Q: Do you expect your work to have “legs” — is there life after LA/Fringe, or is most of what is created for the festival destined to be seen only on the Fringe circuit?
A: Always. This piece is our baby and it’s just now become a toddler. We would love for it to grow up and have a life beyond the festival.
Q: What’s the primary source of your concepts — music, literature, geopolitics, personal experience, global tragedies?
A: This piece comes from very personal territory. The theme of identity has been at the forefront of our minds as we have personally come to define ourselves in life-after-college. It is also generational; many of the questions we face are present in the lives of many other early-career 20-somethings living in a time of increasing insecurity and accelerating technology.
Q: How much does funding influence your choice of subject? Do you find that fear of losing it dampens the political choices you make in your work?
A: Not at all. Since most of our funding comes from private donors, we are not accountable to any authority or standard except that of excellence.
Q: Is having an edge of political, social or community-based change important to your work, or is your sole goal the artistic outcome?
Kevin Dodd: I believe that all art has a political dimension by virtue of its expression, regardless of whether there is any sort of political intent. Everything I create is done with the intention of moving or changing its audience in some way. Having said that, I don’t believe this piece has a particularly political aim other than as an affirmation of the power of women and female identity, which is often overlooked in our still patriarchal society.
Erin Malley: My own artistic agenda is to give voice to my life experiences in a way that brings humanity and social inequity to the forefront.
Q: How comfortable are you in expressing your work verbally — to audiences, media, friends?
A: Yes, mostly comfortable. Explaining work is a process that improves with time and editing — much like creating a performance work. But in no way can the work be expressed as eloquently as the performance of the work itself.
Q: If you have performed in other Fringes festivals, tell us how Philly’s compares.
Erin: I have performed at fFIDA (fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists) in Toronto; however, the organizational structure appeared differently, as I was showing a 10-minute work. 7 Veils lasts about 40 minutes, and is largely self-produced.
So far I am impressed with the overall vision for the festival as well as the organizational and presentational elements.
Show Details:
Malleable Dance Theater
7 Veils
9 p.m. Sept. 3 & 4
Painted Bride Art Center
230 Vine St.
Web Links:
Festival show page: http://livearts-fringe.org/2008/details.cfm?id=5250
Artist website: http://www.malleabledancetheater.org
