Variation X
I watched and analyzed every movement in each variation, improvised while watching each jig. In this work, the synthesizer becomes the dancer, the filter twirls as the actions flow in each frame. Frequencies modulate each other, and the white noise blankets the music in moments of tension and transition.
Nine New Variations
Drawing inspiration from the original 1966 Hilary Harris film, 9 Variations on a Dance Theme, featuring dancer Bettie de Jong, nine dancers respond in NINE NEW VARIATIONS
Conceived and created by Kristin Draucker & Michael Trusnovec
With original music by DM R
Mastered by Murat Çolak
Artists (in order of appearance):
Featured in the New York Times
This project came out of the blue during this past summer. One Sunday morning, Claire Chase texted me about a choreographer trying to reach out to me about a collaboration. Michael, Kristin, and I finally got in touch and set up a meeting. I got incredibly excited ‑ composing for dancers is something that I have wanted to do for such a long time, yet I had never had the chance. Before committing to this project, I wrote sketches for the first two dances and sent Michael and Kristin a demo. It was so liberating to collaborate with such great artists. I watched and analyzed every movement in each variation, improvised while watching each jig. In this work, the synthesizer becomes the dancer, the filter twirls as the actions flow in each frame, frequencies modulate each other, and the white noise blankets the music in moments of tension and transition. Some of the videos came with background noise that I sampled and manipulated to traject the changes in physical space on each interpretation. Like the loud truck passing by in the third variation or the chirping birds on the second variation, the foley merges with the crackles and the textures in the track. Each breath, turn, bend, skip, and gaze into the camera informed Variation X's shape as it evolved in time.
The year 2020 has been incredibly hard for everyone. My creativity definitely took a hit, and I felt drained during the summer. The idea of creating music during a pandemic followed by the social/political unrest has felt off, though, working on Variation X helped me mentally survive the whole experience, and I’m incredibly grateful for it.