June 5-24, 2021 // The Broadwater Black Box
What would it look like to make a dream to live inside of? “
MULTICHANNEL_CHATROOM is a transmedia duet which follows the story of two performers searching for modes of presence and connection while taking a DIY or lo-fi approach to repurposing and reconstructing the conditions, materials, and space of self and reality.
Ian Isles and Chelsea Zeffiro construct and perform themselves through virtual realities of time, self, and place–projecting themselves across a fluid and shifting waking dream. Though primarily rooted in the genre of dance, this project takes on a trans-media angle as the journey of the performers includes constructions across various technologies, platforms, and mediums.
More about our 2021 Research + Development Residencies HERE.
From Chelsea Zeffiro:
The idea for this project resulted from a research prompt I was working with in 2020: “How can dance propose systems for crisis & care?”
I had heard a similar proposal from choreographer Emmanuelle Huynh in 2019 while talking about choreographing a solo in the midst of immense grief. I had written in my notes, paraphrasing Huynh: “loss causes imbalance – option to unify, find places to open crises in work – find systems for crisis”.
Amidst the collective tumult, loss, and grief of 2020 – I turned to my body and to my notes on Emmanuelle. I began researching this question of crisis and dance for myself during July 2020 through the S P A C E Alliance residency offered by San Diego dance and arts organization, DISCO RIOT. During this residency, I worked out of the San Diego Ballet studios and invited a handful of long distance collaborators to tease-out and/or improvise with me and this prompt. Two such collaborators were video artist/documentarian, Summer Dunsmore and dancer/performer, Ian Isles.
One of the proposals offered in response to this prompt was that dance can help to alter space or imagine new spaces.
During a staged improvisation for camera with Ian Isles we began to construct a play about a virtual encounter in deep-web rave or a VR chat room. With additional technical and dramaturgical collaboration of Summer Dunsmore, this play became the basis of MULTICHANNEL_CHATROOM.
While preparing for the Los Angeles Performance Practice R+D Residency I was preoccupied by the systems and structures which I habitually move through–both perceived and physical. I thought of all the spaces which are imagined, designed, conditioned and shaped by the dreams and desires of strangers –– about how we are living inside of the dreams of others. I wondered what my dream would look like in comparison:
This became the guiding impetus for the characters’ journey in the second act which we developed during this residency:let’s make a dream to live inside of. The goal during this research and development residency was to develop the second act or the middle of a full-length, 3-act version of the project.
Our research resulted in a danced play composed of seven scenes which use digital audio and video, projection mapping, and set pieces composed of acrylic, polycarbonate, and glass.
The performers and the digitized avatars of MULTICHANNEL_CHATROOM are at once glimpses of the intimate and acts of outward performance – something virtuosic but with glitch. The protagonists of this story are travelers physicalized through sense memory practices yielding extended, morphing, drifting bodies – a story grounded in fluidity and nuance.
Creative Team
Story/Script/Choreography/Direction: Chelsea Zeffiro
Production Consultant/Video & Projection: Summer Dunsmore
Performance & Process Research: Ian Isles & Chelsea Zeffiro
Set Construction/Lighting Tech: Nathan Lopez
Video Documentation: Summer Dunsmore, Zaquia Salinas
Additional support in earlier research provided by DISCO RIOT in conjunction with San Diego Ballet & Art Produce
About Chelsea Zeffiro
Chelsea Zeffiro is a dance artist specializing in experimental and collaborative performance between theater, dance, and film. Her current practice is rooted in character-driven improvisational research and writing/making plays to be danced. She received her BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Southern California and her MFA with a Fellowship in Dance from the University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA) where she also served as adjunct faculty in the School of Dance.
Our 2021 Research + Development Residencies were supported in part by a grant from the California Arts Council, a state arts agency.
