Dark Horse/Black Forest

2009

Two performers in black underwear lunge facing one another in a darkened public restroom by a doorway that looks into a brightly lit shower room.

Two performers hold on to one another in the corner of a public restroom near a stall. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Two performers in black underwear lunge dynamically near a row of urinals in a public restroom installed with mirrors and fluorescent lights. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

The duplicated reflections of a performer looking at the reflection of another performer in a row of mirrors in a public restroom. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

“Dark Horse/Black Forest is a full contact, highly sensory event.…I am acutely aware of every structure in the small space, each intrusion of stall door, urinal, sink, mirror, fluorescent bulb (they line the walls thanks to lighting designer Kathy Couch). We are in this performance in a devastatingly obvious way. Performers don’t just break the fourth wall, they reach through it and touch you.”

— Mary Love Hodges, Brooklyn Rail, “Dance Theater in Small Spaces”

Dark Horse/Black Forest was a dance installation for public bathrooms where an audience of seven confronted at close range an intensely emotional duet. The performers directly related to the audience, including them in conversation, casting them out of the bathroom, moving them into stalls, and ultimately abandoning them.

Dark Horse/Black Forest premiered in New York at the Gershwin Hotel presented by Performance Space 122 and Neke Carson and received a 2009 New York Dance & Performance (aka “Bessie”) Award.

Team

Direction & Choreography: Yanira Castro

Live Performance (two casts): Heather Olson + Joseph Poulson, Luke Miller + Darrin Wright

Video Performance: Yanira Castro, David Sangalli, Marýa Wethers

Lighting Designer: Kathy Couch

Costume Designer: Suzanne Dougan

Installation Designer: Charles Merritt Houghton

Composer: Stephan Moore

Video Artist: Peter Richards

Twitter Feeds: Rozalia Jovanovic

Sound Installation: Lauren McCarthy

Presentations

George Apostu Cultural Center, George Bacovia Theater, Bacau, Romania, May 28, 2007 (World Premiere)

Roschel Performing Arts Center, Franklin & Marshall College, PA, Oct 5–7, 2007

International Contemporary Dance Festival, Riga, Latvia, Jun 5–9, 2008

Norwood Club, PS122 Gala, NYC, Aug 18, 2008

international tanzmesse nrw, tanzhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany, Aug 27–30, 2008

Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, PA , Feb 7, 2009

Performance Space 122 & Gershwin Hotel, New York, NY, June 5–28, 2009 (NY Premiere)

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY, January 9–10, 2010

Press

Mary Love Hodges for the Brooklyn Rail, “Dance Theater in Small Spaces”

Carrie Stern for dance.com, “Yanira Castro’s ‘Dark Horse/Black Forest’”

Debra Griboff for Encore Magazine, “Dark Impulses, Intimate Settings”

Michelle Vellucci for Flavorwire, “Yanira Castro’s Restroom Pas de Deux”

Metro, “Romances stalled in hotel john”

Lori Ortiz for The Villager, “How’s he doing?”

Funding

Dark Horse/Black Forest was made possible by grants from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Dance Theater Workshop’s Suitcase Fund, and a Faculty Research Grant from Amherst College.

Video

Works