Stump the Cook

I have spent the weekend doing one of my favorite things.  Arranging disparate ingredients.  "Disparate" is perhaps a little harsh.  Should I say, things that were not necessarily intended to go together?  It  is of course my Merce Cunningham/John Cage lineage, mixed with post-modern contemporary techniques. I  was pondering how to explain this particular artistic/choreographic practice to Ensemble.  And this came to mind:  the "Stump the Cook" from the NPR show "Splendid Table" "The Splendid Table's very own game show — a refrigerator/pantry game in which a call-in contestant challenges Lynne Rossetto Kasper to create a dish with five ingredients from their kitchen." Kasper must come up with something that is deemed appetizing and edible.  As a person who hates to cook and often finds myself with a confusing collection of odd items in the fridge, I used to find this show highly annoying (especially Kasper's voice).  But the show seemed to be playing on the long ride back from North Georgia and I heard it often.  It started to grow on me.  And just this weekend, I realized that I actually play a version of this as my choreographic process....

So for the Fall Exploratorium my ingredients are: 

• Rosie with a solo to the Flying Lizard's version of "I want money" http://mp3skull.com/mp3/i_want_money_flying_lizards.html
• Jermaine with a solo to Abba's "Money, Money, Money"
• http://mp3soup.net/mp3/money-money-abba
• Ana with a solo to a text from "Ask How: 8 Steps to Financial Freedom"
• A duet by Eva and Sofia to a text/music mash-up about a personal economic situation/response
• My piece: Rate of Exchange/Abundance & Scarcity parts one and two
• Ana and Benji finding performative ways to present updates on their MAPS

And that is our rehearsal task this week!  I've got the ingredients, and like Kasper, I have an idea how to put them all together.  Now it's getting in the kitchen and making it happen.  And serving it up for a nice presentation.