sugar space

http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/10557?a=32978

Don’t miss their show September 23-25, 2010 @ 8pm!

Q: What was the idea behind the set and video component?

A.This show has a whole group of collaborators that have taken the concept of the history and future of protest and have designed/created their part of the show in their own expression in order to further the intention and message of the piece. The videographer, Erin Mayfield collected clips both still and video of past protests and current issues and put together an amazing layer. Scott Halford is the projection technical specialist. He has created an interesting composition of video projection in the actual space. The composers, Aurie Hsu and Steven Kemper composed an hour of original score completely intertwined with the dancing and the theme as well as their own artistic vision. The set design/builder team Mark and Libby Haslam have taken the concept of protest and given it a visual structure in order to project the video as well as abstract the space with plexi-glass panels to represent the signage that is involved in protest. The plexi-glass boxes symbolize the “soapbox” as well as the idea of a society glued to tv, and in some cases trapped inside their tv. These are some glimpses of how we have all come together to complete the piece with the common vision and inspiration of protest and the many ways it has been executed. How do we in this society today turn off our tv and think for ourselves, marching, chanting, sit ins, boycotts, facebook causes, etc. These serve as a vehicle to reach out and comment on how wonderful it is to have a voice and we should be standing up for what we believe in.

Q: Why did you apply for the residency and how did it facilitate creation?

A. Because inFluxdance is a small independent dance company that works in a unique way, this residency seemed the perfect way to jump start our show for this 2010-2011 season. The artistic directors reside one in Utah and one in Virginia, therefore our creative process is one that is unconventional. For the past 4 seasons we have worked in this way.
Concept is usually decided, brainstormed and worked out via phone, email and skype. Next we decide who and what other elements of collaboration are necessary for our concept, another meeting/brainstorming to get all on the same page. Then we fly to rehearse 1 weekend each month until the week of the premiere (that week is spent in an intense rehearsal
process) then the show goes up and we tour the show in other cities. www.influxdance.org

Q: What are your plans for the piece after the premiere?

A: This show will be touring Charlottesville, Boulder, Toronto, Montreal and possibly San Francisco.

Q: how did the protest theme come about?

A: We are always trying to find a theme that is relevant to center our work around. For this particular piece we were really inspired to comment on the current state of affairs. We were interested in looking at intolerance vs. equality and how these ideas take form in culture. When people come together around a cause, they are using their bodies to express their ideas. We became interested in the questions:
What is the embodiment of protest? What does protest sound like? And what does it look like realistically and when it is abstracted?

Q: Anything else you want people to know?

A: We are really hoping that our audience will get an integrated piece that inspires them to take a second and think about what is important them.

http://www.mammalstories.com

OOSImaginary Performances and Workshop

-The show is still very much improvisational, but we’ve shaped it into a two-act structure, with an intermission in between. All together, it runs about 90-100 minutes. We have been ambivalent about titling it, but we may decide to shortly, in which case I’ll let you know. Without going into the details, it involves a lot of improvised dancing, original music (cello, guitar, percussion, singing, trumpet, & electronic), original text (both prerecorded & spoken), an old hunched curmudgeon, a garden of junk, cardboard boxes, motor oil cocktails, & Oscar Wilde.

I met Teddy in 2006 at Oberlin College & Conservatory, when we were both students there (I studied composition & he studied Cello Performance) We worked together quite a lot while we were students, in musical, dance, & improvisational settings. After graduating in 2009, we moved into a beautiful 4000 sq. ft. loft called the Archer Ballroom in Chicago, with intentions of creating a live-work-performance space.

In September 2009 I met Lisa at the Chicago Contact Jam and we have been collaborating closely ever since.

In January 2010, the three of us coalesced into OosImaginary and since then we have been actively performing and teaching.

The idea for the summer tour came relatively recently (In April) at a point when all three of our summer plans were somewhat up in the air. We had just seen the John Jasperse Company perform in Chicago at the MCA (Teddy actually performed in the show) and we all came away really inspired to keep working, but also definitely needing a break from Chicago, so we made a somewhat spontaneous decision to make a tour happen this summer, and ever since that point we’ve been working really hard to make it happen. We actually just had our first performance in Louisville tonight, so its already rolling. We have venues booked in Louisville, Nashville, Conway (AR), Denver, Salt Lake, Missoula, Seattle, Portland, & Ventura, but the idea behind the tour is to perform every day in some capacity, so we are also planning on doing a lot of guerilla/street/outdoor performance in addition to the venue shows.

They will be doing two shows and teaching a workshop. Check out the blog of their tour at http://oosimaginary.tumblr.com/. Registration for workshop and tix are available online now.

“The Underscore is a framework for practicing and researching dance improvisation that I’ve been developing since the early 1990s. It is a score that guides dancers through a series of ‘changing states,’ from solo deepening/releasing to sensitizing to gravity and support; through group… circulation and interaction, Contact Improvisation engagements, opening out to full group improvisation with compositional awareness, and back to rest and reflection.”

