Functioning as an object-based rethinking of contact improvisation, “Buttiesandboddons” is a collaborative work that can be categorized as both performance and sculpture. So as to ride the line between the two, the work has no specific beginning or end, and is presented to the audience after the performers have already begun. Two performers are in the space with five large planear forms in various shades of blue, all initially inspired by buttons. The objects have highly textured surfaces and retain the presence of the hand. They are also heavily considered in terms of opportunities for a variety of interactions with the human form. There is no set choreography for the work, the performers are only encouraged to explore and play with the relationships between their bodies and the objects. The only specific guideline is a requirement of four object exchanges with the other performer every eighteen minutes so as to maintain an awareness of all forms in the space, both object and human.

The foundation of “Buttiesandboddons” is in the concepts of the Judson Dance Theatre and contact improvisation, with an addition of New Materialist theory, drawing specifically from the writings of Jane Bennett. We sought to explore one’s physical and intimate relationships with objects through ideas of goalless movement, internal and external awareness, and the everyday.