Goodwill Hosts Reuse-Inspired Performance

Source: forkliftdanceworks.org

The bustling Goodwill Resource Center is the setting of RE Source, this weekend's new performance by Forklift Danceworks, the Austin-based company that transforms the movement of non-dancers into mesmerizing performances. The partnership was forged after some Forklift fans at Goodwill invited company members, including Associate Choreographer Krissie Marty, to visit the warehouse. Marty was sold right away.

"It's incredibly rich with movement," she explains. "All of the incoming goods and outgoing recycling are dependent on the movement of another department. The amount of material they move is astonishing, and the way it all interrelates is a choreography unto itself."

Two years in development, the show is on a much smaller scale than some of Forklift's recent work, like The Trash Project and The Trees of Govalle, that attracted audiences in the thousands. Instead, RE Source is designed for an audience of 250 per night (and alas, if you haven't snagged a ticket already, you probably won't – though you can check out the warehouse at Goodwill's monthly "Real Goodwill" public tour). Marty, who directs the show, developed the choreography along with the nearly 70 Goodwill employees featured in it. Some will perform with the machines they use in their daily work: tractor-trailer and box trucks, a baler, a shrink-wrap machine ("We're really excited because there will be forklifts," Marty confides). Because some of the machines and materials can't be moved, the audience will be divided into groups of 35 that walk to different areas of the building. "I'm thinking of it as an installation-performance-tour," Marty says, "so you'll get to see almost every corner of the warehouse."

The work of the warehouse will pause for the hourlong performance. By 8:30pm, when the audience has left the space, operations will resume.

"This partnership has been really great for us because Goodwill is all about work, and the medium of our artmaking is the movement and action of work," Marty says. "It's been a good philosophical match, to work with Goodwill."

RE Source will be performed Friday, Feb. 12, and Saturday, Feb. 13, at 7pm, at the Goodwill Resource Center, 6505 Burleson Rd.