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Photo Shoot: Brian Sanders/JUNK

Posted May 22nd, 2009

The Festival Blog crew headed over to Steve Belkowitz‘s Old City studio the other day to check out a photo shoot for a Brian Sanders project. At the 2008 Festival, Brian recreated the Flashdance club Mawby’s as the venue for his JUNK troupe’s irreverent performance Flushdance.

The bawdy athleticism of last year’s JUNK performers attracted a lot of critical praise. Watching dancers William Robinson (at left) and John Luna at the photo shoot, I’m guessing that the Brian Sanders/JUNK project for the 2009 Live Arts Festival is going to be remarkable. After the jump, more pics of the creatures William and John became under Brian’s direction.

When we got to the studio, William Robinson was warming up, promising an interesting afternoon by stuffing his head into a small bucket, wearing a loose black shirt and pants – and flippers:

Here’s Brian giving William some direction. They’re both surprisingly at ease upside-down in a bucket:

John strikes a pose in what he and Brian joke is his “neo-Renaissance post-apocalyptic” garb:

I’m really surprised to see just how expressive a garbage-bag-clad dancer can be:

John began to remind me of a Brothers Quay character. I kind of wanted him to start ripping out his own stuffing – or garbage, in this case:

Steve encouraged John to be coy, like a model:

Done with John, Steve and Brian had William return to the bucket. John draped William with wet newspaper, like a combination of papier-mache and tinsel. Brian Sanders called it “urban seaweed,” and William looks like he’s emerged from the city deep:

After about two hours, things wrapped up:

William had about a quarter-inch deep groove pressed in a ring around his shoulders and back, and John looked a bit faded, but surprisingly upbeat for having spent 45 minutes taped inside trash bags.

Both William and John will be in Brian’s new piece. Check the website soon for more details on the JUNK performance in September!

–Nicholas Gilewicz

Photos by Josh McIlvain