2016 – Santa Palm Car Wash
Originally staged in 1993, this return of a Heidi Duckler Dance classic, Parts & Labor, was as timely as ever. The production explored America’s love/hate relationship with cars and features at its center a 1970’s Cadillac Coupe de Ville, which served not just as a stage and prop, but also as an instrument. Parts & Labor provided an artistic, perhaps sardonic, view as a local conversation. As the Los Angeles County highways seem to get more full by the day, area leaders have finally begun discussing solutions for the county’s congestion—but is it too late? Has our automobile dependency taken hold? We’ll see…
2015 – SCI-Arc
23 years after the original, Heidi Duckler completely re-imagined Parts and Labor Redux with choreography that explores America’s love affair with the automobile. In addition to dancers performing on and around a 1970 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, percussionists from the band “Antenna Repairmen” turned the classic car into an instrument and create an original score.
1993 – Studio Automotive
Set in a used car lot, the dancers of Parts and Labor perform on the roof of an amplified Cadillac while the Antenna Repairmen, a percussion ensemble drums on the hood. A used car salesman tries his hand out on the audience, offering up the Cadillac, a few other cars, and even a dancer dressed in spare auto parts. “Oil spills” writhe atop oil drums and dart through the car lot. Accompanied by text by Merridawn and Garrick Duckler and vintage film clips of Detroit’s misguided view of the future.
