EJM, a two-part multimedia dance work, is inspired by the motion-photography experiments of two photographer-scientists who shared the same initials, were born in the same year, and died in the same year: Eadweard James Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey (both 1830–1904). While photography was once thought to be an instrument of truth—from its infancy in the early nineteenth century until well into the twentieth century—the age of digitization cast doubt on its veracity. EJM I: Man Walking at Ordinary Speed and EJM II: Inertia use digital media in the service of both truth and deception, working with live stage action and several forms of mediation.
The stage is transformed into a media production studio comprising a large projection screen suspended from an inclined gantry and a live video camera mounted on a roving boom arm controlled by an onstage operator. Live and prerecorded video is projected on the screen. At the start of the performance, the screen is located upstage, positioned at its highest elevation. The dancers occupy the full stage while details of their live performance are broadcast on the screen. As the performance continues, the screen slowly descends, compressing the physical space of the stage. The dancers perform on a progressively smaller stage. As sight lines become compromised, the dancers’ onscreen video presence competes with their physical stage presence, and the screen sometimes interferes with the dancers’ mobility. Near the end of the piece, the screen arrives at its final stop, at the apron of the stage. The dancers perform behind it—only their video counterparts are visible to the audience. Stage and screen are in fluid exchange.
EJM I and EJM II were choreographed by Frédéric Flamand. EJM I: Man Walking at Ordinary Speed was created in collaboration with Charleroi/Danses; EJM II: Inertia was created in collaboration with Ballet de l’Opéra National de Lyon.
