Floyd transformed the research materials of Nipper's practice into an open system of performance studies.
Collages, diagrams, audition tapes, material tests,
and models entered the work as active components rather than supporting material.
Developed from Hurricane Floyd, the 1999 storm that moved through the southeastern United States,
the project also imagined Floyd as a figure lying face down on the ground.
In the work, sky falls to floor, the storm becomes one plane, and that plane begins to circle
Black vinyl symbols and text installed across a white Marley floor were drawn from the score
for the performance study Circle Circle.
As part of Floyd the project included three research-based performance studies
Sapphire, Circle Circle, and Weather Center.
Commissioned by Performa 07 and presented at Judson Memorial Church,
the live work placed audiences in direct proximity to dancers,
floor diagrams,
movement scores,
and parachutes adapted from children's educational exercises
used to teach volume and coordinated group movement.
As the parachutes expanded,
viewers were pushed toward the gymnasium walls and held between fabric, air, and architecture.
Distance, once created by the camera,
was reconfigured through the diagrams inscribed across the Marley floor.
Developed with Taisha Paggett as lead dancer and rehearsal director,
the project brought Marissa Ruazol, Sarah Leddy, and other performers into the work.
Leddy's training as a certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst
addressed how geometry, weight, and direction could condition the body and build the performance score.
Floyd created a system large enough for its parts to separate, mutate, and continue beyond the original performance.
It moved my practice onto a larger stage across visual art, performance, design, and dance,
and taught me that diagrams, weather systems,
archival references, and movement scores could become the work’s actual materials.
