Inspired by a new editor who uses AI in his bag of techno tricks, I unleashed a new version of “Except at Night,” the dance that was created during the taping of our award winning documentary, “Except at Night: The Making of a Dance.” Back in 2008 we had a cavernous stage at Greenwich Academy in Greenwich, CT. I had eight willing and able dancers who made the trek up from NYC to join me in an experiment in my earliest iterations of my Jiffy-Mix style of making dances — just add water and stir!
My challenge to myself was to create a 10 minute dance in 3 hours that day, and we did. A miracle! After many years of screenings at various venues, and also being a winner in the Mystic Independent Theater Film Festival in Mystic, CT, I dusted off the piece we actually made within the documentary, added new music, and shared the redux on a YouTube screening.
I was certain that I was going to reject the whole AI thing, but after I saw how it cleaned up the video, I was all in. The title came from the idea about how in the night, during our dream time, our unconscious state allows us to go anywhere and explore anything. I had no ideas that day we shot the documentary, except for the opening where a dancer would be held up by a group in various ways — overhead, and rocked as if a baby in a cradle. That was it. Three hours transpired, and this 10 minute dance emerged. I discussed in the documentary that we had no special costumes, or lighting, but just a raw space and experience that positioned us to risk whatever the outcome might be. We certainly took a risk, and the outcome is now in its new stage of discovery. Was it polished… no. Was it such an event where our time was more important than the product? I believe so. With artificial intelligence making improvements, symbolically I am looking at it organically… as if for the first time. I hope you can watch with a fresh set of eyes, too!
See the piece here: EXCEPT AT NIGHT
Dancers: Meredith Fages, Julie Fiorenza, Annie Heinemann, Milan Misko, James A Pierce III, Rebecca Shulman, and Maleek Washington, and Sarah Wiechman
Videography/Filmmaker: Ben Moss