Dance@Bennigton Presents: The Campanulate Call of the Calendar’s Ceasing - Senior Work by Gerald L. R. Torn

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | The Campanulate Call of the Calendar's Ceasing is a performance of a theoretical ritual marking both the end of the academic year and my own graduation. Built around a structure of a traditional English Folk song-cycle originally arranged in its current order by Shirley Collins, a central figure of the British Folk Revival. The performance-ritual takes direct inspiration from pre-Christian ritual across Europe, especially springtime and May Day celebrations across the British Isles, as well as the well-worn tropes of folk horror that in turn draw from these pagan aesthetics; simultaneously a genuine spiritual celebration and a parody or perversion of ritual. Other central elements include the personal improvisation movement practice I have been developing over my time at Bennington, based in harnessing and amplifying suppressed impulse in order to create uncanny movement that satisfies the dancer to embody.

The performance will take place at the Dickinson Platform & Surrounding Lawn.