My D’Lovely Fever: Tap to the Muse

Exhibition Statement by Suzy Birstein

The original inspiration for this series comes from song, dance and film: nine double sided muses, singing duets, whispering low, to a sacred Carnavale creature.

The Music: “It’s D’Lovely”, by Cole Porter, is fused with the sultry sound of Elvis singing “Fever”

The Dance: “Tap to the Muse”: Where I am tap dancing with my sculptures.

The series began with the figure, “Who Are You Really, and What Were You Before”, a phrase from my favourite film, “Casablanca”.

This Duet figure depicts King Tut on one side and Ganesha on the other. While loading this large fragile piece into the kiln, the head and torso survived but did not. Instinctively, I thought Columns, 9 Greek Columns for 9 Muses.

That week, while driving to tap, I saw some in a shop window. I immediately fell in love with an elephant column which would be perfect for Ganesh. This shop was a treasure trove of quirky columns. I purchased 9 different columns, upon which I built and surfaced each Muse in response to each column.

There was a divine rightness to finding columns on my way to tap, as I had commissioned Hollywood legend Jim Hibbard to choreograph a solo for me tapping amidst my sculptures.

This idea was inspired by a dance sequence in the musical “There’s No Business like Show Business”. In the film, Donald O’Connor has just kissed Marilyn Monroe. He is so thrilled, he begins dancing amidst the sculptures in the court yard, which come alive to dance with him. I love this scene!

In my film, I come come alive to celebrate the completion of my series, with song, dance and film.

Producer/Dancer/Sculptor Suzy Birstein

Director/Choreographer. Jim Hibbard

Film Maker David Henderson-Hean

Still Photographer Kate Henderson

Musical Composer Ed Henderson