It's been nine years since dancer/choreographer Dave Williams has put on a full production–2004's award-winning Falling 2.0, which he'd first presented three years earlier.It's no wonder. Williams has his hands full: he's an advertising consultant, a collaborator on the online arts magazine Draconian Switch, and co-founder of the annual COCO Dance Festival and also of the successful T&T Erotic Art Week, the fourth installation of which is carded for April 2014.
And there's one more reason it took Williams almost ten years to bring out Press Play, the 40-minute contemporary dance/ drama/ performance art presentation that began running at Woodbrook's Night Gallery/ Bohemia last month and continues this weekend."Trinidad is a hostile environment to art–well, generally everything; it kind of breaks you," said Williams, who made news in 2010 for calling Napa, Port-of-Spain "nothing more than a very ornate twig" with a stage that could be hazardous for performers.
He'd performed at the then-new building the previous year, during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and was one of many performers and art activists criticising the extravagant structure."It kind of takes the wind out of you a lot of the time," said Williams, continuing his assessment of the social environment in T&T."Every time (you stage something) you have to be giving yourself the pep talk–what are you doing it for in the first place, and what would be the outcome and the benefit."It's not cheap to do," he said, pointing out another obstacle to putting on a production."It's a lot of work. I remember Peter Minshall once said the opera singer does not have to build the opera house or sweep the theatre or collect the tickets–but in the scheme of things here, (performers) really do everything."
Press Play is an amalgamation of ideas that had been gathering in Williams' head over the past decade. With a cast of seven, including Williams, it explores personal relationships, the role of the media, and politics.Night Gallery/Bohemia, an art space run by Williams and other artists, is increasingly being known as the place to see alternative and experimental work. It was one of the places that showcased work for the Erotic Art Week and it hosted the first ever postal art exhibition last year, along with visual artist Adele Todd's look at crime through the unexpected medium of embroidery.
The space is small, with room for only 60 audience members for every performance of Press Play. It's one of the reasons the presentation is running longer than typical dance shows.The space is intended for new artists or experimental work that can't afford anything bigger, said Williams."We kind of have a space where the financial commitment and risk aren't there," he said."It's really to get audiences to see new creative work and for artists to start testing their work on audiences. It is experimenting for both the audience and the artist."Press Play ends its second run this evening. Showtime is 7.30 pm.
More info: Night Gallery/bohemia on Facebook.
