TMT Hosts choreographer/dancer David Appel and composer/sound artist John Morton for the premiere of Backchannel, the probing and adventurous outgrowth of their new 2023 collaborative project. Performances are on Friday November 3rd and Saturday November 4th at 8:00pm, and Sunday November 5 at 3:00 pm, at The Doxsee at Target Margin Theater, 232 52nd Street in Brooklyn. https://www.targetmargin.org/tmt-hosts-backchannel/ for more information and tickets (online for $25 including fees or $20 cash at the door).

Backchannel, funded by NYSCA, re-defines the relationship between dance, music, and technology through the creation of a dancer-activated sound environment, where movement and proximity of the performers’ bodies generate specific musical responses. A Lidar (light detection) sensor, centered in the space, traces the charted and improvised actions of the dancers, triggering sound as their individual and collective location shifts. 

The piece speaks to motivation and consequence, to synchronicity and conversation, both apparent and “behind the scenes”. Backchannel is also about the path and the journey: how we get from here to there while navigating turns and changes along the way. The alliance and interplay between composer, choreographer, and seasoned movers (Randy Burd, Cecilia Fontanesi, Ava Heller, and Elise Knudson) gives everyone involved a more telling voice in this process, addressing essential issues around how we work and create together. Also included on the program is Morton’s Driving Across the Prairie (based on a story by Ed Dorn) and a new solo by Appel.