KARA JEFTS
  • Home
  • Exhibitions/Events
  • Performance
  • Bio/Contact
PERFORMANCE

Picture
Twyla Tharp
Minimalism and Me: an illustrated lecture 


Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
December 7–10, 2017

I worked with Twyla Tharp and her dancers as a supernumerary actor and dancer in the performative reenactment of three works from Tharp's early career: Medley (picture at left), Re-Moves, and Dancing in the Streets. 

My application for the opportunity was based on work as and art historian and archivist where re-enactment and a fluid role as an artist are central to the way I understand past performance. While in rehearsal and on stage, I maintained a journal documenting the experience of living the archive of Tharp's work. These notes, along with photographic documentation, will be used in a written record of the experience rooted in art historical methodology.

Picture
A Relay of Voices

Dancer and Archivist
Long term social practice dance initiative
June, 2017- January, 2018
Project Website

I participated with the Relay of Voices Team including to train including running, dance, research, and outreach strategy for the multi-year dance project. I was brought to the project as an Archivist to develop a plan for maintaining and utilizing the growing archive produced during each day of the run. I consulted on documentation including digital files, written records, audio, video, and other forms of serial documentation that may be produced by the artists and participants along the one hundred day journey.

Picture
Asking Questions to the Night

Performer in single-channel video by Adam Frelin
5:30 mins.
2013
Artist Website

Asking Questions to the Night was filmed in Harriman State Park, New York, in the fall of 2012 after portions of the park were closed because a suspected killer was known to be hiding within it. Nearly the same age as the murdered victim, I accompanied Frelin and asked existential questions into the darkness with a megaphone, exploring a bucolic mountain landscape which was both peacefully still and eerily threatening. 

Picture
After the Fall: A Multichannel Video Installation 

Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC), Troy, NY
April 20–21, 2012

Серп и молот (Hammer and Sickle) re-created scenes from a Soviet propaganda film by the same name. The film was screened as part of a multichannel video installation by Boryana Rossa was screened in Sudio 2, EMPAC, Troy, NY.

Picture
An Irregularly Shaped Pearl

​Performer in
 digital short by Angela Washko
The Perfumed Hankerchief, Flux Factory, Long Island City, NY
February 13 - 27, 2011

In this experimental short, Washko satirizes imagery and materials reminiscent of Rococo to question the notion of a beauty achieved through the excessive accumulation of costly and frivolous objects. She also draws a parallel to contemporary American society’s breast fixation and sex-driven marketing tactics.

The script from "Betty Vegas and the Nightclub Hypnotist" was made into this video for The Betty Awards, a series event derived from the story.
Betty Vegas and the Nightclub Hypnotist 

Lecture-style presentation at Expert Oddities: Show and Tell
51 3rd Street, Troy, NY
Friday, June 25, 2010

"Betty Vegas and the Nightclub Hypnotist" is a short story revealing the unlikely semi-autobiographical account of my adventurous alter-ego, Betty Vegas.

Expert Oddities is an ongoing event series of performative lectures by experts on bizarrely specific topics. Event organized and curated by Angela Washko

Picture
onedotzero_adventures in motion Festival with AntiVJ + Diplo

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), Troy, NY
Friday, April 30, 3010

An improvisational dance performance digitally filmed, directed, and altered by David Lublin of VIDVOX during Diplo set

Home
Copyright © 2019 by Kara Jefts