Death and other disguises
In what ends up as a tribute to a departed colleague, Eagle, Rabbit, Horse and Pig improvise solos that fall somewhere between impersonation and meditation. Yvonne Rainer, Marta Renzi, David Thomson and Arthur Aviles lend their personalities, masked, to a sequence of events that refer to each other, performance art, el mundo de Oz, life and death. Richly odd. Weirdly touching.
About the Maker
Marta Renzi has made more than 75 dances for her Project Company, as well as creating work for groups across the U.S. and abroad, including the Wagon Train Project in Nebraska, Balletteatro in Portugal - and Ben & Jerry's dancing ice cream flavors.
Her site-specific pieces in locations such as the Guggenheim Museum, Union Station and the Staten Island Ferry, led naturally to her work in video and film. In 1981 You Little Wild Heart, to music by Bruce Springsteen, was Marta's first half-hour for PBS, followed by Mountainview, made in 1989 in collaboration with indie filmmaker John Sayles, featuring Jane Alexander. As part of a continuing commitment to making dance accessible to a wide audience, Renzi helped inaugurate the "Inside/Out" program of public performances at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and her Project Company frequently appeared for free outdoors in public spaces.
Since 2005 Marta has self-produced over three dozen short videodances, which have been presented at over 300 festivals nationally and internationally. Her debut feature film Her Magnum Opus was released in 2017. Retrospectives of her film work have been screened at BAAD! in the Bronx, at Rivertown Films in Nyack; at Compartimiento Cinematografico in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; at University College Cork, Ireland and at the Rockland Center for the Arts.
See filmography:
http://aboutmartarenzi.blogspot.com/2006/12/about-marta-renzi.html