Taína Lyons in "Considerable Evidence" / Stills Courtesy of Justin Park
Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes, BFA '20 choreographed on her fellow classmate, Taína Lyons, for a new film in the NYU Washington Square News Spring 2019 Arts Issue - Defining the Dream; the film is titled "Considerable Evidence."
Going beyond the theme of the issue, this film is meant to explore the larger historical evolution of the United States from the mid-20th century to the modern day. Conceived by Justin Park and choreographed by Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes, “Considerable Evidence” is an experimental dance film in which our character (Taína Lyons) weaves in and out of different time periods and takes us on a journey through the land of the free and home of the brave. Her stunning movement is underlaid with an expansive dialogue, edited by Guru Ramanathan, that is a compilation of different films and historical speeches that reflect the different generations of the U.S. and how each decade was complicated by drastically different conflicts and consequences. The audio is complemented by a series of video clips that are used to depict the time periods that the dialogue is taken from. The film was projected onto the floor on which Lyons danced, allowing her movement to intersect and respond to the speech, and the U.S. at large.