Into the Void with Catherine Cabeen

Performing arts have shown in the last twenty years an increasing interest in blurring lines between formerly discrete categories. "Theater" and "dance" and "music" have become at times quite indistinct from each other. The Garrett Fisher Ensemble works in the area of dance and theater as a nominal music group. Other local companies are similarly inclined to erase boundaries between disciplines.

Catherine Cabeen is trying to go even further with Into The Void. She is working in the area between the visual and performance art of Yves Klein and the ephemeral art of dance.

Klein is a difficult character. Known originally for his Monochromes, particularly in his patented IKB, or International Klein Blue, later in his life Klein began to study Judo and attained the grade of 4th dan - almost unheard of at the time for a non-Asian martial artist.

Along with his interest in Judo came his interest in Zen, particularly in the idea that the most useful vessel is an empty vessel because it contains limitless potential. Klein explored this idea in numerous ways, from the pre-minimalism of his Monotone Symphony to the even more directly Zen performance piece, Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle in which Klein exchanged gold for ownership of an "immaterial zone" of empty space.

So how does one go about presenting physical manifestions in movement of an art that relied upon the absence of a physical object?

To answer this question, Ms. Cabeen turned to Klein's notebooks and his most human artworks, the Anthopométries, in particular taking on the accusations of Klein's "misogynist" use of women as human paintbrushes.

Ms. Cabeen has set up her dance investigation as a function of gender "masks," created through the use of drag, both male and female, not in the manner of camp but as a dead-serious inquiry. Together with the use of floating gender signifiers, Ms. Cabeen's interest is in "exploring how the body can convey the contrast between fire and water, between rapid chemical changes and slow deterioration." A tall order for a dancer alone. To aid her company in this quest, she has also gone back, through Klein, to Wagner and the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk. Klein's artistic endeavors took place across disciplines, for certain, and here Ms. Cabeen has used, in addition to the five dancers, artists from other disciplines: Susan Robb, a sculptor; Tivon Rice, a digital media artist; Kane Mathis, a musician; and Michael Cepress, a fashion designer. And just to prove her earnestness in crossing boundaries even further, the April 29th performance will be streamed live as part of Jorge Rojas' Low Lives 3 and projected in venues all around the world for those who are interested in cultural sharing on the grandest level.

Commissioned by On the Boards, Into the Void promises to be an intriguing exploration. Anyone familiar with Catherine Cabeen's vivacious work can expect the sensuous beauty of her Breezes and the explosive transitions of her earlier Segments will surely inform her exploration of gender and emptiness in the enigma of Yves Klein. Into the Void is a new and bold work that will prove her reputation to those who doubt and reaffirm her place as one of Seattle's finest dance choreographers.

Apr 28-30 // On the Boards, 100 W Roy St // Tickets $20, available from On The Boards