Bitef

fragments and breaks off into individuals. Enter the ball, rolling by itself in a comic waddle. A player picks it up-relationships change. Three players begin to perform backfiled maneuvers at a deliberate pace. Proceeding from tight formations, they scrape and bump each other in their motions, emphasizing the intricacy of handoffs, fakes, and pivots. The unit works among and around prone linemen in continuous rhythm, pausing only briefly to call signals. Despite this more controlled statement, there is an air of intense, exchanged focus between the two groups (psychic physics). At a signal the linemen get up and align as isolated pairs, blocker and tackier. Individual, realspeed/energy contests are fought while the backs lean into each other, untouched by the violence which surrounds them. As in the game, basic rules define patterns and paths of motion, but winners and losers are decided at impact, not on any diagram or in any programmed way. The backfield resumes its moves following the blocks, calling different plays with shifts in direction and in distance covered to adjust to an altered situation. The eight linemen and three back alternately demonstrate their different compositions and functions; each requires the other for its own viability. The test continues through a series of such sequences, shifts, downfield and double-team blocks covering the entire field. Continually improvised play calls further elaborate notions of space changed by energy. These maneuvers also demonstrate consequences of footballs’s numerous oppositions : line/backs, speed/hold, impact /avoidance, tensions /release. Formalities (rules of the game) and power (real sports force) combine to rearrange vast space in a series of particular patterns, a game within the game. The backfield introduces a new pattern: spinning out of the tight alignment, a receiver and a defender move downfield. Moving parallel to them and in similar deliberate speed, the quarterback retreats, waiting for the open moment. A referee begins to indicate the path of the pass with a large tape of dashes. The dotted line denotes a commitment by the players, a choice from many patterns. Arriving simultaneously at the X’s at their respective ends, quarterback /flanker / safety hold in classic positions. In darkness a circle of fluorescent light outlines the ball in the passer’s hand. Another signifies his potential receiver. Haloed in the act, the players’ illumined suspension idicates possibilities of meta-football. The referees carefully roll up the tape; a last » realistic « measurement is complete, this kind of exploration finished. Linemen exit as it withdraws, leaving the receiver » open «. The hieratic lights go out —passer and receiver attempt the documented ideal. Rising in a high arc, the pass is thrown to the accompaniment of an enormously amplified crowd-roar tape. Silence and darkness surround the catch. The event is clearly an epiphany of some sortintimations of the Saint. Ultimately, when the two parts of the energy clash and the attempt to make horizontal yardage is blocked, it’s the motivation for making vertical yardage. It can either stop or go up. I see the idea of making vertical progress as what’s inherent psychically in the game. Lee Breuer

Arranged in a huddle, eleven players face inward in a circle and vocalize their commitment in a second call. Numbers and signals weave through the formation. Rhythmic additions to each line build to a line consisting entirely of the players’ names, an assertion of the individual group unity. The call winds down, ending with occasional signals punctuated by names. Remaining in the huddle, the team contemplates the beauty and absurdity of this complex playcall. Mood and formation are broken by a buttslap delivered in unison; players pat to the right in a subtle display of teamwork. The players move into another, fractured formation : one-half of two teams ready for the snap of the ball. A cut perpendicular to the line of scrimmage has been made down the center of a line-up. Unbalanced in formation ( and by implication, in usual football practices) the team executes a full-speed effort in the form of an extended end sweep. A play diagram is energized-offense and defense move through their complicated assignments. Exhausting the capability of running beyond running, the ballcarrier turns in a wide circle, gives a last burst, and is tackled. Prone blockers and would-be tacklers mark his path, a loop referring to a continually shifting sideline, a totally solipsistic guide. The maneuver turns on itself; the runner finishes where he began. A tremendous amount of energy and technique have resulted in a circular eighty-yard run—a » no gain.«. The futility of further horizontal progess seems apparent. Indicating this » violation « of football sense, a referee blows the whistle, throws her flag. While other referees frantically exhibit their entire repertoire of signals (the enormity of the mutation), she walks to the downed runner and inserts a needle into the ball. Air rushes out. All referees then advance onto the filed and pass the ball among themselves toward the middle of the playing area. Re-introduction of the ball revives the players’ focus; they rise and watch as the » infraction « is indicated. A referee places the deflated ball at the feet of another runner. The refs exit, leaving motionless players staring at the flat bag that is the prize of the game. Suddenly aware of the temporal emergency (air escapes, time runs out), the players respond in the only way they know. Quickly formed into opposing units, they try to re-direct a plunge into the line to an upward-reaching, »f ly« play. For an instant, the ball-carrier is high in the air, but the charge is met and negated. The literal attempt to fly collapses into a heap of tangled individuals. A gunshot and blackout mark the peak of their effort: hints of the Saint. The spiritual statement is not very sophisticated. It’s just an embodiment of a certain amount of energy popping past psychology and mental cerebration and physical laws. Because it has too much energy, it has to go someplace else. So it’s going into something which I think is one of the deepest motivating forces, a certain kind of ecstasy. Lee Breuer I’m trying to keep the image of the Saint alive. Instead of representing the Saint again in the piece, I’m trying to find a metaphor for it that works in performance. So we’re not solidifying a Xerox poem; in a real situation, we’re bringing across the energy of it in another way. Jack Thibeau