Alethea Alexander | Table Machine

table machine

2023

Bellingham Repertory Dance (BRD) at the Firehouse Performing Arts Center (April 2023)

Cornish Dance Theater at Seattle Center (November 2023)

Choreographer: Alethea Alexander in collaboration with BRD dancers

BRD Dancers: Marissa Hernandez, Juliette Machado, Tatyana Stahler, Betty

Cornish Dance Theater Dancers: Lael Batiste, DeAnne DeCola, Sylvia Schatz-Allison, Madison Steele, Betty

Sound design: Alethea Alexander

Sounds: "In My Dreams" ANHONI (excerpted), "Betty" Alethea Alexander, "VII - Live at Berlin Atonal (2016)" Mika Vainio (excerpted), "Movement 3 - Live" Mika Vainio, Ryoji Ikeda, alva noto (excerpted),

"Hymn for a Missing Girl" The Darcys (excerpted)

Table Machine is a quartet for three humans and a metal worktable. It is a project of investigating desire (without nostalgia or yearning), function (without apathy), urgency (free from anxiety), and fullness (without design). Inspired by Gilles Deleuze's notion of "machines" as community- and other-seeking systems that act on desire, Table Machine is a world of movement and effort backed by an electronic soundscore, laced with sparse poetry.

all photos: Joseph Lambert

DeAnne DeCola, Madison Steele and Sylvia Schatz-Allison in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"

a metal table, partially lit in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"

Lael Batiste and Sylvia Schatz-Allison in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"

Madison Steele and Sylvia Schatz-Allison in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"

dancer's hands on a metal edge in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"

a metal table and dancer's feet, partially lit in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"

Madison Steele in Alethea Alexander's "Table Machine"