“The Gas Heart” (1921) is a Dada “classic” by Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of that
movement. In the Big Dance rendering of the play the fierce comic, lyric text comes vividly to life with a staging that is distinctly choreographic and choreography that is distinctly theatrical. It is as if Tzara wrote the play for the Big Dance Company.
The elasticity and non-narrative openness of the script makes it possible to employ a varied number of cast members depending on the needs of the program. Each production will require new staging and dances suited to the skills and collective aesthetic of the group. Although “The Gas Heart” is part of the Big Dance Repertory every iteration of it is original.
This gives the participants a dual experience of inhabiting a sophisticated piece of repertory yet also creating something new.
The Gas Heart offers a unique opportunity to bring dance and theater students into a shared creative process that will challenge them to extend beyond the comfort zone of their main art form into an interdisciplinary, skill-building process. Tzara's Dada text inspires artists to simultaneously engage in irreverent play and rituals of formality: hallmarks of Big Dance Theater’s work. This piece was originally created with a young ensemble cast and bears the indelible print of their collective wit.