[New York Close Up]
[WATER DRIPPING]
["Mika Tajima Wants To Hire Contortionists"]
[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]
The volume is really good...
[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]
Nice to meet you, thanks for coming.
I’m so excited.
Sorry I'm a few minutes late.
Come on in.
[Mika Tajima--Artist]
Uh, I thought we’d just try some abstract short clips of you doing some initial moves...
[Tony Mitchell--Contortionist]
And I think Christopher is going to get here at four.
We’ll just work...we’ll work just with you solo if that’s okay. Just do a couple moves and shapes and whatever.
Whatever you need.
[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]
[Two Months Earlier]
[At Mika's Studio]
Yeah, yeah.
Well basically, you know how a lot of the themes in the show is like about how the body is being controlled by the environment or sort of different elements, modern elements.
[Mika is talking to her gallery]
So there’s like these ergonomic chairs that are going to be part of the installation.
So... that got me thinking about what you know the body can do and whatever and so I started thinking like oh, it would be really cool if there’s a...a salon where there was like a yoga person and a contortionist.
Sort of like doing sort of dance type thing, and I was looking online.
There are these different websites for like contortionists united, and people who are amateurs that just want to like showcase their flexibility.
I think that could be kind of a cool performance idea but I first wanted to run it by you guys and see if that’s a possibility.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you want to put your coat in here.
Should we try a little sort of dry run rehearsal thing?
Christopher Bousquet--Contortionist
See the rhythm of the two of you?
See what happens.
See what happens? Okay, cool.
[OMINOUS DRUM BEAT]
Yeah, when you see some of the poses, they really look like the chairs. You know the chairs I have?
So I like that they’ve become like almost like a sculptural element to the show.
So I think it’ll be cool, but you know like budget wise, is that something that seems feasible? Possible?
Come in, come in.
I like it.
Thank you!
I like it and I love the paper panels.
Thank you.
[OMINOUS DRUMMING]
[OMINOUS DRUMMING GROWING LOUDER]
[APPLAUSE]
That was ama...that was like a circus, that was amazing.
Close up and personal.
Where did you find them?
Contortionists United social networking site.
I mean I...I’m confident about installation and the work itself but just to insert one small gesture of like this performative element in the show I think is important.
So it’s...this is really simple like half hour performance, I think. So that’s the idea.
Mmm hmm, yeah. Yeah, cool.