In the autumn of 2020, when theatres were dark and gatherings were off-limits, Corina Kinnear made a dance for the sand. Ocean12 was billed not as an event but as “a happening that you may happen to be at while it is taking place.”
Audiences RSVP'd online, were sent the exact spot two days ahead, and walked out in the dark to Lifeguard Tower 29 near South Beach Park. Safety came first, so that the escape could feel real: everyone wore masks, and yellow flags in the sand marked where each group sat, spaced apart from one another and from the dancers. The score went out over FM radio to a basket of radios with earbuds, so the music lived in each listener's ears while the beach stayed quiet. The piece ran about thirty minutes. Afterwards, the invitation said, “we respectfully ask you get lost.”
The dance was built for distance from the start. Corina rehearsed with each artist one-on-one on the beach; the first time the company stood together as a group was the first performance. What began as three shows grew to five, with fifty to sixty people at each.
A happening, somewhere on the beaches of Santa Monica, close to midnight, that happens to have dancers.Andrew Pearson, DancePlug, December 2020
