Far Edge of Blue

Overview

Two dancers, two dances: Far Edge of Blue navigates less obvious but potentially more rewarding pathways through the body; That’s Us is a moving celebration of the music of Arthur Russell.

Far Edge of Blue began as an improvisational practice using 45 body landmarks called The Blue Road. The title references Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. In his travelogue, Least Heat Moon navigates the backroads of America in his converted camper van. On old atlases, central highways were demarcated in red, less convenient highways colored blue. Stone Depot’s navigation of less obvious pathways through the body mirrors Least Heat Moon’s purposeful navigation of less obvious but more rewarding paths through America. Support from a Stockton University Research Grant allowed Stone Depot to work with filmmaker Tori Lawrence on film studies of the Blue Road score resulting in a 16mm dance short A Place Called Lost. They continued their Blue Road investigations as artists-in-residence at the Subcircle Residency space in Biddeford, Maine. This culminating iteration, Far Edge of Blue, features music created for the work by experimental composer Benoit Pioulard.

The music of Arthur Russell, described by his friend and collaborator Allen Ginsberg as Buddhist bubblegum music, forms the foundation for the second dance That’s Us. Russell was a queer Midwesterner who moved to New York in the mid 1970’s to pursue his art. Both Stone Depot dancers followed the same pilgrimage thirty years later, with duffle bags full of dance clothes (rather than cello) in hand. This 20-minute dance began as a brief solo constructed for a shared showcase in Northampton, Massachusetts in 2021, and uses Russell’s quirky pop soundscape to consider regionalism, pride, and the various ways in which we are all, daily, coming out.

About the Artist

Stone Depot is a collaboration between Ellie Goudie-Averill and Beau Hancock, who have been making dance together for 20 years. The companys name comes from the Brooklyn loft (located above a stone factory) where they lived, rehearsed, and presented some of their first shared concerts. Now based in both Philadelphia and Chesterfield, Massachusetts, Stone Depot is a container for their collective and personal choreographic projects. Their previous dances include: Casual Friday, an evening length piece that took a lighthearted look at office culture and the embodiment of work, which premiered at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts and was supported by the Lawrence Arts Center; and In the wings, a collaboration with book artist Anna Mavromatis and visual artist Nicole Donnelly presented as part of the Bodies of Text Festival, sponsored by the Philadelphia Center for the Book. Their current project, The Blue Road, delves into modes of improvisation performance practice.