Contemporary Performance

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January 19, 2010

Scott Heron discovered the joy of dancing while studying liberal arts at Colorado College. A move to Austin, Texas led to an accidental meeting with radical dance pioneer Deborah Hay. He participated in four of her large group workshops and has continued a long relationship with her, occasionally touring as a guest of the Deborah Hay Dance Company and interpreting her works from written texts. He is featured in her books “Lamb at the Altar” and “My Body the Buddhist.” In the mid ‘80s he performed with her company in New York City and then stayed there to pursue a career in dance.

Bypassing any formal studies, he quickly fell in with the East Village scene where he danced and performed continually with a group of experimentalists and improvisers centered around Movement Research and Performance Space 122. During this time he performed in the works of just about anyone who asked him to, including Jennifer Monson, Yvonne Meier, Carmelita Tropicana, Karen Finley, Sarah East Johnson, DD Dorvillier, Linda Austin and countless others while developing his own work as a choreographer and performer.

His solo and group work has been presented in practically every downtown New York venue including The Kitchen, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dixon Place and especially Performance Space 122 which has commissioned four evening-length works. Musical collaborators include instrument builder/bassoonist Leslie Ross and guitarist Chris Cochrane. He received a 2003 New York Dance and Theater “Bessie” Award for his body of work as a performer.

Trusting the intelligence of his whole body his dances stem from a process of open practice of the unknown. Transformations, wigs, heels, and sumptuous sets made from trash often make an appearance. Unafraid of bizarre and passionate states, he nonetheless finds classical elegance and beauty while dancing too.

He is a founding member of Jennifer Miller’s Circus Amok, a gender bending, free, outdoor, political theater troupe. He has been developing his skills as a juggler, stilt dancer, tumbler and slack rope walker every summer in the parks and gardens of the five boroughs for a dozen years. He is also a long time member of Cathy Weis projects, performing her quirky low-tech video dance poems across the U.S. and Eastern Europe. More recently he has begun a continuing relationship with Hijack Dance of Minneapolis and has performed collaborative works with them across the U.S. and in Russia. (from Scott Heron

Website)

In Performance: Big Art Group – Cinema Fury at Rhizome/The New Museum (NYC)

In Performance

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 12, 2010

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Caden Manson / Big Art Group’s Cinema Fury is an ongoing series of experimental video art and musical collaborations; a spontaneous, open framework continually in production and evolution that both references the company’s history and research for current creations; resulting in unique performance-installation events. For Rhizome’s invitation at The New Museum the company is creating an evening length (1 hour) event that explores the idea of corruption in the information age, and the chaotic possibilities that arise in errors, interpolations, and interruptions in the exchange of digital transmissions. Through performative strategies of imperfect replication of characters, noise and feedback interference of texts, and the disturbance of the image of the performer, Cinema Fury opens up new interpretive pathways to understand the process of contemporary mediatization. Texts include selections from Big Art Group’s upcoming new production Flesh Tone 2010 and No Show 2011.

Cinema Fury @ Rhizome’s “New Silent” series 1.15.09 (NYC)
New Museum
235 Bowery
212.219.1222

Digest: Jan 3 -9, 2010

Digest

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 10, 2010

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Announcement: CONTEXT – Platform for Contemporary Dance Festival (Berlin)

January 8th, 2010

In Print: The State of New York City’s theatrical avant-garde…

January 7th, 2010

In Performance: P.S.1 Saturday Sessions (NYC)

January 6th, 2010

Emerging: Faye Driscoll (APAP Showing -NYC)

January 5th, 2010

Emerging: Latitude 14 (NYC)

January 4th, 2010

Highlights: Festival Overload (NYC)

January 3rd, 2010

In Performance: Call Cutta in Box at The Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis, USA)

In Performance

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 9, 2010

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A phone is ringing in an empty office on the 40th floor of the IDS Center…you pick up the reciever and embark on an hourlong personal performance experience that crosses continents, dissolves borders between audience and performer, and challenges cultural expectations. German collective Rimini Protokoll has created “a thrillingly intimate production, which asks us to make the decision to be an audience member in an unusually active way” (Time Out New York). This event is a part of Out There 2010.

January 8-31
$20 ($16 Walker members)
Appointments (on the hour): Tuesday-Friday, 5-10 pm; Sat-Sun, 12 noon-9 pm
IDS Tower, 40th floor, 80 South Eighth Street, Minneapolis

This is a solitary performance experience. Two appointments are available each hour, and reservations may be made in pairs. Please make your advance reservation soon; spots are limited. Call 612.375.7600.

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From the Walker Arts Center Blog:

Our presentation of Call Cutta in Box in January has people intrigued and perhaps a bit anxious. Allow me to allay some fears. I caught the work last January in NYC but before I made my appointment, I waffled through my own slight suspicions … this sounds so odd – how could this be entertaining? … there’s a real chance it could be dull or simply intrusive … maybe I’m not wanting to give anything of myself today. I chose to ignore my instincts and take the plunge. It proved to be one of the most memorable performance experiences I have had, and believe me, I’ve had a few.

