For this week’s Fractured Atlas member profile, I posed questions to the members of GoGoVertigoat Dance Project, a New York-based dance/performance collective that “cross-dresses, crosses species, crosses disciplines, and crosses other self-imposed, political and social borders.” Members of the group, including co-founders eunkyungkim and Lindsey Drury (a/k/a ms. drury), told me everything I didn’t know about this particular breed of goat…

Why is it important to “cross” all the “borders” (see above) mentioned in your mission statement? What’s the result?

We’re still coming to understand what that means as well, primarily because our value for crossing is about reaching into the unknown. First, in our art-making process, we are constantly examining and challenging our own social and political identifiers as fodder for our works. Our artistic process has been one of looking at the ways we have learned to define ourselves as people and as artists, and then asking ourselves, Is that really necessary? Do I need that limitation? What else is possible? And through the asking of those questions, we begin to find ways to cross over into new territories. In doing so, we inevitably find new limitations, new ways of defining ourselves, new structures, new social mores with which we must then interact and again question.

How do your works evolve? Who is involved in the creation process?

Each work takes on a life of its own. It is important to us that the process be a way of living the concepts our work investigates.

There are some basic habits we tend to share. We start with a concept from which we dialogue and process in our own way (running, bathing, writing, daydreaming, improvising). We work in the studio with the inspiration materials from the concept that arise (words, ideas, movement scores, props). Next we start to look at what is curious or problematic. From here the process takes on the unique characteristics which dictate how the evolution continues. Generally video taping or viewing from the outside helps us see what is working conceptually as well as intuitively. Lately Ms. Drury, eungkyungkim, and Rinny-Roo have been working collaboratively as a trio of choreographers/directors, as well as their individual projects. Dancers are always included in generating the movement; they contribute criticism from viewing the piece throughout stages of creation too.

I really like your collective piece entitled “I Loved You Because My Mythology Told Me To”. It seems (to me) to be expressing human relationships: complex, confusing yet familiar, at times smooth and graceful, at times tormented…

Thanks! This piece evolved from the dancers’ own stories and was directed by eunkyungkim. It explores the questions: How do we understand ourselves through the mythology we create about others? What are the myths that cause us to advance towards or away from one another? It researches the mythology of knowing someone and refutes the idea that someone can be known. Some dancers embody mainstream archetypes in hopes to relate, some lose themselves in loving, and some only see themselves through restricted foresight and elongated hindsight. It explores the pathos and hope of human connection.

Please tell us about your “Sell Out Demos”…

We began to envision the dances that would fulfill the promises of our art form’s marketing ploys. We began to explore what it would mean to follow through with the tone, intention, and concept of arts promotional materials in general by creating performances that continue to speak to audiences through the same purpose and intention of the posters, email blasts, Facebook invites, and radio promos that brought the audience through the door.

We wrote the original proposal packet as an advertisement. From there, we began to create a series of YouTube videos which were drew roughly from the aesthetics of commercials. We also created a Facebook personality to act as the liaison for further promotion of the piece. One of the primary questions driving the creative process has been, “What if the concept of a work is nothing more than to create an audience for itself?”

The final vision of the project is to create a series of performances that (dis)function entirely within promotional values, and that therefore place the idea of getting the audience in the door as the central conceptual precept of the work itself. And we believe that if the purpose of an artwork is to create audience for itself, that artwork has fulfilled the definition of Selling Out, hence the name of the show.

Who or what are your biggest influences?

Primarily you and her, and them and it, and him… and Guillermo Gómez-Peña.

And goats?

The goat is a symbol for resourcefulness, stubbornness, recycling, and hardiness. The goat tends to be found wandering around the human rubbish, picking through things to discover what can be consumed and transformed into sustenance. They conjure up iconic imagery (Chinese astrology, Pan) and are strangely nuzzled into common sayings that we identify with, such as “get your goat,” and “scapegoat.”

What motivated you to become a member of Fractured Atlas? How do you use your membership?

We are not yet ready to file for our own non-profit status, but through fiscal sponsorship by Fractured Atlas we can pursue grant funding and accept tax-deductible donations. In the next few weeks we’ll be setting up liability insurance for our company and space. We have two Somatic practitioners in the group, so we’ll be looking to set up policies to cover that kind of practice, teaching, and a general policy for our space.

We’ve been running this company at a deficit since 2005, so we’re finally putting our sights on making this project economically sound, as well. For that reason, we’ll be seeking out lots of advice from the online courses of Fractured U. Finally, we plan on applying for a Fractured Atlas microgrant. We think it is particularly fantastic that Fractured Atlas’s microgrants are focused on supporting the artistic process because that is exactly the kind of support that artists need. All of our works to this point, for example, have been staged as works-in-progress, and as we look to our goal of completing our first really polished evening of work, we see the microgrant program as an indispensable resource.

What’s next on your professional horizon?

GoGoVertigoat is aiming toward long-term, in-depth projects, and an evening-length show. Other basic goals of ours are to build strong relationships with various communities within the city of New York, address how we can further act as an organization that provides service to others, and figure out how to navigate the labyrinth of Brooklyn on bicycles.

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GoGoVertigoat Dance Project will be performing at Raw Material/Dance New Amsterdam, October 8 and 9; at Obscureterrain, October 17; and at DanceSpace Project’s “Food For Thought”, November 13. You can also find them on YouTube, Facebook, and their own website.

Images (top to bottom):
1) “The Slick Filling of Aches and Cavities” with Laura Bartczak and Gabriel Lukeris, BoCoCa Arts Festival, 2009.
2) “Ding for Service”, Works in Progress, Dance New Amsterdam, 2009.