PREMIERED AT DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL, JOHN RYAN THEATER, BROOKLYN, NY (2007)
CHOREOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE:
Amy Lewis
MUSIC:
12 c. anonymous composer, Hilliard Ensemble
ABOUT
Stephen Pinker, in How the Mind Works, attests that happiness can be harder to attain than misery. He explains our dilemma by discussing biological fitness: “more food is better, but only up to a point. But as things get worse, decreases in fitness can take you out of the game: not enough food, and you’re dead. In other words, ‘wealth is like health: not having it makes you miserable, but having it does not guarantee happiness.’” Essentially a task-based piece, Dial consisted of a set of goals: take five minutes to get from one side of the stage to the other, change direction a certain number of times, work with a very small movement vocabulary. While completing the tasks, there was a search to hold on to happiness, a giving up, and a starting over.