Maybe it was the anonymity (if I felt inclined, I could tell this person anything I wanted, we would probably never meet), or being alone in a strange office, or perhaps it was the thousands of miles between us. Whatever it was, I was completely engaged in this piece and found it absorbing, subtly mysterious, and utterly charming. My call center agent, Alakananda, elegantly guided me along our increasingly interactive (and surprise-filled) conversation, and we freely exchanged ideas on geography, work, religion, art, family – not exactly soul-searching metaphysical stuff, but I felt that there was a deeper connection, like she was an old dear friend that I had just met.

As this “phone play” is a connection between two people that shadows in and out between performance and real life, no two interactions will be exactly alike. So I’d suggest you make an appointment with a friend (we have set up the piece so that it runs in two offices simultaneously), then grab a pint or some palak paneer after the experience and talk it all over. Take a 60-minute chance – it may change the way you think about our weird wired world, who we are, and why on earth are we in Minnesota in January. This memorable experience (with great views from the IDS Tower!) is certain to spark contemplative smiles and a fresh set of questions.

Support provided by Producers’ Council members King’s Fountain/Barbara Watson Pillsbury and Henry Pillsbury:

Performance space provided by Lindquist & Vennum PLLP.

Announcement: CONTEXT – Platform for Contemporary Dance Festival (Berlin)

Announcements

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 8, 2010

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The 7th edition of the Festival “CONTEXT – Platform for Contemporary Dance” is entitled “Anaesthesia of Emotions”. The starting point for the programme is the observance that in recent times emotions have been granted a special amount of attention. However it remains to be seen whether we are dealing with a boom or with a taboo concerning emotions. The sciences are already speaking about an “emotional turn”, while the arts sections of the newspapers have controversial debates about the appropriateness of speaking about emotions. What is the current state of our individual and collective emotional life? Are emotions on the advance, or are they being increasingly suppressed?

CONTEXT #7 takes a closer look at how emotions and attitudes are being staged with the means of the theatre. The main focus is on dance productions, performances and installations that reflect on strategies of producing and manipulating affects. In addition to that, and in co-operation with the cluster of excellence “Languages of Emotion” at Freie Universität Berlin, there will be a series of lectures on January 30 and 31 on the Festival’s topic in its cultural and social context. In two workshops in Authentic Movement and Body-Mind Centering the link between motion (movement) and emotion will be explored under the guidance of international experts.

Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin)
January 26 – February 06, 2010

In Print: The State of New York City’s theatrical avant-garde…

In Print

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 7, 2010

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Yesterday the Village Voice published a piece by Tom Sellar titled “The City’s Best (And Not So Best) Progressive Theater”. Its one of the only “end of the year/decade” piece to focus on progressive/experimental/avant-garde work and companies. In it he poses…

Ten years into the 21st century, it seems a fitting time to look at the state of New York City’s theatrical avant-garde. How has it evolved over the past decade? Who’s doing the most inventive work, and who’s coming up short? What exactly constitutes a vanguard these days, and where is it heading?

Big Art Group, Radio Hole, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Thomas Bradshaw, Young Jean Lee, Richard Maxwell, Les Freres Corbusier, Cynthia Hopkins, Elevator Repair Service, Witness Relocation, The TEAM, Taylor Mac, Sibyl Kempson, Improv Everywhere, and Mike Iveson are discussed among others.

Ultimately, there are degrees of “avant-garde”: Not many artists today call for, say, burning down museums and libraries in the name of new technology, as the Italian Futurists did a hundred years ago. Nor do we hear many downtown voices calling for a new order, or even for an end to a disastrous war—as theatermakers here did in the 1960s. In 21st-century New York, aspirations look milder and more careerist: Experimental stage artists want creative outlets and a responsive public. Understandably, they also seek good publicity and financial relief. But in the next era—now under way—there’s an appetite and opportunity for enlarging the theatrical experience in New York. If anyone can seize the day, it may be Big Art Group, Nature Theater, and anyone else with the intellectual muscle to build up the vanguard.

Read the full article here

In Performance: P.S.1 Saturday Sessions (NYC)

In Performance

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 6, 2010

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January 9: Saturday Sessions with Jibade-Khalil Huffman and Desi Santiago
Saturday, January 09, 2010
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

P.S.1 announces Saturday Sessions, a new program of emerging performance art that will take place on the second Saturday of each month. Designed to introduce new performance artists to New York audiences, the events will range from music to site-specific actions, Saturday Sessions debuted on November 14 with multimedia performances by Sahra Motalebi and J. Patrick Walsh 3. While P.S.1 has had a long tradition of showcasing performance-based art, from the Butoh dance of Min Tanaka to the films of Jack Smith, this is a new formalized program presenting a younger generation of artists.

