Haunted @ Dance Base

Contemporary dance may be comfortable with the metaphysical and spiritual, but it rarely takes on the stuff of horror stories. Inspired by the same articles that eventually led to the film The Exorcist, Dance Box Theatre reframe possession as both a meditation on our drives and claiming local history.

"The newspaper article that inspired The Exorcist that appeared in The Washington Post in 1949 was about a young boy that lived in our neighborhood, Mount Rainier, MD," note Laura Schandelmeier and Stephen Clapp, DBT's core members.
"Haunted began as a community history project and is our effort to reclaim our community’s history from popular culture."

Teaming up with musicians Rising Appalachia through Alternate ROOTS, an organization based in the Southeast United States that is made up of community based artists working towards social justice, DBT found that the story took on a life of its own.

"Ironically, while we were working on this project, another series of articles about possession appeared in The Washington Post. This was a case of filicide in which the mother stated her four girls were possessed by the devil. Kofi Dennis told this story during the premiere in Washington, DC."

This led to a further evolution: "When we performed Haunted in New Orleans, Louisiana, we included films of stories told by New Orleans residents," they add. In this spirit, they are hosting a free story circle event on Friday the 13th in front of Dance Base.

The expansion of the performance beyond the stage, suits Schandelmeier and Clapp: despite expressing an affinity for Live Art's Rajni Shah and maverick goddess Iona Kewney, they affirm both "a constant striving towards artistic excellence and a commitment to community participation and social justice." Indeed, their connection to this dramatic story comes from their ties to the area where it happened: they rehearse opposite "Exorcist Park" and their daughter attended the school within the parish of Saint James, where the actual, original exorcist worked.

The backgrounds of Laura Schandelmeier and Stephen Clapp inform DBT's vision, in which contemporary dance and ensemble theatre are merged. The development of Haunted was as much a matter of forging collaborations - with Rising Appalachia and Kofi Dennis.

"Leah and Chloe Smith of Rising Appalachia share an approach and we fell in love with their music: it made us want to dance. Their beautiful
harmonies and haunting melodies seemed to be a perfect match for us. Kofi joined our ensemble in 2007 and brought additional harmonies, musical expertise, masterful percussion, and dynamic performance presence."

The heady mixture of influences, the live music and resonant history of Haunted suggests that DBT are heading towards a fusion that is immediate and provocative. Schandelmeier and Clapp use the bare bones of the story to consider the way that we are possessed and driven, attempting to connect with the community around their performance and relocating the horror away from the big screen and back into specific geography.