Hourglass

Abstract

In 2015, Sally Doughty received a commission from Dance4 to make a dance performance in response to an exhibition of artefacts from the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (1976). Created and performed in the exhibition space at Nottingham’s Backlit Gallery, the performance, titled Hourglass, responds to the exhibits, the gallery space and specifically a section entitled Knee Play Three by Lucinda Childs, from the original opera’s score. Doughty developed a choreographic score, which frames the hour long performance. One of the major artistic concerns in the work is to investigate how to document performance in the moment of performing, so that a second choreographic score is developed by Doughty as she performs. Doughty’s costume comprises a wearable canvas that is drawn onto to document Hourglass, which is removed and left in the gallery space, thus contributing to the artefacts in the opera’s history.