Ann Carlson Talk with Melanie Joseph

Ann Carlson talks with dramaturg Melanie Joseph about her creative process.

Carlson performs Blanket at MANCC Informal Showing

Living Legacy Artist Ann Carlson’s solo performance work, Dumbo Redacted, is an elegy for the past, a celebration of a threatened species, and an invitation to observe the imaginary while anticipating the real. An abstract story– playing with clumsy grace, wild quiet, and moving stillness– Dumbo Redacted is a continuation of Carlson’s celebratedAnimal series, of which Carlson has mused,

“I wanted to make works that could respond to a living being that I couldn’t choreograph in the way that I’d been taught to choreograph… I didn’t want to manipulate the animals and make the dog, cat or goats do something.”

The conceptual basis for Dumbo Redacted stems from Carlson’s questions: What is the real and symbolic presence of an elephant? and How do we contain what we don’t know?

For additional information, read more on Ann Carlson.