Suddenly Dance Theatre is currently developing a new dance film BLOOD ORANGE directed by Miles Lowry, based on his book.
In BLOOD ORANGE (Ekstasis Editions 2006) Lowry explores the life of American writer/composer Paul Bowles in a snapshot album of poems and images drawn from years of wandering in Bowles' fiction and biographical remnants. Bowles rose to international prominence with the publication of his novel, The Sheltering Sky in 1950, becoming one of the 20th centuries most gifted and misunderstood literary figures. Choosing Tangier, Morocco as his home, Bowles became a celebrated expatriate whose home was the meeting place of the authors of the Beat Generation and a host of literary renegades.
This dance film uses the poetry of Lowry’s book as impetus for movement, for actual dialogue within narrative, and for song libretto. The work is ultimately a love story about a community of ‘outsiders’ that transcends sexual and cultural politics. Set in North Africa and New York through the early 1920’s to the 1990’s, BLOOD ORANGE observes North American and Arab cultures with a design involving light to inform the emotional, dimensional and physical definition of space. The music in BLOOD ORANGE features the central dance performer on piano and a master Oud musician to support the text with Moroccan-influenced music.
From the Introduction by Lowry: "Bowles' prose reveals an original voice with a precise style, quietly but ruthlessly observing the travails and disassociated realities of his characters. Unafraid of the darker aspects of human behavior his stories are saved from gloominess by a refined sense of the inevitable. Without resorting to desperate innovations, he pioneered the chasm between foreign states of mind and a traveler’s place in a foreign land."
BLOOD ORANGE is a timely advancement of Suddenly Dance Theatre’s production of dance films, following OPIUM (2005/2006), AISLING (2007), Nature Ecstasy (2005/2007), Guthrie Swims the Lake (2010), and Rush of Water / Rush of Air (2012).