The Shuffle Challenge
Creator, Organizer, Host
Music and dance. Remixed. Long before people were describing experiences as ‘immersive’ I was producing The Shuffle Challenge, a music and dance event in New York City and Los Angeles. At face value was a night of improvised performances that is designed to challenge performers, pushing them to the limits of creativity.
At a deeper level was an opportunity for performers, and their audience, to share the process of creation. As the host I drew prompts from the audience for musical genre, narrative and themes then the band and dancer, or dancers, collaboratively improvised around those prompts. It was a laboratory for creative social experimentation and I used the performances as an opportunity to reinforce the message that we are all stronger, more creative, through nonjudgemental collaboration.
Going to church
The best feedback I ever received came from a regular attendee who said the event was, for her, like going to church. It was actually the church she’d hoped for growing up: a place of radical acceptance where individuality and community were equally celebrated. Since then, performers have told me it’s where they first felt free to take chances and truly be themselves.
The show was in three acts:
ACT 1: introduce the rules and model/celebrate experimentation
ACT 2: amplify the level of experimentation
ACT 3: invite the audience to perform
The audience becomes the performer
Very deliberately, the event blurred the line between performer and audience. Both have enormous power and influence over the night. The performers are reminded that the space is safe and experimentation is encouraged. Honesty and risk are more important than technical ability.
The Attention economy
Every show began with a short monologue, reminding the audience that the greatest gift we can offer is our attention. And this Attention Economy is what fueled the night and became the framework for experimentation. With the audience support, performers could take greater risks and, eventually, when the audience was invited to participate the were primed to feel that freedom.
The Performers
The dancers come from across disciplines - ballet, contemporary, modern, bellydance, martial arts, hiphop and more. Many of the dancers are people I've been fortunate to collaborate with in other contexts, many of them have been recruited by my wife (who is a dancer) and others have found our family of madness through past participants. The band regularly features Carmine Guida (bass), Andrew Potenza (drums), Steve Woodzell (guitar), Rob Mastrianni (guitar), Pete LIst (beatbox), Fung Chern Hwei (violin) and Daniil Davydoff (violin). The video's above also feature special guests: Harry Einhorn and Mark Weismantel. Guest dancers and musicians are regularly pulled from the audience for some spontaneous collaboration.
