Kayla Tange’s desire to connect with people and fascination with admission have inspired her to create performances around themes that are common to us all–sex, shame, secrets, identity and connection. As a Korean adoptee with a personal story of parental and identity loss, she learned to encapsulatevarious selves out of fear of rejection. Consequently, Tange struggled with both physical and emotional boundaries, often letting people cross them, unaware of what these were to begin with. In her work, she engages the latent tension between desire and anxiety, exposing her own vulnerability, battling the internal struggle of acclimating to trauma, and inviting others to offer theirs. The spoken word, music and dance special event Boundaries starts with her asking the question, “Tell me a way in which your boundaries were crossed?” This new work begins by sharing stories from a performance during a 2016 Downtown Los Angeles art walk. Answers were written and shared anonymously, revealing the control these experiences exert on our identities – emotions emanating from constraint and degrees of consent.Boundaries not only honors these past stories by incorporating them into the work, but also gives life to a new shared narrative adding a musical soundscape created by cellist Ro Rowan; florid dance in direct response to the score by tango dancersJuan Gabriel Magni and Romina Rodriguez-Costa; and subtle, performative movement by American Sign Language interpreter Caroline Blaike that translates Tange’s words literally, creating a mirror image. In Boundaries, we collect your true anonymous stories as they are told. The life of each audience member becomes a vital element in an immersive narrative - combining movement, constraint, live music, and multi-media elements - where art and life no longer imitate each other, but are unified right in front of our eyes. Boundaries’ vision is to validate your experiences through a filter in which your pain is part of a necessary catalyst for change. The evening begins with a performance of original songs by multidisciplinary musician and artist, Daniel Crook, accompanied by Adam Ashe, whose work focuses on gender, identity and personhood.Video taken by Joseph Lee.Performed at Highways Performance SpaceJuly 28-29, 2017
Full Performance with Daniel Crook and Adam Ashe opening with original music.
Boundaries performers:
Kayla Tange
Ro Rowan
Juan Gabriel Magni and Romina Rodriguez-Costa
Caroline Blaike
