As I walk into the Joyce SoHo the stage is already preset sparking my interest as to what is about to come.  A chair, a hanging dress and hat, a projection screen, and a coat stand with various coats and hats hang upon it.  Hmmmm.  I wonder…  I also notice panels on the ground and wonder what they are for. The lights go down and Thomas DeFrantz walks out and takes his position.

The scenery is funky. Through tap dance and an occasional passé or battement, DeFrantz expresses a period where Monk is frustrated from being “passed over” for young musicians as well as an artistic love for his muse, Billy Holiday. DeFrantz approaches a picture of Holiday and “plucks” a gardenia from her picture in reference. 

At another point, he shows Monk’s admiration for his wife in a very creative way by picking up a dress hanging in the background and begins to do a sort of abstract ballroom dance with the dress occasionally throwing in a shuffle or two.  For a one man show, this sequence is a very creative and interactive way to show love for a woman. 

Delightfully imaginative, we see monk dance happily around his apartment as a “parade of musicians.”   At other times, DeFrantz exhibits unhappiness and sits depressed in his chair.  Overall, the piece creates an emotional aftertaste that leaves the audience with the spirit of Monk.  And, for those who don’t know about the man, you need to get on it!

The most intriguing part of the piece and focus of the work is the technology used.  At various points in the evening DeFrantz interplays with projection and music creating a composition that is unique to every evening of performance. Each panel triggers a prerecorded visual and/or audio sequence that DeFrantz is in control.  The panels are connected to a laptop where Eto Oro, the media artist who collaborated with Defrantz on this project, monitors the media and only interacts if there is glitch. 

The technology platform is created through a program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that DeFrantz created called SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology.  This collective’s goal at M.I.T. is to “stage alternative histories of race, sexuality, gender, performance, and technology.” What an innovative idea! 

In a post performance discussion DeFrantz expresses the purpose of the project and his hopes that other performers will be inspired to use the platform that he has created. This project seems very promising and is an important new addition to the history of dance and performance in general.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by JoiLynn 
Performance: Monk’s Mood
Choreographer:  Thomas DeFrantz
Venue: Joyce SoHo, New York City, NY
Date: December 11th, 2009
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SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology Presents NYC Premiere Of

Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the
Life and Music of Thelonious Monk

Joyce SoHo
December 11 – 13, 2009

SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology, in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk at Joyce SoHo on December 11 – 13, 2009. Conceived by and featuring Thomas F. DeFrantz, this solo performance explores tap dance as a narrative form of storytelling, augmented by digital technologies. New Jersey-based poly-media artist Eto Oro provides programming and visual environment.

Monk’s Mood explores Thelonious Monk’s life and music as well as personal relationships with his wife, Nellie, and the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who befriended Monk and other jazz musicians of the bebop era. The work approaches his isolation, melancholy, creative genius, and ultimately, his madness. The improvisational nature of the work allows DeFrantz to interpret Monk’s chord progression, rhythms, tone and feeling – enhancing the audience’s exploration of jazz, tap dance and emergent technology blending together as a theatrical story.

"One of my concerns is how to use technology to enhance theatrical storytelling, improvisation and artistic performance," said DeFrantz, a Professor of Music and Theater Arts at MIT. “In a way, my steps are analogous to Monk’s piano keys; I’m interpreting his rhythms and collaborating with my feet. The performance is spontaneous and original."

The 50-minute work employs high-tech floor pads, conceptually designed by MIT and Stanford graduate students, to trigger sound and video images during the performance. A digital archive of related content is manipulated within each of the ten scenes, resulting in a one-of-a-kind improvisational and emotional narrative. The use of technology in such a unique performance capability, displays the exploration and educational possibilities of creating new performance platforms.

DeFrantz began developing Monk’s Mood during a summer residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy. He developed it further in residencies at Stanford University and Hampshire College. Sections of the work have been performed at New Haven International Festival of the Arts (2002), Centre National de la Danse, Paris (2005), American Dance Festival (2007), Capetown South Africa International Ballet Gala (2008), and in residency at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2009).

Performances start at 8:00 PM Eastern. Tickets are $15 or $12 for students and seniors; tickets can be purchased in advance at www.joyce.org, or by calling (212) 352-3101. Tickets will also be sold on site one-half hour before curtain. Post-performance discussions will take place on December 11-12, 2009.

Venue Information

Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer Street (Houston/Prince)
New York, NY 10012

B/D/F/V to Broadway-Lafayette, R to Prince, 6 to Bleecker

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