3N6D: Sunday Night @ Happening

In the 1960's "Happenings" were an avant-garde art form of experimental theater that appeared on the scene of the art world. I remember seeing a film of one of Jim Dines' creative events while in school in the early 70's. Like much of what was happening in the modern art scene, Happenings challenged conventional ways of thinking about art and created experiences which heightened our awareness of perception.

This past weekend the collaborative work of John Heino, Chani Becker, Alan Sparhawk and Jill Ellen Hall called 3N6D dredged up memories of some of my college encounters with new art forms. I recall being similarly moved by the intersection of dance, music and art which I experienced when John Cage and the Maurice Cunningham Dance Company performed at Ohio University's Convocation Center. A Eugene Ionesco play evoked a similar small theater experience, as did another powerful theatrical production called Superman in the Bones.

I'm sure to some extent it's impossible to precisely define the meaning or meanings of this kind of experience, or whether it is intended to have a meaning. Unusual, yes. Magical, yes. Captivating, yes. Three Nights In Six Dimensions... it was all this and more. Here are a few more images from the final memorable evening.

The applause each night was impassioned, especially at the end of night three, once we awakened from our dumbstruck spell.