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Monday, December 1, 1997

Matrixed messages

ARTS: Nina Kaufman's 'Matrix' puts dance, music

and performance in eight different rooms to create an interactive story of fairy tales and feminism

By Alicia Roca

Daily Bruin Contributor

The audience sits with mouth agape, eyes glazed over and program in hand. They watch a performer 30 feet away, a removed speck upon a stage, and root themselves to the cushy seat in which they will vegetate for the next two hours. No one ever said performances had to be interactive. Not until now, that is.

Nina Kaufman, a third-year master of fine arts candidate, and choreographer, visual artist, musician and dancer, is challenging many traditional aspects of the arts in her performance exhibit, "Matrix," which opens tonight at UCLA's Wight Art Gallery. Among those roles challenged is the inactive one of audience.

"I honor the role of the audience," Kaufman says. "Often people go to movies, are passive and don't have to think. 'Matrix' challenges them to do more."

One may wonder how Kaufman challenges her audience. They are herded like sheep through eight different rooms by a tour guide dressed as Little Bo Peep. During the journey, they crawl through a tunnel, walk on stones and wade through leaves. In six of the rooms, a performance is occurring, and the audience directly affects it. There is no stage, no restriction to a particular area. There is direct interaction between performer and roving audience member. It is for this reason that Kaufman refers to her audience as "witnesses."

"As a witness you sense through your eyes, ears and presence. You become part of the event and its course. You are more than just an audience member," Kaufman says.

Witnesses will become part of many fresh perspectives, including a new twist on "Cinderella." "Matrix" addresses and dispels the "Cinderella myth," the belief that a woman needs Prince Charming to make her whole and happy. It also examines other fairy tale characters such as Little Bo Peep in a more in-depth and symbolic fashion. In the show, Little Bo Peep is dressed in a pristine hoop skirt, a traditional outfit which is almost paradoxical next to her unkempt sheep (performers on all fours wearing parts of shredded mops). However, her skirt is made of transparent plastic which enables the audience to see right through it.

"'Matrix' provides a new slant on Little Bo Peep," says set and costume designer Charles Tomlinson. "It explores her adolescence and coming to terms with sexuality."

"Matrix" also examines the role of society in molding individuals. It addresses and dispels the "beauty myth," those rigid perceptions of beauty in society which according to Kaufman, lead women to make themselves so beautiful that they become hideous.

"Women are led to self-manipulate almost to the point of masochism," Kaufman says.

The beauty myth intertwines with the Cinderella myth in one piece titled "If I were with wings." The piece centers on a woman who is stood up on her wedding day. She waits for her husband to be to arrive and tell her she's beautiful. But he never does, and she ends up going through her journey alone along red stones.

"She has to learn to walk that rocky path and leave it ultimately. She has to take off her wedding dress and decide that this is not what being a woman has to be," Kaufman says.

Though the cast is all female and the performance addresses many women's issues, Kaufman says the show will appeal to all people, whether male or female, from North or South Campus. In fact she is targeting the person who has not had much experience with art.

"People who haven't been as exposed to dance don't try to analyze it as much and are open to new ideas and art forms. I have faced a lot of adversity in putting this project together. Even artists themselves are very narrow-minded," Kaufman says.

Part of the resistance Kaufman faces arises because "Matrix" is a new genre which cannot be categorized by any one term. "Matrix" combines three aspects of art which are usually separate: visual art, sound and movement. It is for that reason that Kaufman defines "Matrix" as "an interactive, multi-disciplinary walk-through exhibit and performance."

"I've grown a bit weary of labels," says David Karagianis, a senior musician and lecturer for the world arts and cultures department and composer and sound designer for "Matrix." "What I care about is the degree to which (Kaufman's) work lives up to its intent."

Part of "Matrix's" intent is to present visual art in a new, non-traditional manner in conjunction with movement and sound. Visual art is present in the costumes performers wear and the sets which are themselves sculpture.

"It's an environment, not just a piece of art hanging on the wall. It incorporates large installations and is strong enough to stand on its own without performance," Kaufman says.

The performers do dance, or move, as Kaufman puts it, but not in the traditional sense of high kicks and plies. In fact, the dance style is similar to Butoh, "the dance of the dark soul," which was developed in Japan after Hiroshima's bombing.

"Butoh is Eastern sensibility ... it strips down the essence of what it is to be human and experience life almost as a creature," Kaufman says.

The audio aspect of "Matrix" is unique in that it is not entirely musical, but is composed of a variety of sounds.

This combination of sounds helps to create a dream-like, surreal setting. In one instance the sounds of children singing nursery rhymes coincide with the sound of jet bombing. This is possible thanks to a live, eight-channel mix and speakers placed throughout the space. A three-dimensional sound envelopes the "witnesses" as they move about and where they stand affects how they interpret this sound. Karagianis will create a distinct live sound mix for every night.

"Think of it as an alternate kind of experience," Karagianis says. "The way in which you experience sights and sounds will be uniquely yours. Just as emotions, memories and various dementia tend to be complicated, elusive and difficult to pigeonhole, so too are the interpretations of Nina's works."

PERFORMANCE: "Matrix" will be at the Wight Art Gallery Dec. 1-6. Admission is free. For more info, call (310) 398-2140.

KIT TARROZA

The "Matrix" dancers help put on a multi-disciplinary performance in the Wight Art Gallery.

KIT TARROZA

Rebecca Butala performs "Silenced." The clothes pins in her mouth represent clipped tongues.