Brooklyn-based dance artist Miguel Gutierrez explores our nation’s unrealistic expectations through cultural icon James Dean
by Mary Staub
www.encoremag.com
Many of our nation’s most enticing artists refuse to be boxed in. They work hard to defy the roles society ascribes them, by which they are marked, categorized, classified, and tied down. James Dean—who died 54 years ago this September—is one artist who tried, but didn’t live long enough to succeed. The Brooklyn-based dance artist Miguel Gutierrez is one who has thus far succeeded. This September, the two artists come together in Gutierrez’s newest work, Last Meadow, September 15–19 at the Dance Theater Workshop.
Shortly after Dean’s death at age 24, he was widely cited as having told his friend and co-star Dennis Hopper that he had had enough of acting and wanted to direct. Hopper was oft-quoted recalling that Dean couldn’t stand “being treated like a puppet. We had pretty much seen the end of James Dean on the screen, even if he had lived. He couldn’t stand being interrupted every five seconds by some idiot behind the camera. He was too caught up in the role to be stopped abruptly and made to start again.”
Dean wanted to define who he was, and not be told. As it stands, though, any desires he had to cut loose were halted by the freak car accident that ended his life and he lives on in our nation’s cultural imagination as the rebellious youth he played in Rebel Without a Cause.
It is this iconic image that Gutierrez makes use of in Last Meadow. Inspired by Dean’s classic films and the emblem we have made of him, Gutierrez explores how we, as a nation, cast unrealistic expectations upon our own identity as a nation. Together with long-time collaborators Michelle Boulé and Tarek Halaby, Gutierrez takes us to an America in a state of collapse and confronts us with the perpetual state of waiting, where what you need never comes.
By no means new to exploring existential questions in the theatrical realm, Gutierrez’s work is often fraught with questions about who we are and why we are here. It is these questions, and also the exploration of how a dance performance might give insight into them, that drive Gutierrez’s work. The Powerful People—the name by which Gutierrez and his collaborators are known—explore these complexities with a sense of urgency that both captivates and disconcerts.
Part of what makes Gutierrez’s work so enticing is that each project pulsates with a fresh urgency and Gutierrez, who refers to himself as a dance and music artist, seems to rediscover his own identity each time anew.
For more information dancetheaterworkshop.org or miguelgutierrez.org.
by Mary Staub
www.encoremag.com
Many of our nation’s most enticing artists refuse to be boxed in. They work hard to defy the roles society ascribes them, by which they are marked, categorized, classified, and tied down. James Dean—who died 54 years ago this September—is one artist who tried, but didn’t live long enough to succeed. The Brooklyn-based dance artist Miguel Gutierrez is one who has thus far succeeded. This September, the two artists come together in Gutierrez’s newest work, Last Meadow, September 15–19 at the Dance Theater Workshop.
Shortly after Dean’s death at age 24, he was widely cited as having told his friend and co-star Dennis Hopper that he had had enough of acting and wanted to direct. Hopper was oft-quoted recalling that Dean couldn’t stand “being treated like a puppet. We had pretty much seen the end of James Dean on the screen, even if he had lived. He couldn’t stand being interrupted every five seconds by some idiot behind the camera. He was too caught up in the role to be stopped abruptly and made to start again.”
Dean wanted to define who he was, and not be told. As it stands, though, any desires he had to cut loose were halted by the freak car accident that ended his life and he lives on in our nation’s cultural imagination as the rebellious youth he played in Rebel Without a Cause.
It is this iconic image that Gutierrez makes use of in Last Meadow. Inspired by Dean’s classic films and the emblem we have made of him, Gutierrez explores how we, as a nation, cast unrealistic expectations upon our own identity as a nation. Together with long-time collaborators Michelle Boulé and Tarek Halaby, Gutierrez takes us to an America in a state of collapse and confronts us with the perpetual state of waiting, where what you need never comes.
By no means new to exploring existential questions in the theatrical realm, Gutierrez’s work is often fraught with questions about who we are and why we are here. It is these questions, and also the exploration of how a dance performance might give insight into them, that drive Gutierrez’s work. The Powerful People—the name by which Gutierrez and his collaborators are known—explore these complexities with a sense of urgency that both captivates and disconcerts.
Part of what makes Gutierrez’s work so enticing is that each project pulsates with a fresh urgency and Gutierrez, who refers to himself as a dance and music artist, seems to rediscover his own identity each time anew.
For more information dancetheaterworkshop.org or miguelgutierrez.org.
