Breather

Dedicated to my father, Cary B. Mayo III

Premiered at the Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space at the University of Wisconsin/Madison (2015).

Created and directed by Julie Mayo in collaboration with and performed by UW/Madison students Dan Su, Tiffany Merritt-Brown, Alyssa Switzer, Brigid Transon, Dianne Kotsonis, Kimi McKissic, Molly Hodgson

Recorded sound elements by John Cougar Mellencamp, Nuno Canavarro, Loreena McKennitt

Breather paints a dance landscape that utilizes the concept of synecdoche, in that it holds a piece within a piece. As well, the ending is a beginning of the not-made next dance. This work has a zoom in-zoom out rhythm that is created by the details that comes in and out of focus, moving between the performers’ gestures/faces and their full-bodied dancing.