Nancy Stark Smith, Caught Falling:

Because Macey from Riot Act replied to our blog with the group’s specific interest in Joe Goode’s Wonderboy as part of the development of The Bogeyman why not post a review of Wonderboy?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/review-goodes-w.html

This can help give you an impression of the relationship of movement to theater to visual arts (like puppetry). It also links to Joe Goode’s website and the website for the puppeteers.

Riot Act, a Wyoming based company, is bring the Bogeyman, their physical theater work in June as part of Sugar Space presents.

But what is physical theater?
Good old wikipedia will tell you that physical theater is a mode of story-telling which deviates from traditional theater through a very specific use of the body to amplify the story being told. Now that’s pretty vague but it also goes on to describe that this umbrella holds a lot of popular forms we are familiar with. Physical theater can range from a more-traditional play using conventions of choreography to change the way the story is told to very specific forms like Butoh. One of the most popular physical theater combines is England based DV8. Below is an excerpt from their film “The Cost of Living.”

Where will Riot Act fall in the spectrum of physical theater? Closer to their show date we can post video from their past work and ask them to define their own branch of physical theater. In the meantime feel free to post your own favorite physical theater videos or talk about companies you’ve seen.

Regina’s last performance with us is tonight. It has been so great having her in Salt Lake and at Sugar Space. She brings such a different aesthetic to the community and brings about questions of how we form new audiences to explore new forms.
More photos, video of the show and reviews upcoming.

University of Utah MFA candidate Matt Beals visited Sugar Space for In&Out this evening and delivered this review of the show. We thank Matt for sharing his comments with us and encourage anyone who wants to write reviews of Sugar Space shows to submit them. We also encourage you to take the advice he delivers below and see In&Out on Friday or Saturday:
This season in Salt Lake we have celebrated the works and legacies of several great pioneers of Modern Dance, from Michio Ito to Martha Graham, as well as marked the centennial of Alvin Nikolais. We remember these artists for their contributions to defining what is Modern Dance, and work to preserve the legacy of their movement and choreography. Yet we forget that the shared characteristic of these great artists was a rejection of the status quo. This is the other legacy of Modern Dance, a legacy that has been less well-preserved. Neglected, even. As Modern Dance continues to crystallize in form and tradition, the daring to experiment and challenge norms has become dangerously anemic.

Enter Sugar Space, and as they kick off their In & Out performance series, bringing together local choreographer Ashley Anderson with New York-based Regina Rocke, they remind us that not all is lost. In fact, you can take your norms and shove them. The spirit of revolution is alive and well, at least for this weekend.

Before the show even begins, the scene is set such that it’s clear either of these artists would have been successful in the visual arts had they not been claimed by the performance arts. From the delightfully wrinkled white vinyl floor to the candy-green chairs, there is an attention to visual detail that continues throughout the evening in a meticulously messy tone.

The evening opens with a duet by Jen McGinn, set to the music of Judy Garland. The dance itself is intricately designed, yet presented in a very casual manner. The music, movement, and performance quality create a strange contrast that highlights the stranger relation between the dancers as they take turns in a dialogue of disconnection and fleeting vulnerability. Are they fighting? Making love? Discussing the weather? Politics, maybe? And who is this third person, pacing through their midst in sparkling ruby red slippers? As the piece comes to a close it may never be clear what we’re supposed to think, and yet those slippers, clicking their heels, remind us that there’s no place like home. And maybe that’s a good thing.

A duet by Ashley Anderson follows, although the two brass horns inhabiting the upstage may make it a quartet. Arranged ever so delicately on the floor, they demand to be played and add an external tension to the dance. The sound score is nothing but the sounds of feet sliding over the vinyl of the floor, and it is mesmerizing. Anderson’s arrangement of movement has a dry humor to it, offering up the occasional surprise in a very matter-of-fact way. And yes, after much flirtation, the horns have their moment. The entire piece has an understated beauty to it that is very satisfying, yet in this lies the one criticism I would level against the work. The dancers carry this energy to the point of flatness, and in their lack of expression is an apathy that dis-invites our own interest in the work.

By now, it’s clear that this isn’t your typical high-energy romp, with pretty legs, flashy spins, and big lifts. Nothing here has been made to please the crowd, and yet it does please. But the real assault begins with the final work by Regina Rocke, featuring some the best ironically bad dancing I have seen, a stream-of-consciousness monologue that is as hilarious as it is offensive, and chocolate syrup. With sprinkles. Perhaps the best explanation is found in the monologue itself: “This is a performance art piece, that’s why we’re doing this.” Don’t try too hard folks, just enjoy the ride. And if you haven’t learned every stop on the Brooklyn L train by the end, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

This is not your big-budget production, but that’s as much a reason to see it as any. Just remember, you don’t go to a punk concert and complain that it’s dirty and noisy. Don’t go to this show and complain that it’s weird and different. But do go. Because it’s weird and different, and in the end that is very, very worthwhile.