Brigid Baker’s ‘GULF’ Finds Silver Lining In A Time Of Upheaval

Isaiah González, Meredith Barton, and Amy Trieger in a rehearsal for “GULF,” Brigid Baker’s new work, which will have its world premiere on Friday, May 9 and Saturday,  May 10, at the Lehman Theater on MDC North Campus. (Photo by Julien Hyvrard, courtesy brigid baker wholeproject)

“You’ll see there a soft sculpture made of barbed wire,” says Brigid Baker, pointing to the left corner of a rehearsal room. “It will be multicolored, and the barbed wire will emerge from the heart. In the end, it will retain its shape, and its accessories slightly raised,” she says as she looks across the 6th Street Dance Studio rehearsal space, home to the brigid baker wholeproject, the company she founded and has directed since 2004.

“A darker velvet will cover this piece,” she notes. “And the rose will also be here,” says Baker gesturing to a massive flower resting near a window. “So, this will stick out from the side like a toppled tower. That is what it’s going to look like. Probably.”

“Probably” is the watchword in a Brigid Baker rehearsal. A visit to her studio year after year realizes the expectations that many times the vision during rehearsal may not be what will appear on opening night.

Still, the visits are a fascinating experience to watch her interact with her dancers and hear the verbalizing of her intentions.

Amy Trieger, Isaiah González, and Meredith Barton rehearsing “GULF” at the 6th Street Dance Studio, home of brigid baker whole project. (Photo by Salvador Gómez, courtesy brigid baker wholeproject)

The opening night of a brigid baker wholeproject also far exceeds the descriptions during rehearsal.

The latest visit is in preparation for her new work, “GULF,” which will premiere Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 at the Lehman Theatre on Miami Dade College’s North Campus.

“The audience will be seated on stage because we need everyone close to the big screen we use, or we won’t be able to create the experience we want to offer them,” says Baker.

Baker choreographs, designs sets, creates costumes, and creates video work for “GULF.” Justin Trieger provides sound design, projections, and photography, and Quanikqua “Q” Bryant Bradshaw controls lighting.

Running just under an hour, “GULF” is an ode to that geographical feature that seems to promise a hug. It is composed of six short sections: three videos and three dance scenes. “That’s what I usually do, without intermission,” explains the iconic creator.

Since the creation of  “Abracadabra” in November 2022, dancers Amy Trieger, Isaiah González, and Meredith Barton have performed all of Brigid Baker’s works. They are in the premiere of “GULF.” (Photo by Rafael Balcazar, courtesy brigid baker wholeproject)

Regarding the music, Baker mentions using excerpts from Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic” in two videos. The third, located in the center of the piece, features Meredith Monk’s “Dolmen Music,” which is “very spiritual” to her.

In the first video, a Titanic survivor is interviewed. At one point, the moderator asks, “When did you first realize the gravity of the situation?” The survivor replies, “I didn’t think it was serious because I didn’t believe a ship as big as that could sink.” Baker edited the video, having the survivor repeat the answer four times.

Definitely, “it is no easy task to be alive,” as stated in the quote by Bulgarian essayist Maria Popova that Baker plans to include in the program notes for “Gulf.”

Then there is a group dance to Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Alleluia.” The next dance section, which Baker defines as “a duet for three” and lasts about seven minutes, features a beautiful composition for two strings entitled “Rhapsody No. 1” by African American composer Jesse Montgomery. In the final dance scene, the choreographer again turns to Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic.”

“We’re in a time of total upheaval, but, you know, I always see a silver lining in everything,” she says. “And when it comes to the Gulf of Mexico and its name change, it seems silly to think about it from a worldly perspective. But it’s a fact that represents everything we’re going through. It describes the destabilized way we live today, each person thinking differently.”

The three dancers from brigid baker wholeproject (with Amy Trieger, center) during one of the final rehearsals for “GULF” at the 6th Street Dance Studio, before its May 9 premiere at the Lehman Theater. (Photo by Salvador Gómez, courtesy brigid baker wholeproject)

So is “GULF” a political piece? “It’s interesting because everything is political and nothing is political,” replies Baker. “And for me, everything is ecology, including politics. Ecology is the study of consequences, and with anything you plan to do, the first question you have to ask yourself is, ‘Who will it hurt if I do it?’ ”

Although “GULF” is a plotless work, Baker proclaims that it contains “every place where there was no justice, every place where there was no love, and every place we left and will simply return from . . . and it will be better.”

Since the creation of  “Abracadabra” in November 2022, dancers Meredith Barton, Isaiah González, and Amy Trieger have performed all of Baker’s works. They are also in the premiere of “GULF.”

“The process of entering it has the most meaning to me,” says González.

From left, dancers Isaiah González, Meredith Barton, and Amy Trieger in rehearsal for “GULF,” Brigid Baker’s new work, which will have its world premiere on Friday, May 9, at the Lehman Theater on MDC North Campus. (Photo by Julien Hyvrard, courtesy brigid baker wholeproject)

Barton says that understanding the title of the piece amid the current circumstances in the world and the country influences how it is performed.

“This is how we are part of all of that, this is how we play our part.”

For Trieger, it is a very emotional work, “when all the elements come together and the other part of the equation appears, which is the audience.”

WHAT: brigid baker wholeproject and the 6th Street Dance Studio present “GULF,” by Brigid Baker, a co-production of Live Arts Miami and MDCA Away from Home Series

WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10

WHERE: Lehman Theater at MDC North Campus, 11380 NW 27th Ave., Room 1315, Miami

COST: $30; free admission for MDC students (code required)

INFORMATION: liveartsmiami.org/events/gulf/

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