Plainsong (2012)

Mohr’s solo Plainsong (2012) is inspired by the story of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife in Homer’s Odyssey. Katrina Rodabaugh’s large tapestry of intricately woven red yarn forms the backdrop of the dance. Reminiscent of the thread that Penelope weaves during the day and undoes every night, the long sinew of crimson evokes the blood that circulates within the body. 

“She maintains herself in a perpetual present of the incomplete and unresolved while she hopes for return to a lost order.”
–Rebecca Solnit (on Penelope in The Odyssey)

Collaborators
Performance: Aleta Hayes (2012), Hope Mohr (2013), Tegan Schwab (2014)
Performance Text: Hope Mohr
Voice and Music: Aleta Hayes
Set: Katrina Rodabaugh
Costume: Tegan Schwab

Credits
Plainsong was created during an Irvine Fellowship in the Lucas Artist Residency Program at the Montalvo Arts Center. 

Writing About Process
Performance Text

Writing on Process by set designer Katrina Rodabaugh

Performance History
Premiere: S.F. International Arts Festival
Additional performances: Z Space, ODC Theater's Unplugged, ODC's Indulge

Press
"Hope Mohr [is] exquisite, focused and powerful … a mesmerizing performer."
-- Rita Felciano, “Weekly Picks,” S.F. Bay Guardian, March 21, 2012

"Mohr's choreographic vocabulary is grounded in the clean lines and slicing precision of Cunningham but speaks clearly of her own explorations with the body and the ideas she longs and labors to express. Balancing sparse passages with phrases of full physicality, her choreography is always detailed and intentional. As a performer, she embodies the presence of someone who is unafraid to confront stillness and silence but instead opens herself to the possibilities she finds in her boundless imagination."
-- Catherine Conway Honig, Scene 4 Magazine, April 2012