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Fleeting Glimpse, Work In Progress

A black wooden chair. A black sequined curtain. A black Faux Fur blanket. A black laptop. A woman with white hair dressed in black sequin shorts and a matching black top. Choreographer Karen Bernard offers these disparate visual elements to the viewer in her latest work, Fleeting Glimpse, only to connect them by revealing their hidden, inner vitality. Through surprisingly spare and inventive movement, Bernard demonstrates that movement itself is life, and despite its fleeting and transitory nature, we experience its pulse through gestures, sideways looks, and subtle shifting that reflects an internal light.

An abstract score of woven together sounds recalls the repetition and constancy of breath while a still and stoic Bernard holds a laptop displaying an animated graphic that resembles the beating of a heart.  While remaining seated and still, the sound and video suggest the internal movement that stirs within all of us, unseen, but sustaining our every moment. This opening leads the viewer to a reflective state, to follow the connections between object and body that Bernard charts with precise focus. Using her characteristic humor, a chair becomes an unexpected dance partner, then a mirror, and a curtain transforms into an undulating sparkling field swaying seductively to Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel.” What emerges is the idea that the movement we bring to each moment is what gives our life its meaning, its joy. Bernard bravely urges us to try it “one more time, this time with feeling,” to embrace our body and its motion, no matter how fleeting our time may be.

Creation and Performer: Karen Bernard
Visuals: Jil Guyon and Scott Wixon
Sound Score: Boris Billier and found music
Costume and Curtain construction: Hwa Park

Showings:

Farm Project, Wellfleet July 30, 2024
L’Expressoir, Marnay Sur Seine, October 21, 2023

Review:

L’Expressior review (PDF)