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WRITTEN ON THE BODY: A Series of Short Films about the Body by 3 Radical Women Filmmakers

Commisioned by Roulette

Alison Clancy: dance, vocals, lighting installation
Gary Lucas: guitar 
Chuck Smith: film curator

FILMS:
Shirley Clarke—A Moment in Love (1957), 9 min
Maya Deren—The Very Eye of Night (1958), 15 min
Barbara Rubin—Christmas on Earth (1963), 25 min

In Written On the Body, Gary Lucas performs both composed and improvised soundtracks on solo guitar to 3 films by radical women filmmakers Shirley Clarke, Maya Deren, and Barbara Rubin. Alison Clancy accompanies both Lucas’s music and the films themselves with live vocals, interpretive solo dance, and building a custom lighting installation. This show premiered at Roulette in October 2023 and marks the duo’s second collaboration together—Lucas joined forces with Clancy in the spring of 2022 to accompany her solo dance to the Overture to The Flying Dutchman at MIT with his original solo guitar arrangement.
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