Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre - view bio
Kill Me Now
Kill Me Now is an original dance competition based on aspects of such popular TV reality series as; "Dancing with the Stars", "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dance Wars". Written by Obie Award Winner John Clancy and Directed by Melanie Stewart, Kill Me Now is a fast paced, comic and often satiric journey of extreme dance competition. The experience questions and confronts our willingness (even desire) to be judged and to compete for some ultimate "prize" while at the same time relentlessly judging and condemning others.
Kill Me Now was premiered in the 2009 Live Arts Festival. Hosted by Catherine Gillard (special guest from Edinburgh based theatre company benchtours) and performed by the raucous and ready for prime time dance crew Bethany Formica, Scott McPheeters, Janet Pilla, Megan Mazarick, Les Rivera and Karl Schappell. Kill Me now is currently in development for touring
I'll Crane for You
In August of 2008 Melanie Stewart was a part of the 2008 Solo Commissioning Project hosted by Independent Dance in Findhorn, Scotland. Together with a group of 20 internaitonal artists, they commissioned the solo "I'll Crane for You" from Choreographer, Deborah Hay.
Hay set the solo through directives that each performer translated individually into movement in his/her unique way. Following individual coaching by Hay with everyone present, the solo was ultimately individually “adapted” by each performer through a four month period of daily practice in advance of public presentation.
Melanie Stewart’s adaptation of Deborah Hay’s I’ll Crane for You concerns itself subtle and often fragile relationship between the audience and performer. Stewart shifts the perspective through Hay’s script and directives to engage, challenge and undo existing expectations of the relationship. In the solo Stewart is a woman trapped in a room with the audience as company exploring constructs of gender, age and social status through an episodic journey that includes movement, story and songs, originally created at each performance. In Hay’s words, the title I’ll Crane for You is a metaphor for the performer. Stewart’s adaptation explores the motive for the performer as the figure in the solo attempts to connect to her audience.
She premiered the solo in the 2009 nEW Festival. Upcoming perfromance dates include; February 1 at Rowan University, February 18 and 20 at Joyce Soho and March 19 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
