Curtain to fall on this body of work
Filed Under Curtain Rods | Posted on March 22, 2008
Most performers have no trouble stepping onstage. It’s stepping offstage that can be a problem. And for movement artists and dancers, retirement can come at a ridiculously young age. Dancers’ bodies essentially lay them off, and then they must remake themselves, often after having done little in their lives but dance. And when fellow performers are like family, emotions run high.
Sometimes, for artistic or financial reasons—or just because they’re bone tired—an entire troupe takes the plunge offstage, which is what the 21-year-old Goat Island Performance Group is doing as it mounts its final show starting next week at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Though the five troupe members have so far negotiated the compromises necessary for aging bodies, they just didn’t want to go forward without their director, Lin Hixson, who wants to pursue other projects.
Plus they were swept up by her enthusiasm to break new ground. “I still have another body of work in me,” Hixson says, “and I felt there was no way to go into unknown territory without ending. [But] we wanted to end in a way that’s about continuing. We want to stay supportive of one another. Not like rock bands! With someone storming off the stage.”
Performer Bryan Saner, who joined the troupe in 1995, says simply, “Goat Island has been my home.”
Tags: curta, curtain, emotion, goat, retirementRelated posts
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