History - Brown Bag Concert (1990)
August 20, 1990 - Exchange Place, Salt Lake City, Utah

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Ignorance of Burden (1990)

Choreographers: Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic
Poetry: Mark Neumann
Costumes: Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic
Dancers: Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic
Location: Exchange Place, Salt Lake City, Utah
Length: 6:05 minutes

Video Stills
Description
Ignorance of Burden was completely inspired by the poetry of Mark Neumann, which was about modern life in the 1980's. Mark's poem focuses on a man just trying to get through each day, as he comments and expounds upon observations of his daily trek through modern life. Elizabeth was the physical representation of the burden or "bag" where the POV of this dance is through Jimmy's character's eyes. He doesn't realize the burdens he is carrying around with him, until he decides to walk away from it, leaving the dead weight of his thoughts and emotional baggage behind.

Choreographed by Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic in 1989, they'd previously worked together on many projects up to this point. Although, this dance was especially challenging, because of the constant weight bearing and gymnastics moves. It was exhausting to create, and resulted in a lot of tension during the trial and error development period of choreographing the movement sequences. The timing had to be perfect or someone, mainly Elizabeth could have been badly hurt, especially on the hard concrete during this outdoor event.

This performance of Ignorance Of Burden was for the Salt Lake City Arts Council's Brown Bag Concert Series under the direction of Casey Jarman, which took place at The Exchange Place in Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.