Belinda McGuire

The Paris Duet
Artistic Discipline: Dance
Category: Brooklyn Arts Fund
Grant Year: 2022
Location: Fort Greene
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The Paris Duet is an exploration of emergence and disappearance of physical forms, relationships, identity, wealth, structure, socialization and sense of self. It can be experienced in one of three forms: site-specific/live theatre adaptation/live interactive dance film Experienced chronologically/live, this is a full-length (60 minute) not-exactly duet piece which unfolds via three successive episodes. The audience is strategically repositioned between each to facilitate literal perspective change. This project is anchored in and inspired by a monstrous and exquisite neoclassical mansion, the former residence of Mona von Bismarck in Paris. It serves as a compelling reference point for the content and style of The Paris Duet because of its aesthetic, its history, its inherent character and its paradoxical reality (the building performs wealth and luxury while its existence is made possible by hard work despite lack of wealth). Just as in architecture, an act of remembrance is always an act of re-membering. To member things together again, anew. The powerful and primordial act of remembrance through space, movement, and nostalgia is explored through this interdisciplinary collaboration.