Venturing into the interrelation between dance and physical space, Olivia Mia Orozco elevates her performance experience with art installations. Orozco explores the dynamics between movement and environment in her latest creative prospects by bringing dance performances to different locations called “Performative Pop-Ups”. That means a one of a kind event in any city, any state, by a river, in a hotel, or at an abandoned wine factory in Italy. This introduces a new horizon of possibilities for immersion for both artist and audience.
Orozco is heading the bridge between architecture, art installations and dance. With an extensive background in event spaces, she utilizes her relationship with installation artists to procure stunning diverse pieces. Also motivated by the celebration of her female identity, Orozco has partnered with women artists like Laurie Shapiro and Alexa Eisner. I was able to ask Orozco some questions about her upcoming project The Messenger in collaboration with Alexa Eisner’s installation The Atom Cycle.
We would love to hear more about your artistic process in building this project out, especially in relation to collaborating with visual artists.
I began working with installation artist Laurie Shapiro four years ago while I was the director of an art gallery. Aside from dancing and choreographing my second love in life was architecture, and I enjoy creating movement work where architecture plays a big role in how the performance and space are activated. While working with Laurie at the gallery I began presenting shows in her installations and always found myself dancing in them as well. We have continued working together and during the Pandemic I was able to build this piece The Messenger inside her studio in Lincoln Heights. The version being presented at LAX will feature aspects of Laurie’s artwork but will be a much more deconstructed version. I look to present new work in as many new locations as possible. I look forward to working with Alexa Eisner more as well. We are just beginning to see where our collaborations can take us and the performer in my work will move through her artwork as the beginning of this ongoing collaboration. I believe multi-media artwork has the potential of activating more of our senses and creating a deeper visceral response for the audience member.
What are some unique viewing aspects that pop-up performances in different locations bring? Were there some challenges/compromises you did not foresee in the execution of these pop-ups?
Working in unconventional spaces does have its challenges but also makes the work exciting. Often the difficulty is limiting the number of audience members who can view the shows when they take place in and around artwork or in private spaces. I do enjoy creating intimate performances embracing what a space has to offer and using its uniqueness to create work if there is time is definitely one of the perks. In the future, as I do more pop-ups I anticipate them having less time to be prepared and having a more improvisational aspect.
Olivia Mia Orozco will be presenting The Messenger at the Live Arts Exchange (LAX) Festival presented by the Los Angeles Performance Practice on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021. Tickets and more information are available here.
Elaine Nguyen is a recent graduate of USC with a focus in public relations and marketing. She is currently the 2021 Development Intern at Los Angeles Performance Practice.
