WorkArtOut will premiere November 12 in Kansas City and November 13 in Lawrence!

By leraleewhittle
        • WorkArtOut features video of Leralee Whittle making time – based art in gyms and sports complexes across America and live music by Paul Sprawl. Direction, choreography and contemporary dance by Leralee Whittle in collaboration with performers Marianne Evans – Lombe, Annie Wilsey and Anne Bruce.
      WorkArtOut is a multimedia performance about the funny, strange ways people act when they enter sports work-out facilities, and some creative alternatives to it. WorkArtOut tugs at the soul of America by playing with the absurd aspects of sports culture – from the CEO making millions on the backs of athletes, to Joe Schmo’s clothes serving as a billboard for corporate logos, to the fan who can’t live without affiliating herself with a team, to the narcissistic hothead at the gym. The absurd is balanced with Whittle’s distilled video imagery of her art making in highly funded sports facilities across America. Humorous contemporary performance, viscerally innovative dance and sonically compelling live music by Paul Sprawl make WorkArtOut a multi-sensory experience. The show brings art into the sports arena, on basketball courts, in lieu of a theater or concert hall, as the performers co–opt sports culture for two nights.

    • WorkArtOut could get the viewer thinking about our cultural priorities and asking questions like, how much of our time is spent participating in rituals based on competition? When are our bodies free and when are they institutionalized? Have we been desensitized? How has our creativity been affected? How does sports culture instill narcissism and exploitation? How is jingoism or “extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy” tied into sports culture? What are the repercussions? What is health?

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