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WorkArtOut is a contemporary dance performance including video, dance and live music. Videos by Leralee Whittle feature her making time–based art in gyms and sports complexes across America. Leralee Whittle also directs, choreographs and dances with performers Marianne Evans–Lombe, Annie Wilsey and Anne Bruce. Paul Sprawl provides musical compositions and live music. Made possible with the support of a Rocket Grant (Charlotte Street Foundation, Spencer Museum of Art).
WorkArtOut offers some creative alternatives to the funny, strange ways people act when they enter sports work-out facilities. WorkArtOut tugs at the soul of America by playing with the absurd aspects of sports culture – from the CEO making millions on the back of the average pro athlete, to Joe Schmoe’s corporate logo wardrobe, to the fan who can’t live without her team affiliation, to the narcissistic hothead at the gym. These absurdities are illuminated and contrasted in Whittle’s video art, made 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 performers co–opt sports culture for two nights, performing on basketball courts.
Fri. Nov. 12, 8 pm at Westport-Roanoke Community Center, 3601 Roanoke Rd, Kansas City, MO 64111
Sat. Nov. 13, 8 pm at the Community Building, 115 W, 11th St. Lawrence, KS 66044
$5 in advance / $10 at the door brownpapertickets
WorkArtOut stimulates the audience to explore and investigate our national obsession with sports. 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? WAO shows rarely experienced creativity in sports spaces to jostle the audience out of our unexamined and excessive enthusiasm for sports and the imbalanced emphasis on competition that it encourages in every arena of our lives.
