Alive from Off Center

Season two of Alive from Off Center begins with engaging segments from 1986 that showcase state-of-the-art video technology, dance, and comedy from the period. John Sanborn and Dean Winkler demonstrate their pyrotechnics in Lumiere. Charles Atlas’s Jump, originally made for French television, is a rhythmic and visually stunning dance cabaret featuring choreography by Phillippe Decouffle with music by the Residents, a San Francisco–based avant-garde art collective. The episode concludes with works that blend performance with social satire: Doug Hall’s These Are the Rules and Teddy Dibble’s The Sound of Defiance.

This program features the broadcast premiere of the "doo-wop" opera "Sister Suzie Cinema," which integrates the "a cappella" singing of the all- male group 14 Karat Soul into a nostalgic salute to the music, movies, and teenagers of the 1950s. The program also includes a discussion of the video with its makers: writer Lee Breuer, composer Bob Telson, and director John Sanborn. The presentation of this video opera followed a successful run at the Public Theater in New York City and on national and international tours.

Hosted by Susan Stamberg, this program features three pieces by movement artist Michael Moschen and a dance performance by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. Moschen performs "Fire" with a pair of burning torches that he moves quickly in circular formations, creating ghostly images of light; in "Light," he holds a crystal ball but never completely encloses it in his hands, which makes it seem to float as he moves around the space with it; and in "Sticks," another highly kinetic piece, Moschen transforms metal poles into moving geometric forms. The dance team of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane perform "Rotary Action," an athletic piece about their own creative relationship.

Hosted by Susan Stamberg, this program features works by two video/computer artists: "Mt. Fuji," by the Japanese artist Ko Nakajima, and "Hyster Pulsatu," by the Dutch artist Jaap Drupsteen. Both works offer unusual depictions of landscapes. In "Mt. Fuji," photographic images of the mountain are formed into graphic rectangles, which then become three-dimensional geometric shapes that move about the Japanese landscape and interact with nature. In "Hyster Pulsatu," mimes interact with a computer landscape derived from Drupsteen's own musical compositions. Brightly colored shapes pulsate to spare electronic music as human performers travel by train, by foot, and by sea through a computer-generated environment.

This episode contains a parody of a "how-to" instructional video about photography starring noted photographers William Wegman and Michael Smith. Host Susan Stamberg introduces the video as a "spoof on America's obsession with instant self-transformation." The video itself mixes actual advice on successful photography with a more lighthearted take on the art form. The film unfolds over the course of ten major rules. Wegman outlines each of the rules to Smith, who is following Wegman around to determine whether Smith has an aptitude for photography. Through a series of skits, Wegman instructs photographers to follow the rules, which include keeping a darkroom locked, looking good, using model release forms, being creative, and saving receipts. Wegman also takes his new charge on a tour of the studio, demonstrating what a darkroom looks like and how an equipment cage works.

In this program, hosted by Susan Stamberg, three dances created especially for performance on television -- two from America and one from France -- are enhanced by computer technology, graphic design, and special camera effects. "Visual Shuffle" uses computer designs to visually transform the space and the movement of the dancers; "Fractured Variations" relies on camera techniques to emphasize how the dancers' move together and alone through realistic space; and "Rude Raid" creates a futuristic vision of man's primitive need for warfare and its horrific outcome through the use of graphic designs, camera tricks, and costumes.

Hosted by Susan Stamberg, the program features dance pieces by Charles Moulton, David Parsons, Trisha Brown, and Skip Blumberg. "Nine Person Precision Ball Passing," choreographed by Charles Moulton, involves three rows of three dancers each, passing balls to each other in quick, rhythmic formations that form increasingly intricate patterns. In "Caught," a stark, solo piece by David Parsons, filmed in black-and-white, the dancer's movements are captured in an intense strobe flash. In the third piece, "Accumulation With Talking Plus Watermotor," filmed by Jonathan Demme, choreographer Trisha Brown performs a dance while talking about its evolution since 1971. In the final piece, "Towards A Minimal Choreography" by video artist Skip Blumberg (shown after the program's closing credits), shots of a skater moving back and forth across the ice at a distance are intercut with closeups of his skates in motion.

Hosted by Susan Stamberg, this program features video art by Teddy Dibble, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Max Almy, and Ben Bergery. The program begins with Dibble's short, humorous pieces. In "The Nose Knows," he sniffs several microphones, selects one, and mouths the words to an instrumental of "The Girl from Ipanema"; in "A Scar-y Story," he increduously describes a strange condition afflicting his face, as bandages accumulate on it; in "The Sound of Music," he sits alone at a desk, answers a phone, and repeatedly puts the caller on hold; and in two "Q&A" segments, he acts out answers to questions about evolution and how many grapes he can fit in his mouth. In the Yonemotos' "Vault," a florid, melodramatic send-up of television and film cliches, a young couple plays out their romance in a mixture of Bergmanesque flashbacks and soap opera parodies. In "Perfect Leader" by Max Almy, a man is manipulated via a computer program into the ideal politician for the modern media age. In the final piece, "From Hippie to Yuppie" by Ben Bergery, a series of paired phrases appear on screen in colorful graffiti, reflecting the life journey of sixties generation. Phrases include "Baby Boomers," "From Lenny Bruce to Laurie Anderson," "From VW Bus to BMW," "From Organic to Gourmet," and others.

This program features three works by dancer and choreographer David Gordon. The first, entitled "Dorothy and Eileen," combines dance with storytelling: two women share stories about their relationships with their mothers while dancing. The second piece, "Close-Up," is an intimate male-female duo danced in silence. The program concludes with "Panel," in which Gordon himself portrays several panelists who engage in a mock debate about his work.

This program features two video works by performance artist Laurie Anderson. The first, "Late Show" (an excerpt from her film "Home of the Brave"), is a music video of one of her songs. The second, "What You Mean We?," is a fantasy in which Anderson creates a clone of herself so that she cope with her busy schedule. As she is interviewed by a talk show host (played by Spalding Gray, off-screen), she introduces the clone (who is male), explains the reasons for his existence, and describes her relationship with him. The clone later composes a song in Anderson's place while she relaxes, and he begins work on his own project -- a film script. Scenes from the "film" are shown; Anderson gives the clone her opinion of it, and suggests that he work instead on a film about "two guys on the road." Scenes from the new "film" are shown. Later, the clone appears on the same talk show that Anderson had appeared on earlier and introduces his own clone -- played by Anderson.