PS #14: Lost in Translation?

A number of recent Philly performances have brought up questions about what happens when you take a dance form originally seen on the street, in a cafe or in the fields onto a proscenium stage.  “Staged spectacles” of indigenous dance forms have been on the scene for ages now but we still might long for the “real thing.” Similarly, when a piece was site specific and is staged in a different space, how much gets lost? What have you seen that falls in one of these categories and how did you feel about the “translation”?

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Three people sit in an oblique triangle that fills the frame. To the left, a musician, Aabeizer, sits on a black bench in carpenter jeans and a dark t-shirt. His eyes are closed and his feet bare. He moves his hands around a circular plate and wooden dowels that extend from a wood board he holds against his chest. To the right, a saxophonist, Bhob Rainey, sits on a folding black chair in a black cardigan and grey pants, blowing into the mouthpiece and pressing the keys. Between them, a person with short red curls, Kayliani Sood, crosses their legs on a white stool, sitting higher than the musicians beside her. They wear brown shorts over grey pants and a black t-shirt with a blue square patch in the center. She rests one hand on her knee, and the other over their forearm, closes her eyes and tilts their head pensively to the right.
Photo: Loren Groenendaal