January 9, 2010 at 4pm
Jibade-Khalil Huffman and Desi Santiago
In conjunction with Rising Currents open studios, 2-6pm
Jibade-Khalil Huffman presents Monster Island Czar, an epic poem that takes the form of a slide show. A poet and a photographer, Huffman’s interdisciplinary approach invites notions of chance and indeterminacy by allowing the projectors and computers to run at different speeds and create different combinations of words, images, and sounds. With the Dadaists and William S. Burroughs cut-ups in mind, Huffman’s performance interweaves visual art and literary tradition.

Desi Santiago is a New York-based visual and performance artist and is a member of the dance group Escandalo. His large scale installations and performances often engage the collaboration of musicians, burlesque and dance performers, light shows, and elaborate costumes that he designs. Using scaffolding to create both a theatrical stage and layering of actions, Santiago’s performances draw on various New York scenes including club, fashion, art, and house music, creating ceremonial experiences from their respective vocabularies and iconography.

www.ps1.org

Emerging: Faye Driscoll (APAP Showing -NYC)

Emerging

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 5, 2010

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APAP: Faye Driscoll
There is so much mad in me

Jan 8 at 3pm
FREE
Reservations are encouraged.

In a time of distraction, voyeurism and over stimulation, how do we experience authentic connection? Faye Driscoll investigates the physical and theatrical narratives that drive our misplaced need to be seen. From creating facades to seeking the divine to committing violent acts and falling in love, There is so much mad in me looks into the ways we fail, succeed, and get lost in the chase for true connection.

Emerging: Latitude 14 (NYC)

Emerging

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 4, 2010

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Latitude 14 provides a framework for the artist-driven projects of its affiliates. These include its founders: Christina Campanella (composer/performer), Mallory Catlett (director & dramaturg), Stephanie Fleischmann (writer), and Peter Norrman (video artist & filmmaker), who began working together in 2005, and were quickly joined by Chris Lee (singer & writer), Jesse Hawley (performer), Mirit Tal (media designer), Miranda Hardy (lighting designer), Matt Verta-Ray (musician/visual artist), Jeremy Wilson (audio engineer & sound designer), and collaborating artists Sam Baker (multiinstrumentalist), Jim Findlay (set designer), Erich Schoen-Rene (cellist), and Maedhbh Mc Cullagh (producer).

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History

Red Fly/Blue Bottle is Latitude 14’s second project to reach fruition. The first was Tinder, a 30-minute live-art/video installation, which premiered at the EXIT Festival in Creteil, March, 2009. Red Fly/Blue Bottle was developed via a three-year residency at HERE Arts Center, as well as residencies at Gertrude Stein Repertory’s Digital Performance Institute, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space, The Chocolate Factory (Long Island City) and Chashama. Excerpts and works-in-progress have been presented at HERE, The Chocolate Factory, Prelude ’07, BRIC and PS 122’s Avant-Gardarama. The full production premiered at HERE Arts Center April 8–May 2, 2009, and was featured at the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival (Groningen, NL) in August 2009.

Latitude 14 has received support from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New York State Music Fund, NYSCA Individual Artists program (Film, Media and New Technology Production and Theater commissioning), the Greenwall Foundation, the Tobin Foundation, the David Bohnett Foundation, American Music Center, Meet the Composer, Experimental Television Center, and numerous individuals.

In Performance:

TINDER
January 8-9, 2010
Here Arts Center

An idiosyncratic song cycle about departure and return and the ephemeral nature of insects. To create Tinder, Latitude 14 recontextualized eight songs from Red Fly/Blue Bottle, their spectacularly received multimedia event that bridged concert, cabinet of curiosities, and video installation. Veering between the miniature and larger than life, high-tech and low, absolute restraint and deep reserves of emotion, Tinder melds a street-busking sensibility with high art to deliver richly layered songs and spellbinding video.

Highlights: Festival Overload (NYC)

Highlights

Caden Manson (Editor In Chief)

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January 3, 2010

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Over the next two weeks 5 festivals and multiple showings of contemporary performance will be presented along side the annual APAP convention. Its a great opportunity to catch some local, national and international work.

American Realness Festival (Abrons Arts Center & others)
Under the Radar (The Public & others)
COIL Festival (PS122)
Other Forces (Ontological)
Culturemart (Here)
and APAP showings at DTW

Here are our highlights of the festivals.

AMERICAN REALNESS
A Festival of Contemporary Performance January 8-11, 2010

MIGUEL GUTIERREZ AND THE POWERFUL PEOPLE
Last Meadow

Last Meadow is a new evening length work using original choreography and writing mixed with stuff from James Dean’s three movies to look at the myth of America the father, and confusion as a potentially transformative, sensory-enlivened state.