Rules of Engagement
Multimedia performance, 2005
Janet Biggs' site-specific dance performance Rules of Engagement combines synchronized video projections, three dancers, and a horse and rider to explore issues of power, freedom, and control. Underlying the human and equine choreography and video imagery is an investigation of interactions: how society dictates interactions and the isolation that occurs when one can’t or won’t participate according to society’s rules. Intentionally raw and at times disturbing, the choreography ranges from obsessively restrictive to abandoned, from subtle detail to fierce athleticism. By virtue of its size and potentially dangerous flight response, the horse moving among the dancers exemplifies the unpredictable nature of free will.
Rules of Engagement was performed at New York's now lost Claremont Riding Academy in October, 2005.
Texts:
Dunning, Jennifer: “A Horse and Dancers in an Ode to Interspecies Ties.” New York Times, 10 October 2005.
Tobias, Tobi: “Rules of Engagement.” New York Village Voice, 1 November, 2005.
Marshall, Lea: Rules of Engagement review. Dance Magazine, November 2005.
Lille, Dawn: “Rules of Engagement: Dancers and a Horse.” Art Times, December 2005.
