A Vermont dance performance that's not to be missed:
September 16, 2008
7:00pm
McCarthy Art Center
Saint Michael’s College -
Free Admission
PANTYHOSE, COMBAT BOOTS
and the Search for the right Tool
This hour and
fifteen minute one woman performance is an interesting mixture of
theater, movement and storytelling. With two chairs, a large amount of
white fabric and layers and layers of black clothing, this performance
is artistically creative, funny and poignant. Performed and written by
Lida Winfield with the co-direction of Matt Wohl, Winfield tells
personal stories about growing up. “Let’s be honest, it is hard to
navigate through the adult world when your tool set is still
incomplete.” The show is broken into clips of
flashbacks from age five to the present day with movement and music
linking them together. Though the stories are personal, the themes are
universal. Winfield invites the audience in as she hunts for of the perfect “hair-do.” The show is very funny on top of being insightful, as Winfield takes the audience back to her need for lipstick and direction. Pantyhose, Combat boots and the Search for the right Tool
is not only a performance about coming of age but about the human
experience of finding one’s spot…place…home. The challenge of what we
want and hope for verses what actually happens. “Sometimes life gets in
the way of what we imagine it should be.” This
performance is about being in touch with the painfulness of growing,
becoming and surviving things one could never have imagined. “We want
to think that we know, but you have to live your way into life, and
often that is something one can’t prepare for.”
The visual beauty
of the performance is equally as captivating as the stories themselves.
Winfield is a dancer who uses movement to complement her words. Her
unusual style pours through the performance and is very welcoming to
both the dancer and the non-dancer eye. Winfield explores the bridge
between personal story-telling and movement. She is an unusual and
vibrant performer, using both her voice and her body to connect and
convey poignant and funny stories.
Lida Winfield is a Vermont native who recently returned to the area. She has been performing and teaching professionally for over the past ten years. Pantyhose, Combat Boots and the Search for the right Tool was created by Winfield several years ago. With the help of Matt Wohl the show has been revamped.
Lida Winfield has studied traditional modern dance, ballet, African, yoga,
authentic movement, improvisation, theater, sculpture, painting and
anatomy. For eight years, Winfield was a member of Hannah Dennison’s
multi-generational, improvisational dance theater company, Working Ground in Burlington. Winfield attended The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, Netherland focusing on improvisation. At both Landmark College in Vermont and Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, Winfield choreographed, produced and performed.
Winfield opened her own Performance Art Studio in Gloucester Massachusetts,
where she not only taught but managed eleven teachers. The Performance
Art Studio offered a wide variety of classes/workshops and camps to
both children and adults. In the past few years Winfield has developed
more of her own work, focusing on solo performance. Since returning to
VT a few years ago Winfield has taught at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. She is also a full time student at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT.
