MINNEAPOLIS, MN — University of Minnesota
Eight front-end loaders partnered eight dancers for the University’s Art Museum ground-breaking ceremony.
Original score composed for the site by Lee Blaske.
Marylee’s remarks about this Dance in her Marian Chace Lecture:
In 1992, I was invited to create a dance for the groundbreaking ceremony of the new art museum at the University of Minnesota. I choreographed a dance for eight bobcats and eight women in white skirts. The bobcat operators were chosen for their skills. They performed well at competitions where they have to pick up a raw egg in their bucket and race it over to a small circle. At our very first rehearsal at 6:00 a.m., they folded their arms and spat on the ground when I tried to teach them about the cannon form I wanted them to execute. They went back to their boss and said, ‘‘What the heck have you gotten us into? This is stupid!’’ Fast-forward ten days later, after the performance: they came up to me and told me that if I wanted to take this dance on tour, they were ready (Fig. 4). Another operator after the performance said, ‘‘This art stuff isn’t so bad.’’ I have found over and over again that the performers go through a change of heart during the rehearsal process.