: Mike McGee Costumes: Hannah Vaughan
Dancers: Chrissy Boland, Talia Brooks-Salzman, Neva Cockrell, Pari Fariborz, Scott Grogan, Dana Kelley, Grace McCants, Sarah Michelson, Emily Palmer, Mara Poliak, Lucy Segar, Zach Steinman, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Hannah Verrill, and Molly Wolosky.
Musicians: Noah Hecht (drums), Chris Riggs (guitar), Andrei Popozuda (piano), and Klaus Sternhagen (bass)
photo: Helen Levi
I. A Cross Section of Earth video
II. Morphology
III. I Will Arise
IV. Vertebrate Structures video
V. Finale/Cadenza video
Program Notes: The Carcharodon Megladon is a prehistoric shark whose fossils date back as early as 11,000 years ago. The Megladon is a member of the White Shark family, and it is believed that this 50-foot predecessor probably resembled the Great White of today's oceans. I first learned of the Megladon by visiting the natural history museum in my hometown. The giant jaws that hung in the Amherst College Pratt Museum burned their image into my memory. The dark and dusty crevasses of the Pratt were home to a host of specimens from extinct birds to giant clam shells and geodes, but the Megladon jaws loom largest in my mind.
For this piece, I decided to return to the site of my beloved childhood outings. While investigating my memories, I began to recall a time in which I experienced the world more fully through my body. The challenges of an embodied present have since threaded their way throughout my development.
Returning to the Pratt museum after years, the Megladon jaws of my youth have been removed because a flaw was discovered in their scientific accuracy. In fact, there is much dispute about the Megladon; is it really a relative of the Great White? What did this ancient ancestor look like? These questions of fact or fiction have entered and influenced my creative process. What I have created is not the story of the Megladon, but of my own transformation through various stages of estrangement and connection with my body. What have resulted are not literal sketches, but fossils of my experiences, which may insinuate reality. Like the Megladon, they are part fact and part fiction. The inflicted meaning is a reflection of our own desires... Some people believe the Megladon still exists.
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