N: auto 0in">"While juggling is awesome and it's always cool to see glowing unicycles, having other people marching and spinning fire all together will draw more attention," Balazs said. "It breaks down what is reality into what could be reality."
Balazs developed a character named Spectro for PFC and serves as the de facto parade leader. For Friday's art walk, Spectro will guide the troupe from gallery to gallery, performing at each space, drawing audiences to an 8:30 p.m. finale at Roxy's Funky Art Boutique.
McKee said that organizing a troupe of this size requires constant recruiting.
"We are trying to draw together the people who are already doing these types of things," she said. "We have even added roller skating for those that had been doing roller derby, but aren't up for the smash and crash anymore. They can join us and enjoy having fun and being costumed to find another outlet."
ACCOMMODATIONS
Among the troupe's ranks are musicians, visual artists and creative types from all corners of the metro, all with their own vision for PFC. The troupe is designed to accommodate that energy and funnel it into the parade.
"We have a lot of very individualist performers," McKee said. "Some of the performances are very structured and others are very improvisational. There is room for the performers that want structure, rules and a director, but if you want to loosely jump in and do your own thing, there is room for that, too."
The look of the group changes each performance, she said.
"A lot of our costuming is made from recycled bits that we all kind of throw together," McKee said. "At the Norman Music Festival, we were all wearing yellow and blue, but each person still looked different. We've had a theme for some of the performances, and then others are about bringing out your circus-y best to show what you can do."
Balazs admitted that it can be tricky to get performance artists to fall in line with the rest of the troupe, but the payoff for each performer is the chance to develop a performance piece for the finale to a crowd much larger than they could have drawn on their own.
"It's a lot harder for an individual to have the power and chutzpah to walk up and down the art walk as one person to convince everyone to meet you at a certain point at 9 p.m.," Balazs said. "But if an entire spectacle asks you?"
PFC Performance Art Troupe performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Roxy's Funky Art Boutique, 128 W. Gray in Norman.
"?Charles Martin
Photo: Ajit Bhand
