Gabrielle Revlock
"Influenced by postmodern dance and experimental theater, my performances often depict complicated but relatable interpersonal relationships using a vocabulary that embraces pedestrian movement, abstracted by degrees. I begin with a significant interaction or relationship in my life and deconstruct its dynamics, at times with the person involved. I welcome difficult feelings into the room and work through them playfully. Structurally, I isolate specific moods, themes, dynamics or visual ideas and weave them with strands of contrasting and complementary textures. These juxtapositions at times create absurdity in which I often discover joy, humor, compassion and meaning."
LSDC: How have the social shifts of 2020 impacted your life as an artist?
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GR: Well, I'm not performing as much and I've been in a dance studio three times since quarantine but I still feel deeply connected to my life as an artist. A number of my projects don't look like dance in the strict sense, so not making something for the stage isn't necessarily an issue for me. One change is that I've shifted into more teaching. I had been wanting to make teaching a bigger part of my life so I was glad to have been thinking about that already when quarantine hit.
LSDC: How has the broad emergence of this digital realm influenced your creativity/artistic work?
GR: I'm not sure. We're still in it. Everything is always changing and yet much is the same. I wouldn't say I'm making work in a drastically different way than I was a year ago. My last performance before quarantine was Nuptial Blitz, an examination of the choreography of wedding photography where I invited people to pose in photos as my partner. It existed both as a series of photographs and a live performance so I was already thinking about and making work that partially existed in the digital realm. Feel free to scroll down my IG feed if you missed my wedding photos spanning November 2019 to January 2020 :)
LSDC: How would you describe yourself as an artist, and/or your work, as we step into the year of 2021?
GR: I am complicated, joyful, resilient. I take pleasure from putting myself into situations and then seeing what happens, so I seek out people, experiences, sensations, things that make me feel alive. I'm drawn to simplicity but I don't mind a mess. I value the ability to shift perspective above almost all else and thus I will always advocate for the importance of nonsense.
LSDC: Have you produced any new work, live or digital?
GR: Yes! In 2019 I created SEX TAPE, a duet where I used as the movement score a videotape of myself embracing a male lover, and then recreated it with long-time female friend (and LSDC company member) Michele Tantoco. Over the summer I worked with filmmaker Shawn Kornhauser to create a video, and by that I mean that we considered the context in which someone might watch it. It's not a documentation of the live performance. It was filmed on location, in an apartment and we made some edits which tightened the piece up a bit. The video also includes an introduction where I encourage viewers to experience the work in the context of mindfulness, as opposed to entertainment. It premiered at the Philly Fringe Festival and is now available for streaming through my website http://RestorativeContact.com. It's a beautiful work and I really hope people get a chance to check it out.
Currently I'm working on a somewhat sprawling collaboration with Nicole Bindler which includes video, working towards a live performance in the spring and managing an online dating club called The Apocalypse Singles Club. We have t-shirts if anyone wants one.
Gabrielle in Motion
Gabrielle Revlock & Michele Tantoco in Revlock's SEX TAPE