VII. The Break & The Other Figure

M: Back to that break in the piece --

B: That break is just me being a postmodern dancer. It’s revealing the seams and the backstage. Now we’re just moving props around. I’m changing the set, basically being a stage hand. I like to have moments like that. And the pop song, it’s also to give the audience a break. That song, it’s Harvey the Harpist, who went to Cass Tech and who had the same harp teacher as Alice Coltrane, so it’s very much a Detroit 1960s song. I wanted to have that element, it was really important to have some Detroit music. A lot of the music is more cinematic. So it breaks. A lot of the music is that kind of Italian, 1960s film kind of thing, or French, or whatever, and they do that, they have scenes like that, they have breaks. I think of Godard --

M: Or Fellini.

B: Or Fellini or Antonioni. There’s always like, "Oh! A dance scene," or this other weird thing that happens in the middle. That was kind of my "Oh" thing, and it also broke it up in a way so that I was also able to bring Nicola into the piece, to intersect the piece in a way, so it wasn’t always an either/or, but that she was also folded in.

M: Why was that important?

B: I don’t know.

M: I remember thinking, this is being described as the solo --

B: It’s a solo.

M: -- and then comes the duet, and then the ensemble. And it is a solo, and yet, there’s this sort of other presence, this other figure, this other whatever.

figure 18

Biba Bell, It Never Really Happened, photo courtesy Norman McDonald

photo by Norman McDonald, 2015

B: Well, she’s always in the house. And she is the hostess, that’s what she’s performing. And yeah, I think that it was important to fold her in somehow.

M: She did beautifully at that point in the performance, with what must be a relatively difficult thing to do, just sit and stare.

B: Well, she is a performer. But not this kind of performer. I had her wear white and beige, which she would never wear. She almost only ever wears black. And that was really funny, too, her costume. You wouldn’t know unless you knew her, but it was funny. It sort of de-centered or defamiliarized her slightly. Also, she matched the apartment.

VI. The Politics of Water & The Plant	VIII. Growing Up Postmodern