THE ART: "Beneath the Water"
THE ISSUE: Navy Sonar Testing & Its Effect on Whales

"Beneath the Water" (2004)
Choreographed by Monica Favand Campagna in collaboration with Janet Collard & Quilet Rarang
Composer: Charlie Campagna
Video Artist / Videographer: Carol Gehring
Costume Designer: Monica Campagna
Performers: Monica Campagna, Shannon Harris & Andriana Mitchell
Taped: Jan. 2006 - Unknown Theater, Los Angeles

"Beneath the Water" premiered in 2004 as part of TRIP Dance Theatre's evening length work, "Breath & Bone" and is the companion piece to "Above Water".

"Beneath" was inspired in part Monica Campagna's exposure to Malaysian and Indonesian dance at that time having recently returned from a 6 week collaboraion with US & Southeast Asian artists during the APPEX workshop in Bali, Indonesia.

The work is about two things. The first is being in the moment - much like the feeling you get when underwater or those fleeting moments in our stressful lives when you actually are connected with your body, your breath and the here and now. At the end, we are pulled into a space of distraction, "fish out of water". This is where "Above Water" picks up.

"Beneath the Water" is also very much about the plight of today's whales, as they are tormented by low frequency army sonar testing. This excrutiatingly loud sonar can and has caused brain hemoraghing, spatial disorientation and strandings of whales around the globe. This is an absolutely saddening and maddening issue and we hope you will take a moment to learn more about it and take action to protect these ancient and gentle giants of our oceans.

This issue is as relevant today as it was in 2004 when the piece was made.The National Resouce Defence Council's judicial block on sonar testing in certain sensitive areas where whales are known to congregate was repealed by a federal court in September 2007. Sonar testing has resumed off our california coast, near the extremely active whale feeding grounds of the Channel Island Marine Sanctuary.

>LEARN about Sonar Testing & Whales HERE.
>TAKE ACTION Sign a petition to restrict Navy Sonor at NRDC.org
>LEARN MORE about the recent federal court repeal HERE.
>LEARN about the recent blue whale deaths HERE.

  
 
TRIP Dance Theatre site (c) 2007 - Design/Artwork: Monica Favand Campagna - e: trip@tripdance.org - Background incorporates photo by Ron Bartlett of Andriana Mitchell.