Vinyl Retro (2016)

Vinyl Retro was inspired by a work created by Karen Bernard in 1996, when she performed the solo originally titled Vinyl wearing a yellow vinyl dress to a series of Supremes songs. A woman alone at a party or perhaps at a party for one. Barbara Mahler had an interest in performing this piece, but when she tried the dress on the vinyl disintegrated. The “relic” piece was immersed into a duet where Bernard became the director and controller of the projector, lighting and sound. The relationship between Mahler and Bernard kept shifting. During the development of the piece, Mahler left the country for two weeks. Left to her own, Bernard created a solo to “Standing at the Crossroads of Love” sung by the Supremes. As Mahler enters the piece the score (deconstructed from the movie “Last Days of Disco”) begins to drift in and out parallel to our relationship ourselves and the environment. The work grapples with loss, aging, the act of performance and a myriad of complex emotions.

Duration: 28 min

Credits

Creation: Karen Bernard

Performers: Karen Bernard and Barbara Mahler

Costume (white dress): Hwa Park

Score: Standing on the Crossroads of Love, Diana Ross and The Supremes and John Jacob Courtney, deconstruction of source material from The Last Days of Disco

Made possible through Dance in Process at The Kitchen

Vinyl Retro presented at The Kitchen in NYC, May 6-7, 2016

Vinyl Retro was made possible through Dance in Process at The Kitchen, NYC.