Lizzy Melton: I gather all of my inspiration from observing chickens and penguins. In fact, a penguin at the Woodland Park Zoo told me to move to London and start making weird art, and you really can't turn down advice from a captive water-loving bird. Oh, and this weird modern teacher I had in high school probably had something to do with it as well. But mainly it was the penguin.
ES: This is very unusual....as a deeper exploration of your work does express penguin tendencies. But let's talk about your aesthetic connection to chickens. I have heard that you have a fascination with poultry and the solar system. Is this true? And how does this influence your work?
LM: Yes, Eva. It is, in fact, true that my fascination with poultry and the solar system is manifest in my work. These terrestrial avian and extra-terrestrial planetary themes are common in my choreographic oeuvre. This dichotomy consistently informs my work and exerts a pull over my creative process that is very much akin to the gravitational forces at work on our planet. In my personal iconography, I feel that chickens represent a return to the primitive and a child-like naïveté, while the movements of the planets mirror the cyclical nature of our day-to-day existence. I have, however, begun to turn away from the themes of my early career and have embarked on a sort of personal iconoclasm. Since returning to The Amerika, I have begun field-observation of the grotesque horrors one can experience in Amerikan Supermarkets. These observations will form the basis for my new creation, the Robyn Orlin-esque "Mum? Mumma? Mama? I have been here two weeks and I am no longer wearing pants because Wal-mart has placed too much strain on my elasticized waist..."
ES: I agree too with your comment on the correlation between us and primitive poultry. Do we all, upon dropping an egg on the floor, have an instant and immediate knee-jerk reaction of, "Oh no! My baby!" But I must challenge your transcending desire to bring Walmart into the fray when diatribing on dance and the world at large...
LM: As a member of the counter-counter-culture living in McStarbucksylvania, in the belly of the beast so to speak, I don't expect you to understand my perspective on Amerikan "culture." Your take on primitive poultry, is spot on though. I do think our instantaneous gut reaction to the shattered, oozing sight of a crushed egg provides incontrovertible evidence of the pre-Hominidae instincts that are typically buried within our amygdalae. Very interesting theory indeed, Eva.
