Christopher K. Morgan is the artistic director of Malashock Dance Company, shown here at their Liberty Station studio on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024 in San Diego, CA. It’s not uncommon for contemporary choreographers to declare that the meaning and significance behind their movement language is up to the audience’s imagination.
“Over time, we will accumulate many stories and many solos to each story,” Morgan explained. “We might perform many of the solos at once and other times, we could perform small suites of them.” The prop, Morgan said, was made with traditional Hawaiian rope-tying techniques in a shape that could symbolize a cloak or a fishing net.
In the process of collecting oral histories from different San Diego residents, Morgan remembered the challenges of his childhood and found it interesting that he now lives three blocks from the hospital where his father got a physical before he went on to basic training. Malashock was inspired by Armenian music made during the time of the painting and Morgan utilized the talents of a filmmaker, who documented the recent civil unrest in Armenia. Some of her images provide a backdrop for movement that shifts from lighthearted child’s play to “something more intense and foreboding.”
“As we find ourselves increasingly in our own echo chambers of ideas and opinions, it concerns me that that there is a kind of homogeneity that might be happening,” Morgan said.