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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > September > 14
Monday, September 14, 2009
Review: Making the trucks dance in ‘The Trash Project’
Saturday night on a defunct airport runway shiny with rain, a bevy of trash trucks and a couple of dozen sanitation workers became dance stars in a spectacular and surprisingly moving performance created by Austin choreographer Allison Orr.
Though the torrential rains hampered goings-on across the Austin area this weekend, it didn’t deter Orr and her volunteers from the city of Austin’s Solid Waste Service Department from going ahead with “The Trash Project,” the massively-scaled performance more than a year in the making.
Nor did the weather deter a beyond-capacity audience from heading to the tarmac behind the film production facilities Austin Studios, the site of Austin’s former Mueller Airport.
In a career that’s included crafting choreography for fire fighters, dog walkers, Venetian gondoliers and other groups whose professions or avocations demand regular physical movement, it wasn’t surprising that Orr pulled off such a complex show went off in the rain.
What was surprising is how much like pure dance ‘Trash Project’ ultimately was. Orr delivered one of her most celebratory, thoughtful and emotionally resonant shows yet. Orr made trash trucks dance — and with feeling and drama.
Bleachers seating for 700 filled quickly and at least as many people stood to watch. Some clutched umbrellas; others sported rain ponchos and slickers. Everybody cheered, applauded and whooped, greeting each new wave of activity as trucks and workers maneuvered through 14 different movements.
Clad in neon yellow safety wear, the sanitation workers did what they do best: roll and load plastic trash carts, jump gazelle-like on and off the back of a rapidly moving trucks and drive with precision in carefully choreographed patterns.
With incredible respect, Orr translated everyday physical labor into cleverly patterned movement without a hint of unnecessary spectacle.
Like the most graceful of ballerinas on pointe shoes, a crane truck operated by Don Anderson glided through nimble moves, its mechanical claw slowly extending and retracting as it spun in near perfect unison with delicate piano music played by Austin composer Graham Reynolds.
At three separate intervals, the dead animal truck wove solo across the stage area as tender music and voiceover comments by driver Tony Dudley told anecdotes of his job such as retrieving deceased beloved childhood pets. After driving in complex patterns, a quartet of trucks with automated arms rollicked through some synchronized moves.
Reynolds, using a combination of pre-recorded music with some synthesized sound and a live piano trio, gave “The Trash Project” an inventive soundtrack that was at times joyously funky and at times touchingly melodic.
A cinematic musical flourish greeted the beginning as the 16 vehicles snaked in front of the audience. A segment of celebratory rap exalted recyling. And sweeper truck driver and professional musician Orange Jefferson treated with a blues harmonica solo.
That lighting director Stephen Pruitt managed to engagingly illuminate such a vast outside area seemed nearly miraculous. That Pruitt did so to great dramatic effect even more so.
But that a crowd of about 1500 could be riveted in the night rain as sanitation workers demonstrated their skill proves Orr’s most salient artistic message: Our daily labors often make the most meaningful art.
Read a story about the making of ‘The Trash Project’ here.
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