Site
jill sigman/thinkdance creates
performance for alternative sites such as a dilapidated
Belgian printing house, a drained out swimming pool, and a
Victorian naturalist’s field hut, as well as marathon
performance installations that mix movement with visual
media. These non-traditional spaces and formats allow the
site to become part of the performance.
Works for alternative sites include:
The Hut Project (2009-ongoing): a series of site-specific huts made from found and re-purposed materials. Each hut is at the same time a structure, a sculpture, and an emergency preparedness kit in which themes of sustainability, shelter, real estate, and apocalypse intersect. Each hut acts as a catalyst for local activities such as performance, video, artistic collaboration, and community dialogue. Huts have been made in Troy, NY; Bushwick, Brooklyn; and upcoming in Oslo, Norway.
RT: various
Collaborators: various
Paradise and its Dis-Ease (2007): a
durational performance installation for a small gallery
RT: 4 hours
Music: DJ JoroBoro; composer/musicians Kristin Norderval and
Gustavo Aguilar
Rupture: Phase 3 (2006):
this solo version of the work for 5 dancers was staged for a
former Croatian munitions storage unit with a vaulted brick
ceiling.
RT: 70 minutes
Music: Kristin Norderval
Rupture: Phase 2 (2005):
performance installation with video for a gallery in East
Berlin
RT: 3-5 hours, viewers could enter and exit as they liked
Pulling the Wool (2004):
multimedia performance carnival involving movement, live
music, sculpture, video, and 11 performers in a 2-story
gymnasium
RT: 3 hours
Music: Kristin Norderval
A performance carnival involving 11 performers, live original
music, video, spoken word, sculptural elements and
interactive booths, Pulling the Wool is an
exploration of belief, deception, politics, and contemporary
news media, made for a two-story 19th century gymnasium. The
performance structure allowed viewers to enter and exit at
any time and wander freely in the space, choosing how and
where to direct their attention.
Warbody (2002): performance
installation for 8 performers, photo exhibit, video, and
sound installation made for a theater lobby
RT: 1 hour
Photos: Bronwen Gilbert
Sound/Video: Chantal Yzermans
Additional sound: Matt Griffin
Guerrilla Diversions (2001):
nomadic site-specific solo show
RT: 2 1/2 hours
Music: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland
Made for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Guerrilla
Diversions was a nomadic solo performance traveling
through the museum's courtyard, rooftop, and hallways.
Fragile (2001 adaption; 1999
original): solo show originally made for former
Belgian printing house
RT: 58 minutes
Music: Edith Piaf, traditional and contemporary accordion
music
Fragile was created for the dilapidated rooms of a
former Socialist printing house in Ghent, Belgium. Using
hundreds of drinking glasses and pink rose petals,
Fragile explores themes of finding voice, the
fragility of identity, and faded dreams of a vie en rose.
Fragile was adapted for the 92nd Street Y Harkness
Dance Center in 2001.
GUN SHY (1999):
site-specific solo involving 8 waterguns, made for the
gardens at Wave Hill
RT: 20 minutes
Music: Hungarian Gypsy
GUN SHY is the story of a cartoon subversive,
obsessed with combat and self-protection, but also seduced by
the world of movie icons and film noir. The piece unfolds
around the audience on a hill, a bench, and in the lower
branches of a tree.