Motionhouse

After the Flood
SPA brings Motionhouse to Houston

Motionhouse makes their Houston premiere with Scattered, a collaboration between  artistic director Kevin Finnan with digital artists Logela Multimedia. Kinnan discusses his process, the dire subject of water and his highly physical brand of dance theater with A + C editor Nancy Wozny.

A + C: What drew you to the subject of water?

Kevin Finnan: I was thinking a lot about the flooding in New Orleans and flooding where I live in the UK. My work is a dialogue and I didn’t want to produce a polemic. We all know that water will become the most important issue of this century, but the reality of that is incredibly hard to comprehend. In the western world with water on tap it’s impossible to understand the truly extraordinary role that water plays in our life, and imagine a situation where that access to water will be massively restricted.

A + C: What came first, the dance or the film?

KF:  Images in my head are the first stage; from that comes lengthy discussion with designers about the environment in which everything takes place.

A + C: The curved stage set is what fuses the movement and film. Can you talk a bit about how the creative team came up with that?

KF:  The set gives audiences an immediate context and sense of place. We strived for something that does not look like a set; it’s a simple form like a wave. Water is only used in two places in the show, so we worked to manifest water through the staging, which is infinitely transformable and allows us to develop our physical language.

A + C: What should we know about MotionHouse?

KF:  We are fundamentally focused on communicating with audiences through intense physicality and a dynamic dance language. The dance, music and film are immersive whether we are performing in a theater venue, in a found space, or outdoors.