Body on display this weekend

Troika Ranch, a dance theater company based in New York City, will perform their new work "Vera's Body" this weekend. The performances, which take place tonight and tomorrow night at Warner Center main space, mark the end of the group's week-long residency in Oberlin.

The founders of Troika Ranch, Dawn Stoppiello and Mark Coniglio, call themselves Slash Artists: they integrate the four disciplines of dance/music/theater/interactive technology in all of their works, creating a mixture that explores how we experience the world and how we express ourselves through our bodies. This is achieved by building custom-designed sensory devices into costumes or embedding them into set pieces. In this way the performers are able to control the theatrical environment through movement and vocalizations.

In "Vera's Body," for example, dancers move through light beams, which allows them to play the musical score and in turn function as both dancers and musicians. In one part of the show a dancer holds a miniature video camera and her fragmented image is projected on the wall behind her. The attempt is to completely immerse the audience in these multiple perspectives of the body in order to go beyond simply thinking about it intellectually and have a more visceral experience.

"Slash Artists see that the key to art is the slash itself," according to Coniglio and Stoppiello. Slash Art is "the linkage of many disciplines into one unified expression."

In "Vera's Body," through the implementation of technology in the dance theater piece, the audience sees Vera, who has died, come back to life and share her memories of experiencing life through her body. The show points out the frailty of the human body as well as its mortality. It is the latest work from Troika Ranch, which was created in 1993 and has performed throughout the United States and in Europe.

The founders and artistic directors, Stoppiello (choreography) and Coniglio (music and media), collaborated because they both wanted to challenge the boundaries of theatrical dance performances. Their working relationship began in the late 1980s while they were both students at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

These performances are the culmination of a week-long Live-Interactive workshop brought to Oberlin by the teachers of the New Media Collaborations course, dance professor Carter McAdams and professor of computer music and new media Richard Povall.

"It has been an absolute pleasure working with the students at Oberlin," said Coniglio. "It feels very much like CalArts-a creative environment-which is where Dawn and I met and began our collaborative work. The students are clearly advanced for their undergraduate status so it feels like we've been working with graduate students. And the positive response from students is always gratifying for us."

The "Live-I" is an intensive seminar designed for artists and advanced students who want to explore the use of interactive computer technology in the creation and performance of dance, theater, and other live art works. Troika Ranch supplies the technology, and the students learn to use movement to control computer-based media such as sound synthesizers, video playback devices, and theatrical lighting. Coniglio, who has taught interactive music classes at CalArts and worked as a producer at American Gramophone Records, says that for Troika Ranch, "the ability for a performer to use instincts to determine the timing and dynamics of the sound, light and image is of the utmost importance."

Junior Christian Fitchett, the master electrician for the group's Oberlin performances, said, "Troika Ranch is a cool company. They're very intense. They work hard yet they're very accessible. The group does interesting work with lasers whereby sound is triggered by the dancers' choreographed movements. It's exciting work that bridges the gap between sound and movement."

Co-founder Stoppiello has danced with the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company and taught at such institutions as Loyola Marymount University and the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts.

The Oberlin Troika Ranch premiere with full company features dancers Rose Marie Hegenbart, Michou Szabo, Lisa Herlinger and Sandra Tillett.

Vera's Body will be performed at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday in Warner Main space. Tickets ($2 to $4) are available through Central Ticket Service; otherwise add $2 more at the door.

Ranch Hands: Troika Ranch Company co-founders Dawn Stoppiello and Mark Coniglio. (photo by Larry Coleman)