In the early days of Post: Ballet, Dekkers recalls directing and choreographing shows in small venues: art galleries, cafés, and bars. Once he created a work for a friend, a booking agent whose band unexpectedly dropped out of a show at a local bar with a small stage that quickly needed to be filled. Dekkers created an improvisational piece. His only tools were props of paper bags filled with straws, lots of phrase work derived from composer Daniel Berkman, and exceptional dancers, one of whom is Dekkers’ husband Christian Squires. The dancers were required to draw straws. Everyone dressed in black except the dancer who drew the shortest straw. He wore white. Dekkers also danced in the piece. “The bar was completely silent for the thirty minutes we danced,” he says. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I never felt so present as a dancer.” Although the piece borrowed phrases from Dekkers work When in Doubt, it was never named. Similar to the work of abstract expressionist artist Clyfford Still, art that is unnamed offers no precise guide for viewers to be spoon fed artistic intent. Viewers often feel compelled to discover their own meaning in the work.
DO BE
TEASER
MINE
IS
YOURS
(EXCERPTS, 2014)