cori marquis
+ the nines [IX]
Lion's Share
2009 | 7 min
A solo exploration of physical, emotional, psychological, and anatomical support. Whether figurative or literal, these notions of support directly affect the way we interact in our lives and what we think we are capable of. We function in our everyday with an understanding of what support we provide for ourselves, and what support we may get from external sources. But with a change in support structure comes a paradigm shift. What happens when support is needed but not there? What does it mean to have too much or unwanted support? When does giving or receiving support become obligatory or even resented? Even something as simple as the act of standing is literally impossible without an entire system of support. Yet the constant presence of it can become confining and oppressive. The body itself, with its skeletal structure and muscular control, becomes a necessary and appropriate vehicle for investigating when support is effective, and when it fails. “Lion’s Share” attempts to capture the struggle that ensues when what we need and what we have do not align.
CREDITS
Choreography and Performance: Cori Marquis
Costumes: Brian Jamison Hendricks
Music: K/Half Noise, by Mum
PERFORMANCES
CoolNY 2011 Festival, WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater [NYC] January 27 & 30, 2011
Amalgamate Artist Series, Bridge For Dance [NYC] May 22, 2010
HATCH Presenting Series, THE WORKS [NYC] April 24, 2010
WAXworks, Triskelion Arts [NYC] February 28, 2010
The Dance Complex [Boston, MA] February 7, 2010
The Loft @ W. 3rd St. [NYC] December 12, 2009
PRESS
“['Lion's Share' is] a fluid solo to a just perceptible soft sound (by Mum), choreographed and danced by Cori Marquis, a lovely performer who imbued her movement with a restless urgency tempered by sudden pauses and hesitancies." - Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times
"Marquis really knows how to use space, beginning her work pressed flat against the back curtain before working the floor with stretches, falls, and contorted balances. When she arose, great arcing swoops and spins that played with weight suspended and luxuriously released sent her bounding about the space."
- Karen Campbell, Boston Globe
"'Lion's Share,' the first piece, featuring Cori Marquis, choreographer and soloist, showcased technically infeasible movements, yet the spirals, flexions, dips, turns and suspensions were perfectly executed on many levels and in varying spaces of the stage, conveying personal intimacies of the dancer, as hands tore across vulnerable chest, and legs slapped open and closed, hard against the floor. Her breath and heart rhythm was the only music in such segments of the dance - a familiar solo-ness that accentuated the dance's beautiful, if haunting, elocution. Especially intriguing towards the end of this piece was the repetition of frenzied jumps, asymmetric and angular, juxtaposed against rounded, frog-like gaming on the floor, which eventually flattened against the black, stark wall."