Rugcar is an on-going performance series which takes place with a rug on top of a car. The car is a mobile platform for installation and performance works. Rugcar comes from the need for dance spaces and performance opportunities that lie outside the traditional studio and theater spaces.
Through public performance, Rugcar engages an audience that wouldn’t otherwise engage in performance. The intention of Rugcar is not to get people to stop and break away from their prescribed day, but to be able to catch a glimpse of something and have this glimpse invoke a later reverie.
Rugcar has allowed a dialogue to open up between myself and the people who choose to watch the performance. People have come up during the performance and have asked me questions about what I am doing and why I am doing it. Rugcar allows a rare opportunity in dance to simultaneously be performing and be talking and answering questions by an audience. Part of the performance is allowing space to inform a truly curious person who may have never before been exposed to dance and performance art.
Featured Collaborative Iterations
Danielle Doell
Danielle performed Rugcar around the Ballard and Greenlake neighborhoods as well as at the Georgetown Art Walk for May 2018.
Danielle explored the question: “How do I stand on this pedestal, clearly in a position of power and voice, yet have nothing to show and nothing to proclaim?” Another question that arose was around the idea of a car as home and what similar functions the car and home possess. How does the car and house hold similar places in our memories and in our actions.
Jordan Macintosh-Hougham
Jordan performed Rugcar at the Capitol Hill Art Walk as well as around the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Jordan explored ways to retract claims of power and hierarchy after they have already been declared as set claims. Once in that position of power, is it possible to step away or is the history and memory itself too powerful. Through this exploration we created the following score. The score is set for 59 minutes, although there is no clock or timekeeper, all time intervals are at the discretion of the performer’s experience and interpretation.
- 10 min: Settle/Re-settle
- 3 min: Purposeful communication attempts
- 15 min: Stability/instability; developing communication play
- 3 min: Synthesization
- 10 min: Gaze; seeing people or not; seeing what they cannot see
- 1 min: Boundaries of car
- 1 min: Finding a specific point and then getting off the car to get to that point
- 1 min: Bringing something back to the car
- 10 min: Enjoyment in the failure of communication, task, this score
- 5 min: Synthesization and sitting in the end
–Pull off Rug–
Ana Puzycki
Ana performed Rugcar at Equinox Studios for the Georgetown Art Walk in January 2019.
Ana explored physicality and weight from both the inside and outside of the car. The focus was on draping and different ways her body could drape and share weight with the car. Embracing the rainy weather, Ana also explored sliding and writhing on top of the car while allowing herself to get absorbed into repetitious habits.
A History:
March 10th, 2018: N Northlake Way, Under Fremont Ave N, Seattle.
March 20th, 2018: NE 103rd St & 35th Ave NE, Seattle.
April 14th, 2018: Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
May 11th, 2018: Featuring Danielle Doell. NW 54th St & 14th Ave NW, Seattle.
May 12th, 2018. Featuring Danielle Doell. N 52nd St & Greenlake Way N, Seattle
May 14th, 2018: Featuring Danielle Doell. Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
July 14th, 2018: Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
August 11th, 2018: Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
August 27th – September 1st, 2018: Bank parking lot at E Pike St & 13th Ave, Seattle. “What Festival?” weeklong installment.
September 6th, 2018: Pioneer Square Art Walk, Seattle.
September 8th, 2018: Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
October 13th, 2018: Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, Denton.
October 25th, 2018: Bank parking lot at E Pike St & 13th Ave, Seattle. “Rugcar Duet #1”
November 10th, 2018: Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
November 29th, 2018: MIC1412 at Gallery 1412, Seattle.
December 8th, 2018: Equinox Studios Very Open House, Seattle.
December 13th, 2018: Featuring Jordan MacIntosh-Hougham. Capitol Hill Art Walk, Seattle.
January 12th, 2019: Featuring Ana Puzycki. Equinox Studios at Georgetown Art Walk, Seattle.
September, 27th, 2019: West Town Art Walk, Chicago.
ChristopherWPA 