ALL BLUES
June 11-12, 2015
Baryshnikov Arts Center

ALL BLUES is an evening-length colorist performance that unfolds in 7 suites:
MAN WITH BROOM
OMNIPRESENCE
TIDES
GOT THE BLUES
INDIGO
CELESTIAL PATHS
BLUE BETWEEN US

The piece expresses the broad complexities of the color blue through movement, music, set and costumes, and olfactive elements. Rhee began her inquiry into the color blue in 2013: Blue as an infinite experience, as a fundamental way in which we experience the world. She observed its transcendental potential: sacred or celestial, bold or banal. Working, courageous, depressed, elevated blue...

All Blues is a living kinesthetic collage, a total sensory environment, comprised of all of these blues. In rehearsals, movement was the primary language to drive expression. The choreography stems from vernacular gestures that link back to the color: a blues guitarists’ moans, a workers repetitive motions, geometries on celestial maps. Arms create geometric motifs that repeat and reinvent themselves. Each performer brings their own universe of movement and sound, creating a jazz-like troupe, where individual voices exchange in the score and through improvisation. The costumes & sets, as well as the olfactive elements, are designed to further express the artistic themes in visual and sensory media.

The set, comprised mostly of silk textiles draped on freestanding steel structures or existing structures in the space, is a large expansive field of various blues collaged together. The set gives the viewer’s eye a constant field of reference for the choreography, while the materiality of the textile has a life of it’s own, reacting to wind and movement. Guest artists Alexandra Wolkowicz and Emilie Lundstroem contributed an indigo net and a cyanotype textile, respectively.

The premiere was June 11-12, 2015 at Baryshnikov Art Center with 4 dancers and 4 musicians: Jason Anastasoff, Rico Baumann, Chantal Chadwick, Lathan Hardy, Mara Mayer, Ella Misko, Kay Ottinger, Beau Rhee. 

Photographs by Barbara Anastacio

ALL BLUES inspiration notes: 

Color is an ungraspable sensation between us & the world
Blue is a worker Blue is a royal

Le sang bleu
Je me sens bleu

Blue Blood
Blue Balls
Blue Collar
Blue Chip

Blue Hour
Blue Room
Kind of Blue
Jazz Blue
Little Girl Blue

Blue Note
Blue Train

Blue unites us
Blue swallows us
begins and ends us

Horizon Blue
Ocean Blue
Sky Blue
Blue Moon
Out of the Blue

Blue as experience
Blue as consciousness

Bluing - ultramarine blue cubes used
to make yellowed garments more white in the laundry
Bluing - a ritualistic process of cleansing the body to sanctify against evil spirits

Devil’s Dye Indigo
Devil’s Music Blues
Sacred Blue
Yves Klein Blue
Blue Jeans
Blue Book

Why is the sky blue? Why is the ocean blue?
Rayleigh Scattering

Blues progression
Blues chords
7 suites in homage to the Blues scale

Blue Ruin
Blue Period

Blue Suit
Blue Uniform
Blue Liberty
Blue Authority

Primary Blue
Pure Blue 470NM
Blues 450-495NM

Blue Pigments: Lapis lazuli
Cobalt
Azurite
Sapphire
Ultramarine
Cerulean

Bleu outremer
Tintori di guado

The Indigo War
Woad vs. Indigofera
tinctoria Indikon

There are words in East Asian languages that combine Green and Blue into 1 color
저 푸른 초원

2% of 6 million cones in eyes are blue and are the most sensitive

Holy Blue
Black and Blue
True Blue

All Blues
All Blues
All Blues