TO/FROM

Music by Darian Donovan Thomas

TO/FROM is Site-Specific Dances’ first site-specific video performance, set in the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas of northwestern Michigan in August of 2020, at the peak of the Covid pandemic which brought an end to his 20-year long dance career.

Highly personal, the performance sees its two protagonists coming ‘home’ to Michigan at two very different moments in their careers: Phillips is returning to rural Michigan after a long city career as a professional dancer, while his former student, Falconer, is returning to Michigan after college.The performance is a reflection on ‘coming from’ and ‘going to’, and moments of great transition in life - much like the metamorphosis of dancers into the myriad of vocations they take on after a life devoted to performance.

The movement studies for TO/FROM were developed in settings as diverse as dunes, water, groves of trees, and fields and attempt to juxtapose the movement of human body with the vastness of wilderness landscapes, while also inviting landscapes, and the special effects of the natural world, to participate in the experiment.

To/From was commissioned by the Traverse City Dance Project.

Original Score by Darian Donovan Thomas

Year of Completion: 2022

CONCEPT: Michael Spencer Phillips + Dino Kiratzidis

DIRECTOR: Michael Spencer Phillips

DANCERS: MIchael Spencer Phillips, Madison Falconer

MUSIC AND LIVE PERFORMANCE: Darian Donovan Thomas

CAMERA AND DRONE: Michael Spencer Phillips

EDITING: Emma Kazaryan

PRODUCERS: Michael Spencer Phillips and Dino Kiratzidis