This week we go back to March, 2013, for a very special episode devoted to one music/dance group, The Snake and The Pot, which was the performing duo of Amanda Jane and Duane Swanson III. In this video they have combined their talents into an experimental dance/music/art collective.

In December, 2012, during an ArtWalk, I was invited to an “Interactive Paint & Dance Performance with Live Music and Photography at Apartment Earth Studios.” I was intrigued. I’d featured The Snake and The Pot on one of the 2012 FestivAll shows, but I’d been wanting to capture more of this wild experience on RFC. This was an event with dance and music, plus also the art of Nik Botkin and Elizabeth Turner and the photography of Todd Griffith.

So Melanie Larch and I went by and recorded an entire dance piece, where Amanda painted on a canvas on the floor while she danced to music by Duane and a special guest, Jordan Trent, sitting in on bass. It was a very cool performance, almost hypnotic, and I knew it deserved special treatment.

I had the idea to enhance the video with visual effects, and processed two short segments with paint programs to sort of tie the dance to the canvas even more. I also made the decision to present the piece without truncating it any, which meant that it pretty much had to take up an entire episode of RFC.The music is incredible. To describe it, I’d have to call it “Ambient-progressive-electronic-bellydancing music.”